The single, complementary, balanced, and imbalanced influences of entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions on entrepreneurial behaviors: Polynomial regression with response surface analysis

This research aims to examine how attitudes toward entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intention individually and jointly affect start-up behaviors, drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior. Based upon a survey dataset of 1890 master's students in Vietnam, we methodologically adopted a polynomial regression with response surface analysis to shed light on how a higher degree of entrepreneurial behavior is synthesized from a balance between high attitudes toward entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intention. Conversely, a large imbalance between attitudes toward entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intention will lead to a lower level of start-up behaviors. Additionally, this study illustrates the gendered perspectives related to the complex interactions between attitudes toward entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial intention, and start-up behaviors when a high discrepancy between entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions results in a sharp decrease in start-up behaviors in women but does not occur in men. In addition to theoretical contributions, some practical and managerial suggestions are provided for enforcing entrepreneurial activities.