What makes for future entrepreneurs?

The path toward founding a venture is changing. In fact, future-oriented competencies are key in entrepreneurial aspirations. In an increasingly digital society, the intention to become an entrepreneur is strongly influenced by individual digital competencies. In our study, we explore whether and how digital competencies unfold into entrepreneurial intention. Using a diverse, time-lagged dataset of participants of a massive open online course (MOOC), we test for an effect of digital competencies on entrepreneurial intention, dually mediated by individual entrepreneurial orientation and self-efficacy. Our results empirically confirm the often assumed positive influence of digital competencies on entrepreneurial intention, and surprisingly, reveal that this relationship only manifests in mediation. We discuss our findings paying specific attention to research on the entrepreneurial mindset, education, and the role of digital technologies in entrepreneurship. For entrepreneurship practice, our insights imply that educators and aspiring entrepreneurs are well-advised to develop entrepreneurial and digital proclivity in concert.