Self-efficacy is an individual's conviction in their capacity to do a specific activity. It is generally assumed that self-efficacy leads to the development of intentions. If a person owes feelings to the achievements of targets and goals, then there are strong chances that desire will be created for achieving them (19). Some people don't have the potential to achieve certain goals, so they will not make plans to pursue that objective. Individuals gain self-efficacy throughout time as they acquire a range of talents, such as social, cognitive, physical, and linguistic abilities, via life experiences (20). Past accomplishments, such as mastery of a task, boost self-efficacy, resulting in more ambitious intentions, or higher expectations. Self-efficacy may also be achieved by attentive observation of others' activities (social learning or vicarious learning), positive feedback, and self-reflection. Thus, if a person does well in a task when compared to comparable individuals they witness and is informed that they are performing well by others, they may conclude that they have the ability to pursue the next, more difficult work. According to self-efficacy theory, entrepreneurs will only undertake an entrepreneurial endeavor if they think they have the skills and ability to meet the obstacles presented by a given opportunity. If the challenge is too great for the potential entrepreneur, he or she may examine alternative possibilities, such as paid work. Individuals who believe their parents were high-performers seem more likely to believe they would start a business themselves, in comparison to people who have feelings about their parents that they could not achieve more in their lives. Children of entrepreneurs also have the feeling of achieving the set goals of establishing the startups as they have more expertise (21).

According to Murphy and Alexander, the field of research with the most categories and subcategories is based on the setting of goals and orientations for the goals (22). They accurately pointed toward comparable constructions that have been labeled under a variety of names. Simultaneously, there are some slight, but still significant, theoretical distinctions between different sorts of objectives that must be communicated through the use of different terminology. There appear to be three broad viewpoints on goals in existing literature in the context of accomplishment, each of quite a diverse nature. The social cognition study on aspirations of the people regarding targets or concerns is at quite oriented and directed (22). These can also be called as target goals (23). These target objectives do describe the standards or criteria by which individuals might evaluate their performance, but they don't truly address the reasons or motivations for which people would want to reach these targets (24).

A second level of objectives, on the other hand, is concerned with the more broad sorts of targets set by the people aiming at them along with finding the reasons for their setting (25). This goal content strategy tries to narrow down the number of objectives that might be used to support motivated action. Goals from a different viewpoint, such as achievement objectives, offer a middle ground between extremely detailed set targets and the constitution of the targets. Achievement objectives refers to the reasons and purposes for which a person is pursuing an achievement task. They are most commonly operationalized in terms of academic learning activities, but they may also be applied to other contexts of achievement such as athletic or corporate settings. Although task-specific goals and the more general goal content approach may be used to describe a variety of settings and types of goals (e.g., pleasure, safety), achievement goal structures were created expressly to explain accomplishment motivation and behavior.

Within achievement goal theory research, many labels and names have been employed for comparable goals. For example, the phrases “task-involved,” “learning,” “mastery objectives,” and “task,” are identified as goals developing and orientation of the people to focuss on the associated task to achieve mastery in it or know the procedures for doing it. Objectives which are concerned with people as how they focus on themselves along with their abilities and their performance sense in comparison to other people could be regarded as relative ability in terms of ego centric targets. A general response in several models and their outcomes is more oriented toward mastery and less orientation is observed toward adaptability during functionality in terms of how these goals are linked to various outcomes such as attributions, interest, affect, self-efficacy, persistence, self-regulation, levels of cognitive engagement, and choice behaviors. For these substantial discrepancies concerning goal stability causal relationships among crucial target orientations, several reasons of scientific nature are involved.

Further theory development and conduction of researches could be based on differentiation in terms of genuineness supporting empirical data. But that should not allow use of these terms haphazardly (26). This theory also provides the basis for identifying the mediating role of motivational factors for the attainment of digital economy in the larger perspective (27). So, entrepreneurial intention and the entrepreneurial success were used as the motivator variables in this research as mediators.

