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A great deal of research has addressed the question, “what makes an entrepreneur?” These studies used different approaches to portray entrepreneurs through various perspectives. Notably, the psychological and cognitive perspective that models an entrepreneurial decision as the result of a cognitive process (Shaver and Scott, 1991) or a planned behavior (Jaén and Liñán, 2013) has emerged as the dominant framework in explaining entrepreneurial behavior. Entrepreneurship researchers and psychologists have extensively applied Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain entrepreneurial intentions and behavior (Baum et al., 2007). This theory holds that entrepreneurial intentions and subsequent behaviors are strengthened by a positive attitude toward entrepreneurship, a high degree of perceived self-efficacy, and a strong feeling for perceived subjective norms derived from important others. The TPB model has received widespread support from empirical studies explaining entrepreneurial intentions (Kolvereid and Isaksen, 2006; Obschonka et al., 2010).
According to the TPB, attitude is formed of an individual’s beliefs regarding the likely outcomes and the evaluations of these outcomes (Ajzen, 2002); however, what really affects the criteria and beliefs upon which the potential entrepreneurs form their entrepreneurial attitude remains under-researched (Fayolle et al., 2014) because related studies tend to treat personal attitudes toward entrepreneurship as exogenously given. Without knowing these criteria and beliefs, a comprehensive understanding of the formation of entrepreneurial intentions cannot be achieved from the attitudinal or cognitive perspective of entrepreneurship. The lack of interest in understanding the antecedents of personal attitude has retarded the progress toward a complete comprehension of the cognitive process from the implicitly deep-rooted psychological factors to the explicitly expressed intentions. Therefore, entrepreneurship researchers have called for a shift of focus to a deeper understanding of the antecedents of entrepreneurial attitudes (Fayolle et al., 2014). More recently, researchers have suggested that an understanding of the beliefs underlying the attitude, in particular the role of personal values, may be of the highest research interest (Fayolle et al., 2014).
Value, defined as abstract goals that people consider important guiding principles in their lives (Schwartz, 1992), is considered one of the most psychological functions of attitudes (Herek, 1986; Maio and Olson, 1994; Murray et al., 1996). Influences of values have been found on many attitudinal and behavioral outcomes such as...