The Impact of Group Support on College Student’s Online Business Motivation: The Uncertainty Avoidance Thinking as a Moderating Factor

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Business Perspectives and Research, Ahead of Print.
This article establishes a research model to analyze how group support factors, including peers’ support and family support, impact college students’ motivation to establish online business. College entrepreneurs need to consult their family members before starting a new career because of the power distance. Meanwhile, based on the collectivist cultural background, college students understand the importance of cooperation with peers’ group. Furthermore, influenced by uncertainty avoidance thinking, college entrepreneurs tend to rely on group supports, such as family funds and peers’ experiences, to reduce the probability of failure. Hence, this research designs uncertainty avoidance thinking as a moderating factor to explore its impact on the correlation between group support factors and college students’ online business motivation. To test the research model, it utilizes Chinese college students as samples and distributes online questionnaires to them. Through analyzing 458 samples based on the partial least squares path modelling and variance-based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), the data analysis identifies that group support can positively affect college students’ online business motivation. The uncertainty avoidance factor also positively moderates the correlation between family support and college students’ online business motivation. To assist these students in establishing confidence in the online business, the Entrepreneurship Centre should pay much attention to the impact of peers’ support and family support.

To see is to believe: Corporate site visits and mutual fund herding

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Abstract

Using a unique data set of corporate site visits by mutual funds to Chinese firms listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2013 to 2021, we find that firms with visits (more visits) are associated with lower mutual fund herding than those with no (fewer) visits. In addition, we demonstrate that mutual funds’ visits to a firm drive the change in their herding propensity by verifying hard information (e.g., the firm's technology, innovation, accounting, and finance information) and obtaining soft information (e.g., management's risk appetite, employee morale, and corporate culture). Furthermore, corporate site visits are found to strengthen herding's price impact without return reversals. Overall, our results are consistent with information cascade theory.