The study of the causal relationship between innovativeness and entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate students

Abstract

In recent years, entrepreneurs have become key drivers of business growth worldwide, since that time, entrepreneurial education has subsequently been garnering an increased level of interest. Entrepreneurship is considered to be a combination of both art and science, used to create value when targeting customers; however, there appears to be a myth when it comes to the recipe required for success. It was discovered by The Office of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion that less than 10% of Thai small and medium entrepreneurial businesses were successful, while the global rate of success is close to 5 times higher than that of Thailand. Therefore, a better understanding of key success factors is necessary going forward. Typically, an entrepreneur's journey starts with entrepreneurial intention, opportunity recognition, business initiative creation, and resource assembly, if they are to start their venture successfully. Entrepreneurial intention is a prerequisite to entrepreneurial behavior, based on the theory of planned behavior. Subsequently, scholars are interested in the key factors which drive entrepreneurial intention. While innovativeness has been proven to be one of the critical factors within certain groups of the population, there is little empirical data on the causal relationship between innovativeness and entrepreneurial intention amongst undergraduate students. As such, this study has two main objectives: (1) to explore factors influencing innovativeness, attitudes towards entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial intentions of undergraduate students, and (2) to understand the causal relationship between innovativeness and entrepreneurial intentions among undergraduate students. The population of the study is comprised of undergraduate students from public universities and 330 effective responses were received in the survey. Based on the findings from confirmatory analysis and multiple regression, the empirical data is consistent with the theoretical measurement model for both innovativeness and entrepreneurial intention and (2) innovativeness can effectively predict entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate students.

The relationship between individual entrepreneurial orientation, network ties, and entrepreneurial intention of undergraduate students: implications on entrepreneurial education

“…Among undergraduate students, Chaudhary (2017) and Nasip et al (2017) found that innovativeness is positively related to entrepreneurial intentions. The study of Wathanakom et al (2020) found that innovativeness is the highest predictor of entrepreneurial intentions among undergraduate students. These studies indicate that innovativeness will predict entrepreneurial intentions among students.…”

“…The competitive landscape demands that entrepreneurs offer something new in the form of products, new methods, and processes to take advantage of customers' unmet needs and wants. Wathanakom et al (2020) acknowledge that entrepreneurial educational programmes must emphasise innovativeness, as this skill is important in building entrepreneurial intentions.…”

Research Trends in the Measurement of Entrepreneurial Education: A Bibliographic Coupling Analysis

“…Research Trends in the Measurement of Entrepreneurial Education: A Bibliographic Coupling… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96821 the paper by Puni et al [25] highlights that the acquisition of knowledge about entrepreneurship and the recognition of opportunities favour the entrepreneurial intention. Wathanakom et al [8] analyse innovation as a critical factor in the entrepreneurial intention of university students. Also, the authors Vanevenhoven and Liguori [34] present the structure of a longitudinal study that measures the factors associated with entrepreneurial intention in students from 70 countries and 400 world universities.…”

“…In this regard, a growing number of research confirms that education plays an important role in promoting entrepreneurship [7,10]. Indeed, entrepreneurial education has been gaining greater interest in literature [8] because it strengthens the entrepreneurial intention [11][12][13][14], favours the acquisition of new skills to compete in the labour market [15], develop a culture of innovation [8,16] and influence positively entrepreneurial self-efficacy in students [17]. Thus, to promote successful entrepreneurship it is necessary to strengthen business education and the entrepreneurial ecosystem [13].…”

“…Entrepreneurship is considered one of the main strategies for economic development and competitiveness of countries [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Thus, entrepreneurs have become drivers of business growth around the world [8]. Consequently, the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurship education has long been addressed in literature [9].…”