Self-efficacy could be regarded as a variable due to its significance identified and defined through a theory of social cognition. It is described as a person's conviction in his or her own capacity to plan and carry out actions to accomplish the intended outcomes. This concept has gotten a lot of attention from educational scholars (19). Prior research has shown that performance-based results could be predicted through self-efficacy. Self-efficacy, for example, is thought to predict student academic success across all academic disciplines and levels. Despite the fact that directed effects of beliefs in self-efficacy on academic achievements are well established, very little research has been carried out to identify the mechanism which is motivationally attached to it and has a mediating role of it in the relationships of the achievements of targets (28). These studies are needed to understand how and why self-efficacy affects students' academic achievement and to design instructional actions and programs to improve academic achievement.

This kind of research is required to develop an understanding of the workings behind academic achievements of the scholars. It is also necessary to initiate the designs and models for the improvement of these kinds of relationships. The social cognitive Expectancy Value Model of Achievement Motivation (EVMAM), developed by Eccles and her colleagues based on Atkinson's expectancy-value model, is one of the most robust theories that integrates these components (29). Talking about the self efficacy levels of the people involved in the commerce field, comparisons were drawn between the two in the past proving that entrepreneurs had more self efficacy than the people who were not entrepreneurs, and this resulted in the understanding that self efficacy of the entrepreneurs could be utilized as a special characteristic in this type of research.

Self-efficacy has been shown to have a positive influence on faculty members' performance at Jordanian institutions, as well as a major role on faculty members of this sector regarding the process of teaching. However, it should not be the only thing in the direction of performance, but it has proved its worth. It is worth noting that among the four characteristics of self-efficacy, prior experience had the most impact (30). A study was conducted to evaluate the moderating and mediating roles of self-efficacy, and it was indicated that significance was achieved for its roles in the intention of entrepreneurship and personality. It was clearly indicated in the research that self-efficacy had a positive and strong role in terms of mediation and moderation between the already mentioned variables in that study.

The significance of self-efficacy in terms of behavior and performance was indicated during the exploration of the moderation between improvisations and the performance of the new startups and proved to be a contributing factor. Along with this, a negative association was found among improvisations and new startups of the innovators having self efficacy at lower levels (31). Entrepreneurial self-efficacy is an explanatory variable that distinguishes entrepreneurs from others by determining the potency of entrepreneurial intention and the likelihood of this intention leading to entrepreneurial behavior (32). According to a recent study, perceived self-efficacy influences feasibility and, in turn, leads to intention (30).

According to studies, having a high level of entrepreneurial self-efficacy enhances the likelihood of starting a new business. For example, research of undergraduate students revealed a positive and substantial association between entrepreneurial self-efficacy perception and entrepreneurial abilities, which included marketing, innovation, management, and financial control, risk taking, and entrepreneurial purpose. According to the study, those with more self-efficacy rated entrepreneurial prospects more favorably and were more likely to see good results (32). Self-efficacy is a psychological notion that motivates people to take action. It has been linked to goal selection, persistence, and performance in a variety of settings. This construct has been thoroughly researched and is clearly documented in the literature as having a considerable impact on performance in a variety of professions (33).

Resultantly, entrepreneurial self-efficacy is a larger idea of self-efficacy, which is a component of social cognitive theory that cannot be separated. Meanwhile, researchers defined entrepreneurial self-efficacy as an individual's conviction in their ability to be successful in carrying out company operations from numerous perspectives. Others, on the other hand, interpreted the concept as one's belief in one's potential to succeed in the process of beginning a business. Based on past solid and extensive research and meta-analyses, a theoretical framework relating self-efficacy, performance, and entrepreneurial success has been presented (34). As a result, multiple studies have found a link between self-efficacy and company performance, as assessed by income and/or workforce expansion, life satisfaction, and subjective pleasure (35).

