The contribution of self-efficacy to the relationship between personality traits and entrepreneurial intention

Promoting farming work is crucial for sustainable economic development in Asian-Pacific rural areas. How to promote rural entrepreneurship has recently become a critical issue in agricultural education. This article reports the results of two subsequent studies. The first study confirmed the factor structures of the five-factor model of personality, the general self-efficacy scale, and the entrepreneurial intention scale. The second study tested the mediating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between personality traits and entrepreneurial intention among agricultural students. The results indicate that entrepreneurial intention comprises two dimensions: conviction and preparation. Accordingly, the mediation model of self-efficacy is partially supported. Extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness reliably predict both conviction and preparation, whereas neuroticism does not. In addition to the indirect effects, both openness and negative emotion exert a direct effect on entrepreneurial intention in agricultural students.