Career paths, organizational affiliation and the enactment of entrepreneurial intentions

How entrepreneurs’ career-paths relate to the enactment of entrepreneurial intentions? Does entrepreneurs’ organizational affiliation influence their entrepreneurial intentions? In an attempt to provide answers to such questions, we draw on intentional theory in order to explain heterogeneity in entrepreneurs’ intentional processes. We study the impact that entrepreneurs’ affiliation to public research institutions has on the enactment of their entrepreneurial intentions, comparing the intentional processes of a matched-pairs sample of 52 public entrepreneurs and 52 private entrepreneurs. After employing multivariate regression analyses and structural equation modelling techniques, the empirical results are confirmed, showing that entrepreneurial intentions are differently determined within the two samples. These findings provide us new theoretical and empirical evidences on the impact that individual features, developed as a result of different career paths and organizational affiliations, have on the enactment of entrepreneurial intentions.