Entrepreneurial self-efficacy and temporal construal effects in identifying nascent technology entrepreneurs

This research focuses on measuring the effect of perceived self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intent in University students as a precursor input to new tech start-ups that drive technology-based economic development. Entrepreneurial intent is defined as the voluntary conscious intentionality to create a new firm. We look at the impact of cultural context and distance in time (temporal construal) on that intent. The perceived self-efficacy refers to people´s beliefs about their capabilities to control the performance of their own behavior. Temporal construal is the distance in time between the present and the point at which the subject intends to undertake entrepreneurial activity. Our study analyzes the influence of self-efficacy and temporal construal on entrepreneurial intent using the categorical variable of college major to validate our methodology. We surveyed 967 undergraduate business and engineering students from three countries (Mexico, Spain, and US) over a five-year period. Our findings show that the temporal construal has a major effect on student entrepreneurial intent. Furthermore the perceived self-efficacy correlates more strongly with short-term intent, consistent across cultural and disciplinary boundaries. It is potentially a key consideration for future studies aimed at identifying and developing nascent technology entrepreneurs within the student populations.