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This chapter attempts to measure the importance of a region’s cultural values in determining the entrepreneurial intention of each of its members separately. Schwartz’s approach is followed in measuring cultural values, together with Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior with regard to entrepreneurial intentions. The empirical study has been conducted on a sample of 2974 university graduates as part of the VIE project. Results show that a region’s culture indirectly influences the entrepreneurial intention of its members. People in some regions do feel a more positive attitude, subjective norm or perceived behavioral control due to the region’s cultural characteristics. Key words: cultural values, entrepreneurial intention, Spanish regions, value structure, cognitive research.

In this chapter the authors argue that personal values influence motivation and intention to exploit business ideas. The aim is to investigate which values direct individuals willing to start up their ventures out of an opportunity, compared to those who would start their venture out of necessity. To address this aim, the authors combine the literature on entrepreneurial intentions and opportunity-driven entrepreneurship with psychological knowledge on individual values. By applying Schwartz’s theory of personal values on a sample of 2974 adults from Spain, the authors examine how values organized along two bipolar dimensions – openness versus conservation and self-enhancement versus self-transcendence – influence the perceived likelihood of an individual entering entrepreneurship ‘to take advantage of an opportunity’ or ‘out of necessity’. The study indicates that openness to change and self-enhancement encourage opportunity-driven entrepreneurship, while conservation and self-transcendence stimulate necessity-based entrepreneurship. The study also confirms that the start-up intention is mostly connected with exploiting a potential opportunity. Entrepreneurial intention mediates the relationship from the motivational antecedents to the opportunity motives. The study’s contribution is a new, value-based insight into the sources of two classes of entrepreneurship. By identifying the value priorities held by individuals who exploit opportunities, the chapter advances the understanding of value-laden entrepreneurial intentions leading to entrepreneurial behaviours.

Although in general the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) has received significant empirical support, there are still some areas in which additional knowledge is needed. In particular, the strength of the influence exerted by the motivational antecedents of intention (personal attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control) is somewhat controversial. In this regard, we argue that the original TPB fails to capture the effect of social factors on the entrepreneurial-intention cognitive process. In this chapter, we discuss the influence of individual and cultural values in the TPB, as social factors that condition the formation of entrepreneurial intentions. We argue that these specific social effects act through two mechanisms. First, they act indirectly, through the antecedents of intentions, by affecting the constructs’ self-reported levels. Secondly, they also moderate the direct effects of these antecedents on intentions. We also argue that the current operationalization of the subjective norms construct limits the model’s ability to capture the social effects involved in this type of cognitive process. This chapter provides a theoretical basis for future empirical research and contributes to a more comprehensive perspective on how entrepreneurial intentions are formed and how they are conditioned by social factors.

This chapter focuses on the concept of entrepreneurial competence and how it may be developed within the educational system. In particular, a tri-partite model of entrepreneurial competence is defined. Nevertheless, in order for this competence to be effectively developed through entrepreneurship education, the concept of entrepreneurial identity is introduced. The entrepreneurial identity is considered as a mechanism to building the individual’s entrepreneurial self-concept. A case study of one entrepreneurship education experience is used to illustrate the key role of this entrepreneurial identity in the construction of entrepreneurial personalities.

Entrepreneurial intention models are well established in the entrepreneurship literature. However, the rate of transformation from intention into action (start-up behaviour) is relatively low, and little is yet known about the factors that contribute to this transformation. In this chapter, we focus on the role of culture in the entrepreneurial process. We identify two components of culture (values and practices) and argue that their mode of influence is different. Although cultural values shape personal motivations, attitudes and intentions, cultural practices affect the actual start-up behaviour. The interaction with the economic conditions is also considered. An integrative model for the culture’s mode of influence on the entrepreneurial process is proposed.