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.

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.

Abstract Entrepreneurship is suggested as a key-mechanism for endogenous growth and social cohesion in modern, knowledge-driven societies and economies. Whether the youth will develop entrepreneurial competencies and initiatives has been considered crucial for economic growth and development and a key-subject of education and career counseling. Despite an increasing body of theoretical and empirical literature which mainly emphasize the formation of entrepreneurial intention and the strengthening of entrepreneurial self-efficacy -usually as a result of some intervention-, the findings show deficiencies or relative ambiguity, in terms of explaining the complex factors (e.g. entrepreneurial mindset, dysfunctional beliefs) associated with entrepreneurial intention and behavior. The present conceptual paper presents a synthetic literature review aiming at a deeper understanding of entrepreneurial intention and behavior. Based on the emergence of new, more explanatory, models to predict entrepreneurial behavior we emphasize how relevant research could approach this topic through the lens of the Socio-Cognitive Career Theory - driven by self-efficacy, outcome expectations and goal-directed activity - given that to date few studies have used this theoretical framework. We also suggest that the traditional entrepreneurial self-efficacy concept is investigated along with a new framework (ASKO) to measure beliefs regarding success of new ventures. ASKO typology traces a variety of different entrepreneurial mindsets within the person-environment dichotomy. Moreover, the potential contribution of dysfunctional career beliefs and locus of control in the formation of entrepreneurial behavior is examined. Career decision process and entrepreneurial career choices are highly complex and entail elements of various theoretical perspectives. The present literature review sheds light to our understanding of entrepreneurial career choices and suggests holistic in-depth research that will provide rich explanatory information on a wide range of behaviors. Finally, the present review provides opportunities to get insights regarding the nature and potential influence of support interventions in the context of entrepreneurship education and career counseling. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, career beliefs, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, ASKO typology, career counseling, entrepreneurship education.

Entrepreneurial learning is thought experiential. In addition, many scholars emphasise on the importance of reflection processes during the experiential learning cycles. Reflection is the key-process for meaning-making of experience adopted from practice. Entrepreneurial courses are usually driven by business plan tasks which emulate the way that entrepreneurs run their own firms. The impact of this pedagogical approach, especially in inspiring students to become entrepreneurs, is a subject for study and consideration. At the same time, fostering entrepreneurship has been associated with competencies able to support entrepreneurial initiatives. Hence, learning is inherent to venturing but there are still various aspects learning, and connections with competencies, to be considered for effective entrepreneurial teaching. The present paper examines possibilities for discussing entrepreneurship in career counselling contexts. We maintain that informal, peer-learning techniques in career counselling groups, can be a methodological tool to empower reflection on entrepreneurial principles and theoretical contingency approaches in connection with entrepreneurial skills and self-development. In the second part of the paper, we present an application: the online platform TeleCC.org - a non-profit initiative - designed to accommodate online career counselling groups in four-month seminars in Greece. The instructional design of the platform is discussed along with the pilot empirical tests with a Greek population interested in entrepreneurial career options.

The present study aims to examine the relationship of career decision-making difficulties, dysfunctional career thoughts and generalized self-efficacy, as factors involved in the decision-making process for university students. The study also investigates the influence of demographics and individual variables, and examines the predictive power of the Career Decision-making Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ) and the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) over the dimensions assessed by the Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI). The results revealed statistically significant positive correlations between CDDQ factors (lack of information, inconsistent information, and lack of readiness) and total grade in Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI), decision-making confusion, commitment difficulty and lack of determination. On the other hand, the results show statistically significant negative correlations between all the aforementioned variables and generalized self-efficacy. Moreover, the generalized self-efficacy, as well as the CDDQ factors seemed to be predictors of the lack of determination, decision-making confusion and commitment difficulty. Finally, there is a discussion about the additionality of the CDDQ and CTI Questionnaires and advantages from their common use. Findings are discussed in the terms of the career counseling framework.

The complex phenomenon of entrepreneurship is thought as generally divided to its exogenous and endogenous parts. The former concerns the existing market structure which incubates entrepreneurial opportunities while the latter concerns the human potential that habitually acts entrepreneurially. The socioeconomic environment also shapes certain beliefs of individuals about the holistic process of business venturing. Such an obscure set of beliefs, or assumptions, underlies the frames of reference of latent or nascent entrepreneurs, being an influential factor of their cognition during entrepreneurial education, counselling or lifelong informal learning. An exploration of the entrepreneurial beliefs of graduates, i.e. next generation entrepreneurs, is crucial since it is expected to depend on the local culture and economic conditions. The present study seeks to reveal certain beliefs of Greek graduates on business venturing. A survey of consisting of a 34-item questionnaire was conducted amongst both science and economics graduates The research methodology falls into the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the questionnaire includes affirmatively stated opinion items where individuals agree or disagree following a 5-item Likert scale. The items concern five major subjects of entrepreneurial thinking: conceptualizing entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial factors, motivation, risk management and business financing. Descriptive statistics, correlations and factor analysis are used to discuss the results for the distinct subgroups of latent or nascent entrepreneurs compared to the normal population. The results are contrasted to the latest GEM report for entrepreneurial activity in Greece. Gender dependencies and differences in beliefs between science and economics graduates are also presented in order to discuss implications of the results on entrepreneurship education and counselling.