The Effect of Psychological Capital and Role Conflict on the Academic Entrepreneurial Intents of Chinese Teachers in Higher Education: A Study Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior

Because academic entrepreneurship is an innovation driving force in China’s economy, teachers are key knowledge creators in the process of entrepreneurship. Therefore, it is particularly important to give attention to the individual psychological mechanism factors at play in the process of teachers in higher education academic entrepreneurship. The purpose of this study is to identify individual psychological capital and role conflict issues among university teachers in China. To accomplish this aim, we investigated the emergence of positive academic entrepreneurial intents, continued through the process of academic entrepreneurship, and clarified the impact of psychological capital and role conflict on entrepreneurial intent. Based on the theory of planned behavior, we constructed a research model from the perspective of entrepreneurial intent prior to entrepreneurial action. We established a cohort of teachers in 17 higher education institutions (N = 525) in southern China, with psychological capital and role conflict as the prior independent variables and the teachers’ academic entrepreneurial intent as the dependent variable. Using quantitative analysis, SPSS 22.0, and AMOS 23.0, we conducted reliability and validity tests, correlation analysis, and structural equation models on the collected data. We reached the following conclusions: (1) psychological capital has a positive effect on attitudes toward academic entrepreneurship; (2) psychological capital has a positive effect on perceived behavioral control; (3) role conflict has a negative effect on perceived behavioral control; (4) academic entrepreneurial attitudes have a positive effect on academic entrepreneurial intent; (5) perceived behavioral control has a positive effect on academic entrepreneurial intent; (6) subjective norms have a positive effect on academic entrepreneurial intent. We also provide some suggestions about academic entrepreneurship for university administrators.