BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT

published: 05 March 2020

doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00229

The Relationship Between

Entrepreneurial Intention and Action:
The Effects of Fear of Failure and
Role Model
Fanzhu Kong 1* , Lily Zhao 1 and Cheng-Hung Tsai 2
1
Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huai’an, China, 2 Department of Business Administration, Cheng Shiu University, Kaohsiung
City, Taiwan

The purpose of the study was to examine the moderating effect of business role model
and fear of failure on the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and behavior. The
participants were sampled from 1865 college students who graduated from universities
in China from 2012 to 2018. The experimental instrument was comprised of four
scales concerning entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial behavior, fear of failure, and
business role model. The data were analyzed using hierarchical regression. The results
showed that: (1) Entrepreneurial intention was positively influenced the entrepreneurial
behavior; (2) Fear of failure weakened the relationship between entrepreneurial intention
Edited by:
and action; (3) The moderating effect of business role model on entrepreneurial
Shalini Srivastava,
Jaipuria Institute of Management, intention and behavior was confirmed. We concluded that entrepreneurial intention
India was positively related to the entrepreneurial behavior, fear of failure hindered college
Reviewed by: students from taking entrepreneurial behavior, and business role model will enhance
Wenqing Wu,
Tianjin University, China
their entrepreneurial intention. The paper suggest that some measures should be taken
Kuo-Wei Lee, to overcome college students’ fear of failure, and to improve the education system of
National Taichung University
entrepreneurship in order to cultivate talents with creativity.
of Science and Technology, Taiwan
*Correspondence: Keywords: entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial behavior, business role model, fear of failure, China
Fanzhu Kong
[email protected]
INTRODUCTION
Specialty section:
This article was submitted to The process of entrepreneurship can be divided into two stages: the formation of entrepreneurship
Organizational Psychology, intention and the implementation of entrepreneurship behavior. Every entrepreneurship starts
a section of the journal from the generation of entrepreneurship intention, which has a good predictive effect on
Frontiers in Psychology
entrepreneurship behavior. At present, many studies focus on entrepreneurship intention, they
Received: 18 December 2019 explored the factors affecting individual entrepreneurship intention from many aspects, such as
Accepted: 31 January 2020
personal characteristics, self-efficacy, risk perception, system design and so on. It is undeniable that
Published: 05 March 2020
the entrepreneurial intention is a necessary condition for the development of entrepreneurship.
Citation: Relevant research results have a positive effect on our understanding of the entrepreneurship
Kong F, Zhao L and Tsai C-H
process. But can entrepreneurship behavior be guaranteed with entrepreneurship intention?
(2020) The Relationship Between
Entrepreneurial Intention and Action:
Liu et al. (2011) believed that people with entrepreneurial intentions may not really be able
The Effects of Fear of Failure and Role to start new businesses because of personal characteristics and the surrounding environment.
Model. Front. Psychol. 11:229. That is to say, although entrepreneurship intention is a necessary condition for the occurrence
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00229 of entrepreneurship, not all potential entrepreneurs can take action even if they want to start

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Kong et al. Fear of Failure and Role Model

