Neuromuscular responses and inter-limb asymmetry in relation to external load across two sequential pre-season training camp contexts in soccer players.

Entrepreneurship serves as a vital engine of economic development and offers university students diverse pathways for self-realization and professional growth. Against the backdrop of worldwide emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship education, understanding how to effectively stimulate students' entrepreneurial intention has become a central theme in educational psychology and entrepreneurship research (). However, despite sustained institutional investment in entrepreneurship curricula and incubation support systems, entrepreneurial intention among Chinese university students remains relatively subdued (; ). According to the China College Graduate Employment Annual Report published by , only 1.6% of Chinese undergraduate graduates chose self-employment in 2024, a figure substantially lower than that observed in many developed economies (). This persistent gap suggests that external resources and coursework alone may be insufficient to fully mobilize students' entrepreneurial motivation. Consequently, there is an urgent need to examine the internal psychological and cognitive mechanisms that underlie the formation of entrepreneurial intention (). Entrepreneurial intention refers to the subjective probability that an individual plans to engage in entrepreneurial activity in the future and represents the most direct antecedent of actual entrepreneurial behavior (). Extensive prior research has explained entrepreneurial intention from the perspectives of external environments-such as entrepreneurship education and social support-or general individual traits, including risk propensity and achievement motivation. Yet these approaches have paid insufficient attention to the deeper cognitive foundations that shape intention. implicit theory provides a critical theoretical lens for addressing this gap. The theory distinguishes between two naive beliefs regarding the malleability of ability: entity theory, which holds that ability is fixed, and incremental theory, which holds that ability can be developed through effort and learning. Individuals who endorse an incremental theory-commonly referred to as a growth mindset-believe that competence can be continuously improved through deliberate practice, reflection, and learning (). In recent years, this construct has been extended into the entrepreneurship domain, giving rise to the concept of entrepreneurial growth mindset. This construct is defined as an individual's incremental belief that entrepreneurial competence can be enhanced through deliberate practice, reflection, and continuous learning (; ). It is important to note that the general term entrepreneurial mindset typically denotes a holistic cognitive orientation encompassing value creation, opportunity recognition, and risk taking, whereas entrepreneurial growth mindset specifically concerns the metacognitive belief regarding whether entrepreneurial ability is malleable. As such, it represents a domain-specific extension of implicit theory into entrepreneurship (; ). According to implicit theory, incremental theorists tend to adopt a mastery orientation, focusing on skill development rather than outcome evaluation when confronting challenges (). Therefore, individuals who hold an entrepreneurial growth mindset generally interpret failures as learning opportunities and are more likely to form positive behavioral intentions when facing uncertain entrepreneurial tasks (; ; ). The positive association between entrepreneurial growth mindset and entrepreneurial intention rests on several logical foundations. First, an entrepreneurial growth mindset motivates individuals to actively engage in skill-building exercises, thereby enhancing their perceived feasibility of entrepreneurship and strengthening subjective willingness (). Second, it attenuates psychological fear of failure and dismantles the psychological barriers that impede entrepreneurial decision-making (). Third, individuals with an entrepreneurial growth mindset are more inclined to proactively search for and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities, thereby generating novel business ideas (). Empirical studies have consistently confirmed that entrepreneurial growth mindset significantly enhances entrepreneurial intention (; ; ). On the basis of this evidence, we propose Hypothesis 1: Entrepreneurial growth mindset has a significant positive effect on university students' entrepreneurial intention.