According to the findings, task value was predicted by self-efficacy, and not in the reverse order. Previous research has found that not only two dimensions have a positive connection, but that task value is directly predicted by self-efficacy. In a previous study, self-efficacy was also shown to have large and direct influence on expectancies. Pupils with high self-efficacy have higher academic expectations and do better academically than students with low self-efficacy. These findings support Bandura's theory that antecedents of anticipation have self-efficacy because the outcomes of people's expectations are based mostly on their assessments of how well they would perform in a particular setting. Consequently, it is argued that self-efficacy promotes predicted behavior results causally, but not the other way around. In summary, the literature supported that there was a connection between expectancy value and self-efficacy and a relationship was found to be significant between beliefs of competence and task values (27). Based on this literature and the shortcomings of the previous researches, following hypotheses were formulated in this regard.

The Expectancy-Value Theory is based on a social cognitive approach to motivation. Individuals' choice, vigor, and persistence in performance can be anticipated and clarified mainly by their anticipations of the task value attribution and achievement, according to this school of thought; that really is, by their belief systems at how well those who will do the task and the extent to which they value the task. Aside from the above-mentioned elements, a few researchers of this field have incorporated another aspect related to sentiments. This final component is known as process expectancy. We defined process expectation in this case as the favorable sensations that someone anticipates having during their interactions. Indeed, no one starts anything that isn't useful or when the chances of success are slim, because finishing the activity in those sorts of situations is regarded as time wastage. Resultantly, nothing is initiated unless an anticipation of feeling good during the process is present. Consequently, these three ideas are regarded as key predictors of motivation (36). Four task-value components are identified by the current Expectancy-value theory.

However, it is acknowledged that interest in the subject is developed by the benefits associated with the scholars and the efforts and time of them. In a nutshell, the subject value components used in this type of work pertain to: (a) the significance of the topics and (b) the predicted cost-benefit relationship for passing the course. Expectancy value beliefs are developed prior to the start of class, based on past experiences, or they may have developed during the first few periods of time, during which the teacher student is learning about the curriculum, assessment, teaching approach, and so on. Keeping an eye on the expectancy value belief and its role in motivational aspects of the relationship, a very few studies have been carried out in past but a study based on expectancy value theory suggests its role for future research regarding self-efficacy and motivating factors such as entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial success (27). This showed a potential for analyzing the relationship among these, so we devised the following hypothesis for testing the significance.

Establishment of the fact that entrepreneurial success is the outcome of entrepreneurial behavior toward achieving set goals plays an important role in determining the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial success. Entrepreneurial behavior has been the subject of much investigation. Entrepreneurial intent is defined as a person's readiness to learn about entrepreneurship and commit to launching a new firm (37). Individuals' readiness to engage in entrepreneurial conduct or commitment to launching a new enterprise is defined as entrepreneurial ambition. This idea indicated that intention of the entrepreneurs had a significant and important impact on the conduction of the entrepreneurship startup, and it has been validated by studies (38). Entrepreneurial intention models have been shown to be an excellent indicator of gauging entrepreneurial behavior in previous studies, indicating their usefulness in understanding the entrepreneurial phenomenon.

Entrepreneurial purpose gives a person power and inspires them to engage in entrepreneurial conduct. It also shows how much work they are willing to put into business growth (15). Nevertheless, since many researchers have examined the link between an individual's entrepreneurial intentions and their successful entrepreneurial behavior patterns, the impact of entrepreneurial behavior, entrepreneurial alertness, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and a proactive personality on entrepreneurial intentions and behaviors has yet to be thoroughly investigated. Existing research makes a major and beneficial addition to the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and the formulation of entrepreneurial conduct in the pursuit of entrepreneurial success (39). The use of digital technology, the internet, cellphones, and other information-gathering, storage, analysis, and sharing applications and technology are transforming the global economy, particularly through altering the entrepreneurial process. Thanks to digital technology, entrepreneurs may now start firms and offer their products and services all over the world. They're also affecting entrepreneurial intent, which is described as “an individual's personal conviction to take one or more specified activities in the process of seizing a new business opportunity. These relationships allowed us to devise certain hypotheses regarding the entrepreneurial intentions toward entrepreneurial success and digital economy.