a business. Why do some people start businesses instead of selected job satisfaction, organizational commitment, coping
others? What promotes or hinders the action of potential style, interpersonal harmony, altruistic behavior, occupational
entrepreneurs? These are issues which deserve exploration well-being and mental health and other performance-related
and research. Relevant studies have shown that risk tendency, behavioral state variables to study the role and impact of
business role model, and entrepreneurial climate have a psychological capital on these variables. The results showed that
significant impact on individual entrepreneurship, but only focus the effect of psychological capital on behavioral attitude was
on entrepreneurial intention, not extended to entrepreneurial positive and significant, which can improve individual attitude
practice. Therefore, fear of failure and business role model are and behavior by adjusting individual cognitive process, and
chosen to explore the mechanism of individual entrepreneurial ultimately affect individual performance (Du and Zhao, 2012).
intention transforming into entrepreneurial behavior. Entrepreneurs with high psychological capital can balance
College students are an important part of mass the costs of failure better than those with low psychological
entrepreneurship. Compared with other groups such as the capital, learn from failure and further manage and control
new generation of migrant workers, college students have a enterprises effectively. According to the study, individuals with
more solid theoretical knowledge and advanced entrepreneurial high psychological capital show a positive psychological state.
concept, with active thinking and the spirit of adventure When facing difficulties, they are more inclined to seek solutions
that they do not have, and with the gradual promotion to overcome problems. They can take failure as an excellent
of entrepreneurship education in schools, college students opportunity to learn, reflect on and summarize failure, and
have a more comprehensive and profound understanding of further improve to achieve their entrepreneurial goals (Zhuang,
entrepreneurship. As a result, College Students’ entrepreneurship 2018). Therefore, psychological capital can correct entrepreneurs’
has gradually broken through the scope of the original education, fear of failure. When encountering setbacks or hard work in the
and has attracted more and more attention of scholars in other process of entrepreneurship, a successful entrepreneur can help
fields. They have studied it from the aspects of cultivation of them build a positive psychology of entrepreneurship, reduce
entrepreneurship ability, construction of social environment, the frustration of entrepreneurship, and then regain confidence
policy support, etc. However, they ignore the lack of social (Chlosta et al., 2012; Tsai and Hsieh, 2012; Lafuente and Vaillant,
experience of college students and the fact that most Chinese 2013; Yang et al., 2013; Liu and Lin, 2015; Zapkau et al., 2015;
students are less confident. Compared with other groups, it is Zampetakis et al., 2017; Bockorny and Youssef-Morgan, 2019;
more necessary to explore the role of positive psychology and role Wei et al., 2019).
model in the process of college students’ entrepreneurship. The
results of this study not only contribute to the entrepreneurship
of college students in mainland China, but also provide an Entrepreneurial Intention and
important reference for all Chinese groups in the world. Entrepreneurial Behavior
DeNoble et al. (1999) holds that entrepreneurial intention is
the entrepreneur’s intrinsic cognition, preference and behavioral
tendency to create a new business. Krueger (2000) interpret
LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH
entrepreneurial intention as a subjective attitude and expectation
HYPOTHESIS of potential entrepreneurs about whether they engage in
entrepreneurship activities or not. Thompson (2009) defines
Theoretical Foundation-Psychological entrepreneurial intention as the belief that entrepreneurs intend
Capital to start a business. In a word, entrepreneurial intention is a
Psychological capital first appeared in the economics. A person’s psychological state that guides our attention toward specific
psychological capital is likely to govern their motivation business goals in order to achieve entrepreneurial results. It is
and general attitude toward work. Goldsmith believes that also a recognition that individuals take actions to develop new
Psychological capital is the integration of individual’s work, businesses or create new values in existing enterprises.
ethics, self-life belief, attitude and cognition, and some Entrepreneurial behavior is the process in which
personality characteristics that can affect individual productivity entrepreneurs put their entrepreneurial vision into practice.
(Goldsmith et al., 1997). Subsequently, psychological capital has It is also the process in which entrepreneurs transform and
attracted the attention of active psychologists and active create more wealth and value and achieve their entrepreneurial
organizational behaviorists. Seligman believes that the goals in a certain way by using the information, resources,
psychological factors that may lead to individual positive opportunities or technologies they owned. Mcmullen and
behavior should be included in the category of capital (Eligman Shepherd (2006) argues that entrepreneurial behavior is an
and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Luthans and Youssef (2004) activity that entrepreneurs struggle to change and reach their
put forward the concept of psychological capital from the goals by using their creativity and influence. Entrepreneurship
perspective of positive organizational behavior, and pointed is a combination of consciousness and planned behavior. It
out that psychological capital is a psychological state that can is a subjective state of entrepreneurs’ attention, energy and
affect individual positive behavior. Psychological capital helps to behavior oriented to a specific goal (Bird, 1988). The decision
regulate individual cognitive process, guide individual positive to build a new business is considered as a thoughtful thinking
behavior process, and improve individual performance. Scholars activity and planned behavior of entrepreneurs (Liu et al., 2011).

