Exploring the Role of Perceived Behavioural Control in Shaping the Intentions of Zambian Entrepreneurs

Purpose: This paper examines the influence of perceived behavioural control on the entrepreneurial intentions of Zambian entrepreneurs using the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Established entrepreneurs, were used as study subjects, due to the need to assess the effect of practical entrepreneurial competences gained from years of experience on subsequent intentions. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative survey approach was used to collect primary data from 223 established entrepreneurs, selected by random sampling method. The questions measured self-efficacy and a self-administered questionnaire was used. Data was collected and SPSS was used for data analysis from which descriptive statistics and regression analysis was obtained. Findings: The findings revealed that perceived behavioural control (self-efficacy to be exact) is a strong predictor ( 𝛽 = .146, t = 2.237, p = .032) of the entrepreneurial intentions of established entrepreneurs in Zambia. This significantly positive result was attributed to entrepreneurs’ own practical entrepreneurial competences. Research limitations/implications: . In the study only a few measuring items were captured included in the research instrument to capture the respondents’ perceptions. Future research could adopt a broader and standard conceptualisation of PBC to further explore additional dynamic between PBC and entre-preneurial intentions. Practical implications: Entrepreneurial competences (gained through practice or formal training) are pivotal in fostering entrepreneurship development. This knowledge will provide deeper insights to policymakers, educators and stakeholders work to develop entrepreneurial educational policies and strategies aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial mindsets in the country. Originality/value: The study conributes research knowledge to existing literature about on the efficacy of Perceived behavioural Control in predicting entrepreneurial intentions among established entrepreneurs in a developing country context.


Introduction
Zambia has espoused to being a private sector led economy since the liberalization of the economy in 1991.Since then, entrepreneurship has been an area of focus for the Government in terms of creating a supportive entrepreneurial environment.Additionally, Zambia aspires to be a prosperous middleincome economy by the year 2030, according to the Government document, Vision 2006-2030, and it • Email: editor@ijfmr.com

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Volume 5, Issue 5, September-October 2023 2 hopes to achieve this ambitious goal through the promotion of entrepreneurial activities.For this reason, institutions such as Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission and Zambia Development Agency were established in 2006 to facilitate access to business development services, markets and finance for entrepreneurs.While Patents and Company Registration Agency established in 2010 implemented business registration reforms to reduce business registration fees and processing time.However, despite Government efforts, the number of businesses failing is high.According to Mwaanga and Chewe (2016), research has pointed out that the rate of failure of entrepreneurs in developing countries is higher than in the developed world.For Zambia it has been observed that many entrepreneurs are closing their businesses and getting back to their old ways of doing business (Mwaanga and Chewe 2016).This observation was also reported earlier that the business closure rates for Zambia was at 20%, compared to 16% in sub-Saharan Africa and 6% in the Middle East and North Africa (Chigunta 2014).This dynamic between the new businesses registrations and high failure rate suggests that established businesses face challenges which can impact their entrepreneurial intentions.It also suggests that established entrepreneurs may be exposed to competition from new entrants which could make it difficult for them to increase their market share, or that they do not have readily access to finance, or that the failure rates could influence them to be risk averse or that they lack the requisite entrepreneurial competences to sustain a business.
Little empirical research has been conducted in Zambia to assess the effect that these Government efforts have had on promoting growth of entrepreneurial activities in the country.However, prior research has revealed that these 2 factors, business environment and entrepreneurial competences, have been suggested to be key in promoting and supporting accelerated growth of robust entrepreneurial activity (Antonio Thomas et al., 2014).The former refers to prevailing business conditions (external factors) that support entrepreneurial activities, and the latter refers to an aspiring entrepreneur's abilities (internal factors) necessary for founding and running a business.Both these sets of factors must be present (in sufficient measures) to be able to create strong enough interest (or intentions) among the people to found and run businesses.People become more strongly predisposed toward starting a business when their perceptions about the external business conditions are positive and strong (Davidsson, 1991 This Study therefore provides an opportunity to examine the influence of perceived behavioural control on the entrepreneurial intentions of established entrepreneurs.Specifically, the study investigates the influence of perceived behavioural control on Zambian entrepreneurs.The findings could have significant economic and policy implications, in terms of helping the Government and other economic development stakeholders to come up with informed policies and strategies that would help "create" entrepreneurs, which the country so very much needs to help grow the economy.

