JBR-08639; No of Pages 6

Journal of Business Research xxx (2016) xxxxxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Business Research

The entrepreneurship process and the model of volition

Lubica Hikkerova a,, Samuel Nyock Ilouga b, Jean-Michel Sahut c,1
a
b
c

IPAG, 184 Bd Saint-Germain, 75006 Paris, France

University of Yaound 1, BP 13084 Douala, Cameroon
HEG Fribourg HES-SO, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland & IPAG, 184 Bd Saint-Germain, 75006 Paris, France

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 1 February 2015
Received in revised form 1 August 2015
Accepted 1 September 2015
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
Intention
Action
Volition
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneur
Student

a b s t r a c t
Volition is a determinant psychological factor in entrepreneurship to better understand the behavior of entrepreneurs. This study analyzes the personal characteristics that determine the route of entrepreneurial actions by
analyzing volitional skills of three categories of people: students, potential entrepreneurs, and active entrepreneurs. The results show that individuals mobilize volitional skills in a successive order, one after the other. In
addition, this order is determined by the individual's progress on the process of creation that the model of volition
in this study synthetizes determines such order.
2015 Published by Elsevier Inc.

1. Introduction
Much literature on entrepreneurship focuses on the concept of
entrepreneurial intention, viewing much of entrepreneurship as intentional behavior and the formation of an intention to start a business
as a step in the process of founding an organization (Kautonen, van
Gelderen, & Fink, 2015; Schlaegel & Koenig, 2012). These results show
the predictors of the emergence of an entrepreneurial project. However,
other questions need approaching: How does a virtual entrepreneurial
project turn into an effective project? What are the psychological mechanisms that come into play? These questions have a particular importance in France because the GEM (2014) Global Report reveals that
the gap between intentions and actual creations (TEA) is one of the
highest in the world. Boissin, Branchet, Emin, and Herbert (2009)

A previous version of this article has been presented at the 2015 GIKA Conference. The
authors thank participants for their comments. The authors are grateful to contributions
from Professor Eric Leroux, University of Paris 13, and Associate Professor Jacques
Arlotto, Audencia, France, for their careful reading and suggestions on revising this
essay. The authors are most grateful to the guest editors for their guidance, and also to
the anonymous reviewers for their insightful recommendations, which have contributed
to enhancing the quality of this study.
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: lubica.hikkerova@ipag.fr (L. Hikkerova), nyock.ilouga@gmail.com
(S.N. Ilouga), jmsahut@gmail.com (J.-M. Sahut).
1
Tel.: +331 53 63 36 00.

make the same observation, comparing entrepreneurship intentions

and actions of French and American students. This gap is also the reason
why some researchers, such as Fayolle and Linan (2014), notice that, in
entrepreneurship research, an urgent need exists to empirically investigate the intentionbehavior link.
In business, highly motivated people with a strong intention to perform an action are very commonly unable to perform the necessary actions to realize this intention. For psychologists such as Gollwitzer and
Heckhausen (1987) and Oettingen, Hnig, and Gollwitzer (2000), the
inherent difculties in achieving such a goal, despite a challenging environment and a high level of motivation, evokes a lack of individual characteristics, which studies typically conceive as a skill, the volition.
More recently, Broonen (2010) emphasizes this idea; for him, volition
is the process that determines the transition from intention to action.
Thus, the overall objective of this study is to identify a set of volitional factors that may contribute to the prediction of entrepreneurial intention and explain the transformation of intentions into entrepreneurial
actions. The approach aims to demonstrate that entrepreneurship is a
goal that the individual pursues, and receives therefore much more inuence from personal dispositions than economic and environmental
constraints. In particular, the study highlights personal dynamics in
the structure, maturation, and production of a range of entrepreneurial
careers to extract the volitional characteristics of this career choice. The
study tests the hypotheses on volition using data collected through a
questionnaire conducted with French students and entrepreneurs, to
identify the volition skills of each population and explore how they
mobilize these skills during the entrepreneurial process.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.10.071
0148-2963/ 2015 Published by Elsevier Inc.

