Validation of the Internet entrepreneurial self-efficacy scale among Romanian technical students

• Published in: PloS one 2024-10, Vol.19 (10), p.e0312929
• Main Authors: Balgiu, Beatrice Adriana, Cotoară, Daniela Maricica, Simionescu-Panait, Andrei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Attitudes; Biology and Life Sciences; Book publishing; College students; Computer and Information Sciences; Control equipment; Educational aspects; Effectiveness; Electronic commerce; Engineering education; Entrepreneurs; Entrepreneurship; Evaluation; Factor analysis; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Forecasts and trends; Gender; Humans; Innovations; International economic relations; Internet; Invariance; Male; Network analysis; Network reliability; Norms; People and Places; Psychological aspects; Psychometrics - methods; Reproducibility of Results; Romania; Self Efficacy; Social networks; Social Sciences; Statistical analysis; Student attitudes; Student behavior; Students; Students - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Technology assessment; Training; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0312929

This study's aim is to evaluate the Romanian version of the Internet Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy Scale (IESES), a new assessment scale for online entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and estimate its psychometric properties in a sample of engineering students (N = 644; 317 females). The scale was translated and adapted into Romanian through a forward-backward method. The factorial structure was investigated using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and multigroup-CFA for gender invariance. The scale was associated with instruments that measure entrepreneurial intention both traditionally and in the online environment (Individual Entrepreneurial Internet Scale and Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire) and components from the Theory of Planned Behavior (attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control). McDonald's omega and Cronbach's alpha coefficients were used to assess reliability. Traditional statistics are complemented by network analysis. Results show that adequate matching items for the 3-factor model and complete gender invariance is maintained. The three factors are associated with the internet and traditional entrepreneurial intention, and the components from the theory of planned behavior (attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control). Internal consistency is excellent because α and ω values range between 0.834 and 0.919. In addition, discriminant validity was demonstrated. The network analysis suggests the relevance of technology utilization in the self-efficacy of online businesses in the case of engineering students. Overall, findings enable us to conclude that the Romanian version of the IESES is a valid, accurate instrument that can be implemented to evaluate self-efficacy related to the successful execution of an online business.