Scale library · Consumer behavior
Entrepreneurial intention (EIQ): Liñán & Chen (2009)
The Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire (EIQ) was built by Liñán and Chen (2009) on the theory of planned behavior to measure the intention to start a business and its antecedents. It covers personal attitude toward entrepreneurship, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and entrepreneurial intention. The original study validated it with students from two different cultures, so it is widely used in comparative research. It is a common choice for theses on students' entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurship education and family influence.
Cite the original, not the blog.
- Model or scale: EIQ
- Constructs: 4
- Items: 19
Original English items
Items marked (R) are reverse-coded: recode them before computing reliability or scale scores. Replace bracketed placeholders such as [system] with the name of the system, brand or organization you study.
Personal Attitude (ATT, 5 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| ATT1 | Being an entrepreneur implies more advantages than disadvantages to me | No |
| ATT2 | A career as entrepreneur is attractive for me | No |
| ATT3 | If I had the opportunity and resources, I'd like to start a firm | No |
| ATT4 | Being an entrepreneur would entail great satisfaction for me | No |
| ATT5 | Among various options, I would rather be an entrepreneur | No |
Subjective Norm (SN, 2 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| SN1 | If you decided to create a firm, would your family approve of that decision? | No |
| SN2 | If you decided to create a firm, would your friends approve of that decision? | No |
Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC, 6 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| PBC1 | To start a firm and keep it working would be easy for me. | No |
| PBC2 | I am prepared to start a viable firm. | No |
| PBC3 | I can control the creation process of a new firm. | No |
| PBC4 | I know the necessary practical details to start a firm. | No |
| PBC5 | I know how to develop an entrepreneurial project. | No |
| PBC6 | If I tried to start a firm, I would have a high probability of succeeding. | No |
Entrepreneurial Intention (EI, 6 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| EI1 | I am ready to do anything to be an entrepreneur. | No |
| EI2 | My professional goal is to become an entrepreneur. | No |
| EI3 | I will make every effort to start and run my own firm. | No |
| EI4 | I am determined to create a firm in the future. | No |
| EI5 | I have very seriously thought of starting a firm. | No |
| EI6 | I have the firm intention to start a firm someday. | No |
Response scale
5- or 7-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree … 5/7 = Strongly agree). Ferreira-Neto et al. (2023) used 7 points; Kurata et al. (2025) used 5 points.
Licence and permission
The items are published in an academic article and widely used in research. Cite Liñán and Chen (2009) and the article that supplied the wording; no permission is needed for non-commercial academic use.
Sources (APA 7)
- Ferreira-Neto, M. N., de Carvalho Castro, J. L., de Sousa-Filho, J. M., & de Souza Lessa, B. (2023). The role of self-efficacy, entrepreneurial passion, and creativity in developing entrepreneurial intentions. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1134618. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1134618
- Kurata, K., Kodama, K., Kageyama, I., Kobayashi, Y., & Lim, Y. (2025). Entrepreneurial intention among engineering students: The moderating role of entrepreneurship education in Japan. Behavioral Sciences, 15(5), 663. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs15050663
- Liñán, F., & Chen, Y.-W. (2009). Development and cross-cultural application of a specific instrument to measure entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33(3), 593–617. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2009.00318.x
Vietnamese translation
A Vietnamese translation of every item, with sample-size advice and studies that used the scale, is on the Vietnamese page for this scale.