Entrepreneurial passion, role models and self-perceived creativity as antecedents of e-entrepreneurial intention in an emerging Asian economy: The moderating effect of social media

Entrepreneurship has attracted much attention to both research and practice in the last two decades. Particularly, with the advent of new information and communication technologies, research into electronic entrepreneurship (e-entrepreneurship) is experiencing much interest. For instance, social media platforms have introduced new market dynamics as a result of new social interaction for communicating information, knowledge, values and ethics relevant to products and services. Grounded in the social cognition theory, this research focuses on how certain factors (e.g., entrepreneurial passion, entrepreneurial role model, and entrepreneurial self-perceived creativity) influence e-entrepreneurship intention and whether social media usage augments the positive effects of these factors on the e-entrepreneurship intention. The proposed model and its associated hypotheses were tested by using Partial Least Squares (PLS) structural equation modelling (SEM). The study draws on a sample of 354 students at Iraqi universities. Findings revealed that entrepreneurial passion, role models, and self-perceived creativity significantly influence e-entrepreneurship intention. Furthermore, the positive impacts of entrepreneurial passion and self-perceived creativity on e-entrepreneurship intention are greater among entrepreneurs who intend to apply social media in their future businesses. The main conclusions of this work can be valuable to entrepreneurs that intend to explore or seize opportunities in the digital economy.