Please cite this article as: Hikkerova, L., et al., The entrepreneurship process and the model of volition, Journal of Business Research (2016), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.10.071

L. Hikkerova et al. / Journal of Business Research xxx (2016) xxxxxx

The structure of the study is as follows. Section 2 presents the corpus

of literature to which this study contributes and the theoretical framework. Section 3 presents the method, and the empirical analysis. Finally,
section 4 comprises the discussion of the ndings and their implications
for different stakeholders.
2. Theoretical framework and hypothesis
This research builds on the theories of planned behavior and reasoned action, which explain entrepreneurial behavior through an intention to perform the behavior (Ajzen, 1991, 2014). Among these models,
those which integrate, even partially, motivational and volitional factors
seem most likely to predict business start-up intentions and subsequent
behavior (Gelderen van, Kautonen, & Fink, 2015). Indeed, an adequate
approach cannot simply consider the background of intention in terms
of motivation because an individual that does not feel comfortable
with the pursuit of his or her purpose or professional project must use
his or her volitional resources to achieve that purpose (Forstmeier &
Rddel, 2008). Gelderen van et al. (2015) study vocational skills only
in the form of self-control. They show that action doubt, action fear,
and action aversion are less likely to adversely affect a person exercising
strong self-control. Some research also highlight the role of self-control.
For Wolfe and Johnson (1995), self-control contributes signicantly
to the prediction of the grade point average of university students;
for Steel (2007), self-control is a strong negative predictor of procrastination. However, scholars neglect the other volitional factors such as
self-regulation (Hale, Householder, & Greene, 2003; Oettingen et al.,
2000).
Volition, the sum of mental events or activities through which agents
consciously and actively exercise their agentivity to voluntarily direct
their thoughts and action (Forstmeier & Rddel, 2008), is an important
factor to understand the route to entrepreneurial action, because the
time between the formulation of the objective and its implementation
can be long (Gollwitzer & Heckhausen, 1987). Then, following the
Rubicon model of action phases (Gollwitzer, 2012), the study aims to
identify when individuals mobilize volitional skills in the process of taking action. The study distinguishes four phases:
The pre-decision phase: This is the process of choosing a type of
action, of deciding to perform a behavior. This mental action is
momentary, which leads to the formation of an intention to perform
this behavior depending on the importance of its desirability and
feasibility (Mele, 2000), and transforms that behavior into a target
(i.e., goal intention), leading the individual to commit to the implementation of specic actions to achieve the pursued objective.
The pre-action phase: The intention-goal supports the individual to
engage in the implementation of specic actions to achieve the objective. This self-regulation appears as three types of volitional skills,
namely, self-determination, self-motivation, and resistance to the
uncertainty of the future (Forstmeier & Rddel, 2008). These skills
relate to the psychological functions that the individual uses to
maintain a higher order in the hierarchy of objectives.

The action phase: In this third phase, the individual realizes her or
his objective concretely and mindfully. This phase involves skills of
action development, orientation toward action, concentration, and
proactivity (Frese, 2007).
Lastly, the goal of the post-action phase is to assess the level of
achievement and the need to pursue the goal. In this case, two
options are possible: making adjustments or abandoning the goal
(Emmons & Ferrari, 1995).
In the same perspective, Espritu-Olmos and Sastre-Castillo (2015)
show that personality traits affect entrepreneurial intention more
than work values do. Thus, the hypothesis is that individuals mobilize the volitional skills successively in an order that depends on
the progression of the individual on the route to entrepreneurial actions. This idea implies that the self-motivation of the students who
formulated entrepreneurship intentions would be better than that of
the other students (H1).