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Kong et al. Fear of Failure and Role Model

Therefore, entrepreneurship ideas stimulated by inspiration must Birney et al. (1969) believes that fear of failure refers to the inner
be reached through entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurial fear of an individual when he or she perceives that he or she may
intention is the premise of entrepreneurial behavior. People with not achieve certain goal. The fear of failure is the opposite of
high entrepreneurial intention are more likely to start a new the desire to succeed and the motivation to avoid punishment
business than those with low. Based on this, this study proposes for failure. For most people, fear of failure is uncontrollable.
the following hypothesis: Individuals are often affected by fear of failure and adopt the
behavior of avoiding achieving goals, if he can’t be guaranteed
Hypothesis H1: Individual entrepreneurial intention is success (Ajzen, 1991).
positively correlated with Entrepreneurial behavior. Fear of failure is closely related to uncertainty and risk
aversion. Lipshitz and Strauss (1997) argues that uncertainty
Business Role Model and is a kind of sensory doubt that can hinder or delay the
Entrepreneurial Behavior occurrence of behavior. Therefore, uncertainties in the process
A role model is a person who can influence others to some extent of entrepreneurship can lead to hesitation and procrastination,
in social life. In social practice, individuals tend to look for similar which is so damaging to entrepreneurial behavior. In addition,
examples. Individuals cannot participate in social activities in risk aversion may also be a manifestation of fear of failure. It is
isolation, but act in groups with others. In this process, individual believed that the more risk-averse a person is, the more afraid he
behavior decisions are often influenced by other people’s opinions is of failure. In the process of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs are
and behaviors. Such “others” are often referred to as “role models” more inclined to choose entrepreneurial behavior with moderate
(Gibson and Barron, 2003). Whether “others” can become “role risk or even zero risk (Ekore and Okekeocha, 2012).
models” is related to your perception. When you think that you Both professionals and college students, the fear of failure
are somewhat similar to “others” and therefore tend to imitate may become an obstacle to their entrepreneurship. In general,
or deliberately avoid certain attributes or behaviors of “others,” employees have formed a relatively stable living condition. For
“others” become your “ role models” (Bosma et al., 2012). them, entrepreneurship means changing the original rhythm of
As the carrier of social learning, role model provides life. Once failed, it will not only be unable to maintain the original
individuals with a reference to learn experience. Through living standard, but may also be in a dilemma. This will invisibly
observational learning of role models, individuals can acquire delay or put aside the entrepreneurship ideas of the incumbents.
successful or unsuccessful experience of role models, and form The results showed that fear of failure had a negative impact
clear self-judgments about certain attributes or behaviors of on female entrepreneurs. Liu et al. (2011) argued that some
successful imitation or avoidance of role models in similar potential entrepreneurs would not start a business because they
situations. In addition, the role models can directly affect were afraid of various risks brought about by business failure.
individuals by involving them in learning activities. Entrepreneurship not only needs to raise funds, human resource
For entrepreneurship, the role of business models is to and equipment during the preparatory period, but also faces
provide individual spiritual incentives and behavioral guidance, many challenges and crises at any time. Considering their abilities
which has an important impact on individual entrepreneurship and possible risk of failure, the number of people who really
activities (Bosma et al., 2012). Krueger’s research shows that start a business may be greatly reduced. Accordingly, this study
business role models play an important role in the career proposes the following hypotheses:
decision-making process in which individuals choose to become
entrepreneurs. As far as potential entrepreneurs are concerned, Hypotheses H3: Fear of failure is negatively correlated with
business role models can provide indirect experience such as Entrepreneurship behavior, and negatively regulates the
business information, improve the probability of discovering relationship between individual entrepreneurial intention
and utilizing business opportunities, and then enhance the and entrepreneurial behavior.
possibility of triggering entrepreneurship events. That is to say,
if your relatives or friends are entrepreneur, you may also Business Role Model and Fear of Failure
start a business. Li et al. (2017) takes farmers as the research The role of the role models has been extensively studied
objects, empirically studied the relationship between business in different fields such as sociology and psychology. Child
role model and entrepreneurial behavior. The results showed that development psychology has proved that role models can
the farmers with business role model are more likely to trigger help children overcome fear; even adults, positive role
entrepreneurship events than those others. Based on the above models can alleviate their social fears, which results from
discussion, this paper puts forward the following hypotheses: imitative learning of role models. As far as entrepreneurship is
concerned, business role models set a benchmark for individuals.
Hypothesis H2: business role model is positively correlated Through social comparison, observation Learning and imitation
with entrepreneurial behavior. learning, potential entrepreneurs deepen their understanding
of entrepreneurship projects similar to those experienced by
Fear of Failure and Entrepreneurial business role models. They have a more intuitive and accurate
Behavior understanding of the resources needed for entrepreneurship and
Fear of failure develops gradually from the study of achievement the problems that may arise in the process of entrepreneurship,
motivation. Avoiding failure is an instinctive behavior of people. which can eliminate the anxiety and fear of entrepreneurship.

