Entrepreneurial intentions of students in a historically disadvantaged university in South Africa

The study investigated the relationship between materialism and the entrepreneurial intention of students at a South African university. In addition, the study examined if there is a significant gender difference in the materialistic values of university students. The quantitative research technique was adopted for the study. The survey method and the self-administered approach were used for data collection. The research participants comprised of 169 conveniently sampled business students. The Cronbach’s alpha was used to ensure reliability. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, T-test, Pearson correlation and regression. The results indicated that there is a positive but insignificant relationship between materialism and the entrepreneurial intention of university students. There is no significant gender difference in the materialistic values of university students. Recommendations were suggested in order to manage the materialistic values of university students.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the relationship between entrepreneurial orientations, social factors and internship program toward entrepreneurial intentions of students from different business school/universities in Indonesia.Design/Methodology/Approach – Primarily, a critical review of a range of published literature in the period of 1983-2013 addressing the theoretical and practical aspects of entrepreneurial orientations, social factors, internship program and entrepreneurial intention of the university student in Indonesia. Extent literature on the relationship among them is also reviewed to show whether there is a lack of research adopting the perspective of entrepreneurial orientations, social factors, internship program and entrepreneurial intention.Findings – The outcomes of this paper indicate that the supporting theories relating to entrepreneurial orientation in Indonesia are considered very less. It is due to the fact that only a few studies in Indonesia adopt this theory. Generally, the related studies about entrepreneurial intention of university student does not refer to the aspect of capability, willingness or braveness in taking a risk, whereas, the willingness to take the risk is a substantial capability to be an entrepreneur. Besides, the implementation of internship program in Indonesia is considered not effective in shaping entrepreneurial spirit among university student. It can be seen from the fact that from a hundred of businesses funded by internship program, there are only 2 % of businesses are able to survive until now. While, others become discouraged and do not want to continue. The low level of entrepreneurial intention in Indonesia is also due to a large number of business graduate students tends to be a job seeker instead of job creator. It is also revealed that there is a lack of empirical studies focusing on the influence of internship program toward student's intention to become an entrepreneur, even though most of internship studies regularly discuss about the weakness of this program itself.Research limitation – This paper only review the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation, social support, internship program and entrepreneurial intention of Indonesian university students, majoring in business management.Practical Implication – The finding of this paper suggests that there is a need for the Indonesian government, universities as well as policy makers to formulate strategic plan relating to the development of internship program itself in term of providing better program, human resource and facilities. In addition, there is a need to conduct a further research to provide an empirical relationship between the above variables.Originality/value – This paper measures entrepreneurial orientation, social support and internship program toward the entrepreneurial intention of university students in Indonesia where the previous researches mostly used the self-efficacy factor for the antecedent variable.

Considering entrepreneurship as a set of actions performed by a subject, and behavior one of the main predictors of actions, this work presents a study based on the Theory of Human Values, that aims to analyze the influence of personal values on entrepreneurial intention of university students; understanding as well the personal values as cognitive characteristics that explain the attitudes of a subject towards entrepreneurship, the hypotheses of this work establish a positive relation between values associated to individualism and the entrepreneurial intention as well as a negative relation between values associated to collectivism and the entrepreneurial intention of university students. For this, a sample of 488 undergraduate students from the University of Guadalajara in Mexico is used and statistical analysis is performed through the SPSS software. Using a quantitative methodology, an exploratory factorial analysis and a linear regression model are performed to calculate the predictive capacity of the different types of personal values on the entrepreneurial intention of students at the University previously mentioned. Personal values associated to individualism prove to be highly related to entrepreneurial intentions while those related to collectivism show low or null effect. Some exceptions are discussed and lead to future lines of research regarding different types of entrepreneurship.

Purpose The main impetus of the present analysis is to inspect the effect of psychological capital (PsyCap) on entrepreneurial intentions (EI) amongst college students and to test the mediation role of individual expectancy between PsyCap and EI. Design/methodology/approach The cross-sectional data of the university students enrolled in business management and engineering courses served as the foundation for the quantitative study design. To test the formulated hypothesis, PLS-SEM is utilized for analyzing the structural relationships between dependent and independent variables. Findings The results indicate that PsyCap significantly impacts the EI of collegiate students pursuing engineering and management courses. However, individual expectancy plays a partial mediating role between the PsyCap and EI of college students. Research limitations/implications This research provides an assessment of the effect of PsyCap on the EI of college students with the partial mediating effect of individual expectancy. The findings deliver the enhancement of the EI literature. Practical implications The study outcomes are helpful to educators, university administrators, curriculum developers and entrepreneurial policy planners to realize the role of individual expectancies of students’ entrepreneurs on their EI. Social implications The student entrepreneur community recognizes that individual students with stronger levels of entrepreneurial PsyCap having further probability tend to become future entrepreneurs. Originality/value The present analysis is original and holds novelty in the form of the mediating role of individual expectancies between PsyCap and EI of students.

