The proponents of the entrepreneurial motivation dichotomy have argued that opportunity-driven entrepreneurs are more likely to succeed and sustain in entrepreneurship, unlike people who start-up businesses out of necessity. However, disagreement still exists on why and under which conditions the former might outperform the latter. This research contributes to this debate by examining the mediation role of psychological capital in the relationship between entrepreneurial motivation and business success among youths. This study relied on a random sample of 295 young entrepreneurs surveyed from Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). We applied partial least squares to analyze the hypothesized relationships. Evidence for the positive effect of opportunity-led motivation on psychological capital was found, but the findings did not support any direct effect of entrepreneurial motivation on business success. Instead, psychological capital positively and significantly mediated the relationship between entrepreneurial motivation and business success. This paper makes a distinctive new contribution to the understanding of the intriguing and controversial entrepreneurial motivation dichotomy—a business success relationship. To this end, we have found out that opportunity entrepreneurs have 3% more chance of succeeding in businesses compared to necessity entrepreneurs, because the former outperform the latter by 4% in the dimensions of psychological capital. This paper has new policy implications, as it reveals the great importance of psychological capital in promoting business success, thus reducing unemployment among youths, and offers tips from which psychological capital can be built or improved.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a country with a high agricultural productivity potential; however, the agribusiness sector remains unattractive to youths. This study examined the extent to which perceived social norms and psychological capital affect youths’ intentions to pursue agribusiness opportunities in the Eastern DRC. Data was collected on a sample of 600 youths. We applied Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS−SEM) in order to examine the relationship between the variables. The findings indicated that most of the youths did not select agribusiness as their top career choice. The intention to engage in agribusiness activities was significantly higher among the youths who perceived that agribusiness was socially valued and supported. Psychological capital significantly and positively affects youths’ agripreneurial intention. The findings contribute to the underlying Theory of Planned Behavior by supporting a positive mediation role of psychological capital—and the moderating roles of educational level, gender, access to land, and location—on the relationship between perceived social norms and agripreneurial intention. The paper concludes that the provision of funds is not enough to promote youth agripreneurship in an environment in which agricultural-related social norms, youths’ psychological capital, gender, access to land, educational level, and location (rural versus urban) are not thoroughly considered.

Despite the merit of extant studies on career decision regrets, they are not well integrated, are developed at different speeds and differ in focus. Specifically, they do not address an important question about the levels and antecedents of regret arising from choosing entrepreneurship instead of paid employment and vice versa. The authors adopted the regret regulation theory as foundation to examining the moderated effect of entrepreneurial potential (EP) on career choice regret (CCR) among employees and entrepreneurs. The authors surveyed 721 employees and 724 entrepreneurs from a developing country and applied partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to test the hypotheses. Employees regretted their career choice three times more when compared with entrepreneurs. However, the authors failed to conclude that the latter had three times better living conditions when compared with the former. EP negatively influenced the regret of being an entrepreneur in lieu of an employee while it positively influenced the regret of being an employee in lieu of an entrepreneur. The perceived opportunity cost of being a higher EP employee was three times greater when compared with that of being a lower EP entrepreneur. The effect of EP on CCR was mitigated or amplified by duration in the career, former career status, decision justifiability, and perceived environment's supportiveness. The design was cross-sectional, thus, the findings cannot be interpreted in the strict sense of causality. The authors rely on an important yet often overlooked context of the choice between entrepreneurship and paid employment to test, clarify, and extend the regret regulation theory. The findings have novel human resource management and entrepreneurship policy implications.

Despite efforts to reduce youth unemployment through agribusiness incubations, significant gaps persist globally and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) regarding the efficiency of the incubation value chain model in promoting youth in agribusiness. The study hypothesizes that incubation is most effective when aligning participants with value chains and fostering networks. It examines the effectiveness of the incubation value chain model through Youth-Oriented Outreach Resource Training Centers–Business Incubators (YORTC-BIs) in eastern DRC. It represents the first study conceptualizing YORTC-BIs as value chain architects rather than organizational structures. Using a sample of 310 youths, the study applies descriptive statistics and logistic regression to evaluate the determinants of youth participation in YORTC-BIs, while Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition assessed gender and spatial disparities. A quasi-experimental design combined with enterprise turnover growth analysis and propensity score matching assesses the impact of YORTC-BIs engagement in agribusiness and incubator efficiency compared to non-participants. Network analysis examines incubators’ interaction across value chain segments. Findings indicate that youth engagement in agribusiness is driven by training, assets, role models, and social networks, with gender and regional disparities. Participation in YORTC-BIs increases the likelihood of engagement by 56%, while incubated youth active across multiple value chain segments achieve 23% higher performance. Network analysis shows growing interconnections within the agribusiness system, with production as the central node. Value chain-oriented incubation models outperform standardized approaches, suggesting that context-sensitive, network-based strategies are essential for promoting inclusive agribusiness development and youth employment in fragile economic contexts.