Entrepreneurial initiative and perceived control: behavioral drivers and macroeconomic moderation across countries

Abstract This study examines whether three cognitive biases, perceived control, loss aversion, and status quo preference, predict entrepreneurial engagement and whether these relationships vary by national income level. We combine individual-level data from the World Values Survey, Wave 7 (80,597 respondents in 59 countries), with GDP per capita from the World Bank. We estimate multilevel logistic regression models with bias-GDP interaction terms and explore mechanisms using structural equation modeling (SEM), with institutional trust, perceived safety, and economic ideology as mediators. Results show that perceived control increases the likelihood of entrepreneurial engagement, and this association is stronger in higher-GDP economies. GDP per capita exhibits a negative direct association with entrepreneurship, consistent with more necessity-driven entrepreneurship in lower-income contexts. Mediation results indicate that institutional trust partially transmits the effect of perceived control, while a direct effect remains. We discuss implications for integrated behavioral models of entrepreneurship and suggest a dual policy approach, strengthening individual agency through behavioral interventions while improving the institutional environment, especially in lower-income settings. Supplementary analyses provide construct-validity evidence for the Q42-based status quo proxy (Appendix A).