Entrepreneurship is now suggested as a competence not only for starting new businesses but for employability and well-being as well. Envisaged as a career option, entrepreneurship is now a new concern in the field of career counseling psychology. Traditionally, entrepreneurship is about starting new businesses or being self-employed, but nowadays, it is also considered a competence for employability and well-being. Systematically nurtured in educational settings for more than two decades, the entrepreneurial intention of students has become a specific construct for educators to assess the impact of entrepreneurial courses. The present article seeks to critically review the psychological constructs, models, and approaches that have been used in educational settings to explain the formation of entrepreneurial intention. The majority of relevant studies has been found to be quantitative, reproducing in a positivist manner the construct of self-efficacy and the theory of reasoned action. Some constructs and approaches that have been extensively used in the career counseling discipline seem to be under-researched in the entrepreneurship education field. In this line of research, the potential contribution of sources on self-efficacy and dysfunctional career beliefs or motives should be examined. Additionally, theoretical paradigms like constructionist-narrative-based career counseling or positive psychology and other newer theories (e.g., happenstance learning theory) might be useful in investigating several influences on career decision making for entrepreneurship. Based on the current findings from the literature, a research agenda is proposed for future research in the field in order to achieve better connections between entrepreneurship and career theories and to shed light on the complex process of students’ entrepreneurial career decisions.

A missing link between entrepreneurship education and career choices is how and when alumni decide to behave entrepreneurially. This question pertains to the impact of entrepreneurship education as envisaged in various educational policies. The vast majority of relevant studies have examined the concepts of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention across courses and audiences worldwide. A recent trend adopts more systematic career development theories as the social cognitive career theory (SCCT). In this line, the present article provides new insights in SCCT models including the construct of dysfunctional career beliefs that represents an essential element in career decision-making. The article presents a small-scale quantitative research through a sample of Greek adults aimed to examine the relations between entrepreneurial intention and dysfunctional career beliefs as well as the informational sources of self-efficacy representing fundamental premises of SCCT. The pilot findings show that “significant others”, a dimension of dysfunctional career beliefs, influence the entrepreneurial career decision process as an extraneous personal parameter. Linear multiple regression analysis demonstrated that positive emotions, mastery experiences and the perceptions regarding significant others’ influence in career decision-making significantly predicted entrepreneurial intention. It is also shown that influence from significant others moderates the relationship between positive emotions and entrepreneurial intention, that is, intensifying the previous relationship when influence of significant others is low and decreasing it when this influence is high. These findings are discussed in the context of entrepreneurial career decision making with implications to educational and career counselling practices.

The formation of entrepreneurial intentions and their translation into behaviors still remains unclear. This study contributes to the field by examining socio-cognitive concepts and dysfunctional career beliefs that have not been employed in previous studies. Emotional states are one primary source of self-efficacy, an important driver of career decisions. In turn, emotional states interact with dysfunctional beliefs when making entrepreneurial career decisions. Using a sample of 323 participants, the analysis revealed two key findings. First, positive emotions significantly predict both entrepreneurial intentions and subsequent behaviors. Second, “criticality of the decision”, a dysfunctional career belief, was found to be a key moderator that (a) mitigates the negative effects of adverse emotions on entrepreneurial intentions and (b) weakens the relationship between intentions and actual entrepreneurial actions. These findings are novel and deepen our understanding of the emotional and cognitive processes underlying entrepreneurial career choices. They also provide theoretical insights on the connection between entrepreneurship and career theory and have practical implications for educators and career counselors who aim to support the next generation of aspiring entrepreneurs systematically and coherently.