The determinants of entrepreneurial intention of scientist PhD students: analytical vs emotional formation of the intention

We use the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to investigate the determinants of the entrepreneurial intention (EI) of two samples of PhD students in science in France (N=101) and Tunisia (N=308). We performed PLS-PM estimations of a structural path model. The survey design makes possible an explicit distinction between the direct and indirect measures of the Attitude, Norm and Control for the prediction of the EI. In a situation of "analytical" decision making process we would expect a strong connection between direct and indirect measures which not observed in the case of Attitude. In both countries the main direct explanatory variables of EI are the Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC) and the Attitude (ATT) whereas the Subjective Norm (SN) has no direct significant impact. We also observe a very strong relationship between the SN and the PBC and between PBC and ATT. It raises questions concerning the real causal relationship between these explanatory variables which could have important consequences in terms of entrepreneurship promotion strategies. In contrast with SN and PBC we observe that the indirect measures of ATT are not strongly connected to its direct measure. It may indicate in the case of SN and PBC that the evaluation process is analytic whereas it would be more "emotional" for ATT. We discuss the implications of that distinction. Our results indicate that the manipulation of believes related to PBC is certainly the most relevant strategy of behavioral change.