A Psychological Perspective of Entrepreneurial Intentions Among Business Graduates of Private Universities in Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is one of the youngest countries in the world with more than half of its population being under the age of 25. The nation is in the transition period towards becoming a middle income country by the year 2021. To develop an entrepreneurship-based economy and sustain its continuous growth, university graduates can play a crucial role. At present, more than two third of the business graduates are going to the job markets from the private universities of Bangladesh. They are the important segment for the future growth and development of the country. It is opined that if the business graduates are properly educated for entrepreneurship development it would have a positive impact on the economic development of Bangladesh. Hence, this study aims at identifying the psychological perspective of entrepreneurial intentions among the business graduates of private universities in Bangladesh. This study was conducted among 205 business graduates of ten private universities of Bangladesh. The data were collected through surveying business graduates of private universities of Bangladesh with the help of a structured questionnaire which was developed through literature review. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Multivariate analysis technique like exploratory factor analysis was performed to identify the psychological factors relating to the entrepreneurial intentions of the business graduates of private universities of Bangladesh. Confirmatory analysis confirmed five psychological factors such as, challenge taking attitude, proactive nature, confidence in decision making, quest for excellence, and exposure orientation of the graduates. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was performed to identify the relationships between the overall entrepreneurial intention and the psychological factors for entrepreneurial intention. Results show that Bangladeshi business graduates are proactive, they feel quest for excellence and they have exposure orientation which can make them entrepreneurs. However, they have lacks in challenge taking attitude and confidence in decision making. This study suggests that the policymakers of the country should give importance on the concerned issues in designing the educational and other policies in this regard.