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61,7/8 The contribution of emotional
intelligence and spirituality in
understanding creativity and
870 entrepreneurial intention of
Received 30 January 2018
Revised 14 November 2018
higher education students
11 December 2018
Accepted 13 January 2019 Ana Paula Rodrigues
Department of Economics, Sociology and Management,
Centre for Transdisciplinary Development Studies,
University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal
Filipa Eira Jorge
Department of Economics, Sociology and Management,
University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal
Carlos André Pires
University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal, and
Patrícia António
Department of Economics, Sociology and Management,
University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of spirituality and emotional intelligence in
understanding creativity, attitudes towards entrepreneurship, perceived behavioural control (PBC) and
entrepreneurial intention of students of a Portuguese higher education institution. A conceptual model is proposed
representing direct and indirect relationships among these constructs.
Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative approach was adopted in the form of a survey
questionnaire applied to a sample of 345 university students. To test the hypothesised relationships between the
constructs, the authors used the path analysis technique.
Findings – Results show that personal attitudes towards entrepreneurship and PBC have a positive effect on
entrepreneurial intention, and mediate the effect of emotional intelligence on entrepreneurial intention.
Emotional intelligence has a direct positive effect on creativity. The results reveal no or a tenuous influence of
spirituality in the various concepts studied.
Practical implications – It is expected that the model can serve as a support for facilitating and
promoting entrepreneurship in higher education environments. It could be of valuable use to furthering our
understanding of the role of individual/psychological characteristics, motivational and attitudinal factors
in fostering entrepreneurial intention of university students.
Originality/value – Some studies suggest that psychological factors play an essential role in developing
alternative models to the entrepreneurial process. However, the studies that directly explore how individual
differences in emotional intelligence, spirituality and creativity relate to entrepreneurial intention are relatively few.
Keywords Spirituality, Emotional intelligence, Creativity, Personal attitudes towards entrepreneurship,
Perceived behavioural control, Entrepreneurial intention, Students
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Education + Training Entrepreneurship is a critical factor in fostering innovation and job creation and it is
Vol. 61 No. 7/8, 2019
pp. 870-894
believed to be an effective strategy in handling the issue of employability. Research in the
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0040-0912
area of entrepreneurial intention continues to represent a fruitful area of study. Intentions
DOI 10.1108/ET-01-2018-0026 are direct predictors of behaviour (Ajzen, 1991); hence, entrepreneurial intention is closely
related to entrepreneurship behaviour. Since entrepreneurial behaviour is intentional and a Emotional
planned behaviour (Krueger et al., 2000), intentions have been highlighted as reliable intelligence
predictors of entrepreneurial action (Krueger et al., 2000; Zampetakis et al., 2009). and spirituality
Over time, several factors that seek to explain the entrepreneurial intention have been
considered. The study of factors that influence entrepreneurial intention is relevant, especially
given the socio-economic benefits commonly attributed to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial
intention is a key element in entrepreneurial activity performance (Liñán, 2004) corresponding 871
to an important indicator of these activities. There are studies showing that the success of
entrepreneurs can be influenced by personal characteristics, and several psychological/
cognitive factors have been associated with the development of these entrepreneurial
intentions and to the entrepreneurial process itself (Ferreira et al., 2012; Paladina-Meléndez
et al., 2014).
The present study follows a recommendation for future research of Fayolle and Liñán
(2014), in which the authors recommended the examination of the role of variables that, on a
personal level, are able to influence the entrepreneurial intention of an individual. There are
some studies suggesting that psychological factors play an essential role in developing
alternative models to the entrepreneurial process (Gelard and Emamisaleh, 2014). However,
there is still little research dedicated to explore how individual differences in spirituality,
emotional intelligence and creativity relate to entrepreneurial intention.
In this context, the purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the effects of spirituality
and emotional intelligence on creativity, personal attitudes towards entrepreneurship (PA) and
perceived behavioural control (PBC) and their simultaneous impact on entrepreneurial intention.
By proposing and testing a conceptual model, this study tries to understand some
entrepreneurial intention antecedents. Drawing on Liñán and Chen (2009) and Zampetakis et al.
