This systematic literature review aims at understanding the influence of the university's environment and support system (ESS) in shaping the social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) of post-secondary education students. Social entrepreneurs play an important role in the economic and social developments of the communities in which they operate, thus many post-secondary institutions are starting to encourage more students to engage in social entrepreneurial behaviour. Consequently, there is a need for systematic approaches to evaluate the impact of various motivational factors related to the university's entrepreneurial ecosystem that could affect the SEI of students. Based on a systematic literature review and narrative synthesis of the antecedents of the SEI of post-secondary education students, the authors proposed a customized SEI model that modifies and extend the one proposed by Hockerts (Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 2017) and Mair and Noboa (Social entrepreneurship, 2006). This study fills a gap in the literature by providing a methodology grounded in theory that can help universities to design their educational and other interventions aimed at encouraging more students to consider social entrepreneurship as a viable career choice after graduation.

This study examines the trend of the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic in Pakistan and to explore the community perception of the socioeconomic impact of COVID‐19 pandemic in a rural mountain area of Pakistan. An online survey was conducted through snowball sampling technique and total 367 people participated in the survey. The results of the study show that COVID‐19 cases spiked amid ease of lockdown in the country and the spread of novel coronavirus pandemic has significant socioeconomic impact on the lives of mountain communities in Gilgit‐Baltistan. Financial uncertainty, decrease in income, fear of job loss, and food insecurity are some major challenges that mountain communities face due to outbreak of coronavirus in the region. The results further show that lack of community cooperation with government agencies, lack of awareness about the severity of coronavirus, and insufficient COVID‐19 testing kits are the major factors that caused the spread of coronavirus cases. This study suggests that the short‐, medium‐, and long‐term policies are required to mitigate the consequences of this pandemic and to revitalize the mountain economy of Gilgit‐Baltistan, and in this regard, this study provides baseline information for policy‐makers and practitioners to devise such demanding policies.

Understanding the antecedents of the entrepreneurial intentions is vital in development of entrepreneurship in a region. Entrepreneurship is considered as one of the important elements of local economic development which can be used to address the issues of poverty and scarcity of livelihood opportunities in rural areas of the world. This study investigates the influence of social capital on entrepreneurial intentions in rural area of Pakistan. For this purpose, a representative sample of 325 respondents has been selected from rural community in Gilgit-Baltistan. The constructed model has been estimated using the partial least square method and the results show that social capital has significant positive impact on entrepreneurial intentions by forming perceived desirability, perceived self-efficacy, and perceived social norms towards entrepreneurship. This study recommends rural community of Pakistan should be given awareness about the potential of entrepreneurship opportunities and such awareness programs have unique advantages to various segments of rural community. Women, unemployed individuals, and younger generations in particular may get the maximum benefits as people in mountainous regions have already limited earning options. In such a case, developing entrepreneurial intentions of the mountain community in Gilgit-Baltistan leads to understandings of benefits of initiating their own ventures, get economic advantages, and contribute to households' income.

PurposeThe study aims to test the applicability of a variant of the model proposed by Hockerts (2017) for assessing the social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) of male and female students. It extends the model by incorporating the university's environment and support system (ESS) as an additional more distal construct. The university's ESS, coupled with the experience with social, cultural and environmental issues can affect SEI by influencing the more proximal precursors of empathy towards others, perceived self-efficacy, perceived community support and social, cultural and environmental responsibility.Design/methodology/approachA structured non-disguised questionnaire was administered to students at a Canadian university. A sample of 485 usable responses was analysed by means of second-order structural equation modelling.FindingsThe results provide confirmation that the proposed model is a multi-group invariant and appropriate for analysing the SEI of male and female students. They also show that the university's ESS helps predict SEI indirectly through the complete mediation of the more proximal antecedents.Research limitations/implicationsThe questionnaire is limited to universities with social innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives.Practical implicationsOutcomes of the study can help universities assess the efficacy of their social innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives for instilling a social entrepreneurial mind-set in students. Consequently, universities will be better equipped to raise the perceptions of venture feasibility and desirability, thus increasing students' perceptions of opportunity.Originality/valueThe study advances the social entrepreneurial knowledge of the university's effect on the precursors of SEI.

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