H1. The self-motivation of the students who formulated entrepreneurship intentions is better than the self-motivation of other students.
In addition, the realization of an entrepreneurial project is a long
process that requires an individual's commitment and persistence in
pursuit of the goals despite obstacles (Oettingen et al., 2000). In this perspective, recent research underlines that self-regulation is a determinant psychological factor to transform entrepreneurial intentions into
actions. In particular, Kraus (2003), Kraus, Frese, Friedrich, and Unger
(2005), and Frese (2009) show the role that this factor plays in the relationship between entrepreneurial orientations and actions. These authors establish that a comprehensive psychological approach to
entrepreneurial creation and success must incorporate self-regulatory
processes. According to this premises, entrepreneurs who conduct
their projects as well as potential entrepreneurs use self-regulation,
and in particular, self-determination and resistance to uncertainty
(Forstmeier & Rddel, 2008) more than people remaining in the presentence stage (H2).
H2. Potential entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs that accomplish their
projects mobilize self-regulation, particularly self-determination and
resistance to uncertainty, more than people in the pre-sentence stage.
Finally, Frese (2007) states that entrepreneurs are generally more
active than non-entrepreneurs, and develops the concept of personal
initiative to describe this active orientation. According to Frese, Kring,
Soose, and Zempel (1996), active orientation is a personal characteristic
that (i) is consistent with the organization's mission, (ii) has a longterm focus, (iii) is goal directed and action oriented, (iv) is persistent
in the face of barriers and setbacks, and (v) is self-starting and proactive.
Frese (2007) demonstrates that entrepreneurs and especially those of
small rms display a higher degree of initiative. Hence, skills of action
development (action orientation, concentration, and proactivity) occur
more for entrepreneurs in activity than for the potential entrepreneurs
and other students (H3).

Table 1
Distribution of the entire sample by status and gender.

Female
%
Male
%
Total
%

STATUSEP

STATUSEA

STATUSEN

STATUSIN

STATUSET

STATUSS

244
6.44%
258
6.81%
502
13.25%

237
6.26%
264
6.97%
501
13.23%

231
6.10%
249
6.57%
480
12.67%

479
12.65%
218
5.76%
697
18.40%

768
20.27%
255
6.73%
1023
27.01%

362
9.56%
223
5.89%
585
15.44%

Total
2321
61.27%
1467
38.73%
3788
100.00%

Please cite this article as: Hikkerova, L., et al., The entrepreneurship process and the model of volition, Journal of Business Research (2016), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.10.071

L. Hikkerova et al. / Journal of Business Research xxx (2016) xxxxxx

H3. Entrepreneurs in activity mobilize skill of action development more

than potential entrepreneurs and other students.

3. Method
3.1. Measurement of variables
For future intentions, people provide information about the interest
that they perceive in relation to a career in public, private, and independent sectors. This study uses the scale by Lemoine and Nettersheim
(2008). This scale consists of two dimensions: the level of denition of
the professional project and the choice of a professional sector for the
future. The level of denition of the project has eight items, such as I
have no clear idea about my future. The choice of the professional sector has ten items: four items related to the interest in careers in the public and/or private sectors, such as I intend to work in the private sector,
and six items measuring the interest in an entrepreneurial career, such
as My career goal is to become an entrepreneur. Similarly, participants
comment on their intended project training, such as I intend after my
bachelor's degree to go to specialized courses, to undertake an optional
internship, a doctorate, or a master's degree. The higher the score on
this scale, the more accurate the project is (Lin & Chen, 2009).
For volitional skills, following Kuhl (2000), this study focuses on selfregulation. In addition to personal initiative, these skills assess the capacity of the individual to use his or her psychological functions, including motivation, determination, and strength, in the pursuit of the goal.
Then, self-regulation is decomposed into self-determination, selfmotivation, and resistance to uncertainty about the future. Self-determination refers to one's ability to present his/her goals and ambitions
condently and to implement them successfully. Self-motivation
translates into the skill to maintain a high level of motivation regardless
of the context. Resistance to uncertainty refers to the skill to regulate
one's internal level of tension to calm down when he/she feels plagued
by negative emotions. The literature review reveals several tools that
measure these dimensions, but a consensus exists on using Fuhrmann
and Kuhl's (1998) questionnaire: the Volitional Questionnaire Component (VCQ-3) because this questionnaire is an instrument to measure
different aspects of volitional skills, specically aiming at assessing the
subjective experience of volitional components supporting central coordination of goal-maintenance and self-maintenance. This study uses a
French translation of the scale. Three items of this scale measure the
self-determination dimension (e.g., Most of the time, I realize the
goals I set for myself). Two items assess self-motivation, such as I
know exactly how to motivate myself when my enthusiasm diminishes, and two others evaluate resistance to uncertainty. In addition,
the study includes the personal initiative scale by Battistelli (2006).
This scale has eight items such as I use every opportunity to achieve
my goals. A ve-point Likert scale measures all these dimensions.

