Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and interaction effect of individuals’ human capital input and human capital output in the form of entrepreneurial self-confidence on the decision to exploit innovative opportunities. Design/methodology/approach – Using a strategic entrepreneurship perspective, the authors suggest that when individuals with high human capital decide to exploit opportunities they do so by thinking and acting strategically. Strategic action(s) involves pursuing competitive advantages that enable a new venture to get a foothold in the market. The authors argue that such competitive advantages arise from the exploitation of innovative opportunities and individuals with high human capital are more likely to exploit innovative opportunities when they develop entrepreneurial self-confidence. The empirical analysis is based on a random sample of individuals from the adult population who are in the process of creating a new venture. Findings – The results suggest that although human capital inputs and human capital output in the form of entrepreneurial self-confidence are significant factors in influencing the decision to exploit innovative opportunities, human capital inputs interact in different ways with human capital output in influencing this decision. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of the authors’ study is the use of single item measures as indicators of innovative opportunity and human capital output (entrepreneurial self-confidence). Practical implications – From a macro-perspective, the main implication of the study is that it is possible to assess the quality of entrepreneurship in an economy through individuals’ human capital and the proportion of innovative opportunities in the economy. Moreover, because not all types of human capital inputs influences the exploitation of innovative opportunities, policy makers can be selective in their policy interventions in spawning quality entrepreneurship in their economy. Originality/value – Based on population-level data the authors’ study provides empirical evidence of the nature of entrepreneurial decisions being at the earliest phases of the entrepreneurial process. The study shows the importance of founders’ human capital inputs and outputs in influencing the quality of entrepreneurship in an economy. Moreover, the study extends the understanding the individual-opportunity nexus in promoting innovative entrepreneurship in an economy.

PurposeBased on a theoretical framework grounded in the social-cognitive theory and its derivative the social-cognitive career theory, the main purpose of this paper is to examine the role of entrepreneurial exposure in moderating the relationship between self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention in the presence of different levels of outcome expectations.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of 643 secondary students from Colombia, the authors tested the validity and reliability of scales used to measure the main constructs of the socio-cognitive career theory and used the construct of entrepreneurial exposure to examine contingent hypotheses using a four-step linear regression analysis.FindingsThe study results suggest that although the main social-cognitive career variables (self-efficacy and outcome expectation) and entrepreneurial exposure directly influence the formation of entrepreneurial intention and thus support previous findings, the authors also discover a new configuration of (interacting) antecedents. While on the one hand, even a low level of entrepreneurial exposure leads to a significant increase in the entrepreneurial intention of secondary students with high outcome expectation and high self-efficacy; on the other hand, high entrepreneurial exposure leads to a decrease in entrepreneurial intention among students with high entrepreneurial expectation and high self-efficacy.Research limitations/implicationsThe main implication of the study findings is although entrepreneurial exposure is beneficial for fostering entrepreneurial intention among secondary students, a high level of entrepreneurial exposure can have a detrimental effect especially among those with high self-efficacy and outcome expectations.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests implications and suggestions for educators to foster the development of entrepreneurial intentions among students.Originality/valueThis study provides empirical evidence on the formation of entrepreneurial intention in a new setting. In addition, it improves one’s understanding of the main tenets of social-cognitive career theory by taking into account an important environment factor that can have a contrasting impact on the formation on entrepreneurial intention among adolescents.

This study evaluates the international market persistence of early exporting businesses. The relationship between time in the market and export propensity/intensity levels was analyzed to identify the persistence of the internationalization patterns of entrepreneurial ventures. The empirical application employs a pseudo-panel approach at the business age-and industry-based cohort level drawn from a group of independent cross-sectional surveys that include information for 13961 independently and randomly-selected business owners for the period 2007-2012. The results show that the proportion of firms that export significantly diminishes following the initial post start-up years and that low export intensity levels at startup leads to greatest tenacity and persistence of the exporting efforts for new firms. The results contribute to the recent discussions on whether early internationalization is an effective strategy and should be encouraged.

Purpose: This study examines the direct effect of two individual level resources, one subjective and the other objective, and their interaction in influencing the business entry decision. By distinguishing perceived ability from actual ability and using theoretical underpinnings from the human capital theory and self-efficacy, the proposed hypotheses are tested on a dataset comprising respondents from the adult population. Methodology: Using 20046 observations from the Adult population survey (APS) collected according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) methodology, a logistic regression analysis controlling for robust interaction term is used to determine the direct as well as the moderating effect of perceived entrepreneurial ability and high actual ability in influencing the decision to initiate nascent entrepreneurial activities. Findings: The results reveal that perceived entrepreneurial ability has a distinct positive influence on the decision to initiate entrepreneurial activities and its impact is greater than that of actual abilities. Furthermore, we find evidence of a positive interaction effect suggesting that perceived entrepreneurial ability is key to encouraging nascent entrepreneurial initiatives among those with high ability. Originality and Value: The main contribution of our study is to highlight the role of subjective judgments of ability in influencing entrepreneurial behaviour. Whereas prior research has found that high actual ability influences new venture performance, its influence on entrepreneurial entry was inconclusive. By adding perceived entrepreneurship to our model we not only establish a link between objective (observable) abilities and subjective (unobservable) abilities of individuals but also suggest the mechanism how such abilities drive the business entry decisions of individuals.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to examine the antecedents of perceived entrepreneurial ability within a given context. Design/methodology/approach: Taking the cognitive approach we examine the role of several individual-level factors and the entrepreneurial context in the form of personal knowledge of other entrepreneurs and territorial location in influencing positive perceptions of entrepreneurial ability. The proposed hypotheses are tested on a dataset of 1961 respondents randomly selected from the adult population in Catalonia region in Spain. Findings: Our results reveal that among the individual level factors, a median level of education, experience (both prior entrepreneurial experience and job), task specific knowledge and age have a significantly positive influence on perceived entrepreneurial ability in Catalonia. However, among the entrepreneurial context it is the knowledge of other entrepreneurs rather than territorial location that have a significantly positive influence on perceived entrepreneurial ability. Originality/value: Previous studies have reported that nascent entrepreneurs tend to have significantly favourable perceptions of their entrepreneurial ability. In this study using the cognitive learning framework we examined the antecedents of such perceived entrepreneurial ability thereby extending the stream of studies that look at pre-entry factors that influences entrepreneurial cognitions. The value of our research is in identifying and explaining the combined role of individual-level resources and the contextual environment in influencing one of the most important drivers of nascent entrepreneurship in an economy. Implications:The main implication of our study is that favourable perceptions of entrepreneurial ability can be influenced through participatory learning as well as behavioural modelling. Our study points to several ways through which favourable perception of entrepreneurial ability can be influenced within a given context.