The unshackled entrepreneur: Occupational determinants of entrepreneurial effort

Entrepreneurial effort triggers action towards business creation and constitutes the ultimate link between intention and action. Although occupations play a significant role in entrepreneurial entry, extant research has not thoroughly investigated primary occupational characteristics as specific antecedents of entrepreneurial effort. We contribute to this line of research by proposing and testing a model in which three occupational characteristics at the occupational level (managerial knowledge, self-accomplishment, and arduousness) are correlated with two cognitive factors at the individual level (effort-performance and instrumentality beliefs) that in turn affect behavior (entrepreneurial effort). We draw upon expectancy theory to motivate our model and combine data from the PSED and O*NET to test our hypotheses. We find compelling evidence that individuals facing arduous working conditions and lacking personal accomplishment in their salaried jobs will be more committed to their new business. In addition, we find that entrepreneurs coming from occupations involving high levels of managerial knowledge tend to put more effort into the new venture.