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The present research focuses upon new businesses which are started from scratch. The theories of reasoned action and planned behavior are used to formulate hypotheses concerning self-employment intentions and subsequent entry into self-employment. The hypotheses are tested using longitudinal data from 297 Norwegian business founders. The results suggest that salient beliefs concerning self-employment determine attitudes toward self-employment, that attitude and subjective norm determine intentions to become self-employed, and that intentions to become self-employed determine actual entry into self-employment. The findings strongly support the theory of reasoned action, but provide no support for the extension of the theory represented by the theory of planned behavior.

The present research focuses upon entry into self-employment among founders of new businesses which are started from scratch. Based on the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior, hypotheses are developed to identify antecedents of (1) attitude toward self-employment, (2) self-employment intentions and (3) entry into self-employment. While earlier cross-sectional surveys have investigated entrepreneurial intentions among students (Kolvereid, 1996b, Tkashev and Kolvereid, 1999 and Krueger et al., 2000), Shook et al. (2003) urged researchers to investigate entrepreneurial intentions among venture creators using a longitudinal design. Krueger and Carsrud (1993) argued that entrepreneurial behaviors, such as becoming self-employed or starting a business, are intentional and thus best predicted by intentions toward the behavior. Among integrated intention theories, which include different theoretical constructs to explain and predict behavior, the most widely researched are the theory of reasoned action (TRA) (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1988 and Ajzen, 1991). According to the TRA, behavioral intentions are determined by: (1) the attitude toward the behavior, i.e. the degree to which the individual has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of the behavior in question, and (2) subjective norm, which refers to the perceived social pressure to perform (or not perform) the behavior. The TPB is essentially an extension of the TRA that includes perceived behavioral control (PBC) as an additional antecedent of intentions and behavior. Perceived behavioral control refers to the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behavior. The rationale behind the addition of perceived behavioral control in the TPB was that it would allow prediction of behaviors that were not under complete volitional control. When there were constraints to action, intentions alone were not sufficient to predict behavior accurately. Moreover, the relative importance of attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control in the prediction of behavioral intentions is expected to vary across behaviors and situations (Ajzen, 1991). In general, individuals tend to have stronger intentions when the behavior in question is believed to be achievable (Bandura, 1997). The antecedents of attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control are corresponding beliefs reflecting the underlying cognitive structure. For example, the antecedents of attitude toward self-employment are the salient or behavioral beliefs people have about the benefits (and costs) of entering into self-employment. Armitage and Conner (2001) carried out a meta-analysis of the results reported from applications of the TRA and the TBP. They identified 161 journal articles and book chapters containing 185 independent empirical tests of the theories. Their results indicated that the average correlations of the antecedents and behavioral intentions were .49 for attitude, .34 for subjective norms and .43 for perceived behavioral control. Moreover, the average correlation between behavioral intention and behavior was .47, and between perceived behavioral control and behavior .37. Overall, their findings provided support for the efficacy of the TPB as a predictor of intentions and behavior. While the TPB was developed to explain individual behavior in general, it has subsequently been adopted by entrepreneurship scholars. It seems evident that much of what we consider to be entrepreneurship actually is intentional planned behavior (Krueger et al., 2000). New ventures are the direct outcome of individuals' intentions and subsequent actions (Bird, 1992). Further, entry into self-employment is a behavior that is determined by intentions (Katz, 1992). Previous applications of the TPB to entrepreneurship, however, have generally used student samples and applied a cross-sectional design (Shook et al., 2003). With reference to a sample of 128 undergraduate Norwegian business students, Kolvereid (1996b) found that attitudes, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control were significantly related to intentions to pursue a self-employed career. These findings were later replicated by Tkashev and Kolvereid (1999), with regard to a sample of 512 Russian university students from different disciplines. In both studies, perceived behavioral control was found to be the strongest predictor of behavior followed by subjective norm and attitude. These studies also noted that having a family background in entrepreneurship, gender and entrepreneurial experience, only indirectly influenced entrepreneurial intentions through their effect on attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. Krueger et al. (2000) tested the TPB's ability to predict intentions to start a business in a sample of 97 senior university business students. Attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control were significantly related to entrepreneurial intention, but only perceived behavioral control and attitude were significant predictors of intentions in the subsequent multivariate analysis.

Some people may argue that trying to become self-employed is not the most interesting entrepreneurial behavior. Entrepreneurship is ultimately about wealth creation, not about the creation of a job for the founder. However, starting a business and entering into self-employment is in most cases the first step of an entrepreneurial career. To really learn about entrepreneurship, it is not sufficient to study success stories, we also need knowledge about the process entrepreneurs go through on their way to success or failure. The present research illustrates that the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior are well suited for research into entrepreneurial behaviors. Salient beliefs concerning self-employment determine attitude toward self-employment. Attitude and subjective norm concerning self-employment determine intentions to become self-employed, and self-employment intentions determine actual entry into self-employment. The other variables included in the regressions were essentially noise. However, the finding that male entrepreneurs are significantly more likely to enter into self-employment than their female counterparts causes some concern and may be used to justify training programs that target female entrepreneurs. The findings reported here show a strong, highly significant relationship between self-employment intention and entry into self-employment, suggesting that entry into self-employment is an intentional behavior. Self-employment intention, in turn, is determined by attitude and subjective norms concerning self-employment. Attitudes may be altered in education and training programs. The finding that subjective norm is positively associated with self-employment intentions suggest that we should not only consider the venture idea and the entrepreneur when evaluating or promoting a new venture project. The entrepreneurs' household and significant others should also be taken into consideration. There is reason to believe that the measures of entrepreneurial self-efficacy included in the present research were wrong, given that the dependent variable was entry into self-employment and not growth. Future research should attempt to identify specific competences that are associated with different kinds of entrepreneurial behavior. When we can demonstrate that a specific competence is central for entrepreneurial progress, we should incorporate them in our entrepreneurship education and training programs.