Towards Nurturing Entrepreneurial Intention from Emotional Intelligence

The perceptions of desirability and feasibility towards an entrepreneurial activity are determined by social and cultural influences on an individual's value system40. Therefore, behaviors are not directly determined rather are the result of conscious or unconscious analysis done by an individual as to the desirability and feasibility of various alternative courses of action. For that matter, this paper finds a gap in Shapero's model and proposes emotional intelligence to influence entrepreneurial intention through perceived desirability and feasibility. The two mediational paths are then examined relying on a survey data collected from university students and using a multiple mediator model. The results indicate that EI positively and significantly accounts for the effect on entrepreneurial intention. Further, all of the effect is fully mediated by perceived desirability and perceived feasibility. These findings suggest the importance of EI in the formation of entrepreneurial intention and have practical significance to entrepreneurship educators.