The mediating role of achievement motivation in the relationship between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention among college students

The mediating role of achievement motivation in the relationship between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention among college students | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article The mediating role of achievement motivation in the relationship between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention among college students Jinyong Zhang, Huaiqing Deng This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4247673/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract With the increasing number of college graduates and the popularization of college students, the employment of college students has become the focus of academic circles. This study explores the mediating role of achievement motivation between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention of Chinese college students. In this study, 1021 college students from 5 universities in a certain city in China were measured by the proactive personality inventory, achievement motivation Inventory and entrepreneurial intention inventory. The results show that:( 1 ) Entrepreneurial intention is positively correlated with proactive personality and success motivation respectively; ( 2 ) Proactive personality can positively and significantly predict entrepreneurial intention; ( 3 ) Success-seeking motivation plays an intermediary role in proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention; It shows that proactive personality can directly affect the entrepreneurial intention of college students, and can also indirectly affect the entrepreneurial intention of college students through the pursuit of success motivation. Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour Biological sciences/Psychology Proactive personality Achievement motivation Entrepreneurial intention Motivation of achieving success Motivation of avoiding failure Figures Figure 1 Introduction In recent years, as the enrollment scale of China's colleges and universities continues to expand, the employment situation of college students has become more and more serious. Of course, there are many reasons for this, including the backward employment concept of college students, the problem of mismatch between education and ability, the problem of employers paying too much attention to the work experience of college students, and the problem of the mismatch between the structure of university talent training and the market demand. The employment of college students is a major issue related to people's livelihood and social stability. University students who invest in entrepreneurship courses, promote entrepreneurship competitions and provide incubation opportunities have more significant entrepreneurial intentions 1 .Therefore, entrepreneurial intention has entered the life of college students, but also gradually become the focus of attention of scholars. Previous studies have shown that there are many factors affecting entrepreneurial intention.But it can be divided into environmental factors and individual factors. Individual factors play a decisive role.Proactive personality is a positive personality trait，achievement motivation is intrinsic motivation. Entrepreneurial intention is the decisive condition of social entrepreneurs 2 .Therefore, this study aims to explore the internal mechanism of proactive personality, achievement motivation and entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurial intention Entrepreneurial intention reflects the relatively specific willingness and preference of a person's employment life planning. Bird 3 defined it as:“a state of mind that guides entrepreneurs to pursue a goal while devoting a lot of attention, energy and action ”. Fan 4 further pointed out that entrepreneurial intention is a subjective attitude of potential entrepreneurs to engage in entrepreneurial activities. It is a general description of the degree of people's entrepreneurial characteristics, people's attitude towards entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ability. It is the best predictor of entrepreneurial behavior. Yan et al 5 found that college students have a medium level of entrepreneurial intention, which is influenced by gender, grade, major, educational background and parental occupation. Even the increase of family capital, entrepreneurial role models in the surrounding environment and my internship experience will promote the enhancement of college students' entrepreneurial awareness 6 . In addition to demographic variables, personality traits 7 personal cognition 8,9 , individual creativity 10 and social support 11 also have certain predictive power on entrepreneurial intention. Qian 12 divides the influencing factors into two levels:individual trait level and individual resource level.The former includes achievement motivation, risk-taking and autonomy, while the latter includes entrepreneurial feedback, resource acquisition and future employment. The proactive personality of college students has a significant predictive effect on the intention of social entrepreneurship 13 , and the proactive personality also has a significant impact on entrepreneurial intentions 14,15 . Proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention At present, although some scholars have investigated the mechanism between college students' proactive personality and entrepreneurial intentions, for example benign competitive attitude 14 , perceived entrepreneurial value 15 ,review entrepreneurial self-efficacy 16 and entrepreneurial knowledge 17 are in the mediating role respectively. The study of African college students found that family support plays a moderating role between positive personality and entrepreneurial intention 18 . Research on the influencing factors of entrepreneurial intention of Nigerian adolescents points out that self-efficacy has a moderating effect 19 . Hou 20 found that the influence of proactive personality on career adaptability can be achieved partly through career decision-making self-efficacy. Some scholars have proposed that achievement motivation is an important influencing factor in college students' entrepreneurship 21 . This shows that proactive personality directly affects entrepreneurial intentions to a certain extent, and proactive personality can also be indirectly affected by career decision-making self-efficacy. Some scholars have found that positive proactive personality has a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial intention through multiple regression analysis of college students in Bangladesh 22 . Achievement motivation and entrepreneurial intention Achievement motivation refers to the intrinsic motivation and psychological tendency of individuals to strive for excellence in order to achieve higher goals. It is a social motivation of human beings 23 . Studies have confirmed that there is a significant positive correlation between achievement goals and career decision-making self-efficacy of vocational students 24 .Atkinson divides it into two motivation tendencies: pursuing success and avoiding failure. Gelderen's research on student entrepreneurship in Turkey found that students with high entrepreneurial tendencies performed more significantly in achievement needs, internal control traits, risk-taking tendencies, and innovation 25 . Further studies have confirmed that there is a significant positive correlation between forward-looking personality and motivation to pursue success, and there is no significant correlation with motivation to avoid failure. Some people have studied the difference between gender in achievement motivation and entrepreneurial intention, and found that the direct influence of achievement motivation on entrepreneurial intention is not significant for women, but it was significant for men 26 . Even the impact of achievement motivation on entrepreneurial intentions is moderated by culture, it has a positive impactin the United States , but it has no impact in Ireland 27 . Research hypotheses Scholars mainly explored the internal mechanisms of proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention from the perspectives of entrepreneurial knowledge 17 , perceived entrepreneurial value 15 , positive competitive attitudes 14 , career exploration 28 , and career adaptability 29 . However, the exploration of Chinese people's dedication under the background of Confucian culture is still relatively lacking. Therefore, this study will start from achievement motivation and explore the internal mechanisms among the proactive personality, achievement motivation, and entrepreneurial intention of college students, providing theoretical basis and empirical support for promoting college student entrepreneurial behavior and school career planning education. Based on previous research, this study proposes the following hypotheses: Hypothesis1 : Proactive personality can significantly predict entrepreneurial intention positively; Hypothesis2 : The pursuit of success motivation plays a mediating role between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention. Methods Participants The convenience group sampling method was used to administer the survey to college students in five colleges and universities in Guiyang. The total of 1,100 questionnaires were distributed, excluding some questionnaires with missing information and regular responses, and 1,021 valid questionnaires were returned, with a valid sample rate of 92.8%. Among the 1021 participants, there were 483 females (47.3%) and 538 males (52.7%). Participants by grade level included 264 freshmen(25.9%), 251 sophomores(24.6%), 232 juniors(22.7%), and 274 seniors(26.8%). Measurement tools Proactive personality scale In this study, we used the Active Personality Scale developed by Shang Jiayin and Gan Yiqun 30 , which was revised based on the Bateman and Crant 31 . The scale consists of 11 items, it is an unidimensional scale. Each item is rated on a 7-point scale, with higher scores indicating a greater tendency towards individual's initiative. The revised scale has good reliability and validity. The Cronbach’s α coefficient for this scale in this study was 0.90. In order to meet the conditions of constructing the structural equation model, the 11 items were randomly divided into 3, 4, and 4 item combinations to form 3 proactivity factors, which were then tested in this study 31 . Achievement motivation scale The achievement motivation scale revised by Ye Renmin 32 is adopted. The scale includes two parts: motivation to pursue success and motivation to avoid failure. Each part has 15 questions. Each item is rated on a 4-point scale, 1 means very inconsistent, 4 means very consistent. Achievement motivation is equal to the score of pursuing success motivation minus avoiding failure motivation. The Cronbach’s α coefficient for the pursuit of success motivation and avoid failure motivation in this study were 0.79 and 0.85, and the overall Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.84. In order to test the eligibility conditions for constructive structural equation modeling, this study used a randomized combination of five items to form the three corresponding factors for the motivation to pursue success and the motivation to avoid failure 33 . Entrepreneurial intention scale This study adopts the scale of college students' entrepreneurial intention compiled by Li Hailei 34 , which consists of 12 items grouped into two factors entrepreneurial goal intention and entrepreneurial implementation intention. Each item is rated on a 7-point scale, with higher scores indicating a greater tendency towards entrepreneurial intention. The Cronbach’s α coefficient for both entrepreneurial goal intention and entrepreneurial execution intention in this study is 0.90, and the overall Cronbach’s α coefficient is 0.94. Procedures This study employed a convenient population sampling method. From November to December 2023, five universities in Guiyang were sampled. Two psychology majors acted as the main test, and a total of 1021 valid questionnaires were collected. The survey was conducted anonymously, and participants were were required to provide informed consent before completing the questionnaire. On the basis of collecting questionnaires, SPSS 21.0 was used for descriptive analysis and correlation analysis, AMOS21.0 was used to build the intermediary structure model, and Bootstrap method was adopted. Specifically, the Bootstrap method was employed, involving 5000 iterations to create a 95% confidence interval for the samples. Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Guizhou Normal University, adhering to the requirements outlined in the Helsinki Declaration. Multicollinearity problems The high correlation between variables points to multicollinearity problems 35 . The correlation between the variables in this study was observed between 0.13 and 0.51, so it can be determined that there is no multicollinearity between the variables. At the same time, in order to test whether there is a multicollinearity problem in each variable, multiple linear regression analysis was performed with proactive personality, motivation to pursue success and motivation to avoid failure as independent variables, and entrepreneurial intention as the dependent variable. The results showed that the tolerance of the three was 0.70–0.92, and the variance inflation factor was 1.08–1.43.According to any tolerance value below 0.20 36 , it shows that there is serious multicollinearity in the model, and the variance inflation factor value should not be greater than 10 35 , so it shows that there is no multicollinearity. Results Common method deviation test To reduce the possible influence of common method bias, anonymous questionnaire and different scoring methods were adopted. The Harman single-factor test was used to examine common method bias, with an unrotated factor analysis showing that ten factors had eigenvalues greater than 1, with the first factor explaining 13.33% of the variance, which is less than the critical value of 40% 37 . Therefore, this study did not have significant common method bias Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis of main variables In order to illustrate the relationship between proactive personality, motivation to pursue success, motivation to avoid failure and entrepreneurial intention, the correlation analysis of mean, standard deviation and Pearson product difference was carried out (Table 1 ). Table 1 Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis of main variables (r) . ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001, the same below. Variable x ± s 1 2 3 4 1.Proactive Personality 55.76 ± 10.48 1 2.Motivation of achieving success 39.46 ± 5.82 0.51 ** 1 3.Motivation of avoiding Failure 38.96 ± 6.64 0.13 ** 0.28 ** 1 4.Entrepreneurial intention 53.00 ± 14.12 0.38 ** 0.39 ** 0.18 ** 1 From Table 1 , it can be seen that the average number of entrepreneurial intentions is moderately high, and there is a significant positive correlation between proactive personality, motivation to pursue success, motivation to avoid failure and entrepreneurial intentions. The correlation coefficients between entrepreneurial intentions and proactive personality and motivation to pursue success are 0.38 (p < 0.01) and 0.39 (p < 0.01), reaching a moderate correlation, while the correlation coefficients between motivation to avoid failure and proactive personality and entrepreneurial intentions are 0.13 (p < 0.01) and 0.18 (p < 0.01), respectively, with low correlation coefficients. The mediating effect test of achievement motivation According to the mediating effect test process proposed by Wen Zhonglin and Ye Baojuan 38 , the structural equation model was used to investigate the mediating role of college students' achievement motivation between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention. The proactive personality of college students is the exogenous latent variable of the motivation to pursue success, the motivation to avoid failure and entrepreneurial intention, and it is also the independent variable in the model. The motivation for pursuing success and avoiding failure are the endogenous latent variables and dependent variables of proactive personality, and the exogenous latent variables and independent variables of entrepreneurial intention. The motivation to pursue success and the motivation to avoid failure are mediating variables. The first step is to establish model 1 with entrepreneurial intention as the dependent variable and proactive personality