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Kong et al. Fear of Failure and Role Model

As for the relationship between role models and overcoming they do not have entrepreneurial intention, and “yes” to “1,”
fear, it seems that we can also draw inspiration from the children’s “no” to “0.”
story of “Pony across the river.” After receiving his mother’s
instructions, the pony happily went to the village with his Entrepreneurial Behavior
hunched grain. On the way to the river, he dared not cross the The measurement of entrepreneurial behavior has always been
river because he did not know the depth of the river. Even if he a difficult problem in the academic community, which is very
had acquired the external experience knowledge such as cow and challenging, but also an important issue to be solved in the
squirrel, he could not rule out the fear of crossing the river. So, process of entrepreneurial research. The initial entrepreneur
he went home to ask for his “role model” mother’s advice. With plays a key role in the process of enterprise creation is. Although
his mother’s encouragement, the pony fight down the fear and there are few definitions, the initial entrepreneur is always
successfully crossed the river. In this story, the pony gradually regarded as a person if he starts a series of behaviors at first,
overcomes the fear of the river and finally reaches the other and if the intention is to create the enterprise at last, that is
side of the river based on his trust in the “role model.” Relevant the entrepreneurial behavior (Aldrich and Martinez, 2001). Four
studies in the field of entrepreneurship also believe that business related items were designed. Each item was answered in the form
role models can not only provide entrepreneurship information, of “yes or no” (yes was given a value of “1” and “no” was given
but also provide spiritual and material support. These supports a value of “0”). After that, the selection scores of the four items
reduce many “worries” for potential entrepreneurs, strengthens were added up, with the highest score of 4 and the lowest score
their confidence in overcoming difficulties in the process of of 0. The entrepreneurial behavior was measured by this score.
entrepreneurship, and improves the positive evaluation of the The higher the score, the higher entrepreneurial behavior. This
possibility of success of entrepreneurship. Although the above study also uses this way to measure entrepreneurial behavior, just
views have not been proved by empirically studied, but at least the words of the title have been revised, so as to make it more in
to show that there is a link between business role models and fear line with Chinese vocabulary habits. The revised topics include
of failure. Based on the above discussion, this study put forward “Are you currently trying to start a business,” “From graduation
the following hypotheses. to now, have you participated in or invested in other people’s
business” and so on.
Hypotheses H4: Business role models are negatively
correlated with fear of failure. Business role models could Fear of Failure
help potential entrepreneurs overcome fear of failure. Fear of failure is used to measure whether an individual will give
up the idea of starting a business because he was afraid to fail.
These four hypotheses constitute the framework of this study,
The answer “No” means that they will not be held back by fear of
as shown in Figure 1.
failure, and the “yes” to the value of 1, “no” to the value of 0.

Business Role Models

RESEARCH METHODS AND DATA Business role models are used to measure whether individual
COLLECTION entrepreneurship decisions are influenced by role models. This
paper also uses this form to set up “Are there successful
Operational Definition of Variables entrepreneurs among your family, teachers, relatives and
Therefore, in this study, the “yes” and “no” of each variable are friends?” The answer “Yes” means that they are influenced by
assigned to “1” and “0,” respectively, for correlation analysis and business role models, “No” means that they are not affected by
regression analysis. role models, and the “yes” value is given to 1, and the “no”
value is given to 0.
Entrepreneurial Intention
This paper drew lessons from this item, and changed the topic Control Variables
for the respondents. The revised topic is: Do you expect to start Previous studies have shown that the entrepreneurial intention of
a business one day when you graduate from university? Answer males is significantly higher than that of females, and individuals
“yes” on behalf of their entrepreneurial intention, on the contrary, with different professional backgrounds and family economic
conditions have different entrepreneurial intention. Therefore,
in order to avoid these factors affecting the role model effect of
this study, gender, major and household income were taken as
H1
Entrepreneurial intention Entrepreneurial behavior control variables.