(2009), the proposed model incorporates the traditional entrepreneurial intention drivers, based
on the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) and adds three other individual-level influences
in examining one’s intention to become entrepreneur. Moreover, spirituality and emotional
intelligence are included as variables that influence the entrepreneurial intention directly and
indirectly (through the mediation of the creativity, PA and PBC variables). We applied this
study to students of a Portuguese higher education institution.
Empirical studies analysing the relation of emotional intelligence with entrepreneurial
attitudes and intentions only recently have started to be carried out (Davis and Peake, 2014;
Mortan et al., 2014; Zampetakis et al., 2009). Because very little research on emotional
intelligence has been conducted in the entrepreneurship realm, we consider that additional
tangible outcome data are needed to fully test the predictive power of emotional intelligence
on university students’ entrepreneurial intention.
Similarly to the growing interest in emotional intelligence and its application to
entrepreneurial intention, there is also an increasing interest in the integration and application
of spirituality to the field of entrepreneurship. The idea of relating the spiritual dimension to
the entrepreneurship study field is intuitively attractive and has already been done
theoretically by some studies (Kauanui et al., 2010; Balog et al., 2014). Indeed, the human being
has physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs. Therefore, drawing on an integral theory
(which seeks to comprehensively and holistically understand reality in all its facets; Wilber,
2006), the spiritual dimension, in its quest for unity, and for the integration of our thoughts and
actions, will probably influence attitudes and entrepreneurial intentions. However, the notion
of spirituality in its relation to entrepreneurship in higher education is relatively new and
empirical studies are still few. As Kauanui et al. (2010) call attention to, there have recently
been calls for research to understand more deeply the “entrepreneurial mindset” and to explore
deep beliefs that motivate entrepreneurs. To fill this gap, this study introduces the spirituality
construct to the entrepreneurial intention and higher education literatures, and intents to
empirically examine its influence on creativity, PA, PBC and entrepreneurial intention.
ET Parallel to spirituality, the topic of “students’ creativity has also only recently emerged as
61,7/8 a significant area of scientific inquiry” (Zacher and Johnson, 2014, p. 2), especially as a
predictor of entrepreneurial intention and as a mediator variable (Zampetakis et al., 2009).
For some scholars, it seems that creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship are intricately
linked (Tsai, 2014). Nevertheless, entrepreneurial intention models have generally
overlooked the creativity–entrepreneurial intention connection (Zampetakis et al., 2011).
872 Moreover, given the important role that creativity plays in the entire entrepreneurial
process, researchers have highlighted the necessary conditions to enhance creativity in
entrepreneurship (Lerch et al., 2015). For example, Lerch et al. (2015, p. 17) critically reviewed
the literature on creativity in the entrepreneurship field and pointed out that “there is a high
need for studies of the mechanisms for creativity development which can be effectively
deployed in educational programs”, especially because, as mentioned by Zampetakis and
Moustakis (2006), the promotion of entrepreneurial intention through the development of
creative thinking is not encouraged by contemporary university environment. To fill this
gap, this study posits that creativity could be cultivated through the development of the
spiritual and emotional dimensions and can also act as a mediator in the relationship
between the previous variables and entrepreneurial intention.
While some of these studies have made important contributions to a better understanding of
the roles of spirituality, emotional intelligence and creativity in the realm of entrepreneurial
intention, so far, no study has investigated these topics in combination in the higher education
context. As Zampetakis et al. (2011) alluded, traditionally, much of the entrepreneurship literature
have focussed heavily on the role that an individual’s attitude towards entrepreneurship,
perceived social norms and PBC plays in understanding the drivers of entrepreneurial intention.
However, as the authors recognised, studies have also turned their attention to cognitive
dimensions of entrepreneurship. Our research is a small contribution to shed further light on
these understudied antecedents in the higher education and the entrepreneurship literatures.
Finally, the choice of the higher education institutions context is also important in
explaining the relevance of this study. In recent years, higher education institutions have
come to regard the promotion of entrepreneurship as a priority. Currently, a major target of
the entrepreneurship incentive programmes is university students (Paladina-Meléndez et al.,
2014). Thus, it is clear the need to conduct further research in this context, so that
universities can become structuring places to raise entrepreneurship awareness and to
develop psychological and behavioural characteristics that strengthen students’
entrepreneurial spirit. This study aims to contribute to entrepreneurial education field
through the understanding of what psychological factors should be stimulated
in higher-level education programmes to encourage student’s entrepreneurial intention.