as the independent variable. The second step is to add the motivation to pursue success and the motivation to avoid failure as mediating variables to establish Model 2. Model 1 is that structural equation model of college students' proactive personality directly influencing entrepreneurial intentions; Model 2 is the mediating effect of pursuing success motivation and avoiding failure motivation between college students' proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention. Table 2 Structural equation model fitting index MODEL X 2 /df GFI NFI IFI CFI RFI TLI RMSEA model1 2.865 0.996 0.995 0.997 0.997 0.987 0.992 0.043 model2 5.669 0.963 0.951 0.959 0.959 0.931 0.942 0.068 In Table 2 , the goodness of fit of the two structural equation models is ideal, indicating that the data and the model fit well. Figure 1 shows that proactive personality can significantly predict entrepreneurial intentions (β = 0.44, P < 0.001). Proactive personality had a significant predictive power for the pursuit of success motivation (β = 0.65, P < 0.001 ), and the pursuit of success motivation had a significant predictive power for entrepreneurial intention (β = 0.32, P < 0.001). When the pursuit of success motivation was added as an intermediary variable, the predictive coefficient of proactive personality on entrepreneurial intention was reduced, but still significant (β = 0.22, P < 0.001). This shows that the pursuit of success motivation has a partial mediating effect between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention, the mediating effect is 0.208, the mediating effect rate is 47.1%. From Fig. 1 , it can be seen that the motivation to avoid failure has no significant predictive power on entrepreneurial intention, so its mediating effect between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention does not exis. At the same time, the bootstrapping method was used to further test the mediating effect. After 5000 repeated sampling, a 95% deviation corrected confidence interval was selected. The results showed that the confidence interval of proactive personality was 1.209–2.330 in predicting entrepreneurial intention through pursuit of success motivation, which did not include 0. This indicates that there is a mediating effect between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention through pursuit of success motivation. Hypothesis 2 was validated (see Table 3 ). Table 3 Analysis of total effect, direct effect and mediating effect. Effect BootLLCI BootULCI Effect ratio(%) Total effect 0.431 100% Direct effect 0.223 0.232 0.619 52.9% Mediating effect of motivation for success 0.208 1.209 2.330 47.1% Discussion The research shows that the average number of entrepreneurial intentions is medium to high, which is consistent with the research results of Yan Jianwen 5 . It is basically consistent with the survey results of 23 universities in Shanghai that about 75% of students are full of expectations for entrepreneurship 39 . This shows that in the face of the severe employment situation, leading entrepreneurs and national entrepreneurship preferential policies, the employment concept of contemporary college students has gradually changed. At the same time, there is a significant positive correlation between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention, which is consistent with the research results of Chen 27 and Liu 15 . This means that proactive personality is the potential trait of college students' entrepreneurial behavior, because once college students start a business, they must follow the market rules of the survival of the fittest, and must actively respond to the rapidly changing market. There is a significant positive correlation between proactive personality and the two dimensions of achievement motivation, which is consistent with the research results of Chen Yifei 40 . Entrepreneurial intention is significantly positively correlated with the motivation to pursue success, but not significantly correlated with the motivation to avoid failure, which is consistent with Atkinson's theory of achievement motivation. That is to say, the pursuit of success motivation is the tendency of the individual to approach the goal because of the expectation of success, and the avoidance of failure motivation is the tendency of the individual to avoid failure to escape from the goal. Mediation analysis found that the partial mediating effect of the pursuit of success motivation between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention was statistically significant, indicating that proactive personality directly affects entrepreneurial intention, and can also indirectly affect entrepreneurial intention through the pursuit of success motivation. The above results are close to 'achievement motivation has a mediating effect between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention' 41 . Proactive personality is a behavioral tendency that is not restricted by environmental resistance and actively takes action to change the environment. Personality traits are both innate components and the result of adaptation to the environment. In the rapid transformation of society and the 'more graduates and fewer graduates' employment environment, today's college students realize the value of life of the diversified era. At the same time, the state has formulated a series of tax cuts, interest-free loans and other preferential policies, the university campus is also in the implementation of college students' innovation and entrepreneurship training projects, business park based project construction and entrepreneurship education work. In this way, college students have been prepared to actively participate in social torrents. Some college students have made the first step by doing village officials, going to the army, going to support education, returning to the mountains, and even doing live broadcasts and micro-business. This shows that the most fundamental factor for college students to actively explore and plan their careers is the initiative of personality. They are good at grasping favorable employment factors, and the pursuit of success and striving to make a difference further promote employment intentions and actions. As a positive psychological trait, proactive personality is not only the essential quality of college students' entrepreneurial intentions, but also easier to strengthen entrepreneurial beliefs under the premise of achieving success. The reason why college students with initiative traits start a business through their own efforts is not the result of pursuing entrepreneurship, but in the process of self-employment to enhance self-efficacy. Proactive personality significantly predicted career decision-making self-efficacy 42 . According to the theory of self-efficacy, college students with strong self-efficacy are willing to face new work and devote themselves to it. They can constantly work hard to overcome difficulties. In this process, self-efficacy is improved. Here, self-efficacy is like lubricant, resulting in continuous breakthroughs in self-work. In fact, this is a virtuous cycle of process, but also in line with Bandura's ternary interactive determinism point of view. Initiative is compared to the individual, pursuit of success motivation is compared to action, entrepreneurial results compared to the environment. The three interact with each other. Of course, there is still a difference between entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial behavior, after all, the former is only a cognitive category. These give us enlightments that college students' entrepreneurial intention stimulation and support, not only we pay attention to outward and initiative inherent potential, but also we pay attention to improve college students' entrepreneurial self-efficacy and achievement motivation level. First, when guiding learning and organizing activities, teachers should set their own goals for different individuals, let them experience the happiness of success, and affirm and encourage them to enhance their self-confidence; Second, set up the ability to basically set an example, let them believe in their own ability, efforts can also achieve the goal; Third, the school sets up entrepreneurship courses to strengthen the education of college students' correct entrepreneurship concept,Because social