The Effect of Perceived Capabilities, Perceived Opportunities, and Fear of Failure on Entrepreneurial Activity

This study investigates the direct effect of perceived capabilities on entrepreneurial activity, as well as its indirect effect through perceived opportunities, within the theoretical frameworks of the theory of planned behavior, social cognitive theory and prospect theory. In addition, the study examines the moderating role of perceived capabilities in the relationship between fear of failure and entrepreneurial activity. For this purpose, secondary data obtained from 2404 respondents in Türkiye through the Adult Population Survey (APS) conducted in 2021 as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project were utilized. Within the scope of the study, perceived capabilities and fear of failure were treated as independent variables, perceived opportunities as a mediating variable, and total early-stage entrepreneurial activity as the dependent variable. Gender and age were included as control variables. While age was modeled as a metric variable, all other variables were operationalized as binary indicators. To test the research hypotheses, logistic regression analyses were conducted using RStudio. The findings reveal that perceived capabilities exert both a direct and a statistically significant indirect effect on entrepreneurial activity through perceived opportunities. However, the results indicate that the interaction effect betweenfear of failureandperceivedcapabilities on entrepreneurialactivity is not statistically significant.