Modeling the predictors of students’ entrepreneurial intentions: The case of a peripheral European region

Abstract

This study analyzes the predictive factors influencing the entrepreneurial intentions of students at higher education institutions (HEIs) in a peripheral European region. The study includes a sample of 594 students and uses structural equation models for data analysis. The results show that the attitude to behavior and perceived behavioral control positively influence entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, subjective norms positively impact the attitude to behavior and perceived behavioral control. ‘Closer’ valuation (i.e., of family, friends, etc) influences attitude to behavior and social valuation positively impacts subjective norms. This research contributes to the literature on entrepreneurial intention as it complements the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) with two environmental factors: closer valuation and social valuation. This is important because it provides evidence of whether the environment of the country in question influences entrepreneurial intention and indicates the need for investment in entrepreneurship education. Consequently, the study contributes to the literature by identifying educational factors that may influence students to become entrepreneurs in a peripheral European region. Further, this paper tests the relationship between the attitude towards behavior and subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms, something not proposed in the original TPB model.

Factors affecting social entrepreneurial intentions in a Portuguese higher education institution

“…These results are aligned with the studies carried out by Hockerts (2017), Nascimento and Salazar (2020) and Urban and Kujinga (2017), in which a diverse set of antecedents are explored. Moreover, the student's subjective norms and network relationships are elements that positively influence attitudes toward entrepreneurial behavior as is also recognized by Lopes et al (2022). The findings also allowed us to understand that entrepreneurial intention is independent of socio-demographic, socio-professional and behavioral variables such as age, gender, years of professional experience or involvement in volunteer activities.…”

“…Factors related to the individual are explored in several empirical studies in which the elements related to the individual's personality and his way of seeing and acting toward society stand out (Bacq and Alt, 2018; Yamini et al , 2022). Furthermore, the results show that attitude toward behavior and perceived behavioral control positively influence entrepreneurial intention (Lopes et al , 2022). Also, the context in which social entrepreneurial activity is carried out has been explored by Karimi et al (2017) in which social inequalities are highlighted as a driving element to the emergence of these projects, while in Kadir et al (2012) and Urban and Kujinga (2017), the elements related to the organizational dimension are empirically explored, in which the role of entrepreneurial education is highlighted as an element that can encourage students to reflect on social problems.…”

Empirical study on the role of passion, individual differences, and innovativeness between entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions and entrepreneurial intention: A moderated mediating model

“…A self‐generated list of six items on entrepreneurial intention, that is, becoming a role model, taking high risks, being excited, and gaining respect and recognition, was constructed (Li et al, 2020; Lopes et al, 2022; Okolie et al, 2021). Sample questions related to entrepreneurial intention are ‘Among all the possibilities, I choose to be an entrepreneur’ and ‘I always seek feedback from others to improve my performance’.…”

Influence of students’ personality, gender, income and age on their intentions to create new information technology and telecommunications ventures

“…First, the sample of students was exclusively from Chile and Ecuador, and the sample size included 788 students, which can be considered a limitation. However, this number of responses is greater than the number of responses used in several recent studies that have evaluated students´entrepreneurial intentions [99][100][101][102]. In addition, the sample analyzed included responses from students of different genders, income and age ranges, which improves the sample's representativeness.…”