The Impact of Bakery Café Entrepreneurs’ Entrepreneurial Orientation on Entrepreneurial Self-efficacy and Customer-base Growth

This study aims to empirically analyze the effects of bakery café entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurship on entrepreneurial self-efficacy and customer-based growth. In the context of intensified market competition and increasingly diverse consumer demands, entrepreneurs’ individual capabilities and psychological attitudes have emerged as key determinants of business sustainability. Accordingly, this study conceptualized entrepreneurship in terms of three dimensions(proactiveness, risk-taking, and innovativeness) and examined their influence on entrepreneurial self-efficacy and customer-based growth using structural equation modeling. A survey was conducted with 228 bakery café entrepreneurs, and 201 valid responses were used for empirical analysis. The results revealed that proactiveness, risk-taking, and innovativeness all had a significant positive effect on entrepreneurial self-efficacy, while none of these factors directly influenced customer-based growth. In contrast, entrepreneurial self-efficacy showed a significant positive effect on customer-based growth, indicating that entrepreneurs’ confidence in their capabilities plays a central role in fostering customer relationships and achieving long-term growth. This study contributes to the academic understanding by empirically identifying the structural path between entrepreneurship, self-efficacy, and performance, and offers practical implications for the development of targeted support strategies that enhance entrepreneurial self-efficacy in the bakery café sector.