Embedding the Marketing Angle into Entrepreneurial Propensity
- #digital-marketing
- #reading
- #marketing-capabilities
- #entrepreneurial-propensity
- #stakeholder-support
Embedding the Marketing Angle into the Pursuit of Entrepreneurial Propensity: Roles of Perceived Feasibility and Desirability and Stakeholders' Support
Part of: Digital Marketing Topic 1 — Marketing 101 / The Shift to Digital · Reading Citation: Kariv, D., Krueger, N., Cisneros, L., & Kashy-Rosenbaum, G. (2025). Embedding the marketing angle into the pursuit of entrepreneurial propensity: roles of perceived feasibility and desirability and stakeholders' support. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 31(2/3), 587–608. Key concepts: Marketing Capabilities, Entrepreneurial Propensity, Perceived Feasibility, Perceived Desirability, Stakeholder Support, Theory of Planned Behaviour
TL;DR
This study asks why some people with entrepreneurial intentions actually start a business while others never act. The authors argue the missing ingredient is the "content" of the classic psychological antecedents — feasibility and desirability — and that this content is largely supplied by an individual's perceived marketing capabilities. Using a sample of 1,957 Quebec respondents split into three propensity groups, they show that marketing-fuelled feasibility (Market Feasibility) and desirability (Market Desirability) strongly differentiate doers from non-doers, and that the type and function of stakeholder support (institution vs person; bridging vs buffering) further shape both intentions and action. The marketing angle, in short, is what turns intention into action.
Why It's on the Reading List
It anchors Topic 1 (Marketing 101 / the shift to digital) by grounding the course in what marketing capability actually is — market sensing, communications, planning and product development — and why it is foundational, not cosmetic. It teaches the exam-relevant idea that marketing is a strategic capability that builds confidence and drives action, framed through well-known behavioural theories.
Background & Research Question
New ventures face fierce competition and must constantly build marketing capabilities to survive. Yet research has rarely treated marketing capabilities as a catalyst of entrepreneurial action. The dominant intention–action theories — Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and Shapero & Sokol's Entrepreneurial Event Model (EEM) — predict that intentions convert to action when people perceive the act as feasible and desirable. But these constructs are defined so abstractly that they often fail to predict who actually acts.
The paper addresses three gaps:
- Feasibility/desirability alone do not capture the full scope of Entrepreneurial Propensity; the stakeholder perspective is usually studied separately.
- The "content" that gives feasibility and desirability their motivating power is under-specified — the authors propose marketing capabilities as that content.
- Stakeholder Support is rarely analysed by type (institution / person) and function (bridging / buffering), nor linked to feasibility and desirability.
Key Concepts & Definitions
Definition — Marketing capabilitiesMarketing orientation, skills, know-how and mechanisms — including market information management, marketing communications, market planning and new product development — that let founders read market signals and respond quickly. Drawn from Vorhies & Morgan (2005).
Definition — Entrepreneurial propensityThe transformation of entrepreneurial intentions into action (starting a business). Treated here not as a yes/no act but as a spectrum across three groups.
Definition — Perceived feasibility vs desirabilityFeasibility = self-belief in having the abilities/skills to pursue the venture (akin to perceived behavioural control / self-efficacy). Desirability = belief in the overall attractiveness of the entrepreneurship outcome.
The authors "fuel" the abstract constructs with marketing capability to create two composite variables:
| Composite | Built from | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Market Feasibility (MF) | Feasibility × marketing capabilities | "I have the marketing know-how to make this work" |
| Market Desirability (MD) | Desirability × marketing capabilities | "Marketing-grounded entrepreneurship is attractive to me" |
Stakeholder support: a 2×2 classification
| Bridging (open doors, connect, share knowledge) | Buffering (protect, regulate, structure) | |
|---|---|---|
| People (mentors, peers, family) | Bridging-P | Buffering-P |
| Institutions (banks, incubators, government) | Bridging-I | Buffering-I |
Definition — Bridging vs bufferingBridging support facilitates collaborations and resource access (collaborative, experimental). Buffering support protects the venture via rules, regulations and bureaucracy (structured, often institutional).
