Intention as a cognitive antecedent to international entrepreneurship??understanding the moderating roles of knowledge and experience |
| |
Authors: | Lutz Sommer Manuel Haug |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Business Administration and Engineering, Albstadt-Sigmaringen University, Jakobstrasse 1, 72458 Albstadt, Germany |
| |
Abstract: | While International Entrepreneurship has attracted scholars’ attention during the last two decades, the impact cognitive aspects
exert has been studied on cursory level only. The purpose of this paper was to apply the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)
to the very field of International Entrepreneurship in order to examine whether this theory contributes to clarify what influences
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises’ (SME) decision-makers’ intention—an important cognitive antecedent to behavior—to play
an active part in internationalization. In particular, it had to be clarified whether or not International Entrepreneurship—due
to its contextual specificities—deserves to be extended by further elements, i.e. experience and knowledge. Based on more
than 100 responses from German SME executives, the study yielded several interesting results. First, TPB indeed helps explain
how intentions to actively participate in international business are built. Second, an extension of the theory’s basic model
seems to make sense, probably due to the specificities of international entrepreneurial behavior. As for the extensions, direct
and moderating effects have been observed. Furthermore, cognitive elements seem to be key entrepreneurial resources which
serve as sort of enablers. From these results several conclusions can be drawn. Cognitive aspects are a promising starting
point for understanding decision-making in SME. Thus, the intersection of international entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial
cognition deserves further attention—several examples for possible future studies are presented. Policies supporting SME should
be extended: pure resource-based approaches seem to be insufficient. Furthermore, entrepreneurship courses and curricula should
reflect the relevance of cognitive aspects. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|