Mobilizing Volitional Capacities to Enhance Entrepreneurial Process

Volition is a psychological disposition required in the process of transforming entrepreneurial intentions into actions (Hikkerova et al., 2016). To contribute to the understanding of the role volition plays in this process, the present study tests a hypothesis currently prevailing in the literature, and which stipulates that the order of mobilization of volitional capacities is determined by the stage individuals have reached in the process of business creation and innovation. The causal track modeling (Noel, 2015) carried out in an entropic context with data collected from 103 students, 319 potential entrepreneurs and 467 active entrepreneurs eliminated the methodological constraints of a longitudinal study which is necessary in such circumstances. Our results fully support the initial hypothesis and confirm the hierarchical organization of volitional capacities throughout the entrepreneurial process; starting with self-determination, self-motivation and resistance to uncertainty at the entrepreneurial-intent initiation stage, paving the way to concentration, direction and control of action at the beginning of the implementation of the project. These factors are then relayed by personal initiative and proactivity at the time when the project is being piloted and realized.