Investigating the effect of motivation on entrepreneurial intention: three different approaches

The purpose of the present study is to test how do the four important psychological antecedents, namely need for achievement (nAch), propensity to risk (PtR), self-confidence (SeC), internal locus of control (IlC) are mediated by the entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) to predict the entrepreneurial intention (EI) in a traditionally oil-based Saudi economy striving for economic diversification. Hypotheses are tested by applying the partial least square (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM) to a sample of 282 undergraduate business students (male and female) collected from a public university of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The results suggest that psychological variables and self-efficacy play a fundamental role in enhancing entrepreneurial intention (EI) of Saudi students. Personality-related variables have direct influence over EI in other context, but in Saudi context, psychological variables are necessary but not sufficient to develop entrepreneurial intention unless combined with self-efficacy. Self-efficacy has a strong mediating effect between psychological variables and entrepreneurial intentions in Saudi context.

This study has investigated the extent to which individual and contextual factors determine the entrepreneurial intention in Bangladesh. Also, this study examined the comparative impact of both individual and contextual factors on entrepreneurial intentions. Sample data (n = 270) have been collected through using a survey questionnaire from a renowned public university of Bangladesh. This study has applied both correlation analysis and hierarchical regression for testing the hypotheses. Total eight hypotheses are tested to examine the influence of seven independent variables on entrepreneurial intentions, in which six factors have been found as significant predictors of entrepreneurial intentions. The correlation analysis revealed that risk-taking, locus of control, self-efficacy, and job autonomy are significantly correlated with entrepreneurial intention at 5% significance level. The regression result indicated that individual factors such as risk-taking, locus of control, self-efficacy, and job autonomy and contextual factors such as social networks and university educational program have positive effect on entrepreneurial intention. The study also found out that individual factors have more influence on entrepreneurial intentions than contextual variables. This paper also offers some implications for academic scholars.

Stimulating competition in the bank system without compromising the stability constitutes a major puzzle that bank regulators and practitioners face. Hitherto, empirical studies focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa in addressing these issues for the anticipated regional integration and sustainable growth are rare. This study applied structural equation modelling to simultaneously analyze competition, regulation and stability in a panel of 440 Sub-Saharan African commercial banks over the period from 2006 to 2015. The results provided evidence that competition affects stability via efficiency and that regulation affects stability via competition and efficiency. This study produced critical theoretical and methodological insights with substantial implications for the conduct of bank regulatory policy.