entrepreneurship can effectively solve the problems of employment, social inequality and resource scarcity 43 . Conclusions This study draws the following conclusions under the existing conditions: ( 1 ) Proactive personality can positively predict entrepreneurial intentions; ( 2 ) The motivation to pursue success plays a mediating role in proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention. ( 3 ) During the epidemic, schools should strengthen the education and thinking training of college students to actively respond to employment and successful experience. Strengths and limitations One of the advantages of this study is to create a mediating structural equation model. However, utilizing cross-sectional data presents a limitation, suggesting future research to employ longitudinal investigation merging both longitudinal and cross-sectional data. Another limitation of this study arises from using self-reported survey data. Future studies could consider employing objective measurement tools to further enhance the scientific rigor of the research. Declarations Data availability The datasets used in the current study can be obtained from the first author according to reasonable requirements. Author contributions Jinyong Zhang is mainly responsible for research design, data analysis and fund acquisition, and Huaiqing Deng is responsible for reviewing and editing. 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Social entrepreneurial intention among university students in China. Sci Rep.14(1), 7362. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58060-4 (2024). Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4247673","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":292959507,"identity":"d8eab1d8-a1d8-4d3b-9598-4a92223a6b40","order_by":0,"name":"Jinyong Zhang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABCElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCRDBIwHhJFTYyLGxtx8gQcuDM2nGfDxnEojQAgWMD1sOJ86TcDDAq0N+dvOzh19kLPIMjvcefpHYkJbeJsGQwPCjYhtOLYxzjpkby/BIFBucOZdmkbjDJrdNuvEAY8+Z2zi1MEskmElL8EgkbriRY2aQeCYtt03mQAIzYxtuLWwS6d+QtLQdTmeTSDDAq4VHIsdM8gNEi/EDoJYEglokJHLKpIEaE2eeOWPGkHAmzbANGMgH8flFfkb6NsmfPXWJfcd7jD/+qLCRl29vP/jgRwVuLeAg4O1hYFA4APQXTOQAXvVAwPjjB9C6BgbmD4RUjoJRMApGwcgEAIZUW4Uhou+6AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Guizhou Education University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jinyong","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":292959508,"identity":"6e3c6091-43d2-4ff9-8735-1d98a406159c","order_by":1,"name":"Huaiqing Deng","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Guizhou Normal University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Huaiqing","middleName":"","lastName":"Deng","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-04-10 13:35:44","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4247673/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4247673/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":54955973,"identity":"caa0a85a-34a5-4613-8ef9-c3d94cceb540","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-04-19 07:14:50","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":92957,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eThe mediating effect model of achievement motivation between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e( Note: the value of 0.44 in parentheses is the path coefficient of the direct influence of proactive personality on entrepreneurial intentions )\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Figure1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4247673/v1/6b9e85d32d15781dcdfd8290.png"},{"id":63806115,"identity":"970bbd7f-9348-40e3-8176-25c230e26ddd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-09-02 13:36:41","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":583252,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4247673/v1/6a76deae-7d9e-44be-8562-ca66973559c4.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"The mediating role of achievement motivation in the relationship between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention among college students","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eIn recent years, as the enrollment scale of China\u0026apos;s colleges and universities continues to expand, the employment situation of college students has become more and more serious. Of course, there are many reasons for this, including the backward employment concept of college students, the problem of mismatch between education and ability, the problem of employers paying too much attention to the work experience of college students, and the problem of the mismatch between the structure of university talent training and the market demand. The employment of college students is a major issue related to people\u0026apos;s livelihood and social stability. University students who invest in entrepreneurship courses, promote entrepreneurship competitions and provide incubation opportunities have more significant entrepreneurial intentions\u003csup\u003e1\u003c/sup\u003e.Therefore, entrepreneurial intention has entered the life of college students, but also gradually become the focus of attention of scholars.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrevious studies have shown that there are many factors affecting entrepreneurial intention.But it can be divided into environmental factors and individual factors. Individual factors play a decisive role.Proactive personality is a positive personality trait，achievement motivation is intrinsic motivation. Entrepreneurial intention is the decisive condition of social entrepreneurs\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e.Therefore, this study aims to explore the internal mechanism of proactive personality, achievement motivation and entrepreneurial intention.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eEntrepreneurial intention\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEntrepreneurial intention reflects the relatively specific willingness and preference of a person\u0026apos;s employment life planning. Bird\u003csup\u003e3\u003c/sup\u003e defined it as:\u0026ldquo;a state of mind that guides entrepreneurs to pursue a goal while devoting a lot of attention, energy and action \u0026rdquo;. Fan\u003csup\u003e4\u003c/sup\u003e further pointed out that entrepreneurial intention is a subjective attitude of potential entrepreneurs to engage in entrepreneurial activities. It is a general description of the degree of people\u0026apos;s entrepreneurial characteristics, people\u0026apos;s attitude towards entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ability. It is the best predictor of entrepreneurial behavior. Yan et al\u003csup\u003e\u0026nbsp;5\u003c/sup\u003e found that college students have a medium level of entrepreneurial intention, which is influenced by gender, grade, major, educational background and parental occupation. Even the increase of family capital, entrepreneurial role models in the surrounding environment and my internship experience will promote the enhancement of college students\u0026apos; entrepreneurial awareness\u003csup\u003e6\u003c/sup\u003e. In addition to demographic variables, personality traits\u003csup\u003e7\u003c/sup\u003e personal cognition\u003csup\u003e8,9\u003c/sup\u003e, individual creativity\u003csup\u003e10\u003c/sup\u003e and social support\u003csup\u003e11\u003c/sup\u003ealso have certain predictive power on entrepreneurial intention. Qian\u003csup\u003e12\u003c/sup\u003e divides the influencing factors into two levels:individual trait level and individual resource level.The former includes achievement motivation, risk-taking and autonomy, while the latter includes entrepreneurial feedback, resource acquisition and future employment. The proactive personality of college students has a significant predictive effect on the intention of social entrepreneurship\u003csup\u003e13\u003c/sup\u003e, and the proactive personality \u0026nbsp;also has a significant impact on entrepreneurial intentions\u003csup\u003e14,15\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eProactive personality and entrepreneurial intention\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt present, although some scholars have investigated the mechanism between college students\u0026apos; proactive personality and entrepreneurial intentions, for example benign competitive attitude\u003csup\u003e14\u003c/sup\u003e, perceived entrepreneurial value\u003csup\u003e15\u003c/sup\u003e,review entrepreneurial self-efficacy\u003csup\u003e16\u003c/sup\u003e and entrepreneurial knowledge\u003csup\u003e17\u003c/sup\u003eare in the mediating role respectively. The study of African college students found that family support plays a moderating role between positive personality and entrepreneurial intention\u003csup\u003e18\u003c/sup\u003e. Research on the influencing factors of entrepreneurial intention of Nigerian adolescents points out that self-efficacy has a moderating effect\u003csup\u003e19\u003c/sup\u003e.