The Relationship between Entrepreneurial Social Identity and Entrepreneurial Intention: The Mediating Role of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy

In the dawn of this new era and the development of knowledge-based economy, entrepreneurship has been recognized as a fundamental factor in the economic progress of countries. Hence, the aim of this research was to investigate the impact of students' entrepreneurial social identity on their entrepreneurial intention, considering the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, using the structural equation method. The statistical population of this research was male and female students of Urmia Technical and Vocational University in the academic year 1399-1400, who had completed entrepreneurship units in their courses. As a census, Linan and Chen's (2009) standard entrepreneurial intention questionnaire, Di-Nabel et al.'s (1999) entrepreneurial self-efficacy questionnaire, and Zeiger et al.'s (2016) entrepreneurial identity questionnaire were administered to all students. Finally, 267 questionnaires were examined as a sample. The results indicated that there exists a statistically significant positive relationship between the entrepreneurial social identity of the students in both dimensions of Darwinian identity and Missionarie identity and their entrepreneurial intention (p < 0.05). Furthermore, it was found that entrepreneurial self-efficacy plays a mediating role in this relationship (p < 0.001). Therefore, it is recommended that in providing entrepreneurship trainings and also in the related policies, the compatibility of these trainings with students’ social identity style should be taken into consideration in order to increase their entrepreneurial productivity.