The role of social persuasion in the transition from employment to entrepreneurship: the moderating effect of career plateaus
基于社会认知职业理论，研究社会说服如何通过创业自我效能感影响员工的创业发现行为，并发现职业高原（层级高原和内容高原）的调节作用。
While prior entrepreneurial studies have paid attention to the interpersonal influence in the transition from paid employment to entrepreneurship, the role of active feedback from significant others remains underexplored. Grounded in social cognitive career theory, this study examines the effect and underlying mechanism of social persuasion on employees’ entrepreneurial discovery behaviours and investigates career plateaus as crucial boundary conditions. We tested the conceptual model using a three-wave survey with full-time employees (final sample = 241). The results showed that social persuasion motivates employees to engage in entrepreneurial discovery behaviours, and this relationship is partially mediated by entrepreneurial self-efficacy. More importantly, we found that the direct effect of social persuasion on entrepreneurial discovery behaviour is stronger for employees who experienced hierarchical plateaus, whereas the indirect effect of social persuasion via entrepreneurial self-efficacy is stronger for employees who encountered job content plateaus. This study offers important theoretical and practical implications for the entrepreneurial literature.