Fig. 1. Level of self-motivation. Legend: EP = potential entrepreneur, EA = Entrepreneur

in activity, EN = students considering an entrepreneurial career, ET = students who wish
to pursue further studies in higher education, IN = undecided students, S = students who
prefer a paid professional career.

(2010), this study denes potential entrepreneur as people who think

they are entrepreneurial people but have not yet owned and managed a business. Active entrepreneurs are creators and/or managers
of start-ups. Both types of entrepreneurs come from Paris and its
suburb. The sample represents all activity sectors for active entrepreneurs but 63% are in services. Among the 3788 participants,
61% are female and 39% are male. The age of participants is between
17 and 57 years, with a mean age of 38 years for active entrepreneurs (EA), 36 years for potential entrepreneurs (EP), and 20 years
for students.
4. Results
4.1. The choice of career
Career choice refers to the career-related intentions of students,
which can be entrepreneurial or wage-based jobs. Based on the identication of the projects, the analysis denes four sub-groups of students.
Results show that 17% of the students want to become an entrepreneur
(EN), 21% express a desire to secure an employment (S), and 37% plan to
continue their studies up to the master's or doctorate level (ET). 25% are
still undecided (IN). Despite the unequal gender distribution of the
sample, the number of boys (240) wishing to pursue a profession in
entrepreneurship is not signicantly different from the number of girls
having the same intention (231). Finally, the Pearson's chi-squared test
(at a 5% level) reveals a relationship among the three variables; sex, maturation of the project, and choice of career.
Interviews also include active entrepreneurs (EA) and potential entrepreneurs (EP), to compare their volitional characteristics to those of
the students. Given that the sample comprised a similar number of
male and female students wishing to become an entrepreneur, the

3.2. Data
The data come from interviews to three categories of people: students, potential entrepreneurs, and active entrepreneurs. The data collection took place between October 2012 and March 2013, using a
structured questionnaire consisting of the scales explained in the previous paragraph. This questionnaire allows to circumvent the methodological problems related to the implementation of a longitudinal
study, because the time between the formulation of intentions by the
population observed and its implementation can be long. The sample
consists of 2785 French students, 502 potential entrepreneurs, and
501 active entrepreneurs. The choice concerns institutions having approximately the same characteristics: two business schoolsIPAG and
ISC Parisand the University of Paris 1. Potential and active entrepreneurs are contacted through the association APCE (Agence Pour la Cration d'Entreprise, Paris). Following the denition by Lpez and Garca

Fig. 2. Level of self-determination.

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Fig. 3. Level of resistance to uncertainty.

Fig. 5. Level of the orientation toward action.

selection comprises respondents belonging to both categories, EA and

EP, guaranteeing a uniform gender distribution in these groups
(Table 1). This procedure avoids a gender bias in the comparisons as
per the literature in this area (Loza de Siles, 2011). In terms of size,
the three categories EP, EA, and EN are also similar.

this dimension, students who are moving toward the business of entrepreneurship differ the most from others. The comparison with active
entrepreneurs (EA) and potential entrepreneurs (EP) is not pertinent
at this stage because they are in a different stage of the entrepreneurial
process and have already mobilized this volitional skill.

