Medical Doctors’ Entrepreneurial Intention Through Organizational Support to Innovation and Collaboration Propensity

Building on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), this paper examines the relationship between medical doctors’ (MDs) entrepreneurial attitudes (EA) and their entrepreneurial intention (EI). Based on a sample of MDs involved in the G-STeP project at the research-led “Agostino Gemelli” hospital in Rome, results show that MDs’ attitude toward entrepreneurship positively drives their intentions to enterprise. Such an effect is explained by the MDs’ perception of support to innovation within the organization. However, such an effect is moderated by MDs’ propensity to collaborate. Thus, for higher levels of MDs’ collaboration propensity the effect is magnified. This means that, for MDs that show high levels collaboration propensity, the perceived role of organizational support for innovation is more important than their individual EA to explain potential EI. Specifically, at low levels of MDs’ collaboration propensity, there is a negative effect on EI. These findings underline the need for an individual collaborative attitude alongside the presence of an organizational culture that supports innovation to foster entrepreneurship among MDs in a research-led hospital.