Perceived Behavioural Control
Theoretically, Perceived Behavioural Control is conceptualised as an individual's own competentences (internal factors) needed to actually carry out the tasks demanded of him or her in starting a new business or scaling up an existing one, and to manage external factors that might impinge upon the performance of a particular entrepreneurial behaviour.Because the aspiring entrepreneurs' perceptions are about their actual abilities to control their performance of a targeted entrepreneurial behaviour, PBC can also, like entrepreneurial intentions, predict entrepreneurial behaviours directly (Ajzen, 1988;1991).That is to say, PBC is not only a predictor variable of entrepreneurial intentions, it is also a moderating variable between entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial behaviours.Wallston (2015) makes this observation, that, on a conceptual basis, PBC is akin to self-efficacy, as both of these constructs refer to a person's belief that the targeted entrepreneurial behaviour is under his or her control.However, operationally, PBC is often assessed by the ease of the behaviour, whilst self-efficacy is operationalised by the individual's confidence in being able to carry out the behaviour in the face of extenuating circumstances.
Extant research literature indicates that many countries have recognised (and even adopted) entrepreneurial competences as a key factor in their national socio-economic growth strategies.All the members of the European Union, for example, have placed entrepreneurial competences high on their policy agenda (European Commission, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2013a& 2013b).In the early 2000s, they have implemented many actions to incorporate entrepreneurship as a competence in the curricula for school and university education as well as for vocational training (Komarkova et al., 2015; Eurydice, 2012).Most of them have also adopted the EU-created entrepreneurship education frameworks and tools to operationalise this transversal skill across educational settings (Komarkova et al., 2015).The overall goal of entrepreneurship education is to impart in the students entrepreneurial attitudes, knowledge and skills so that, over time, they can begin to act in an entrepreneurial way.In their textbook, "Entrepreneurship Higher Education in Europe," Angelo Riviezzo and colleagues (2012) have noted how heavily Europe is investing on entrepreneurship education.They point out that the centrality of entrepreneurship education has been accepted because of its potential to influence students' aspiration towards entrepreneurship and to raise intentions towards entrepreneurial action (Clark, 2004; Gibb, 2005; Fayolle 2007; Napolitano and Riviezzo, 2008).Entrepreneurship education aims to promote creativity, innovation, problem-solving, self-employment, as well as to develop personal attributes and skills that are at the heart of the entrepreneurial mindset.In this way, the benefits of entrepreneurship education are not just about business start-ups and job creation, but are extended to daily life, as students become more confident in what they do as they live their lives.

