Entrepreneurial Competencies and Business Start-up Intentions among Technical Graduates in Tanzania: The Mediating Effect of Antecedents of Theory of Planned Behaviour

Abstract

Despite institutional efforts to integrate entrepreneurship courses into the mainstream education system in most developing countries, empirical evidence of whether and how they influence business start-up intentions through entrepreneurial competencies remains scarce. Against this perception, this paper explores the influence of entrepreneurial competencies on business start-up intentions. Partial Least Squares Path Modelling (PLS-PM) was used to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and business start-up intentions and how the antecedents of Theory of Planned Behaviour mediate their relationships using empirical data collected from 391 graduates who graduated between 2012 and 2017 from technical universities in the commercial city of Tanzania (Dar es Salaam). The findings reveal that entrepreneurial competencies influence attitudes toward start-ups and perceived behavioural control, jointly predicting business start-up intentions. However, their influence was more significant when mediated by attitudes toward start-ups and perceived behavioural control. Curriculum designers should design entrepreneurship programs using experiential pedagogies to facilitate learners’ acquisition of entrepreneurial competencies, attitudes towards start-ups, and perceived behavioural control.