From COVID-19 Pandemic to Entrepreneurial Behavior: The Mediating Effect of Proactive Personality and the Moderating Role of Anticipated Regret

Wang Jiatong; Majid Murad; Fu Bajun; Nausheen Syed; Muhammad Munir

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.838779

From COVID-19 Pandemic to Entrepreneurial Behavior: The Mediating Effect of Proactive Personality and the Moderating Role of Anticipated Regret

Front Psychol. 2022 Jun 6:13:838779. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.838779. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Wang Jiatong¹, Majid Murad², Fu Bajun³, Nausheen Syed⁴, Muhammad Munir⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Teacher and Education, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China.
² Department of Management Sciences, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering and Technology, Multan, Pakistan.
³ School of Education, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, China.
⁴ Department of Business Administration, Government College Women University, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
⁵ Department of Management and Administrative Sciences, University of Narowal, Norowal, Pakistan.

Abstract

COVID-19 is a global public health issue that poses a challenge to the education sector. The pandemic has a devastating impact on student entrepreneurial behavior and their mental health. This study aimed to examine the impact of COVID-19 on the student entrepreneurial intention/behavioral model with a mediating effect of proactive personality and the moderating role of anticipated regret. The sample of the study comprised 345 university students from Pakistan. Data were collected using a self-report and other report survey questionnaires. The hypotheses were investigated using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach. According to the findings, COVID-19 perception has a negative and significant impact on the student entrepreneurial intention/behavior model. Meanwhile, findings show that a proactive personality significantly mediates the relationship between COVID-19 perception and entrepreneurial intention. The results show that anticipated regret moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior in a favorable and significant way. Furthermore, discussion and implications were also discussed in this article.

Keywords: COVID-19 perception; anticipated regret; entrepreneurial behavior; entrepreneurial intention; proactive personality; university students.