A study on gender and course of the study differences on determinants of social entrepreneurial intention: the view point of developing country

Abstract

In developing countries like India, entrepreneurship can be a solution of many economy-related problems. This article is an attempt to determine the determinants of social entrepreneurship intentions with gender and course of study differences. Understanding the antecedents of social entrepreneurial intentions is important for policy makers and educators who want to motivate students to engage in social entrepreneurship. The theoretical framework is proposed in the study. The paper based questionnaires were used for students’ survey enrolled in a Bachelor of Pharmacy, Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Business Administration program in India to collect the data. The convenience sampling procedure was employed as the sampling method. The usable sample size was 347. The model and hypotheses were tested using structured equation modeling with the help of smart PLS 3.0. The results of the study show that empathy, social support, moral obligation, self efficacy and government support show significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention. The social support has the highest impact on entrepreneurial intention while moral obligation is the least contributing factor towards entrepreneurial intention among students. The course of study played a key role to become an entrepreneur. The study also reveals that entrepreneurial intentions are more likely to arise in students in business disciplines than in students in engineering and pharmacy. Furthermore, the findings of the study suggest that male and female students have differences in entrepreneurial intention. In the end article presents the limitation and future research scope of the study.