Determinants of Employee Transition to Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Promoting Employee Transition to Entrepreneurship (ETE) is one of the many channels to boost the entrepreneurial development of any nation. ETE in developing countries needs further attention from scholars to broaden its determinants. Within the theoretical frameworks of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Dualistic Model of Passion (DMP), the current study studied the determinants of ETE intention. Randomly drawn employees from Sri Lankan private and state institutions made the sample (n = 218). The instruments with acceptable reliability and validity properties measured the study variables. Attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, harmonious passion, obsessive passion, and ETE intention were scaled on a seven-point Likert scale. Structural equation modeling analyzed the data. The findings showed that employees' ETE intention is positively affected by all the tested variables other than perceived behavioral control. Notably, the results demonstrated that obsessive passion had a beneficial impact on ETE intention, although it is often thought to influence behavioral intention negatively. Thus, the study suggests that the ETE can emphasize any nation's entrepreneurial development by shaping employees' attitudes, perceived social influences, favorable interests, and even adverse interests to form a combined force to promote start-ups. The study's implications demonstrated the ability to model the ETE by integrating various theoretical frames that predict behavioral intentions.