Entrepreneurial Intentions in Students from a Trans-National Perspective

Abstract

Studying the variability of entrepreneurial attitudes within different countries is important in order to identify where attempts to increase entrepreneurial spirit and activity should focus. This article analyzes differences within multiple countries, as well the causal relationship of three attitudinal variables, namely, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, and entrepreneurial motivations with entrepreneurial intention. We used a cross-national framework and analyzed the relation of four different countries with a sample of 800 students from Argentina (200), Chile (200), Panama (200), and Spain (200). Results show variability in all attitudes between countries with Panama rating the highest in most and Spain rating the lowest. Motivations expressed for entrepreneurship are not statistically significant between most countries, which suggests the perception of entrepreneurship as an engine for personal goals is high and similar in all four countries. Regression analysis showed subjective norm’s effect is not statistically significant in Argentina nor Chile for intentions, and Panama’s intentions are highly driven by entrepreneurial motivations. These suggest policies and programs should tap on the fairly consistent entrepreneurial spirit to capitalize on student’s interest in entrepreneurship, and pull them into training programs to strengthen their competences.

The Impact of Entrepreneurial Education on Technology-Based Enterprises Development: The Mediating Role of Motivation

“…People need the motivation to continue an action, which is true for everybody, even entrepreneurs. Therefore, some researchers are trying to analyzing and perceive the relationship between motivations and entrepreneurs (Ward et al 2019). Entrepreneurship motivation encourages entrepreneurial skills.…”

Entrepreneurial Passion to Entrepreneurial Behavior: Role of Entrepreneurial Alertness, Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Proactive Personality

“…Entrepreneurial intention refers to the intent to formulate a new business as well as select an alternate career to common employment ( Ward et al, 2019a ; Yi, 2020 ). As suggested by several authors, intentions are the best predictor for measuring entrepreneurial behavior ( Fitzsimmons and Douglas, 2011 ; Ajzen and Sheikh, 2013 ).…”

Do Entrepreneurship Skills Improve Project Performance? A Project-Based Learning Perspective

“…Subjective norms means the perceived social pressure to perform or not to perform the behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). In addition to attitudes and subjective norms, TPB adds the concept of perceived behavioural control; this originates from self-efficacy theory and refers to an individual's belief that he/she is capable of performing a task (Bandura, 1977;Fayolle et al, 2006;Ward et al, 2019;Yurtkoru et al, 2014). Perceived behavioural control is related to an individual's confidence that he/she is capable of performing the behaviour under investigation; the individual's confidence is related to his/her belief that he/she has control over that behaviour (Ajzen, 2005).…”