University entrepreneurship: how to trigger entrepreneurial intent of undergraduate students

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe the elements and relationships that explain the entrepreneurial intent in university students, evaluating possible gender and degree differences. Design/methodology/approach The study is of quantitative approach, survey research design and cross-sectional method. The instrument used was a self-administered questionnaire answered by undergraduate university students enrolled in a public university. The sampling was stratified random, with a representative sample size of 734 cases. For data analysis and hypothesis testing, a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation model were made. Findings The results show that the entrepreneurial self-efficacy attribute largely explains the entrepreneurial intent, while all other variables, such as entrepreneurial identity aspirations and outcome expectations, play a less important role but maintain some influence. Research limitations/implications According to the findings of this research, institutions of higher education should direct efforts to improve the entrepreneurial skills of students, especially for women. And the creation of an institutional entrepreneurial culture should also be emphasized so that the university students are able to build an entrepreneurial identity. Originality/value The value of the research is the proposed integrative model that explains how to trigger entrepreneurial intent, shows the prominent role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a predictor variable of entrepreneurial intent and the role of entrepreneur identity aspirations and entrepreneurial self-efficacy as mediating variables. Additionally, this research identifies differences in the model of entrepreneurial intent derived from the variables of gender and degrees.

The Effect of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Intention: Mediation of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Moderating Model of Psychological Capital

“…In the field of entrepreneurship research, a large body of literature shows that EI is regarded as a decisive factor in engaging in entrepreneurial behavior [16][17][18][19]. Therefore, exploring the factors that trigger individual entrepreneurial intentions is a key topic in academia, and many factors have already been verified [20,21].…”

“…Entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) is the most important personal factor that has a significant impact on EI [21,39,40]. ESE is "the strength of a person to believe that he or she can successfully complete various roles and tasks of entrepreneurship" [41], and is a measure of the degree of belief in a person's ability to implement entrepreneurship on their own [42].…”

The moderating effect of educational support on the relationship between self-efficacy and intention in cyber entrepreneurship

“…Consequently, ESE is considered to be the most critical and influential personal factor in EIs (Huang et al. , 2022; Rodríguez Gutiérrez et al. , 2021).…”

Entrepreneurial behavior and education in times of adversity

“…Regarding self-efficacy's influence on intentions, among students, several studies had previously proven self-efficacy impact on entrepreneurial intentions development and enhancement (Moraes et al, 2021;Saraih et al, 2018). In short, this construct measures a person's belief in his own capability of launching a business successfully (Rodríguez Gutiérrez et al, 2019).…”