Psychological capital and entrepreneurship: gender differences

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to examine whether the psychological capital of male and female university students explains the intention to undertake entrepreneurism. Following Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour, the aim was to study whether perceived behavioural control and subjective norms influence entrepreneurial intention and if subjective norms moderate established relationships, in both genders. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modelling and analysis of variance was applied to test the hypotheses amongst students at a Spanish university. Findings The results showed that gender differences in psychological capital, in perceived behavioural control and in subjective norms existed between the male and female population, which explain gender differences in entrepreneurial intention. Similarly, subjective norms acted as a moderator in the relationship between psychological capital, the perceived behavioural control and entrepreneurial intention, with the moderating impact being higher on the female population. Practical implications The results obtained in this paper indicate that developing perceived behavioural control and the psychological capital of university students in training programmes of male and female students helps to promote their entrepreneurial intention. Similarly, the results suggest that building a support network, for instance of family and groups of friends is key to fostering entrepreneurial intention, particularly for women. Originality/value Entrepreneurship is key to the successful employability of current and future generations in the labour market. This study examined key antecedents of student’s entrepreneurial intention and how these are gendered. For both men and women (investing in) psychological capital is important. Informal social support was shown to play a key role in women’s entrepreneurial intention.

Female entrepreneurship in emerging markets: challenges of running a business in turbulent contexts and times

“…Another interesting finding concerns the work-home conflict (Thébaud, 2015; Ahl, 2006) and the need for a support network (corroborating findings of Kim et al , 2020 and Villanueva-Flores et al , 2021). The interviewees stated that they had work–home conflicts only during specific times (COVID-19 or high demand periods), but all five respondents reported having relied on spousal support.…”

“…This scenario has changed considerably in the past few decades, however. With over 252 million female entrepreneurs worldwide (GEM, 2019), albeit accounting for less than 10% of the related research (Brush and Cooper, 2012) – most studies use gender only as a control variable (Villanueva-Flores et al , 2021) – entrepreneurship research runs the risk of having a one-sided empirical focus (Gatewood et al , 2003).…”

“…Despite a business network, researchers have found that female entrepreneurs need, though often lack, a support network. Such a network may be comprised of friends and family, advisors and mentors, or women-focused communities (Fernandes and SanFilippo, 2020; Kim et al , 2020; Palanivelu and Madupriya, 2014; Villanueva-Flores et al , 2021). However, most women end up relying on the family as their sole or main source of support (Minniti and Naudé, 2010).…”

Positive Organizational Practices, Life Satisfaction, and Psychological Capital in the Public and Private Sectors

“…Fourth, previous studies have reported interesting sociodemographic correlates of life satisfaction, psychological capital, and positive organizational practices. Namely, some studies indicated a significant effect of gender and age on life satisfaction [144,145], some significant effect of gender on psychological capital [146][147][148], and just some significant effect of age on psychological capital [149]. However, the role of age and gender on positive organizational practices has not been fully explored, even though previous research provided some results on the effects of age on positive organizational practices [21].…”

“…Accordingly, during this challenging time of the pandemic, this study was primarily focused on positive aspects in different sectors and aimed to identify positive organizational practices, life satisfaction, and psychological capital of the public sector employees and compare the results with the scores of the private sector employees. As some studies indicated the possible effect of gender and age-related variables [144,[146][147][148], we considered it essential to explore their role, as it might provide some additional information for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms.…”