Entrepreneurial intention among online and face-to-face university students: The influence of structural and cognitive social capital dimensions

Abstract

This research attempts to understand how the influence of specific dimensions of social capital may or may not have different effects on student entrepreneurial intentions in Spanish university environments (online and face-to-face). Based on Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior, we attempt to integrate three elements of social capital (network ties as structural social capital, shared languages, and shared visions as cognitive social capital) to explain the significant or non-significant differences in entrepreneurial intentions between these two samples (online and face-to-face), given the role played by social capital in university environments and in the entrepreneurship process. Partial least squares-structural equation modelling has been employed to assess the research model and to perform multi-group analysis. Two non-parametric techniques have been used: Henseler’s MGA and the permutation test. Before performing the multi-group analysis, measurement invariance was evaluated using measurement invariance of composite models, which is a new approach to partial least squares-structural equation modelling. The data is obtained from a sample of 302 online and 204 face-to-face university students (undergraduate and master students). Findings suggest that although social capital has significant influence on entrepreneurial intentions in both environments, it is greater in the online students group than in the face-to-face group. This is due to the influence of cognitive social capital (shared languages and shared visions) on entrepreneurial intentions through the catalyst role played by structural social capital (network ties) and the principal components of the Theory of Planned Behavior (attitude towards behavior, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norms). This study makes a significant theoretical contribution by analyzing the different impacts of structural (network ties) and cognitive (shared languages and shared visions) social capital on the antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions in online and face-to-face university students.