H2 H3 Data Collection
The main purpose of this paper is to explore whether business
Role model Fear of failure
H4 role models and fear of failure have an impact on individual
entrepreneurial behavior. According to two-stage model of
FIGURE 1 | Research framework. entrepreneurship (Mcmullen and Shepherd, 2006), the problem
studied in this paper belongs to the transition stage of

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Kong et al. Fear of Failure and Role Model

TABLE 1 | Variable description. TABLE 2 | Sample correlation.

Sample Proportion Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Variable number (%)
1 Sex 1
Sex 2 Specialty 0.03∗ 1 1 1
male 426 61.03 3 Income 0.01 0.01 0.03
female 272 38.97 4 Intention 0.042 0.10∗
Specialty 5 Behavior 0.04∗ 0.09∗ 0.10∗∗ 0.33∗∗∗ 1
Economic management 201 28.80 6 Fear 0.02 0.04 −0.12∗∗ −0.03 −0.26∗∗∗ 1
Humanities and social sciences 146 20.92 7 Role model 0.01 0.02 0.006 0.46∗∗∗ 0.13∗ −0.15∗∗ 1
Science and engineering 312 44.70
The diagonal number is the square root of average variation extraction,
Agriculture cure 39 5.58 ∗∗∗ p < 0.001, ∗∗ p < 0.01, ∗ p < 0.05.

Household income (CNY/Year)

<50 thousand 12 1.73
50–100 (50 ≤ , <100, the same below) thousand 74 10.60 countries, it can be considered that it has a good content validity.
100–200 thousand 221 31.66 The detection of structural validity is usually based on factor
200–300 thousand 212 30.37 analysis. Since most of the variables involved in this paper are
300–1000 thousand 145 20.77 single-dimensional variables, factor extraction is not necessary.
≥1000 thousand 34 4.87 Therefore, this paper only analyzes the validity of the variable of
entrepreneurial behavior. Before factor analysis, the KMO value
and Bartlett spherical test were used to test whether the samples
entrepreneurship, so we choose graduates as respondents, which were suitable for factor analysis. The results showed that the
can not only avoid the errors caused by the retrospective KMO value was 0.796, the chi-square value was 892.327, and
approach, but also meet the needs of research purposes. We the significance probability was significant at the level of 0.05,
selected more than 1800 students who graduated from 35 which indicated that the data were correlative and suitable for
universities in China from 2012 to 2018 and sent questionnaires factor analysis. The test results showed that a common factor is
by e-mail and QQ group. A total of 1865 questionnaires were sent extracted, and the cumulative variance of the factor reaches more
out, 769 were actually recovered. After eliminating the invalid than 60%, which is more than 50% of the basic standard. It can
questionnaires, 698 valid questionnaires were finally obtained. be considered that the scale of entrepreneurial behavior has good
The descriptive statistical results of the samples are shown in structural validity.
Table 1. According to Standards for Classification of Family
Income in China in 2015, the paper divided household income
into six categories. Relevance Analysis
Table 1 shows that 61.03% of the students are male, Using SPSS20.0, Pearson correlation coefficient was used
44.70% in science and engineering, 28.80% in economy and to analyze the correlation between various variables. The
management, and only 5.58% in agriculture and cure. The results are shown in Table 2. There was a significant
distribution of household income is almost in line with positive correlation between entrepreneurial intention and
China’s household income statistics, with 82.9 percent of entrepreneurial behavior, and there was no significant correlation
the total number of households in the well-off and middle- between fear of failure and entrepreneurial intention, but
income categories. there was a significant negative correlation between fear of
failure and entrepreneurial behavior and business role model.
There was a significant positive correlation between business
ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH RESULTS role model and entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial
behavior, but the value of correlation between business role
Reliability and Validity Test model and entrepreneurial intention was significantly greater
Reliability analysis, also known as reliability testing, is used to than that between business role model and entrepreneurial
test the reliability of collected data. At present, most scholars use behavior. After analyzing the correlation between fear of
Cronbach’s α as an indicator to test the reliability, and its value failure and other variables, we analyzed the correlation
is greater than 0.7 to be considered as having a good reliability. between fear of material loss, fear of mental loss and
This paper also uses this method to analyze the reliability of entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial behavior, and business
entrepreneurial behavior. The results show that the Cronbach’s role model. The results showed that fear of material loss
α of the variable is 0.872, and the factor load of each item is above has a significant negative correlation with entrepreneurial
0.6, which indicates that the scale of entrepreneurial behavior has intention, entrepreneurial behavior and business role model. The
good reliability. relationship between the fear of mental loss and entrepreneurial
Validity usually includes content validity and structure intention is not significant, but it is significantly negatively related
validity. Because the measurement of variables in this paper is to entrepreneurial behavior and business role model. In the
based on more mature scales used in European and American correlation statistics, men we give the value 1, women give the