The transformation of economies to the digital side is causing the emergence of a new dimension of entrepreneurship contributed by features that differ in traditional trends. Developments in this regard open up few chances for businesses that can adapt to the new characteristics and functions associated with the spread of digital technology. Entrepreneurship research has mostly concentrated on firm-level definitions of success and the human traits that help predict them, but it has not looked into what success means to entrepreneurs. When studying individual entrepreneurial success, the strategy has been to establish common success characteristics and assess the value of these to the entrepreneur (40).

Criteria-based methods, on the other hand, ignore the notion that entrepreneurs may attribute various interpretations to shared success criteria, which might affect how they build their businesses. The majority of studies indicate that entrepreneurs contribute significantly to the economy and society. However, understanding why some people fail to start a new business while others thrive is still insufficient. The process of starting a business has its own dynamics, order, and prerequisites. Various activities must be completed at distinct phases of the entrepreneurial process, and entrepreneurs must fulfill various responsibilities at each level (41). These processes lead to entrepreneurial success, which would certainly have an impact on achieving a digital economy, so we developed the following hypothesis.

Various studies have been conducted in the past in which several factors like self-efficacy were used as mediators between entrepreneurial intentions, entrepreneurial success, and other variables, but no certain research has yet been conducted in identifying their roles as mediators among other variables. Some researchers have suggested using them as mediators to check the mediating role of both in achieving behaviors useful for the entrepreneurship. Such a research was carried out in past in which social media was used as a mediator between entrepreneurial intentions and the digital startups, which suggests its connection with these variables. So, we utilized this to use entrepreneurial intention as a mediator between entrepreneurial self efficacy and digital economy (42). Similarly, similar approach was used by Gali et al. (43) which identified the mediating role of social performance between entrepreneurial orientation and company success (43). This also suggested that entrepreneurial success could be utilized as mediator itself between our studied variables of self-efficacy and digital economy. Resultantly, it led us to develop the following hypotheses.

Based on the above literature and hypothesis development, following therotical framework (see Figure 1) is formed.

Data collection was done through surveys and the instrument used in the study was a questionnaire. The possible responses of the questionnaire were designed using a five-point Likert scale with 1 as strongly disagrees and five as strongly agree. The questionnaire was developed from previously used scales for the variables. The details for each variable have been given below.

The demographic diversity of the respondents had been checked through gender, age, education, and entrepreneurial status; the results have shown in Table 1. There were 185 females in the total respondents and 139 were males. While for age, 15–20 ages showed the frequency of 113, age 21–25 showed the frequency of 111, 26–30 showed the frequency of 74 and the lowest frequency was for the age segment of 31 years and above. Similarly, the highest frequency showed 142 among the bachelors, 129 were masters and 53 were Ph.D. however, for entrepreneurial status, 256 students showed their interest in the entrepreneurial activities, while 68 already owned business.

The data is validated in the measurement model; using the validities (factor loadings, AVE, Fronell, and Larcker criterion, HTMT ratio) and the reliabilities are checked with the help of Cronbach alpha reliability and Composite Reliability. The measurement model algorithm has been given in Figure 2.

The statistics obtained from the results for factor loadings, cronbach alpha, and composite reliability and average variance were extracted as shown in Table 2. The factor loadings of the items found for all variables have been found significant ranging from 0.747 to 0.950 which are among the good values where the value for acceptance is 0.7 while the composite reliability has also been found above the cut-off values (48). Moreover, the average variance extracted has also been among the accepTable value of being above 0.5 (49).

Furthermore, the r-square values of the dependent variables have also been found substantial. The r-square for the digital economy was the highest showing the contribution of 62.4% fitting the regression line. Secondly, entrepreneurial success showed a regression fit of 54.9% which is among very good fit for the model. Moving further to the dependent variables of expected value belief and entrepreneurial intention has shown the model fit of regression of 31.5 and 17.7% respectively.

