University Students’ Successive Development From Entrepreneurial Intention to Behavior: The Mediating Role of Commitment and Moderating Role of Family Support

University students having high entrepreneurial intention while not transferring into actual entrepreneurial behavior is a contradictory issue in need of in-depth research. To explore the successive development mechanism of the entrepreneurial process, this study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine whether entrepreneurial commitment from three dimensions (affective, behavioral, and continuance) mediated the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and behavior, and whether this mediating process was moderated by family support. A survey was conducted among university students from six major universities in south China using the snowball sampling approach. A total of 469 valid responses were obtained (44.6% male and 55.4% female participants). Structural equation modeling was adopted for data analysis. According to the results of the confirmatory factor analysis, it was found that entrepreneurial intention had both direct and indirect positive effects on entrepreneurial behavior, while entrepreneurial commitment worked as the mediator, and family support moderated the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and behavior. Results indicated that entrepreneurial commitment bridged the path from entrepreneurial intention to behavior, and family support created the boundary effect. This finding highlights the importance of guiding students through entrepreneurial commitment toward entrepreneurial behavior, and pays special attention to the crucial role of family support under the national strategy.