The Theoretical Basis for the Study
This study will apply the TPB to explain the effect of PBC on entrepreneurial intentions in Zambia.
However, before we get to that, it is important that we present the TPB and show how it robustly predicts entrepreneurial behaviours.Its structural equation is very simple; it uses 3 explanatory variablesattitude toward entrepreneurial behaviour, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control.Each of these variables is determined by the individual's beliefs associated with it.The predictive power of all these 3 variables combine to form entrepreneurial intentions, which, in turn, predict entrepreneurial behaviours Ajzen (1991).The theory is believed to produce very reliable results because it is based on aspiring entrepreneurs' perceptions about their entrepreneurial competences and the existing external business conditions (Krueger et al., (2000).These variables are explained bellow.
Attitude toward behaviour refers to an individual's positive or negative expectations of the outcomes from the targeted new business.The extent to which these expectations are positive will determine how strongly inclined that individual is to launching such a business.(Ajzen, 2001;Autio et al., 2001;Kolvereid, 1996).Conversely, the lower his or her favourability rating is of the targeted business's success, the lower the chances that he or she will launch that business.
Subjective norms are associated with the support that an individual wishing to start a business gets from family, friends and colleagues, in terms of their approval (or disapproval) of the idea, and the social pressure which they exert on him or her to start the targeted business (Ajzen, 2001).The extent to which the individual's evaluation of these influences is favourable will determine the likelihood of founding the new business or expanding the existing one.Perceived behavioural control refers to how confident an individual feels about his or her abilities to start and run a new business, taking into consideration all the risks and uncertainties associated with new business start-ups.The extent to which he or she is confident that he or she possesses the capabilities to perform and control entrepreneurial activities will determine the likelihood (or unlikelihood) of the targeted business's start-up or expansion.In other words, PBC refers to the person's belief that the targeted behaviour is under his or her control (Ajzen, 2002).
Entrepreneurial intention -This is defined as "the conscious state of mind that precedes action and directs attention toward entrepreneurial behaviours, such as starting a new business and becoming an entrepreneur" (Moriano et al. 2012; p. 165).In the structural equation of the TPB, entrepreneurial intentions are the outcome variable, and, as stated earlier, are predicted by the aforementioned 3 aforementioned TPB antecedents.In other words, the greater the strength of the predictive power each one of these antecedents possesses, the stronger the intentions will be to create the targeted business.
The intention approach to explaining entrepreneurship dates back to the 1980s, with the research works of Shapero & Shokol (1982) and Shapero (1984).Since then, studies have consistently shown that entrepreneurial activities are the product of intentionally planned behaviours, and according to Krueger et al. (2000) and Kolvereid & Isaksen (2006), intentions are the single best predictor of most such planned behaviours, including entrepreneurial behaviours.It would not be too much to argue, therefore, that this is the reason why entrepreneurial intentions are recognised worldwide as a formidable economic tool in creating and growing businesses, which will lead to an accelerated growth of the economy.).The PBC variable measured the extent entrepreneurs would be able to be in control of the required entrepreneurial activities, if they were to create a new business.All the data was analysed using the SSPS-V23.The Cronbach's alpha test was applied to measure the internal consistency and PBC variable and it yielded a Cronbach's alpha = .811,which indicated a high degree of data reliability.Lastly, the data was subjected to Linear regression analyses to test if there was a positive association and relationship between PBC and the outcome variable entrepreneurial intention.

Presentation of Results
The results presented are for the 223 completed and returned questionnaires Table 2 shows the results of the responses to the extent to which the entrepreneurs perceived having control over their behaviours to participate in registering a business or reinvesting in an existing one.According to the results 98.6% of the survey responses totally and strongly agreed to possessing knowledge of defining their business idea and strategy and 97.3% to possessing to the ability to recognise market opportunities.Another most important factor, according to the respondents, that plays a crucial part in deciding to start up new businesses (or expanding existing ones) was the individual's abilities to control external factors that could impinge upon successfully performing such entrepreneurial behaviours.The respondents totally and strongly agreed that the competence for negotiating and maintaining supportive relationships with potential investors and banks (93.7 %), as well as that for maintaining good relationships with key people for the purpose of obtaining business financial capital (92.8%), was one of the most influential factors in deciding to start a new business or reinvest in an existing one.A general inference that can be drawn from these survey results is that persons with strong perceptions about their entrepreneurial competences are most likely to pursue entrepreneurial goals with determination and resilience.
As presented in Table 3, the descriptive statistics provide an overall understanding of the respondents' perceptions about their abilities to control their targeted entrepreneurial behaviours.Although the variable shows some degree of skewness it still falls within the generally acceptable range (-1 to +1); i.e., the departure from symmetry is not too much.The value of Kurtosis also falls within the accepted range of +3 to -3, an indication that the departure from the normal distribution is not significant.The descriptive statistics (M = 1.80,SD = .959)for PBC reveal a relatively high level of entrepreneurs' perceived behavioural control over creating and expanding businesses, even with the SD score suggesting a moderate amount of variability in the respondents' perceptions about their entrepreneurship abilities.On average there was a high level of agreement with their perceived control over their behaviours.This indicates that they felt confident and capable to actually engage in activities, overcome obstacles and take actions to overcome obstacles.They perceived to have control over behaviours such as negotiating for funding in order to reinvest.The Regression Analysis was undertaken with Entrepreneurial intention as the outcome variable and PBC as the predictor variable.The results are shown in Table 4.  4, show that the regression coefficient for PBC was positive and significant ( = .141,t = 2.153, p = .032).The regression analysis supports the hypothesis.This finding reveals that a 14.1% change in PBC brings about a proportional change in the entrepreneurial intentions of the entrepreneurs.In other words, PBC is a robust predictor of entrepreneurial intentions for entrepreneurs aspiring to perform entrepreneurial behaviours in Zambia.

