Among scholars, there is an interest in understanding how entrepreneurial behavior is influenced by the consequences of crises. The COVID-19 pandemic may negatively or positively affect individuals’ behavior, including entrepreneurial intention. Thus, this paper seeks to study whether or not the economic shock caused by the pandemic reinforces the intention to start a business. The research was administered at the individual level by distributing a structured survey. The hypotheses were developed based on a unique conceptual framework integrating the planned behavior theory and a stimulus–organism–response perspective. The relationships were tested using the structural equation modeling method with an original dataset of more than 800 respondents from three post-communist transition countries. The results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic, seen as an opportunity, positively influences both the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention and individuals’ intention to start a business. The message that these findings convey is that, even in crises, there are opportunities from which one can benefit, including the individual’s propensity to engage in startup activities. By examining the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on entrepreneurial behavior, educational institutions and policymakers can design effective policies to foster entrepreneurship and reduce unemployment, particularly among the youth.

The influences of personality traits and business barriers on entrepreneurial behaviour have been studied by numerous researchers. However, the mechanisms by which changes in institutional contexts and personality traits affect individuals’ entrepreneurial motivation have not received enough attention from researchers. This paper aims to fill this gap in the literature by examining the joint effects of personality traits and business barriers on one’s motivation to engage in entrepreneurial activity. A structured questionnaire was developed to capture the above linkages. To measure the latent variables, factor and reliability analyses were utilised. To examine the relationships, a regression analysis was performed on a unique dataset of respondents from three counties: Czechia, Hungary, and Serbia. The results show that personality traits positively influence motivation towards entrepreneurship. Furthermore, external barriers (ecological and technological issues), and infrastructure factors positively affect entrepreneurial motivation. From an academic viewpoint, personality traits and motivation to engage in entrepreneurial activity can be nourished by education, highlighting the role of universities in this regard. Our paper’s findings should trigger the interest of policymakers who aim to introduce new instruments or change the existing ones (designing policies) to boost entrepreneurship.