Why do female students (not) become entrepreneurs? A double serial mediation model analysis

Entrepreneurship is one of the most powerful economic forces in modern societies but women are less likely than men to engage in start-up activities and the causes of this gap are still not entirely clear. Building on the Theory of Planned Behavior, we propose that being female affects entrepreneurial behavior and we claim that this relationship is double serial mediated by motivational factors (such as attitude, subjective norms, locus of control, and self-efficacy) and entrepreneurial intentions. By using a longitudinal sample of university students over a two-year period (GUESSS project 2016-2018), results show that being a female is significantly and negatively related to entrepreneurial behavior, that there is a significant and negative relationship between being female and both attitude and intention, and that the relationship between being female and entrepreneurial behavior is double serially mediated right by attitude and intention.