Discussion and Implications of Findings
This study sought to find out if PBC (or self-efficacy) influences the intentions of entrepreneurs aspiring to perform entrepreneurial behaviours in Zambia.This study finding answered that question for us in the affirmative and the hypothesis was supported.This is significant because it sheds a very clear light on how people in Zambia, at least in part, can be influenced to develop genuine and strong interest (or intentions) to become and remain good, solid entrepreneurs.Most of the previous research conducted have used students as samples from developed countries.This study makes a contribution by sowing the applicability of the TPB using established entrepreneurs in a developing country.The findings align with the TPB and previous research conducted.The findings are consistent with prior research done by (Autio et al 2001; Krueger and Carsrud (1993); Kolvereid (1996);Linan and Chen (2009) Kautonen (2011); Sabah (2016 ); Mwiya et al 2017) who in their respective studies, also found that PBC is a significant determinant of entrepreneurial intentions in different country contexts and settings.The more that people and entrepreneurs have strong belief in their entrepreneurial abilities to found businesses or expand existing ones, the stronger their entrepreneurial intentions will be, which, in turn, will lead to increased likelihood of actually engaging in those entrepreneurial ventures.This finding underscores the importance of entrepreneurial competences in the perception of both aspiring and already established entrepreneursin Zambia.It also has some very positive implications on how the country must proceed in terms of creating strong interest (or intentions) among the people to found new businesses or scale up existing ones.This empirical evidence has shown, clearly, that the more there are people in the country with strong perceptions about their abilities to found and run business firms, the higher the likelihood that they will do so, and consequently, the higher the likelihood that the economy will grow and people's socioeconomic welfare improved.Now, seeing that Zambia does not have significant numbers of citizens with strong and high levels of entrepreneurial competences, the only way to solve this problem is by "creating" them -through specially designed entrepreneurship education programmes.In the country's quest to solve the problem associated with the lack of people with sufficient entrepreneurial competences, there is need to begin with apprehending the very concept of entrepreneurship as an entrepreneurial competence, in as much as it is about acting upon opportunities and transforming them into value (FEE-YE, 2012).Margherita Bacigalupo et al. (2016) suggest 3 broad entrepreneurial competence areas: identifying business ideas and opportunities; sourcing requisite resources; and taking action to translate the business opportunities into value.Clearly, each of these areas also requires its unique, specialised and often rare competences.

Implications
Here are 3 clear implications of the study finding concerning PBC as a positive and significant predictor of entrepreneurial intentions among entrepreneurs in Zambia:

(1.) Implications on National Policy on Education System
It was noted earlier (from the definition of entrepreneurship as an entrepreneurial competence) that entrepreneurial competences are all about value creation (Ivana Komarkova et al., 2015).That is what makes them very robust drivers of economic growth.Not only do they relate to acquiring academic knowledge, but also, more importantly, practical, ready-to-use entrepreneurial skills and a solid entre-preneurial mindset to go with them.There is no doubt that Zambia needs to introduce a very deliberate and robust national entrepreneurship education policy to solve the problem of the lack of people with strong entrepreneurial intentions to found entrepreneurial behaviours in the country.Teaching students' practical entrepreneurial skills, especially, using a strong demonstration approach, from an early age, will inexorably lead to creation of very strong and positive entrepreneurial mindsets and intentions among the students by the time they leave college.Once students are exposed to entrepreneurship from very early age, they are most likely to be impacted in a way that that will radically and positively change their thinking and approach to solving problems even in the other areas of their lives.It should, however, be borne in mind that changing people's mindsets takes a long time; therefore, the sooner the Government and all other entrepreneurship stakeholders take decisive action to radically change Zambia's education system the better.