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHou\u003csup\u003e20\u003c/sup\u003e found that the influence of proactive personality on career adaptability can be achieved partly through career decision-making self-efficacy. Some scholars have proposed that achievement motivation is an important influencing factor in college students\u0026apos; entrepreneurship\u003csup\u003e21\u003c/sup\u003e. This shows that proactive personality directly affects entrepreneurial intentions to a certain extent, and proactive personality can also be indirectly affected by career decision-making self-efficacy. Some scholars have found that positive proactive personality has a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial intention through multiple regression analysis of college students in Bangladesh\u003csup\u003e22\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eAchievement motivation and entrepreneurial intention\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAchievement motivation refers to the intrinsic motivation and psychological tendency of individuals to strive for excellence in order to achieve higher goals. It is a social motivation of human beings\u003csup\u003e23\u003c/sup\u003e. Studies have confirmed that there is a significant positive correlation between achievement goals and career decision-making self-efficacy of vocational students\u003csup\u003e24\u003c/sup\u003e.Atkinson divides it into two motivation tendencies: pursuing success and avoiding failure. Gelderen\u0026apos;s research on student entrepreneurship in Turkey found that students with high entrepreneurial tendencies performed more significantly in achievement needs, internal control traits, risk-taking tendencies, and innovation\u003csup\u003e25\u003c/sup\u003e. Further studies have confirmed that there is a significant positive correlation between forward-looking personality and motivation to pursue success, and there is no significant correlation with motivation to avoid failure. Some people have studied the difference between gender in achievement motivation and entrepreneurial intention, and found that the direct influence of achievement motivation on entrepreneurial intention is not significant for women, but it was significant for men\u003csup\u003e26\u003c/sup\u003e. Even the impact of achievement motivation on entrepreneurial intentions is moderated by culture, it has a positive impactin the United States , but it has no impact in Ireland\u003csup\u003e27\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eResearch hypotheses\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eScholars mainly explored the internal mechanisms of proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention from the perspectives of entrepreneurial knowledge\u003csup\u003e17\u003c/sup\u003e, perceived entrepreneurial value\u003csup\u003e15\u003c/sup\u003e, positive competitive attitudes\u003csup\u003e14\u003c/sup\u003e, career exploration\u003csup\u003e28\u003c/sup\u003e, and career adaptability\u003csup\u003e29\u003c/sup\u003e. However, the exploration of Chinese people\u0026apos;s dedication under the background of Confucian culture is still relatively lacking. Therefore, this study will start from achievement motivation and explore the internal mechanisms among the proactive personality, achievement motivation, and entrepreneurial intention of college students, providing theoretical basis and empirical support for promoting college student entrepreneurial behavior and school career planning education. Based on previous research, this study proposes the following hypotheses: \u003cstrong\u003eHypothesis1\u003c/strong\u003e: Proactive personality can significantly predict entrepreneurial intention positively; \u003cstrong\u003eHypothesis2\u003c/strong\u003e: The pursuit of success motivation plays a mediating role between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Methods","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eParticipants\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe convenience group sampling method was used to administer the survey to college students in five colleges and universities in Guiyang. The total of 1,100 questionnaires were distributed, excluding some questionnaires with missing information and regular responses, and 1,021 valid questionnaires were returned, with a valid sample rate of 92.8%. Among the 1021 participants, there were 483 females (47.3%) and 538 males (52.7%). Participants by grade level included 264 freshmen(25.9%), 251 sophomores(24.6%), 232 juniors(22.7%), and 274 seniors(26.8%).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec4\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eMeasurement tools\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec5\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eProactive personality scale\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn this study, we used the Active Personality Scale developed by Shang Jiayin and Gan Yiqun\u003csup\u003e30\u003c/sup\u003e, which was revised based on the Bateman and Crant\u003csup\u003e31\u003c/sup\u003e. The scale consists of 11 items, it is an unidimensional scale. Each item is rated on a 7-point scale, with higher scores indicating a greater tendency towards individual's initiative. The revised scale has good reliability and validity. The Cronbach\u0026rsquo;s α coefficient for this scale in this study was 0.90. In order to meet the conditions of constructing the structural equation model, the 11 items were randomly divided into 3, 4, and 4 item combinations to form 3 proactivity factors, which were then tested in this study\u003csup\u003e31\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec6\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eAchievement motivation scale\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe achievement motivation scale revised by Ye Renmin\u003csup\u003e32\u003c/sup\u003e is adopted. The scale includes two parts: motivation to pursue success and motivation to avoid failure. Each part has 15 questions. Each item is rated on a 4-point scale, 1 means very inconsistent, 4 means very consistent. Achievement motivation is equal to the score of pursuing success motivation minus avoiding failure motivation. The Cronbach\u0026rsquo;s α coefficient for the pursuit of success motivation and avoid failure motivation in this study were 0.79 and 0.85, and the overall Cronbach\u0026rsquo;s α coefficient was 0.84. In order to test the eligibility conditions for constructive structural equation modeling, this study used a randomized combination of five items to form the three corresponding factors for the motivation to pursue success and the motivation to avoid failure\u003csup\u003e33\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec7\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eEntrepreneurial intention scale\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study adopts the scale of college students' entrepreneurial intention compiled by Li Hailei\u003csup\u003e34\u003c/sup\u003e, which consists of 12 items grouped into two factors entrepreneurial goal intention and entrepreneurial implementation intention. Each item is rated on a 7-point scale, with higher scores indicating a greater tendency towards entrepreneurial intention. The Cronbach\u0026rsquo;s α coefficient for both entrepreneurial goal intention and entrepreneurial execution intention in this study is 0.90, and the overall Cronbach\u0026rsquo;s α coefficient is 0.94.