Besides, if we recognise the exogenous factors that influence entrepreneurial intentions, we
will have a better understanding of the factors that trigger companies’ creation by potential
entrepreneurs. These insights could be important for academic researchers interested in
entrepreneurship field but also for education institutions and agencies and policy makers.
H1a
Spirituality Creativity H3
H1b
H1c H4 Entrepreneurial
Personal attitudes towards Intention
H2a entrepreneurship (PA)
H5
H2b
Emotional
intelligence Perceived behavioural
H2c
control (PBC) Figure 1.
Conceptual
model proposed
H2d
ET Hypotheses Some studies that analysed the proposed relations
61,7/8
H1a: spirituality has a direct positive Chin et al. (2012), Farsani et al. (2015) (spiritual intelligence),
influence on creativity Gholipour et al. (2014), Moghimi et al. (2007)
H1b: spirituality has a direct positive Noble et al. (2007)
influence on PA
H1c: spirituality has a direct positive There are no known studies that directly analysed the two concepts
874 influence on PBC
H1d: spirituality has a direct positive Agbim et al. (2013)
influence on entrepreneurial
intention
H2a: emotional intelligence has a directCarmeli et al. (2014), Farahbod et al. (2013), Hamidianpour et al.
positive influence on creativity (2015), Hosseini and Dabaghi (2014), Mofidi et al. (2012), Zampetakis
et al. (2009), Zhou and George (2003), Ramy et al. (2014)
H2b: emotional intelligence has a direct Farahbod et al. (2013), Mofidi et al. (2012), Zampetakis et al. (2009),
positive influence on PA Hassan and Omar (2016)
H2c: emotional intelligence has a direct Mortan et al. (2014) (entrepreneurial self-efficacy), Salvador (2008)
positive influence on PBC (entrepreneurial self-efficacy)
H2d: emotional intelligence has a direct Davis and Peake (2014), Gelard and Emamisaleh (2014), Hassan and
positive influence on Omar (2016), Archana and Kumari (2018), Kanonuhwa et al. (2018)
entrepreneurial intention
H3: creativity has a direct positive Hamidi et al. (2008), Phipps et al. (2015), Zampetakis et al. (2009,
influence on entrepreneurial 2011), Zampetakis and Moustakis (2006)
intention
H4: PA have a direct positive influence Several studies, for example, Autio et al. (2001), Ferreira et al. (2012),
on entrepreneurial intention Liñán and Chen (2009), Mofidi et al. (2012), Paço et al. (2011),
Zampetakis et al. (2009), Hassan and Omar (2016)
Table I.
Hypotheses and H5: PBC has a direct positive influence Several studies, for example, Autio et al. (2001), Ferreira et al. (2012),
some studies on entrepreneurial intention Liñán and Chen (2009), Paço et al. (2011)
that analysed the Notes: PA, personal attitudes towards entrepreneurship; PBC, perceived behavioural control
proposed relationships Source: Elaborated by the authors
3. Research methodology
3.1 Research method and sample
Considering the study objectives, the methodology employed for this study was a positivist
approach, and a quantitative research design was adopted. In the context of studies on
entrepreneurial intention, the adoption of the positivist paradigm through the use of
quantitative approaches has been made by most researchers (Liñán and Fayolle, 2015).
The target population is comprised of students from a Portuguese university, distributed
into its five schools (Humanities and Social Sciences; Technological Sciences; Agricultural
and Veterinary Sciences; Life Sciences and Environment; and Nursing). Of all students in
each school the data collection tool was applied only to the third-year undergraduate and
postgraduate students.
The use of a university student’s sample is particularly well suited for studying
entrepreneurial intention. Such a sample was specifically chosen since we were primarily
interested in entrepreneurial intention and third-year undergraduate and postgraduate
students will move on their working life sooner than others, that is they are about to face
their professional career choice. This is in line with other similar studies such as Liñán and
Chen (2009), Zampetakis and Moustakis (2006) and Krueger et al. (2000). Also, similar to the
arguments of Mayhew et al. (2012), the sample for this study included undergraduate and
postgraduate students from diverse study areas, not only from the commonly business and
economics ones. Such diversity of areas will expectantly allow an interdisciplinary
perspective about students’ entrepreneurial intention.