2.) Implication on Education Institutions
Education institutions will need to work in collaboration with the Government and the industrial sector to develop appropriate entrepreneurship education curricula.A decision would have to be made (in view of the fact that entrepreneurship education is essentially a cross-curricular field) as to whether it should be mainstreamed in the other education fields, or should be a stand-alone education field.Universities and colleges can also play a very important role of business incubators to some of their students that end up deciding to become entrepreneurs.This would tremendously increase their perceptions about becoming entrepreneurs after college.One other way to accelerate equipping aspiring entrepreneurs with basic practical entrepreneurial skills is through implementation of community-level vocational training schemes.These can be run, for example, by non-profit organisations, with technical and financial support from the Government, the industrial sector and higher-level education institutions (colleges and universities).

(3.) The Role of Established Entrepreneurs in Fostering Entrepreneurial Knowledge, Skills and Mindsets
Individually, and through the various business representative associations operating in the country, established and experienced entrepreneurs could play a very important role in fostering entrepreneurialism in Zambia: First, by contributing funding towards vocational training schemes once established.To the extent that these skills training schemes will be run by non-profits, they will need a lot of financial support from both the Government and established industrial organisations; Second, by providing teaching resource to these vocational entrepreneurial skills training schemes, possibly as part of their social responsibility to the Zambian communities.Much of their practical entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, gained from long years of experience as entrepreneurs, can be put to some good use, particularly in equipping the aspiring entrepreneurs with the competences they need once they found their own businesses and those aspiring to join the industrial sector as employees.It can be argued that their practical demonstration to aspiring entrepreneurs of how entrepreneurship works in real life can also prove to be a more effective way of changing the course participants' mindsets.After all, such entrepreneurial education programmes are also very much in their own business interests; they need to engage people in their firms as employees who have practical entrepreneurial skills for the successful running of their business firms.Therefore, they cannot afford to have a passing interest in these efforts; and Third, by providing business incubation support to aspiring entrepreneurs to help them get started and navigate through the start-up phase, which is usually ridden with so much uncertainties and risks.A business incubator is an organisation that helps accelerate the start-up process of a new business, its growth and success, by providing special entrepreneurial competences and such other support as venture capital, technical services, mentorship, networking connections, etc.

Limitations and future research
Although the Study has revealed some valuable insights and implications, it has some limitations.In this study only a few measuring items were included in the research instrument to capture the respondents' perceptions.For the purpose of increasing the predictive power of the variable PBC in explaining entrepreneurial intentions, and also for the sake of the generalisability of research findings, it is strongly recommended that future similar research adopt a broader and standard conceptualisation of PBC to further explore additional dynamic between PBC and entrepreneurial intentions.

Conclusion and Recommendations
In this paper an attempt has been made to show that Zambia's aspiration to transform its fledgling economy into a prosperous middle-income economy by 2030 rests, in no small part, on generating a strong entrepreneurial mindset in its citizens through and entrepreneurial education system, which places emphasis on both academic knowledge and practical, ready-to-use, skills.If such education were offered to students from primary to university levels, there is a very high chance that it would not only equip the students with theoretical entrepreneurial knowledge and practical skills, but also generate in them a strong entrepreneurial attitude and mindset.Both these constitute entrepreneurial competence, one of the factors that strongly predispose people towards founding and scaling up business firms.This is most probably the only radical way that Zambia can increase the numbers of solid and genuine entrepreneurs to help grow the economy faster and create many good jobs for its citizens.This conclusion derives its support from this research finding, that PBC, or perceived entrepreneurial competence, can generate and increase entrepreneurial intentions among people aspiring to become entrepreneurs.Accordingly, it is strongly recommended that the Government and all the entrepreneurship stakeholders take radical steps and reform the entire education system in the country to make it conducive for students, not only to gain entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, but also to develop an entrepreneurial attitude that is always seeking out opportunities to exploit them and create value for themselves and for others.Lastly, in the previous section, roles were suggested -and they are evidently "make-or-break" rolesthat the Government, education institutions, non-profits, and the industrial companies can play in fostering entrepreneurialism in the country.There appears to be little chance of moving forward in growing the economy, unless these key stakeholders make certain that they seriously play their respective roles.
; Birley and Westhead, 1993; Begley et al., 2005: p. 37; Shane and Ventakaraman, 2000; Krueger & Brazeal, 1994, Entrepreneurial competences are also considered a highly critical factor in entrepreneurs' ability to discover economic/business opportunities and to exploit and manage them to create financial, economic and social value (Davidsson and Honig, 2003; Henry et al., 2005; Antonio et al., 2007).Especially for start-ups and small enterprises, entrepreneurial competences are critical in encouraging people to start their own business (Galloway and Brown, 2002; Rodrigues et al., 2010).

