Integrated psychological capital and theory of planned behavior as predictors of entrepreneurial intentions among refugees

Psychological capital represents the four psychological resources—Hope, Self-efficacy, Resilience, and Optimism —that define an individual’s mental strength, thus referred to as the HERO within an individual. The current study integrates the literature on the HERO and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explain refugees’ entrepreneurial and implementation intentions. The study aims to examine the influence of psychological capital on entrepreneurial intentions and implementation intentions, both directly and indirectly, through TPB antecedent variables. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 406 refugees sampled from three settlements in Uganda. A serial mediation analysis was conducted using PROCESS Macro v4.2 to examine how psychological capital, in conjunction with the TPB model, interact to influence entrepreneurial intentions and actions taken to implement these intentions. The results indicated that psychological capital was positively associated with all the variables in the TPB model and with implementation intentions. The mediation effects were significant via subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and entrepreneurial intentions. In addition, the double mediation effects of the TPB antecedent factors and entrepreneurial intentions were significant, except for the path via subjective norm and entrepreneurial intentions. The study is one of the first efforts to demonstrate how positive psychological capital and the TPB theory can concurrently enhance entrepreneurial intentions and behavior among underprivileged populations. The findings provide preliminary evidence suggesting that integrating the HERO and TPB can enhance the prediction of refugees’ entrepreneurial intentions and their subsequent implementation. Therefore, refugee entrepreneurship promotion interventions, especially for resource-constrained settlements in less-developed countries, can be more effective if they particularly incorporate efforts to enhance psychological capital, entrepreneurial attitudes, and perceptions of controllability.