The theory of planned behavior in entrepreneurship research: what we know and future directions

Abstract

The entrepreneurship literature utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) has grown considerably over the last 20 years. Therefore, it is time to take stock of the TPB’s contributions to our understanding of entrepreneurship thus far. In this paper, we review the relevant literature and present research suggestions that will guide scholars in the future. First, we organize the literature according to the part of the TPB utilized along four main themes found in the literature. We also outline the many additions and alterations that entrepreneurship scholars have implemented to the TPB. We then suggest future research based on the review. Taken together, our contributions highlight important contexts that have been understudied, and highlight important theoretical relationships that have received only a small amount of attention but have the potential for large future findings. Our contributions also speak to entrepreneurial behaviors and entrepreneurial intentions, the two main dependent variables of research that uses the TPB.