Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects
Department
Finance
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
Beyond actual institutional influences, entrepreneurs’ perceptions of institutions and their potential inconsistencies in interpreting institutional change may influence entrepreneurial intent to quit a business. Especially at the microentrepreneurial level, inconsistencies in perceptions of institutional change may variously affect individuals’ intent to abandon their business, seek jobs in other sectors, or even continue in business despite regulatory institutional changes making their business legally untenable. Our goal in this research is to empirically measure these intents in the face of inconsistent perceptions of institutional change with a sample of 660 street vendors from different cities in Vietnam. We find that perception of the two theoretical constructs, actions as rules and diminished utility of regulatory control, are negatively correlated with intent to quit a business, which is consistent with our hypotheses. Contrary to what we hypothesized, however, microentrepreneurial intent to exit their business is positively correlated with perceptions of retrospective legitimization. Implications for future research and public policy are also discussed.
Advisor(s) or Committee Chair
Professor Scott Droege
Disciplines
Business | Business Administration, Management, and Operations
Recommended Citation
Tran, Mai N., "Institutional Inconsistencies and Microentrepreneurial Intent to Quit a Business: Street Vendors in Vietnam" (2010). Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects. Paper 259.
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_hon_theses/259