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Unlocking Digital Entrepreneurial Behavior: The Role of Ecosystem Support, Intention, and Innovation
Chandan Chavadi1
, Pradeep Pandian1, Ravindran K.1 and Monika Sirothiya2
1 Presidency Business School, Presidency College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
2 Research Rescue, Itarsi, Bhopal Madhya Pradesh, India
Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-Commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed.
As the economy becomes more digitalized, it is critical to understand the determinants of digital entrepreneurship behavior (DEB) for entrepreneurial ecosystems and policy frameworks. In particular, this study examines the mediating effects of entrepreneurial intention (EINT) and entrepreneurial innovation (EINN), and the moderating effect of entrepreneurial education (EE) on the relationship between ecosystem support and DEB. Based on Institutional Theory, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), the study conducted a structured survey on 343 digital entrepreneurs in India and used a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the data. Findings show that ecosystem support has a significant direct and indirect (EINT and EINN) effect on DEB. Although EE has a significant direct impact on DEB, the moderating role is not significant, implying that informal and experiential learning could be more potent than traditional interventions. The results contribute to theoretical discussion by linking ecosystemic and behavioral levels of analysis of digital entrepreneurship, and provide practical implications for educators, incubators and policymakers in the context of supporting digital entrepreneurship ventures in emerging markets.
Digital entrepreneurial behavior, entrepreneurial ecosystem, entrepreneurial intention, innovation capability, entrepreneurial education
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