Main Arguments / Findings
The three propensity groups (the dependent variable):
| Code | Group | n | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Employees, no intentions, no action | 728 | 37.2% |
| 1 | Employees, with intentions, no action | 664 | 33.9% |
| 2 | Novice entrepreneurs (intentions + action) | 565 | 28.9% |
Key results:
- MF, MD and Bridging-P were the strongest discriminators between groups; in discriminant analysis MF had the highest loading (0.959), then MD (0.576), then Bridging-P (0.465).
- Novice entrepreneurs held significantly higher MF, MD and Bridging-P, and lower Buffering-I, than non-entrepreneurs.
- Psychological components (MF, MD) separate action from non-action, but they did not separate the two non-action groups from each other. What separated intenders from non-intenders was the market-support constructs (higher Bridging-P, lower Buffering-I).
- MF had a positive indirect effect on propensity through MD (mediation): marketing-grounded capability raises desirability, which raises action.
The bridging/buffering twistBuffering-I (structured institutional support) positively moderated the MD → propensity link: people high in desirability were even more likely to act when also receiving structured institutional support. So bureaucratic support isn't purely a deterrent — once someone wants to act, structure can reinforce the leap.
Intentions ≠ actionThe robust finding is that lumping all non-entrepreneurs together hides the mechanism. Intentions and action are driven by different factors — psychological content for action, stakeholder support for intentions — so they must be modelled separately.
Methodology
- Data: Quebec Entrepreneurial Index (2019), online questionnaire; n = 1,957 adults (47% male), quota-sampled and weighted.
- Design: Three pre-assigned groups (above). Dependent variable = ordinal propensity (0–2).
- Measures: Validated Likert scales — feasibility (8 items, α = 0.92), desirability (6 items, α = 0.95), marketing capabilities (4 items, α = 0.95), and 6 stakeholder-support items factor-analysed into the 2×2 (bridging/buffering × people/institution). MF and MD computed by combining feasibility/desirability with marketing capabilities.
- Analysis: Discriminant analysis (group differences) + Hayes PROCESS Model 28 (serial mediation + moderation), bootstrapped (5,000 samples), controlling for gender and age. Direct/mediated/moderated model: R² = 0.39.
Framework / Model
The proposed integrative model fuses three literatures:
- TPB + EEM (psychological antecedents) →
- Marketing capabilities as the "content" fuelling feasibility/desirability →
- Stakeholder theory, refined into a type × function classification.
Logical chain (PROCESS): MF → MD → Entrepreneurial Propensity, with Bridging-P strengthening the MF → MD path and Buffering-I strengthening the MD → propensity path.
Implications for Marketers
- Marketing capability is a confidence engine. Building genuine market-sensing, communications, planning and product-development skills raises self-efficacy and makes founders more likely to act.
- Higher education and ecosystems should transmit marketing knowledge to novice entrepreneurs via applied learning, internships, mentors and role models.
- Match support to stage: people-based bridging support is most valuable early (it builds desirability); structured institutional support can reinforce action once desire is high.
- "Knowledge of market signals is power." Marketing know-how is positioned as the practical content that converts aspiration into a launched venture.
Exam Takeaways
Likely exam points
- Marketing capabilities = market information management, marketing communications, market planning, product development (Vorhies & Morgan).
- Feasibility = "can I?" (self-efficacy); Desirability = "do I want to?" (attractiveness). TPB (Ajzen) + EEM (Shapero & Sokol) underpin both.
- The 2×2 stakeholder grid: bridging vs buffering × people vs institutions.
- Core finding: psychological/marketing content separates action from non-action; stakeholder support separates intenders from non-intenders.
- Mediation: MF → MD → propensity. Moderation: Bridging-P on MF→MD; Buffering-I on MD→propensity.
Summary
- Reframes feasibility and desirability by giving them marketing "content."
- Marketing-grounded feasibility (MF) and desirability (MD) strongly predict who acts.
- Stakeholder support is best understood as a type × function matrix.
- Intentions and action have different drivers and must be studied as a spectrum, not a binary.