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Kong et al. Fear of Failure and Role Model

TABLE 3 | Regression role model. role model and fear of failure as the moderating variables.
Considering the effects of control variables, the hierarchical
Entrepreneurial behavior
regression analysis to test the moderating effect generally consists
Role Role Role Role of four steps: The first step is the control variable model, the
Variable model 1 model 2 model 3 model 4 second step is the model with the independent variable, the third
step is the model with the moderating variable, and the fourth
Control variable
step is the model with the interaction term of the independent
Sex 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02
variable and the moderating variable.
Specialty 0.08 0.08 0.07 0.07
Firstly, the paper tested the control variables model (Table 3,
Household income 0.15∗ 0.12∗ 0.10∗ 0.07
Role model 1). The results showed that the model fits well,
Independent variable
and the regression weights of gender and specialty are not
entrepreneurial intention 0.31∗∗∗ 0.24∗∗ 0.12∗
significant. However, household income has a significant effect
Moderating variable
on entrepreneurial behavior, indicating that the level of family
Fear of failure −0.29∗∗ −0.17∗
income may affect whether college students with entrepreneurial
Business role model 0.01 0.02∗
intention engage in entrepreneurship action. Secondly, the paper
Product-item
tested the moderating variable model (Table 3, Role model 3).
entrepreneurial intention −0.35∗∗∗
and fear of failure
The results showed that the model fits well and that fear of
entrepreneurial intention 0.18∗∗
failure has a significant effect on entrepreneurial behavior, but
and business role model the effect of business role model is not significant, indicating
R2 0.03 0.09 0.11 0.10 that business role model may not have a direct impact on
Adj R2 0.02 0.06 0.12 0.13 entrepreneurial behavior. Thirdly, we put the product-item
ÄR2 0.02 0.08 0.17 0.13 of independent variables and moderating variables into the
F-Value 22.18∗∗∗ 41.52∗∗∗ 66.67∗∗∗ 58.26∗∗∗ model (Table 3, model 4). In order to avoid co-linear between
independent variables and interactive terms, the product terms
∗p < 0.05; ∗∗ p < 0.01; ∗∗∗ p < 0.001.
of independent variables and moderating variables are averaged.
From Table 3, role model 4, we can see that the product-
value 0, and household income is given the value 1–6 in a item of entrepreneurial intention and business role model has
low to high order. significant positive effect on entrepreneurial behavior. According
to the above, Hypotheses H2 is supported. At the same time,
Hypothesis Test it could be concluded that product-item of entrepreneurial
Relationship Between Entrepreneurial Intention and intention and fear of failure has significant negative effect on
Entrepreneurial Behavior entrepreneurial behavior from Role model 4, Hypotheses H3
The correlation of Table 2 shows that the correlation coefficient was supported.
between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior
is 0.326, reaching a significant level of 0.001, indicating that The Relationship Between Business Role Model and
entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior are Fear of Failure
significantly positively correlated. Relevance only indicates According to the sample correlation in Table 2, the correlation
that there is a certain correlation between them, but it cannot coefficient between business role model and fear of failure is
explain the action. In order to study whether entrepreneurial −0.15, which reaches a significant level of 0.01, indicating that
intention can predict entrepreneurial behavior, this study business role model is negatively correlated with fear of failure.
uses entrepreneurial behavior as dependent variable and Then, this study regarded business role models as independent
entrepreneurial intention as independent variable to make variables and fear of failure as dependent variables for regression
regression analysis. The results are shown in Table 3, analysis. The results showed that the relationship between
model 2. The study found that the relationship between business role models and fear of failure is very significant, and
entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior is the standardization regression weight is −0.25. It shows that
very significant, with a standardized coefficient of 0.321, business role models have a significant negative effect on fear
indicating that entrepreneurial intention has a significant of failure. That is to say, the business role models would help
positive relationship with entrepreneurial behavior, Hypotheses potential entrepreneurs overcome fear of failure. Hypotheses H4
H1 has been verified. has been verified.