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec8\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eProcedures\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis study employed a convenient population sampling method. From November to December 2023, five universities in Guiyang were sampled. Two psychology majors acted as the main test, and a total of 1021 valid questionnaires were collected. The survey was conducted anonymously, and participants were were required to provide informed consent before completing the questionnaire. On the basis of collecting questionnaires, SPSS 21.0 was used for descriptive analysis and correlation analysis, AMOS21.0 was used to build the intermediary structure model, and Bootstrap method was adopted. Specifically, the Bootstrap method was employed, involving 5000 iterations to create a 95% confidence interval for the samples. Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Guizhou Normal University, adhering to the requirements outlined in the Helsinki Declaration.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec9\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eMulticollinearity problems\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe high correlation between variables points to multicollinearity problems\u003csup\u003e35\u003c/sup\u003e. The correlation between the variables in this study was observed between 0.13 and 0.51, so it can be determined that there is no multicollinearity between the variables. At the same time, in order to test whether there is a multicollinearity problem in each variable, multiple linear regression analysis was performed with proactive personality, motivation to pursue success and motivation to avoid failure as independent variables, and entrepreneurial intention as the dependent variable. The results showed that the tolerance of the three was 0.70\u0026ndash;0.92, and the variance inflation factor was 1.08\u0026ndash;1.43.According to any tolerance value below 0.20\u003csup\u003e36\u003c/sup\u003e, it shows that there is serious multicollinearity in the model, and the variance inflation factor value should not be greater than 10\u003csup\u003e35\u003c/sup\u003e, so it shows that there is no multicollinearity.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Results","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec11\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eCommon method deviation test\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo reduce the possible influence of common method bias, anonymous questionnaire and different scoring methods were adopted. The Harman single-factor test was used to examine common method bias, with an unrotated factor analysis showing that ten factors had eigenvalues greater than 1, with the first factor explaining 13.33% of the variance, which is less than the critical value of 40%\u003csup\u003e37\u003c/sup\u003e. Therefore, this study did not have significant common method bias\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec12\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eDescriptive statistics and correlation analysis of main variables\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn order to illustrate the relationship between proactive personality, motivation to pursue success, motivation to avoid failure and entrepreneurial intention, the correlation analysis of mean, standard deviation and Pearson product difference was carried out (Table \u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDescriptive statistics and correlation analysis of main variables (r) .\u003cb\u003e**\u003c/b\u003ep\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01, \u003cb\u003e***\u003c/b\u003ep\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001, the same below.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"6\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\"\u0026plusmn;\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eVariable\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ex\u0026thinsp;\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e\u0026plusmn;\u003c/span\u003e\u0026thinsp;s\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.Proactive Personality\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\"\u0026plusmn;\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e55.76\u0026thinsp;\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e\u0026plusmn;\u003c/span\u003e\u0026thinsp;10.48\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.Motivation of achieving success\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\"\u0026plusmn;\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e39.46\u0026thinsp;\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e\u0026plusmn;\u003c/span\u003e\u0026thinsp;5.82\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.51\u003csup\u003e**\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.Motivation of avoiding Failure\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\"\u0026plusmn;\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e38.96\u0026thinsp;\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e\u0026plusmn;\u003c/span\u003e\u0026thinsp;6.64\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.13\u003csup\u003e**\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.28\u003csup\u003e**\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4.Entrepreneurial intention\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\"\u0026plusmn;\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e53.00\u0026thinsp;\u003cspan type=\"Underline\" class=\"Underline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003e\u0026plusmn;\u003c/span\u003e\u0026thinsp;14.12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.38\u003csup\u003e**\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.39\u003csup\u003e**\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.18\u003csup\u003e**\u003c/sup\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrom Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e, it can be seen that the average number of entrepreneurial intentions is moderately high, and there is a significant positive correlation between proactive personality, motivation to pursue success, motivation to avoid failure and entrepreneurial intentions. The correlation coefficients between entrepreneurial intentions and proactive personality and motivation to pursue success are 0.38 (p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01) and 0.39 (p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01), reaching a moderate correlation, while the correlation coefficients between motivation to avoid failure and proactive personality and entrepreneurial intentions are 0.13 (p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01) and 0.18 (p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.01), respectively, with low correlation coefficients.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec13\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003eThe mediating effect test of achievement motivation\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eAccording to the mediating effect test process proposed by Wen Zhonglin and Ye Baojuan\u003csup\u003e38\u003c/sup\u003e, the structural equation model was used to investigate the mediating role of college students' achievement motivation between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention. The proactive personality of college students is the exogenous latent variable of the motivation to pursue success, the motivation to avoid failure and entrepreneurial intention, and it is also the independent variable in the model. The motivation for pursuing success and avoiding failure are the endogenous latent variables and dependent variables of proactive personality, and the exogenous latent variables and independent variables of entrepreneurial intention. The motivation to pursue success and the motivation to avoid failure are mediating variables. The first step is to establish model 1 with entrepreneurial intention as the dependent variable and proactive personality as the independent variable. The second step is to add the motivation to pursue success and the motivation to avoid failure as mediating variables to establish Model 2. Model 1 is that structural equation model of college students' proactive personality directly influencing entrepreneurial intentions; Model 2 is the mediating effect of pursuing success motivation and avoiding failure