The Impact of Personal Values and Attitude toward Sustainable Entrepreneurship on Entrepreneurial Intention to Enhance Sustainable Development: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

Sustainable entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and action are strongly linked to a person’s desire to succeed. Therefore, entrepreneurial intentions are increasingly being studied from a sustainable development viewpoint. By integrating the theory of human values into the theory of planned behavior, the goal of this study was to investigate how values interact with sustainable entrepreneurial intentions. In all, 465 graduate students from Punjab, Pakistan, were interviewed for this study. The findings reveal that students’ entrepreneurial intentions are supported by views toward sustainable entrepreneurship, societal norms, and perceived behavioral control. According to structural equation modeling, self-transcendence and self-enhancement are the personal values that directly or indirectly interact with sustainable entrepreneurial intentions, which is consistent with the findings of the present study. Accordingly, the TPB model may help identify the relationship between sustainable entrepreneurship values and aims and the role of personal values in terms of understanding sustainable entrepreneurial intentions. As a practical implication, according to this study, it is essential to emphasize the importance of personal values in the education of potential entrepreneurs to increase their sustainable entrepreneurial intentions.

The influence of sustainability education on students’ entrepreneurial intentions

“…Following this line of thought, we observe that H3a of the structural model is not rejected ( p < 0.000). That is, the personal norm about sustainability positively influences the intention to initiate entrepreneurship for sustainability, as was previously suggested by Contreras-Barraza et al (2022) and Yasir et al (2022). Likewise, H3b of the structural model is not rejected.…”

“…It is highlighted that the social norm on sustainability positively influences the intention to start an entrepreneurial activity for sustainability. At the same time, a positive correlation between social norms and green behavioral intentions had been previously checked (Birgelen et al , 2009; Meek et al , 2010; Pascucci et al , 2022; Yasir et al , 2022). This is true, as early-stage entrepreneurs follow and enhance the establishment of industry norms as newcomers in markets (Nave and Franco, 2019).…”

“…Thus, Birgelen et al (2009) and Meek et al (2010) supported that social norms are vital for shaping a person's environmental entrepreneurial actions. By way of example, societal norms among Pakistani students explain their entrepreneurial intentions from an SD perspective (Yasir et al, 2022). Furthermore, subjective norms are positively related to sustainable entrepreneurial intentions among Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Latin American students (Pascucci et al, 2022).…”

“…In a broader context, personal norm toward entrepreneurship explains entrepreneurial intentions (Contreras-Barraza et al, 2022). Certain personal values tend to influence SD intentions more than others (Yasir et al, 2022). To identify the influence of personal norms on sustainable entrepreneurship intentions and its mediating role in the relationship between sustainability education and the intention to start entrepreneurship for sustainability, we propose the following two hypotheses:…”

“…The academic works of Nițu-Antonie et al (2022), Pascucci et al (2022) and Yasir et al (2022) have suggested that the concept of sustainability‐oriented entrepreneurial intentions (SEI) is derived from the concept of entrepreneurial intention. SEI is a mindset that integrates entrepreneurial intention with environmental and social aspects of value creation (Zhu et al , 2022).…”