This study examines how individual capabilities and institutional conditions jointly shape entrepreneurial intention and total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) across a cross-country sample of Eurasian and comparator economies characterized by diverse entrepreneurial and institutional environments. Focusing on entrepreneurial alertness, entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, social desirability, and economic freedom, the study investigates how individual- and country-level determinants influence entrepreneurial behavior across different institutional contexts, including transition-oriented and institutionally heterogeneous economies.Using multi-year panel data from the GEM and the Index of Economic Freedom, the study employsPLS-SEM to evaluate the simultaneous effects of individual and institutional factors on entrepreneurial intention and TEA. The findings reveal that entrepreneurial alertness and entrepreneurial knowledge and skills significantly enhance both entrepreneurial intention and TEA. In contrast, social desirability has a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial intention but a negative and significant effect on TEA. The economic freedom has a negative and significant effect on TEA. These findings suggest that, diverse and partially volatile entrepreneurial environments, individual-level competencies play a more decisive role than formal institutional conditions alone in transforming entrepreneurial aspirations into early-stage entrepreneurial activity.The study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by integrating individual and institutional determinants within a unified analytical framework and by contextualizing entrepreneurial dynamics within Eurasian and transition-oriented economies, including Iran. The findings further suggest that institutional conditions such as economic freedom may not necessarily facilitate the conversion of entrepreneurial intention into entrepreneurial action, particularly in environments characterized by institutional constraints, regulatory uncertainty, and uneven entrepreneurial support structures. The study offers important implications for scholars and policymakers seeking to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems and entrepreneurial participation across heterogeneous institutional contexts.