The current study has used two techniques for checking the validities of the questionnaire. These two tests are Fornell and Larcker and HTMT ratios. The acceptance criteria for Fornell and Larcker criterion are that the highest value in each column should be the highest. This criterion is met in this study and the results for this can be seen in Table 3. The bold values verify the results.

Furthermore, the HTM ratios for the study have been obtained to show the validity of the measurement scales. For the HTMT ratio to be significant, these values must be below 0.9 (50). The results for the HTMT ratio are reported in Table 4.

The hypothesis proposed in the study are either verified for rejection or acceptance based on the results obtained through the structural model algorithm of Smart-PLS. Original sample, mean values, standard deviation, t-statistics, and the p-values are the primary indicators for the acceptance or rejection of the hypothesis. The algorithm has been graphically represented in Figure 3 of the study obtained from the structural model.

The structural model algorithm gives the results for the direct effects and the indirect effects of the variables on other variables. These results are represented in separate tables. Following Tables 5, 6 give the direct and indirect effect of variables respectively.

In this study, the results show that the first hypothesis (H₁: ESE → EI) has been rejected at p < 0.05 and the t-statistic = 1.529. However rest of the direct hypothesis have been accepted at different values of p in H₂ (ESE → EVB), it is accepted at p < 0.001 and t-statistic = 10.02. Similarly, H₃ (ESE → ES; p < 0.000 and t-statistic = 6.360), H₄ (EVB → EI: p < 0.000 and t-statistic = 5.186), H₅ (EVB → ES; p < 0.000 and t-statistic = 4.886) and H₆ (EI → ES; p < 0.005 and t-statistic = 3.233) were accepted at their respective t-statistics and p-values. Furthermore the relationship of entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial success making H₇ (EI → DE; p < 0.000 and t-statistic = 4.906) and H₈ Es → DE; p < 0.000 and t-statistic = 10.480) have been approved with strong relationships.

The results for the mediating effects of entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial success have been reported in Table 6. The H₉ indicating the hypothesis entrepreneurial intention mediates the relationship of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and the digital economy was rejected showing insignificant results. However, the H₁₀ indicating that entrepreneurial success mediates the relationship of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and digital economy has been accepted with a p < 0.001 and t-statistic = 6.089.

The current study has been a contribution to the literature of entrepreneurship and organizational psychology by measuring the role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in entrepreneurial intentions, expectancy-value belief, and entrepreneurial success and their ultimate role in attaining the digital economy. In this regard, the present study has provided evidence that entrepreneurial self-efficacy is an important constitutent of entrepreneurial success which ultimately boosts the digital economy of the country. Furthermore, it has also been established in this study that entrepreneurial intention is important among the people to digitalize their economy in a better way. Furthermore, another important contribution of the study is about stressing the role of expectancy value belief in this whole mechanism achieving digitalized economy through entreprenurship. Expectancy value belief has generously contributed toward mediating the relationship of entrepreneurial self efficacy and success. The literature of organizational psychology has also been upgraded with establishing a strong relationship of expectancy value belief with entrepreneurial intentions.

This study is considerable for the universities in employing those study programs that help the motivated students in starting their businesses and such workshops should be made part of the curriculum to achieve their entrepreneurial goals and reach the expected success in entrepreneurship. Students should get engaged in the real life curricular activities that evokes the entrepreneurial skills in them by presenting them the real time scenarios. It is also important for the potential entrepreneurs that using hi-tech technologies in operations, contributes not only to their income but also plays a role in digitizing the economies at the mass level.

However, there is a certain limitation to this study. First of all, this has used convenience sampling and this can be repeated in the future with probability sampling so the results could be validated. Secondly, it has used self-efficacy theory and achievement goal theory, however in the future it can be checked by incorporating the expectancy theory and other goal attainment theories considering the interpersonal and social systems. Further, this study should be conducted in other parts of the world to understand if there exists any cultural difference or how personality traits can affect this contribution of self-efficacy and entrepreneurship in the digital economy. Fourth, the model of the study can be repeated with additional variables to understand if there are some other attributes of individuals that may moderate these relationships.