4.2. Mobilization of volitional skills

4.2.2. Skills volitional mobilized at the stage of preparation for action

The study develops an analysis of covariance and ensures homogeneity of each group, which allows for group comparisons. The analysis
comprises three stages: (1) examining the volitional skills associated
with the construction of the professional project, (2) exploring then
the dimensions involved in the development of an entrepreneurial
approach, and (3) investigating the elements related to the exercise of
an autonomous activity.

4.2.2.1. Self-determination. For self-determination, which refers to the

skill to present goals and ambitions condently, and the ability to implement them successfully, the results show that entrepreneurs, potential
(EP) and active (EA), have better results. Their scores, though identical,
differ signicantly from the scores of all the groups of students; these
other groups do not differ signicantly from each other (except
between groups EN and IN) as Fig. 2 shows and a Duncan test validates.
Thus, a clear separation exists between these two groups for this
dimension. Self-determination allows distinguishing the formulation
of intent and the implementation thereof, through action planning.
Self-determination also explains the difference between the formulation of an intention and indecision.

4.2.1. The volitional skill associated with the formulation of future

intentions: Self-motivation
Students wishing to embark on an entrepreneurial (EN) career
display the highest scores on this dimension (Fig. 1). Their average
score is 6.79 on a scale of 110. The scores for the undecided and for
those who want employment are 6.21 and 6.18, respectively. Students
wishing to pursue higher studies (ET) obtain a score of 6.09, which is
similar to those of active entrepreneurs (EA), with an average score of
6.10, higher than the scores of potential entrepreneurs (5.95).
Duncan's test of multiple comparisons reveals that the score of the
students with entrepreneurial projects (EN) is statistically different
from the score of the other groups of students. In other words, this consciousness of being on the way to achieving their dreams motivates
them. These observations are consistent with H1. Self-motivation is relevant to account for the observations in the decision stage. Regarding

Fig. 4. Level of the control of action.

4.2.2.2. Resistance to uncertainty and control of action. For the dimension

of resistance to uncertainty, entrepreneurs (active and potential) differ
signicantly from all groups of students. Students considering an entrepreneurial career (EN) differ signicantly from the other groups of students (Fig. 3). These results, with a Duncan test's validation, conrm H2.
The socio-economic context and uncertainties apply to all entrepreneurs, and in a lesser extent, to students who wish to become entrepreneur using their determination to move forward. Then, the individual
participates in a planning activity that mobilizes the knowledge,

Fig. 6. Level of concentration.

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individuals guide the sequence of steps in the realization of the action,

a priori, based on their plans. See Fig. 6. See Fig. 8

Fig. 7. Level of proactivity.

motivation, and opinions that he or she has in relation to the proposed

activity. Thus, this process entails feeling free to undertake the project
and help them to go beyond the obstacles that may stand in the way
of their projects. There was also a signicant difference between students seeking an entrepreneurial career and other students. In other
words, students who wish to become entrepreneurs see their future
with greater condence than do other students. Regarding the ability
to control the action (Fig. 4), the results are similar, except for students
who wish to pursue studies, who are more similar to the group of entrepreneurs in a broad sense (EP, EA, and EN). Their decision to continue
their education gives the impression that they wish to control and improve their future.
4.2.3. The skills involved in the implementation of the action
Action orientation refers to the ability of the individual to engage in
achieving his or her objectives without hesitation and justies the gap
between action planning and its realization. The development of this
dimension is particularly signicant when individuals realize that
their skill level allows them to perform their duties and that such activity will enable them to achieve the desired results, hence the resulting
signicant difference between active entrepreneurs and potential
entrepreneurs. The same idea causes the latter group to be at the
same level as the student groups, because the activity remains latent
at this stage. Fig. 5 presents these results, validated by a Duncan test.
This phase is the psychological aspect of action, which indicates that
the construction of the operative image is the mental realization of the
entrepreneurial project. In addition, after the operative image, the

