Mediating Role of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Prosocial Tendency in the Relation Between College Students’ Post-traumatic Growth and Entrepreneurial Intention in the Post-COVID-19 Era

Abstract

In this study, we explore the psychological mechanisms underlying the relation between college students’ post-traumatic growth and their entrepreneurial intentions in the post-COVID-19 era. Using the post-traumatic growth, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, prosocial tendency, and entrepreneurial intention scales, we tested 690 valid samples of Chinese undergraduates (including 445 men and 245 women). The results revealed that post-traumatic growth of college students in the post-COVID-19 era will have a significant and positive effect on their entrepreneurial intentions. Additionally, the results indicated that students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy and prosocial tendencies play a partial mediation role between post-traumatic growth and entrepreneurial intentions in the post-COVID-19 era and that there is a chain mediating effect between students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy and prosocial tendencies. This study provides valuable insights into the influence of post-traumatic growth on entrepreneurial intentions among college students in the post-COVID-19 era and suggests that colleges and universities can improve students’ entrepreneurial intentions by adopting measures to foster their post-traumatic growth, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and prosocial tendencies.

Factors Associated with Post-Traumatic Growth during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

“…The study by Shigemoto et al [ 58 ] also revealed that those who identified as religious tended to experience higher levels of PTG. Wang and Huang’s study [ 60 ] showed that PTG significantly and positively influenced university students’ entrepreneurial intention and that self-efficacy and prosocial tendencies mediated this relationship. In the study by Xie et al [ 63 ], the results showed that COVID-19-related PTG was a positive factor in university students’ life satisfaction and that personal values played a mediating role in this relationship.…”

Sociocultural factors and social entrepreneurial intention during the COVID-19 pandemic: Preliminary evidence from developing countries

“…More recently, related research examining the SE-EI nexus during the COVID-19 pandemic remains inconsistent and contradictory. For instance, Prior research has found that SE increases college students' entrepreneurial intentions as a result of their positive perception of the COVID-19 epidemic (Alshebami, 2022;Uansa-Ard & Wannamakok, 2022;Wang & Huang, 2022). Conversely, other scholars argued that, in disrupted times like the COVID-19 pandemic, risk and uncertainty feelings become the cornerstone of university students' SE, decreasing their entrepreneurial intention.…”

Sustainable entrepreneurship out of entrepreneurial opportunity identification: The mediating role of psychological capital

“…In education, studies have demonstrated that several dimensions of PC, i.e., self-efficacious (help students to have faith in their skills and insights), optimistic (help students to identify business opportunities where others see disorder), hope (help students to focus on different ways to attain their goals), and resilient (help students to bounce back from failures and adversity), both theoretically and empirically, could influence university students' EIs and entrepreneurial success and are a vital initiator (Wu et al, 2019 ; Wang and Huang, 2022 ).…”