Developing and Testing the Psychological Variable, Rural Practice, and Entrepreneurial Intention Scales

Abstract

We conducted two studies to develop and confirm the psychological variable, rural practices, and entrepreneurial intention scales. Subsequently, a third study was conducted to examine the effects of psychological variables on the rural practices and entrepreneurial intentions of college students majoring in agriculture. For Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis was performed to determine the appropriate structure of the scales based on a sample of 220 college students. A seven-factor solution was employed to identify the psychological variable dimensions. The concepts of rural practices and entrepreneurial intentions were divided into three and two dimensions, respectively. For Study 2, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to confirm the validity of the structures established in Study 1 based on a sample of 246 college students. In addition, the degree of measurement invariance of the scales was tested across genders. Finally, Study 3 was conducted to further examine the effects of the psychological variables on the rural practices and entrepreneurial intentions of 223 college students majoring in agriculture. The results indicate that the psychological variables comprise seven factors (intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, positive emotions, negative emotions, cognitive load, metacognition, and self-efficacy), rural practices comprise three factors (autonomy, isolation, and friendliness), and entrepreneurial intention comprises two factors (conviction and preparation). Furthermore, intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy were the most critical factors affecting entrepreneurial intention and rural practice.