Moderating Effect of Business Role Model and Fear

of Failure CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
This study used hierarchical regression analysis to test the
moderating effect of business role model and fear of failure, and Theoretical Contribution
regarded gender, specialty and household income as the control The purpose of this study is to explore the transformation
variables, entrepreneurial intention as the independent variable, mechanism of individual entrepreneurial intention to
entrepreneurial behavior as the dependent variable, business entrepreneurial behavior, and explain the role of business

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Kong et al. Fear of Failure and Role Model

Role model and fear of failure in the process. Most studies have Fear of failure negatively regulates the relationship between
supported the view that entrepreneurial intention is the best entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior. To
predictor of entrepreneurial behavior. However, they almost answer the question, “Why do some people, not others, take
stay at the stage of theoretical discussion, or directly regard entrepreneurial actions?” This study also introduced the fear of
this view as the presupposition basis of research, while there failure as a variable. The sample correlation showed that the
are few empirical studies. This study takes Chinese university correlation between fear of failure and entrepreneurial intention
graduates as a special group to study the relationship between is not significant, but it is significant with entrepreneurial
entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior. In order behavior, and the regression weight also reaches a significant
to ensure the reliability of the survey results, the questionnaires level. This indicated that fear of failure has a negative effect on
were sent and taken back by the teacher in charge of the class entrepreneurial behavior. That is to say, the more you worry
through e-mail, class group, etc. Questionnaires are distributed about failure, the less you dare to start a business. Therefore,
to many universities in different regions, which ensures the helping potential entrepreneurs overcome the fear of failure can
diversity of sample sources. The results showed that individual increase the probability of their entrepreneurial behavior. In
entrepreneurial intention has a positive impact on their terms of the dimension of fear of failure, the fear of material loss
entrepreneurial behavior. That is to say, when individuals have a is stronger than the fear of mental loss. This may indicate that the
higher entrepreneurial intention, the more likely they are to carry would-be entrepreneurs think first of all about making money,
out entrepreneurial behavior. This empirical research conclusion then reputation and self-realization.
not only supports the existing theoretical presupposition, but Child development psychology has proved that role models
also indirectly shows that although culture influences individual can effectively overcome children’s fear. Can this research result
behavior, the phenomenon that intention is the premise of extend to the field of adult entrepreneurship? In order to answer
individual behavior is common to different cultures (even if it this question, this study proposed and tested the hypothesis
cannot exclude the occasional behavior). that business role models are negatively correlated with fear of
The business role model positively regulates the relationship failure. From the results, there is a significant negative correlation
between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial between business role models and fear of failure, and the
behavior. Most of the existing studies focus on the impact regression weight has reached a significant level, indicating that
of entrepreneurial role models on entrepreneurial intention, successful business role models could help individuals overcome
less on entrepreneurial behavior, while this study tried to fear of failure, and then stimulate their entrepreneurial behavior.
find out the relationship between business role model and Positive psychology advocates that human beings should face
entrepreneurial behavior. From the results of sample correlation, many psychological phenomena with a positive mentality, and
business role models are significantly positively correlated with use it to stimulate some actual or potential positive qualities
entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior, but and positive forces inherent in each person, so that everyone
the correlation coefficient with entrepreneurial intention is can move toward their own happiness. Business role models
significantly greater than that with entrepreneurial behavior, may help stimulate the positive forces of individuals, thereby
which may indirectly indicate that the impact of business role eliminate negative perceptions such as fear, and ultimately adopt
models on individual entrepreneurship is mainly focused on entrepreneurial behavior.
willingness motivation. Regression analysis also showed that According to the theory of social action, structure
the regression weight of business role model on individual determines action, and the elements of structure are
entrepreneurial behavior is not significant. Based only on the various. Different structural elements have different effects,
result, business role model may not have a direct effect on and there may be cross-interaction among them. As far as
entrepreneurial behavior. From the interaction effect between entrepreneurial behavior is concerned, its structural factors
business role model and entrepreneurial intention, the regression are far beyond the business role model and fear of failure, at
weight of entrepreneurial intention on entrepreneurial behavior least including the identification of business opportunities,
decreases after adding the moderating variable of business access to entrepreneurial resources and other factors. This
role model, while the regression weight of business role model paper only examines the impact of business role models
on entrepreneurial behavior changes from insignificant to and fear of failure on entrepreneurial behavior. It didn’t
significant, and the interaction effect is significant, which consider the role of other factors, nor consider the possible
showed that business role model plays a positive moderating cross-interaction between business role models and fear of
role between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial failure and other factors. This range of issues need to be
behavior. According to the research on the relationship between studied in the future.
business role models and entrepreneurial intention, it seems
that entrepreneurial intention plays a part of intermediary role Practical Enlightenment
between business role models and entrepreneurial behavior. Set up role model and stimulate the entrepreneurial willingness
That is to say, business role models not only positively of College Students. The role model has a subtle influence on
affect entrepreneurial intention, but also indirectly affect the entrepreneurial willingness of college students, so colleges
entrepreneurial behavior through the intermediary role of and universities and the government should pay attention to
entrepreneurial intention, which needs to be explored in the role of entrepreneurial models. Role models have a very
future research. good incentive effect. When college students see that someone

