Factors affecting universities’ ability to foster students’ entrepreneurial behaviour

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate behavioural and contextual factors affecting entrepreneurial universities’ ability to influence student entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intention. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modelling was used to assess both micro and macro factors impacting on students’ entrepreneurial attitude and intention on a sample of 272 students of the Master of Business Administration at the University of Florence (Italy). Findings The study contributes to the literature on entrepreneurial universities by assessing the main factors affecting students’ entrepreneurial behaviour. The results stressed how students’ entrepreneurial intent is mainly affected by their entrepreneurial attitude, which is in turn influenced by some of the personality traits analyzed, in particular risk-taking propensity and locus of control. It also emerged how students’ perception of the university environment significantly influences their entrepreneurial attitude and intent. Practical implications By investigating the micro and macro factors that mostly affect students’ entrepreneurial intention, the research suggests some implications for future researches into student entrepreneurship, in order to develop specific teaching programmes affecting students’ entrepreneurial experience, character and related skills. Originality/value The value of the research relates to integrating psychological factors, geographical elements, and the contextual role of universities within student entrepreneurship in a scarcely investigated location, i.e. the Region of Tuscany (Italy).

Gender differences in perception of the university education quality as applied to entrepreneurial intention

“…Although the decision to start a business is determined by other factors, university education plays an important role in this process. This is consistent with the findings of Zollo et al, (2017) and Shirokova et al, (2016), which show that the university environment has a significant impact on students in their business attitude and intentions (Bergmann et al, 2018(Bergmann et al, , 2016Hahn et al, 2017;Trivedi, 2016). In addition, Walter et al (2013) point out that during the course of higher education, the four factors of the organization of study that play a key role in the future business of students are: entrepreneurial education, support programs for entrepreneurship, interconnection with industry, and research orientation.…”

Entrepreneurial-intention constraint model: A comparative analysis among post-graduate management students in India, Singapore and Malaysia

“…Zhang et al (2014) found positive association between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention among Chinese students. Zollo (2017) found university significantly influencing entrepreneurial intent among students. Indeed, Urbano and Guerrero (2013) suggested expanding the scope of university from traditional knowledge-generating to more of an enabler of entrepreneurial eco-system providing the concept of entrepreneurial university.…”

The Role of Entrepreneurship Education and University Environment on Entrepreneurial Interest of MBA Students in Saudi Arabia

“…Moreover, the effect of university environment to the entrepreneurial intention was higher than personality traits, attitudes, and socio-economic environmental factors. Zollo et al (2017) found that entrepreneurial intention of students is significantly affected by the university. It has also been identified by Kraaijenbrink et al (2009) andSaeed et al (2015) that there are three kinds of support a university can provide to its students, those are perceived educational support, perceived concept development support and perceived business development support, and they are important for the supportive university environment.…”