4.2.4. Concentration
Concentration is the ability to ignore disturbing thoughts, negative
emotions, and impulses in order to focus attention exclusively on the
goal. Active entrepreneurs specically highlight this quality. According
to Csikszentmihalyi (1990), concentration is a characteristic of the
state of ow that one would feel while acting with a sense of control
over the actions. In the present study, active entrepreneurs (EA) score
higher on this dimension than potential entrepreneurs do. Such individuals are likely to follow their actions until their end because they
become one with them. The ow at times they feel is the result of everything they do and small successes that accumulate. Entrepreneurs (EP,
EA, and EN) form a homogeneous group (the Duncan test does not reveal statistically signicant differences). However, students wishing to
pursue their studies and undecided students are more likely to distract
from their goal. This nding seems logical for people in the last category,
given their inability to dene a professional project.
4.2.5. Proactivity
The individual must have a vision of his or her goal in the long term;
be able to anticipate the course of events, plan strategies, and specic
solutions; and must predict his or her actions. Active entrepreneurs
(EA) have a signicantly higher score than the other groups do in the
sample. This score characterizes their behavior in managing their business. They take initiatives to cope with unforeseen situations and turn
challenges into opportunities for improvement. They identify useful
resources, know how to mobilize them, and implement a prot. This
behavior shows their concern with not just the allocation of static resources but also the constant search for improvement of the process.
In this context, they differ from potential entrepreneurs and students,
as Fig. 7 and a Duncan test show. This superiority of active entrepreneurs in all the three dimensions of volition conrms H3.
The hierarchy model of volition can synthetize these results. At each
stage, some volitional skills manifest themselves more forcefully in
some people and help them take a step toward creation. They lose
their exclusive mobilizing power of combining dominant skills of the
previous stage and take over to help the individual cope with the difculties of the moment. Then, if the individual knows how to tap the appropriate resources into its environment, success occurs. However, a
signicant proportion of individuals arriving at an intermediate stage
of this evolution fails at the end of this process and abandons their creative projects. The explanation of this phenomenon can be in the very

Fig. 8. The hierarchy model of volition.

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foundations of the project and its nature. According to previous research, projects that root in deep frustration motivate the designer's attempt to increase its chances of success. This could also explain why
some individuals abandon the project after their rst defeat, whereas
others accumulate successive failures until success arrives.
5. Conclusion
The results show that individuals mobilize the volitional skills successively in an order that depends on the progression of the individual
on the path of creation. This study takes an original approach by
explaining entrepreneurial intention based on volitional skills. That is,
if the entrepreneurial choice is a goal individuals pursue by will, related
personal dispositions have a greater inuence on the process than economic and environmental constraints do. This study opens doors to a
variety of perspectives for future research. In particular, the relationship
between the process of dening a career and skills of an individual deserves further exploration. Such denition is no longer a question of
know-how, know-be, or know at all, as necessary and sufcient conditions for career choices, but rather the association between these structures of meaning and volitional skills. Thus, professionals of vocational
guidance need to consider the psychological processes occurring in
making career decisions in order to prepare better strategies leading
to the goal. These results can also be of interest to people who assist
students, potential and active entrepreneurs on the route to entrepreneurship actions. The results show that the psychological help individuals receive must be different according to the development stage of
their project. However, the hierarchy model of volition does not explain
why a signicant proportion of individuals fail at the last step and abandon their creative projects. Thus, further research is necessary to contribute to the advancement of understanding in this area.
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Please cite this article as: Hikkerova, L., et al., The entrepreneurship process and the model of volition, Journal of Business Research (2016), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.10.071