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Kong et al. Fear of Failure and Role Model

around them is successful in starting a business, their self- psychological mutual assistance of friends and elders, willpower
confidence will be significantly enhanced, and their passion for training, environmental tolerance and psychological adaptability
starting a business will be significantly improved. Therefore, guidance, so that college students will be more rational and
colleges and universities should strengthen the publicity of confident on the road of entrepreneurship in the future,
entrepreneurial models, invite successful entrepreneurs to the and less detours.
school to share their experience in starting a business, and let
students get a chance through observing, learning and imitating
the entrepreneurial process of role models Connect with DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
entrepreneurial experience, and then enhance entrepreneurial
self-efficacy and entrepreneurial willingness. Secondly, the The datasets generated for this study are available on request to
government should make full use of newspapers, TV, Internet the corresponding author.
and other ways to publicize the entrepreneurial model, improve
the public’s recognition of entrepreneurship, create a strong
entrepreneurial atmosphere that encourages entrepreneurship, ETHICS STATEMENT
supports entrepreneurship and tolerates failure, and stimulate the
entrepreneurial willingness of college students. Ethical review and approval was not required for the study
Create a good entrepreneurial environment, reduce the on human participants in accordance with the local legislation
fear of failure of college students’ entrepreneurs. Some college and institutional requirements. Written informed consent for
students who are willing to start their own business, but because participation was not required for this study in accordance with
of lack of entrepreneurial experience and resources, they are the national legislation and the institutional requirements.
afraid of failure and delay or avoid taking entrepreneurial
behavior. Therefore, the government and colleges and
universities should strive to create a good entrepreneurial AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
environment, provide more preferential entrepreneurial policies
for college students, give entrepreneurial fund support, FK wrote the original manuscript. LZ collected and analyzed
establish a complete entrepreneurial insurance system, and the data. C-HT reviewed the manuscript and validated the all
other policies to eliminate college students’ worries about research procedures.
entrepreneurship as much as possible. So as to reduce the
entrepreneurial failure of college students. They can objectively
understand entrepreneurial activities, accurately identify and FUNDING
grasp entrepreneurial opportunities, and then improve the
proportion of entrepreneurship. This study was sponsored by the Key Project of Philosophy
Strengthen the psychological quality education of college and Social Science Research in Colleges and Universities in
students. The process of entrepreneurship is long, complex Jiangsu Province (2018SJZDI115), the Outstanding Innovation
and hard. In the process of entrepreneurship, there will be Team of Philosophy and Social Science Research in Colleges
many unexpected difficulties. This requires that potential college and Universities in Jiangsu Province: Research on Development
students’ entrepreneurs not only have certain entrepreneurial and Social Governance in Northern Jiangsu (2017ZSTD018), the
knowledge and skills, but also have good entrepreneurial Project of Philosophy and Social Science Research in Colleges
psychological quality, so as to cope with the complex and and Universities in Jiangsu Province (2019SJB673), the Key
changeable situation in the process of entrepreneurship. Construction Base of Philosophy and Social Science Research in
Therefore, colleges and universities should strengthen the Colleges and Universities in Jiangsu Province: Research Center
psychological quality education of students, through the for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (2018ZDJD-B103), and
entrepreneurial psychological workshop, group entrepreneurial Research project of higher education in Huaiyin Institute of
psychological guidance, personalized psychological guidance, Technology (2018XGJ03).

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