Optimism, Vulnerability, and Entrepreneurial Intent: Occupation Change Intentions in Rural East Africa

Abstract:     
We examine how income seeking attitude, economic and occupational vulnerability jointly influence individual intentions to switch into entrepreneurship under desperate poverty. We posit that vulnerability negatively moderates the relationship between optimism and entrepreneurial intention. We find support for our predictions in a sample of 673 individuals from two sub-locations in rural Kenya. The study design enables us to compare intention to change occupation into entrepreneurship against changing into other occupations. We find that intention to change into entrepreneurship has a distinctly different causal process. We discuss implications of our findings entrepreneurship under conditions of desperate poverty and the theory of planned behavior.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 43

Keywords: Optimism, Occupation, Entrepreneurship, Poverty

JEL Classification: I31, M13

working papers series