The present study endeavors to develop a deeper understanding of the motivational processes involved in intentional entrepreneurial behavior. For this purpose, it integrates the social cognitive approach of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the organismic theory of motivation of self-determination theory (SDT). More specifically, it tests the role of basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness as defined in SDT in shaping university students' attitudes and intentions toward entrepreneurship. The sample of this study consisted of 438 (Males = 166, Females =272) 3 rd and 4 th year university students from four Malaysian Public Universities. The results of the study show that the model strongly explains about 71% of the variance in entrepreneurial intention. Basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness have a strong indirect impact on entrepreneurial intention via their attitudinal antecedents: attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control. This indicates a full-mediational model, where the attitudinal factors operated as transmitters of effects from the distal constructs of SDT on entrepreneurial intention. These findings confirm that both SDT and the TPB provide complementary explanations of the motivational processes of entrepreneurial behavior. The study contributes to the existing knowledge by providing a theory-based understanding of the role of motivations in the formation of entrepreneurial intentions. It opens the way for future research to analyze how alternative motivations may affect new venture creation, survival and success.

The purpose of this study is to test an integrated entrepreneurial motivation and intention model based on self-determination theory (SDT) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Particularly, it aims at testing the direct and indirect effects of the basic psychological needs satisfaction of SDT, that is, autonomy, competence, and relatedness on entrepreneurial intention through the TPB attitudinal factors, that is, attitude toward entrepreneurship, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. A sample of 622 university students from two universities in Yemen has been used, and the integrated model was tested using structural equation modeling to check its validity and the hypothesized relationships. The study findings lend support to the theoretical integration of the model, where basic psychological needs satisfaction has a positive effect on attitude toward entrepreneurship, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, and in turn, they have positive effect on entrepreneurial intention. The findings suggest full mediation of attitude toward entrepreneurship and perceived behavioral control due to the insignificant direct path from need satisfaction on entrepreneurial intention, whereas no mediation effect was observed in the case of subjective norms.

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This study assesses whether final-year undergraduate students at Sana’a University, Yemen intend to start their own business. The study employs the theory of planned behaviour and two environmental factors to explore whether the theory’s behavioural factors and the contextual factors of Lüthje & Franke’s model have an impact on students’ intentions to start their own business. A questionnaire survey with a random sample of 335 final-year university students from the largest public university in Yemen has been conducted. Data has been analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation and structural equation modelling. The findings indicate that students’ perceptions of entrepreneurship have a strong, direct impact on self-employment intention, excluding social norms and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Students’ self-employment intention is directly affected by perceived barriers and support factors in the entrepreneurship-related context. To increase their entrepreneurial abilities, university students require more training and education to be able to start new businesses. Developing entrepreneurial skills among citizens may improve the societal norms of business. The outcomes provide significant implications for policymakers, academic communities and international bodies.

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