motivation between college students' proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eStructural equation model fitting index\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"9\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c8\" colnum=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c9\" colnum=\"9\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMODEL\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eX\u003csup\u003e2\u003c/sup\u003e/df\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eGFI\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNFI\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eIFI\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCFI\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eRFI\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTLI\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eRMSEA\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003emodel1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.865\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.996\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.995\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.997\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.997\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.987\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.992\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.043\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003emodel2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e5.669\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.963\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.951\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.959\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.959\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.931\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.942\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.068\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e, the goodness of fit of the two structural equation models is ideal, indicating that the data and the model fit well. Figure\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e shows that proactive personality can significantly predict entrepreneurial intentions (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.44, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001). Proactive personality had a significant predictive power for the pursuit of success motivation (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.65, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001 ), and the pursuit of success motivation had a significant predictive power for entrepreneurial intention (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.32, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001). When the pursuit of success motivation was added as an intermediary variable, the predictive coefficient of proactive personality on entrepreneurial intention was reduced, but still significant (β\u0026thinsp;=\u0026thinsp;0.22, P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.001). This shows that the pursuit of success motivation has a partial mediating effect between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention, the mediating effect is 0.208, the mediating effect rate is 47.1%. From Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e, it can be seen that the motivation to avoid failure has no significant predictive power on entrepreneurial intention, so its mediating effect between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention does not exis.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the same time, the bootstrapping method was used to further test the mediating effect. After 5000 repeated sampling, a 95% deviation corrected confidence interval was selected. The results showed that the confidence interval of proactive personality was 1.209\u0026ndash;2.330 in predicting entrepreneurial intention through pursuit of success motivation, which did not include 0. This indicates that there is a mediating effect between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention through pursuit of success motivation. Hypothesis 2 was validated (see Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab3\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 3\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAnalysis of total effect, direct effect and mediating effect.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"5\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEffect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBootLLCI\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBootULCI\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEffect ratio(%)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTotal effect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.431\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e100%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDirect effect\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.223\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.232\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.619\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e52.9%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMediating effect of motivation for success\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.208\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.209\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.330\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e47.1%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe research shows that the average number of entrepreneurial intentions is medium to high, which is consistent with the research results of Yan Jianwen\u003csup\u003e5\u003c/sup\u003e. It is basically consistent with the survey results of 23 universities in Shanghai that about 75% of students are full of expectations for entrepreneurship\u003csup\u003e39\u003c/sup\u003e. This shows that in the face of the severe employment situation, leading entrepreneurs and national entrepreneurship preferential policies, the employment concept of contemporary college students has gradually changed. At the same time, there is a significant positive correlation between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention, which is consistent with the research results of Chen\u003csup\u003e27\u003c/sup\u003e and Liu\u003csup\u003e15\u003c/sup\u003e. This means that proactive personality is the potential trait of college students' entrepreneurial behavior, because once college students start a business, they must follow the market rules of the survival of the fittest, and must actively respond to the rapidly changing market. There is a significant positive correlation between proactive personality and the two dimensions of achievement motivation, which is consistent with the research results of Chen Yifei\u003csup\u003e40\u003c/sup\u003e. Entrepreneurial intention is significantly positively correlated with the motivation to pursue success, but not significantly correlated with the motivation to avoid failure, which is consistent with Atkinson's theory of achievement motivation. That is to say, the pursuit of success motivation is the tendency of the individual to approach the goal because of the expectation of success, and the avoidance of failure motivation is the tendency of the individual to avoid failure to escape from the goal.