The Relationship between Chinese Parental Psychological Control and Next-Generation’s Entrepreneurial Intention

Abstract

In the research field of entrepreneurial intention (EI), scholars have researched the predictors including personal natural traits, demographics, family career background, entrepreneurial education etc., and in current years, the role of parental style in effecting the EI of next generations has received increasingly attention in the field. Very limited research, however, has investigated the detailed role of parental style, particularly the parental psychological control (PPC) affecting children’s EI. In order to address this research gap, this paper aims to investigate the role of PPC on next generation’s EI development as well as mental health, and meanwhile, to figure out the mediated mechanisms of the PPC – EI and mental health relationship. Drawing from Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB) which has been supported by previous empirical research evidence, the mediating roles of need for control, perceived desirability, resilience, perceived feasibility in the PPC-EI relationship are empirically investigated in the Chinese context. The data were collected via a cross-sectional survey using a questionnaire on a sample of who are facing imminent career decision, including the undergraduate students and postgraduate students. A total amount of 330 questionnaires were returned during 2 months, in which 45 cases were found to be largely incomplete and 30 cases were identified as outliers. Thus, 75 cases were deleted from the dataset and the finally 255 cases were retained for the data analysis. The findings from this study released that there is no clear linear relationship between parental psychological control and next generation’s entrepreneurial intention which was proposed to be mediated by ability of resilience and need for autonomy. Although the data result does not fully support the proposed multiple mediator model, the most interesting finding is that the data released the curvilinear U-shape and S-shape relationship between two mediators (resilience and need for autonomy) and parental psychological control, which still gives the inspired contribution to the future research on this topic. Data result revealed U-shape relationship between next generation’s resilience and parental psychological control. For the perspective of need for autonomy, there is also U-shape relationship between need for autonomy and psychological control from mother, but S-shape relationship was released between need for autonomy and psychological control from father. This curvilinear relationship between predictor and mediator, may also have the curvilinear effect on final outcome of next generation’s entrepreneurial intention. For future study, it will be suggested to further enhance our understanding of the underlying personal-level assumptions young generation in Chinese family firms which may lead them to later entrepreneurial intentions and decisions.