Main approaches to exploring intention-action gap in entrepreneurship

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present an analysis of theoretical foundations for the entrepreneurial intention-action gap concept as well as a literature review in this field. The review was based on empirical papers indexed in EBSCO, Scopus, and Web of Science databases selected with no time restrictions. The analysis of studies on entrepreneurial intention-behavior link allowed to identify main theoretical roots and empirical research directions as well as to distinguish crucial factors that are able to stimulate or hamper intention-action translation in entrepreneurship. The first research direction encompasses studies devoted to the role of individual traits with regards to entrepreneurial intention-action transformation. The second literature stream covers studies of micro-environment peculiarities. Finally, the third research direction focuses upon the influence of meso-level factors on the link between intentions and actions in entrepreneurship. This article contributes to the literature on entrepreneurial intention models by specifying essential moderators (boundary conditions) that determine the strength of the association between entrepreneurial intentions and subsequent behavior. The overview of the current state of empirical research allowed to formulate future promising research directions in this field. In particular, the field can be further developed by movement of empirical focus towards investigating the role of macro-level environmental peculiarities, applying experimental design, and assessing multi-level models of entrepreneurial intention-behavior translation.