The influence of institutional environments in shaping entrepreneurial intentions is increasingly attracting scholarly attention, yet the motivational mechanism behind such a relationship remains relatively underexplored. Drawing on social cognitive career theory and institutional theory, this study explores the serial mediating effects of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and entrepreneurial outcome expectations (EOE) in the relationship between individuals’ perceptions of institutional environments and their entrepreneurial intentions. Additionally, we examined whether the proposed serial mediating model is dependent on the country context in which one is embedded.