The impact of entrepreneurship education and cultural context on entrepreneurial intentions of Ukrainian students: the mediating role of attitudes and perceived control

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of the research is to test empirically whether the variables of personal attitudes towards entrepreneurship and perceived control mediate the relationship between entrepreneurship education and intentions of Ukrainian students to become entrepreneurs; to determine whether personal attitudes mediate the relationship between cultural context and entrepreneurial intentions.Design/methodology/approachThe research project carried out jointly by four Kharkiv universities used 349 survey responses from senior students majoring in business and economics and management and marketing. The data was analysed using Partial Least Squares regression.FindingsEducation and employed teaching methods, in particular, positively affect students' attitudes towards entrepreneurship, their perceived capability to start a business and indirectly influence entrepreneurial intentions. However, attendance of entrepreneurship-related courses itself does not enhance perceived control and has no significant effect on personal attitudes. The study also shows that cultural context has a positive influence on students' attitudes towards entrepreneurship and, therefore, indirectly impacts their intentions to become entrepreneurs.Research limitations/implicationsFirstly, the students participating in the study were from one country. And secondly, the paper deals with pre-educational entrepreneurial intentions.Practical implicationsThe study suggests that a practice-based approach to entrepreneurship education is a key to raising entrepreneurial awareness of young people in countries whose national cultures are built on collectivist values.Originality/valueThe results of the study are of value for teaching staff, who can actually influence students' entrepreneurial self-awareness, and for university management in the context of contemporary education reforms and the latest requirements to education process.

Moderating effects of Covid-19-related psychological distress on the cognitive process of entrepreneurship among higher education students in Vietnam

“…Several scholars suggest subjective norms can act as an effective predictor of entrepreneurial attitude (e.g. Gorgievski et al, 2017;Mykolenko et al, 2021), whereas individuals' perceptions of being easy to create and manage a novel business (perceived behavioral control) can help increase their attitude toward entrepreneurship (Doan et al, 2021). Moreover, almost all prior entrepreneurship studies only considered the link between perceived behavioral control and entrepreneurial intention (e.g.…”

The influence of sustainability education on students’ entrepreneurial intentions

“…On the other hand, we note that H1a of the structural model is rejected, as there is no significance of the relationship between sustainability education as a predictor of attitude toward sustainability ( p < 0.110). Education, in this context, may fail to accomplish one of its missions – that of being a change agent (Shields, 2019) or of fostering a sustainability mindset (Kassel et al , 2016), which confirms the findings of Kusumojanto et al (2021) and contradicts that of Mykolenko et al (2022) and Nguyen et al (2022). It is yet to be explored whether this lack of influence is determined by cultural or economic factors.…”

“…Individuals who are more oriented toward SD and nature preservation tend to act by their values (Wagner, 2012). Attitudes toward entrepreneurship were found to be positively related to entrepreneurial intention by Nguyen et al (2022), but depending on the cultural context, attitudes may or may not influence entrepreneurial decisions, as concluded by Mykolenko et al (2022). This is the case of a study conducted on Indonesian students, whereby attitudes toward green entrepreneurship were not found to be related to green entrepreneurial intentions (Prabowo et al, 2022).…”

“…In recent years, a considerable amount of research evaluated the impact of higher education on sustainability (Littledyke et al , 2013), where educational institutions are seen as change agents (Shields, 2019) whose focus is on the development of sustainability-related topics. As such, Mykolenko et al (2022) and Nguyen et al (2022) found that entrepreneurial education has a positive impact on attitudes toward entrepreneurship. However, existing research shows that education for sustainability may not necessarily influence attitudes toward sustainability (Kusumojanto et al , 2021).…”

Predicting Indonesian Consumers’ Intention to Buy Green Cosmetics Using The Modified TPB Framework

“…Furthermore, beside attitude and subjective norm, perceived behavioral control also plays an integral and significant role within the framework of theory of planned behavior (TPB) in terms of affecting individuals' (or consumers) intention to conduct certain behavior (Choi and Kim, 2022;Marmat, 2022). In this case, perceived behavioral control (PBC) could be understood as individuals' or consumers' personal judgement and beliefs regarding whether or not consumers had a full power and control in order to perform certain behavior (Arora et al, 2022;Mykolenko et al, 2022). In the other word, the basic concept of perceived behavioral control (PBC) mainly refers or deals with the level of difficulty faced or felt by the individuals in performing such behavior.…”