We developed a survey to collect primary data directly from students. According to Emotional
Saunders et al. (2009), surveys are a popular search strategy because they allow the collection of intelligence
a large amount of data from a considerable population in an economical way. The cross-section and spirituality
descriptive questionnaire survey was considered as the most appropriate research approach to
gather information for the purpose of this study. Therefore, data collection was carried out by
personal survey (questionnaire) applied to students of this higher education institution.
Since this study aimed to assess the role of spirituality, emotional intelligence and creativity 879
in the development of entrepreneurial intention, and since these constructs are relatively newer,
the greatest care and attention was devoted to explain the conceptualisations used and in the
selection of reliable and valid measures. In this context, the questionnaires were administered
in person and returned directly to the researchers during several lectures. All the necessary
explanations were given to ensure that concepts used were not misconstrued by participants.
In adherence to the ethical considerations of conducting this study, ethical authorisation
was obtained from the University Ethics Committee prior to carrying out the research.
Due to financial and time constraints, a non-probability sampling was used in selecting a
sample for this study. We chose that participants should be registered university students
in the studied higher education institution and that leastwise there should be participants
belonging to the five existing schools (third-year undergraduate and postgraduate
students). A total of 345 usable responses were obtained.
This study was conducted at a higher education institution in Northern Portugal. Public
universities in Portugal have increasingly become involved in entrepreneurial activities and this
is also the case of the studied university. The studied higher education institution is a general
university, offering diverse curricula, ranging from engineering and exact sciences to human
arts. The institution is situated in a challenging territory (low density territory), implying
several responsibilities at the level of territorial cohesion and sustainable development.
Selecting this university (single site) is appropriate because: focussing on one case enhances
homogeneity of university characteristics and facilitates research techniques and procedures
application; other scholars have successfully applied single-site studies (Kanonuhwa et al.,
2018); and it is particularly suitable site because the general entrepreneurial tendency of
Portuguese universities, inspired by growing financial challenges, is especially evident in this
institution’s strategic plan for the 2017–2021 cycle, in which some values are related to
innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, and having as one of its strategic objectives the
promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship (UTAD, 2017).
3.2 Measures
A structured questionnaire was developed consisting of several questions related to the student’s
perceptions regarding the concepts of the model. A five-point Likert-type scale (1 ¼ strongly
disagree; 5 ¼ strongly agree) was used for all the variables except for spirituality. Upon review of
the literature, the following scales were chosen to measure the constructs (Table II).
Entrepreneurial intention Liñán and Chen (2009): the scale comprises six items
PA The scale used to measure PA was adopted from Liñán and Chen (2009) and contains
five items
PBC Liñán and Chen (2009): the scale has six items
Creativity Puhakka (2011): there are five items in the scale
Emotional intelligence Wong and Law (2002): WLEIS scale is composed of four dimensions and 16 items
Spirituality Hodge (2003): intrinsic spirituality scale (ISS) comprises six items Table II.
Source: Elaborated by the authors Used scales
ET In the literature, there are many definitions of spirituality. In terms of its measurement,
61,7/8 Kapuscinski and Masters (2010) reported that the experience of spirituality is not easy to
measure due to the difficulty to verbalise spirituality, which complicates matters in terms of
the operationalisation of empirical research on this theme. In this study, the intrinsic
spirituality scale was used (Hodge, 2003) with six items. It assesses the degree to which
spirituality serves as the primary reason for an individual both to the theistic and
880 non-theistic population, whether inside or outside of religious structures (Hodge, 2003).
Respondents are asked to read an incomplete statement (e.g. “Spirituality is […]”) and
response options range from 0 to 10, with 0 indicating low levels of spirituality (e.g. “It is not
part of my life”) and 10 indicating high levels of spirituality (e.g. “The main motive of my
life, directing all other aspects of my life”). Three statements were reverse-coded.
The measure of emotional intelligence used in this study was the Wong and Law
Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) and intents to measure the knowledge that
individuals have about their own emotional abilities rather than their actual abilities.
