Passionate, Motivated and Creative yet Not Starting Up: A Moderated-Moderation Approach with Entrepreneurship Education and Fear of Failure as Moderators

This research attempts to measure the direct and moderated influence of entrepreneurial passion (EP), motivation (EM) and creativity (EC) on intention (EI) while being moderated by entrepreneurship education (EE). This study also instrumentalizes the conditional interaction effect of fear of failure on the moderated paths. A data sample of 1090 business students from five Indian universities was subjected to screening and cleaning before establishing the measurement model and testing the hypotheses using structural equation modelling and Process Macro. EP, EM and EC were found to affect EI directly, while EE also moderated these links. Fear of failure was also found to be conditioning the moderated paths such that the positive moderation effect of EE on direct paths between EP, EM, EC and EI was stronger when students perceived no fear of failure. The study advances the existing literature on the moderating role of entrepreneurship education by recognizing the conditional interaction effect (moderated-moderation) of fear of failure on the moderating effects of entrepreneurship education. The authors also provide valuable suggestions for practice.