Modeling multi-level predictors of academic e-entrepreneurship: empirical evidence across ASEAN countries

Abstract

The university is widely recognized as an educational hub to nurture student entrepreneurship. However, there has been criticism that the academics are not entrepreneurs themselves. Instead, they merely deliver the knowledge without the practicality of running a business. To shed light on the phenomenon, this study attempts to examine the multi-level factors contributing to academic internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Besides, the existing empirical evidence on academic entrepreneurship neglect on multiple levels of predictors and analysis across countries. To fill the gap, this research tests explicitly on three-level predictors: individual (human capital, social capital, and internet competence), organizational (university support), and country level (internet infrastructure). Drawing on social cognitive theory and institutional theory, the study constructs four hypotheses to be tested. It used a quantitative survey data collection among 210 academics across seven ASEAN countries using multiphase sampling. The direct, mediating, and moderating effects are tested through hierarchical regression models using SPSS PROCESS. The results show both human and social capital significantly increase academic internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Next, the effect is significantly channeled through internet competence. But the university entrepreneurship support as a moderating variable weakens the relationship between individual predictors and academic internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Lastly, country internet infrastructure does not moderate the relationship between individual predictors and academic internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy. In general, the study contributes to the literature and practice by constructing and testing the multilevel predictors of academic entrepreneurship across countries in ASEAN.