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMediation analysis found that the partial mediating effect of the pursuit of success motivation between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention was statistically significant, indicating that proactive personality directly affects entrepreneurial intention, and can also indirectly affect entrepreneurial intention through the pursuit of success motivation. The above results are close to 'achievement motivation has a mediating effect between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention'\u003csup\u003e41\u003c/sup\u003e. Proactive personality is a behavioral tendency that is not restricted by environmental resistance and actively takes action to change the environment. Personality traits are both innate components and the result of adaptation to the environment. In the rapid transformation of society and the 'more graduates and fewer graduates' employment environment, today's college students realize the value of life of the diversified era. At the same time, the state has formulated a series of tax cuts, interest-free loans and other preferential policies, the university campus is also in the implementation of college students' innovation and entrepreneurship training projects, business park based project construction and entrepreneurship education work. In this way, college students have been prepared to actively participate in social torrents. Some college students have made the first step by doing village officials, going to the army, going to support education, returning to the mountains, and even doing live broadcasts and micro-business. This shows that the most fundamental factor for college students to actively explore and plan their careers is the initiative of personality. They are good at grasping favorable employment factors, and the pursuit of success and striving to make a difference further promote employment intentions and actions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs a positive psychological trait, proactive personality is not only the essential quality of college students' entrepreneurial intentions, but also easier to strengthen entrepreneurial beliefs under the premise of achieving success. The reason why college students with initiative traits start a business through their own efforts is not the result of pursuing entrepreneurship, but in the process of self-employment to enhance self-efficacy. Proactive personality significantly predicted career decision-making self-efficacy\u003csup\u003e42\u003c/sup\u003e. According to the theory of self-efficacy, college students with strong self-efficacy are willing to face new work and devote themselves to it. They can constantly work hard to overcome difficulties. In this process, self-efficacy is improved. Here, self-efficacy is like lubricant, resulting in continuous breakthroughs in self-work. In fact, this is a virtuous cycle of process, but also in line with Bandura's ternary interactive determinism point of view. Initiative is compared to the individual, pursuit of success motivation is compared to action, entrepreneurial results compared to the environment. The three interact with each other. Of course, there is still a difference between entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial behavior, after all, the former is only a cognitive category. These give us enlightments that college students' entrepreneurial intention stimulation and support, not only we pay attention to outward and initiative inherent potential, but also we pay attention to improve college students' entrepreneurial self-efficacy and achievement motivation level. First, when guiding learning and organizing activities, teachers should set their own goals for different individuals, let them experience the happiness of success, and affirm and encourage them to enhance their self-confidence; Second, set up the ability to basically set an example, let them believe in their own ability, efforts can also achieve the goal; Third, the school sets up entrepreneurship courses to strengthen the education of college students' correct entrepreneurship concept,Because social entrepreneurship can effectively solve the problems of employment, social inequality and resource scarcity\u003csup\u003e43\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusions","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study draws the following conclusions under the existing conditions: (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e) Proactive personality can positively predict entrepreneurial intentions; (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e) The motivation to pursue success plays a mediating role in proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention. (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e) During the epidemic, schools should strengthen the education and thinking training of college students to actively respond to employment and successful experience.\u003c/p\u003e "},{"header":"Strengths and limitations","content":"\u003cdiv id=\"Sec16\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne of the advantages of this study is to create a mediating structural equation model. However, utilizing cross-sectional data presents a limitation, suggesting future research to employ longitudinal investigation merging both longitudinal and cross-sectional data. Another limitation of this study arises from using self-reported survey data. Future studies could consider employing objective measurement tools to further enhance the scientific rigor of the research.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eData availability\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe datasets used in the current study can be obtained from the first author according to reasonable requirements.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor contributions\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJinyong Zhang \u0026nbsp;is mainly responsible for research design, data analysis and fund acquisition, and Huaiqing Deng \u0026nbsp;is responsible for reviewing and editing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCompeting interests\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors declare no competing interests.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWegner, D., Thomas, E., Teixeira, E. K., \u0026amp; Maehler, A. E. 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Sci Rep.14(1), 7362.\u003cem\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58060-4\u003c/em\u003e(2024).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Proactive personality, Achievement motivation, Entrepreneurial intention, Motivation of achieving success, Motivation of avoiding failure","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4247673/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4247673/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eWith the increasing number of college graduates and the popularization of college students, the employment of college students has become the focus of academic circles. This study explores the mediating role of achievement motivation between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention of Chinese college students. In this study, 1021 college students from 5 universities in a certain city in China were measured by the proactive personality inventory, achievement motivation Inventory and entrepreneurial intention inventory. The results show that:(\u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e) Entrepreneurial intention is positively correlated with proactive personality and success motivation respectively; (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e) Proactive personality can positively and significantly predict entrepreneurial intention; (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR3\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e) Success-seeking motivation plays an intermediary role in proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention; It shows that proactive personality can directly affect the entrepreneurial intention of college students, and can also indirectly affect the entrepreneurial intention of college students through the pursuit of success motivation.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"The mediating role of achievement motivation in the relationship between proactive personality and entrepreneurial intention among college students","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-04-19 07:14:46","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4247673/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"d6717034-db84-41d8-8f9a-4b3101f2f4ed","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 19th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":30871028,"name":"Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour"},{"id":30871029,"name":"Biological sciences/Psychology"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-09-02T13:28:34+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-04-19 07:14:46","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4247673","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4247673","identity":"rs-4247673","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}