The scale consist of 4 dimensions and 16 items: self-emotional appraisal (“I have good
understanding of my own emotions”) measures the individual’s ability to understand their
emotions; others emotional appraisal (“I am a good observer of others’ emotions”) is the
ability to recognise and understand other people’s emotions; UOE (“I am a self-motivated
person”) is the tendency to motivate oneself to enhance performance; and ROE (“I am quite
capable of controlling my own emotions”) measures the ability to regulate emotions
(Wong and Law, 2002).
Creativity was measured by the Puhakka (2011) scale, with five items, and is understood
as the capacity of an individual to extend and go beyond existing realities. Similar to the
study by Zampetakis et al. (2011), a self-perceived measure was used.
The scales of PA, PBC and entrepreneurial intention were taken from the study by Liñán
and Chen (2009). The concept of PA presents five items and the scale of PBC is composed of
six items. The dependent variable, entrepreneurial intention, has been operationalised with a
scale that aggregates six items, in which respondents were asked to indicate whether they
intended to start a business, answering questions about their entrepreneurial intention.
These are general phrases that indicate different aspects of intention.
4. Results
4.1 Respondents’ profile
Table III shows the sample profile.
The sample consists of 345 individuals, mostly composed of women (62 per cent) with a
mean age of 23 years. Most respondents are studying outside their hometown (72 per cent)
and are full-time students (83 per cent). Most participants (60 per cent) did not attend, during
their degree, to any curricular unit related to entrepreneurship. In total, 37 per cent of surveyed
students attended degrees in the Humanities and Social Sciences, followed by the area of Life
Sciences and Environment (22.6 per cent). There are 71 per cent of the participants in the first
cycle of study and 29 per cent in the second cycle.
Students who have responded to questionnaire attend 27 different courses/degrees: in the
undergraduate degrees ( first cycle), for example, Multimedia Communication; Computer
Variable Categories n %
Emotional
intelligence
Gender Female 214 62.0 and spirituality
Male 131 38.0
Age Minimum 20
Maximum 44
Average 23.23
SD 4.16 881
Study out of hometown Yes 247 71.6
No 98 28.4
Status of student Full-time student 286 82.9
Working student 53 15.4
Student with a status of collectivity membership 6 1.7
a
Entrepreneurial education Yes 138 40
No 207 60
Study field Humanities and Social Sciences 128 37
Technological Sciences 69 20
Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences 53 15.4
Life sciences and Environment 78 22.6
Nursing 17 4.9
Cycle of studies 1° cycle (undergraduate) 245 71
2° cycle (postgraduate) 100 29
Background family entrepreneurs (someone Yes 191 55.4
in the immediate family, you have their own
business/company) No 154 44.6
Work experience None 95 27.5
Some 250 72.5
Own business ownership (if he/she ever was Yes 19 5.5
owner of a business/company) No 326 94.5 Table III.
Notes: n ¼ 345. aCorresponds to having attended to a curricular unit associated with entrepreneurship Socio-demographic
Source: Elaborated by the authors profile of the sample
Engineering; Economy; Management; Social service; Tourism; Sport Sciences; Genetics and
Biotechnology; and Nursing. In the postgraduate degrees (second cycle), for example, Basic
education; Communication Sciences; Health Services Management; Economics and Business
Studies; and Veterinary Medicine.
In total, 55.4 per cent of respondents have in the immediate family, someone who owns
their own business/company; the majority (73 per cent) have some work experience; and
95 per cent have never been an owner of a business/company.
Entrepreneurial intention 1
Personal attitudes towards
entrepreneurship (PA) 0.853** 1
Perceived behavioural control (PBC) 0.658** 0.571** 1
Creativity 0.330** 0.270** 0.422** 1
Table V. Spirituality 0.102 0.113* 0.112* 0.085 1
Correlation between the Emotional intelligence 0.169** 0.168** 0.262** 0.473** 0.103
constructs (Pearson’s Notes: n ¼ 345. *p o 0.05; **p o0.01
correlation coefficient) Source: Elaborated by the authors
Coefficients
Hypothesis Non-standardised (B) Standardised ( β) p
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Corresponding author
Ana Paula Rodrigues can be contacted at: anarodri@utad.pt
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