Opportunity recognition career decision making self efficacy and social entrepreneurial intention among higher education students

Abstract

Building on the entrepreneurship cognition literature, the present research aims to develop a model to examine the direct and indirect effects of opportunity recognition, career decisionmaking and self-efficacy on social entrepreneurial intention. The research adopted a crosssectional design. The research was divided into three distinct studies, each conducted with a specific objective. The data collected for three studies included higher education students newlineacross India. Studies 1 and 2 aimed to develop and validate two scales, namely social entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and social entrepreneurial career decision-making following steps in tool construction. The sample size was 600 for study 1 and 845 for study 2. The social entrepreneurial opportunity recognition scale had 24-items that measures opportunity recognition with six motivating factors as the lower order constructs which are life experiences, social awareness, social inclination, community development, institutional voids, and natural option for a meaningful career. The social entrepreneurial career decision scale had 20 items focusing on the appraisal components in pre-entry social entrepreneurial career decision-making and has four factors, which are relevance, coping potential, knowledge and resources, and normative significance. Study 3 examined the direct and indirect effects of opportunity recognition, career decision-making and self-efficacy on social newlineentrepreneurial intention using a sample of 605 students. The findings show that opportunity recognition influences social entrepreneurial intention and is partially mediated by career decision-making. Furthermore, self-efficacy moderates the mediating role of career decisionmaking between opportunity recognition and intention. This research facilitates a profound understanding of social entrepreneurial cognition and pre-entry decision-making.