Ziyun Song, Sheerad Sahid, Iszan Hana Kaharudin, Fei Wang
As cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) becomes a popular entrepreneurial choice for Chinese vocational graduates due to its low barriers to entry and operational flexibility, this study explores how students’ entrepreneurial motivation and family business background affect entrepreneurial success. Guided by the Ability–Motivation–Opportunity (AMO) theory, our quantitative, cross-sectional survey of 592 Chinese CBEC students was analysed using multi-group structural equation modeling. Findings reveal that while cross-cultural ability positively impacts performance, this relationship is moderated differently by personal and contextual factors. Motivation acts as an enhancing moderator, strengthening the ability-performance link, whereas a family business background serves as a reducing moderator, weakening it. This research contributes to the AMO theory by demonstrating that family business ownership may function as a substitute rather than a complement to individual competence, specifically in the digital entrepreneurship context. Practically, these findings provide educators with an empirical basis for offering more selective, evidence-based guidance, prioritizing students’ ability and motivation over inherited advantages to mitigate failure risks in the volatile CBEC environment. © The Author(s) 2026.
School of Foreign Languages and Trade, Guangdong Polytechnic of Water Resources and Electric Engineering, Guangzhou, China; Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, Bangi, Malaysia; School of Liberal Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, Bangi, Malaysia; Faculty of Economic & Business, Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang, Indonesia; Shandong Institute of Commerce & Technology, Jinan, China
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