New-venture gestation processes amid Covid-19 pandemic: antecedents of Saudi female nascent entrepreneurs

PurposeThis research seeks to investigate the impact of individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) and entrepreneurial exposure on new-venture gestation activities during COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopted negative binomial regression (NBR) modeling with a sample of Saudi female nascent student entrepreneurs (N = 1,032).FindingsThe research found that females' IEO is significantly and positively associated with how much progress they make in term of the number of activities they carried out in the new-venture gestation stage. Similarly, females who had high entrepreneurial exposure are more likely to commit to many activities and progress in the new venture. Therefore, those who have entrepreneurial experience perform better different new-venture gestation activities during the COVID-19 pandemic than those who have little or no experience.Originality/valueOver a transformation of demographic variables and using NBR, this paper is the first paper in Saudi Arabia that develops and tests a theoretically based model linking the perceptual entrepreneurial orientation of nascent student entrepreneurs with objectives variables to the progress of new-venture gestation activities.