Parents' support for children's entrepreneurial behavior: incentivizing the next generation of entrepreneurs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present an explanatory model of the factors that determine parental support for possible entrepreneurial initiatives of the parents' children. This is one of the most important challenges to promote the next generation of entrepreneurs.Design/methodology/approachA perspective based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) is adopted, and the model is extended to integrate the antecedents of personal attitude toward children's entrepreneurship. The model is tested on a sample of 400 parents.FindingsPerceived behavioral control (PBC), namely the perception that parents have about the readiness of the children to be entrepreneurs plays the greatest effect on the intention of supporting children's entrepreneurial behavior. In addition, parents' perceptions of how people from the immediate surroundings value the children's possible entrepreneurial behavior are the second most influential variable in the parents' intention to support such behavior. Finally, a parent's personal attitude toward the parent's children's entrepreneurship is the third most relevant variable to explain intention to support, practically with the same weight as subjective norms (SNs).Practical implicationsThe results seem to confirm the importance of entrepreneurship development policies that focus on family characteristics and mindsets rather than on more traditional formal institutional support, such as business advice or financial resources. Family emerges as a key mediator to transfer the rules of normative and cultural-cognitive dimensions. Moreover, the results indicate the important role of entrepreneurship education in enhancing entrepreneurship not only due to the positive direct impact on students' entrepreneurial intentions, but also by changing parents' perceptions regarding the children's capabilities and, therefore, influencing the support for entrepreneurial behavior.Originality/valuePrevious studies have analyzed the influence of support from the immediate environment, especially the family, on young people's entrepreneurial behavior and have defined the types of support the family environment can provide. However, there is a missing link in the literature regarding the determinants of family support, despite the determinants' importance in configuring the normative and cultural-cognitive dimensions and the determinants' impact on society, promoting entrepreneurship.