2. 0
Literature Review According to literature the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial activity are what create wealth and economic growth (Komarkova et al 2015).Over time as the concept of entrepreneurship has developed and entrepreneurs have come to represent individuals who not only undertake business ventures but who also have distinct characteristics.Entrepreneurs are thus individuals characterized and defined as risk takers, creators, innovators, job creators, opportunity takers and contributors to economic growth (Shane and Venkataraman (2000); Ahmad & Hoffman, 2007).The following definitions for entrepreneur, entrepreneurial behavior (or activity), and entrepreneurship will be adopted for this Study.Entrepreneur -The individual (business owner) who seeks to generate financial or economic value through the creation or expansion of economic activity, by identifying and exploiting new products, processes and markets (Ahmad & Hoffman, 2007, p. 4).Entrepreneurial behaviour (or activity) -Enterprising human action in pursuit of the generation of value through the creation or expansion of economic activity, by identifying and exploiting new products, processes and markets (Ahmad & Hoffman, 2007, p. 4).Entrepreneurship -The phenomenon associated with entrepreneurial activity (Ahmad & Hoffman, 2007, p. 4).
Empirical studies have consistently established that PBC (sometimes referred to as entrepreneurial selfefficacy (ESE)) is a reliable predictor of entrepreneurial intentions (Markman, Maddox and Baldwin, 2005; Hills, 2005; Townsend, Busenitz and Arthurs, 2010; Marlino, 2007).Autio et al (2001); Linan and Chen (2009) as well asKrueger and Carsrud (1993)  and Kautonen (2011), in their respective studies, also found that PBC is a significant determinant of entrepreneurial intentions in different country contexts and settings.Further, the findings of a systematic review that was done by Linan and Fayolle (2015) also support the effectiveness of PBC as a predictor of entrepreneurial intentions and its flexibility in different contexts (e.g., De Noble, Jung and Ehrlich, 1999).According toKrueger et al. (2000), in the field of entrepreneurship, ESE has proved to be a remarkable predictor of entrepreneurial intentions in the room and stead of PBC.Based on the literature review this study proposes the following hypothesis: Hypothesis: There is a positive relationship between perceived behavioural control and entrepreneurial intentions among Zambian entrepreneurs3.0MethodologyThe study adopted a survey research design and data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire.The sample size for the study comprised 223 Zambian entrepreneurs randomly selected from the total population of established entrepreneurs.The use of established entrepreneurs was informed by the need to assess the subsequent intentions of entrepreneurs in the existing business environment.The questionnaire used a 7-point Likert scale and the responses ranged from 1 -Totally agree to respondents to indicate to 7-Totally disagree.The questionnaire is rooted in the Ajzen (1991) TPB and consistent with other similar instruments(Autio et  al 2001); Linan & Chen 2009 of entrepreneurial intent: evidences from an empirical survey.Journal of Enterprising Culture, 22(04), pp.375-400.41.Wallston, K. A., 2015, Control Beliefs: Health Perspectives.DOI:10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.14070-X.

Table 1 :
ResearcherAccording to table 1 the majority of the respondents were female representing 70% while the age range 31-40 comprised the majority.Regarding education attainment, the majority 32.7% had achieved professional status followed by 30% that had an undergraduate degree.