Purpose: The study assesses the gender related factors and entrepreneurial intentions of undergraduate students of selected Federal Universities in Southwest, Nigeria. It specifically, examined barriers to male and female entrepreneurial activities in the selected Universities; assessed how entrepreneurship education has impacted entrepreneurial intentions of female and male undergraduates in the study area; and evaluated how entrepreneurial intentions of male and female undergraduates differ in the study area. Theoretical Framework: The study's foundation was Social Feminist Theory (SFT), which clarified the widely held stereotype that women are subservient to men. This stereotype is said to conflict with the innate desire for entrepreneurship, and female students' inclination to start their own businesses may be viewed as a hindrance. In this regard, the study has attempted to conduct a methodical assessment of several publications concerning the relationship between gender and the entrepreneurial intentions of students at particular Federal Universities in the Southwest region of Nigeria. Design/Methodology/Approach: To guide the investigation, three research questions were developed. Similarly, three objectives and three null hypotheses were generated for the study. The study adopted the use of a cross-sectional survey approach, and structured questionnaire administration was made use of, to gather data. A total of 1,820 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents and were all recovered for the study. The study made use of a well-structured and validated “Gender Related Factors and Entrepreneurial Intentions Questionnaire” as the instrument for data collection. The data analysis included both inferential and descriptive statistics, such as; Mann-Whitney U Test, Multiple Linear Regression and basic percentages, counts, mean, and standard deviation.. Findings: The study found that female students faced more barriers to entrepreneurial activities than male students. The distribution of barriers is not the same across the two categories of gender. Entrepreneurship education is positively related to entrepreneurial intention and explains a variation in the level of entrepreneurial intention of undergraduate students in the selected Federal universities. Female students showed less entrepreneurial intention than male students and suggests that the distribution of entrepreneurial intention is not the same across the two categories of gender. Originality/Value: The study, recommended among others that; Policymakers and stakeholders in entrepreneurship matters should give adequate consideration and preference to the female gender in terms of training and other forms of entrepreneurial education to foster better intention with them. Nevertheless, the male gender must not be ignored completely as this may result in a viscous cycle; University management, facilitators and lecturers should also improve on the techniques and methods used in teaching entrepreneurship in Nigerian universities to positively impact the entrepreneurial intention of university students; and Management should also use attractive methods and practical styles that will raise the curiosity of students to the field of entrepreneurship..

This article investigates the effect of academic majors on entrepreneurial intentions of engineering and business students. The research model was established based on the extension of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) through combining the TPB model, perceived risks, academic majors and personalities of students. A sample of 1844 students from the four largest universities in engineering and business in Vietnam were surveyed. The main findings indicated that (i) the relationship in the TPB model was accepted except the effect of subjective norms on entrepreneurial intentions; (ii) perceived risks have negative impacts on perceived behavioral control; (iii) male engineering students have a higher entrepreneurial intentions than female students, but this result was not found in business students; (iv) engineering students have a higher entrepreneurial intentions than business students; (vi) there are no differences between the entrepreneurial intention of students coming from rural and urban areas. The study also contributes to some policy discussion to extend the current debate about the role of academic majors that students take in university in the entrepreneurial process as well as the importance of entrepreneurial students to society.

The primary aim of the study is to assess the entrepreneurial intention of business students. These are students that have done entrepreneurship and small business management modules. The study will also investigate empirically whether there is a significant difference in the entrepreneurial intention of students who have previous work experience compared with students without previous work experience. The study focussed on the final year students (undergraduate level) in the Department of Business Management of a South African university. This study made use of convenience sampling. Data was collected through the use of self-administered questionnaire in a survey. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and the T-test. The results indicate business students have a high level of entrepreneurial intention. In addition, students with previous work experience have a higher level of entrepreneurial intention compared to students without previous work experience. However, the difference is not statistically significant. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n7p294

Many researchers have studied gender differences in the entrepreneurial intention of students by analyzing the influence of several intrinsic and extrinsic factors on the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention. Fewer researchers have analyzed the influence of the university’s environment and support system on the precursors of the entrepreneurial intention of students in general and of female students in particular. This study aims to fill that gap by analyzing the influence of the university’s environment and support system on the precursors of entrepreneurial intention of female students at a university in Atlantic Canada. Findings of this study confirm that two precursors of entrepreneurial intention—i.e., attitude toward behavior and perceived behavioral control—mediate the effects of the university’s environment and support system on the entrepreneurial intention of female students. They also confirm that the university’s environment and support system comprises three distinct but interrelated dimensions, namely entrepreneurship training, start-up support, and entrepreneurial milieu. Results of this study also suggest that the university’s environment and support system has a positive relation with the perceived behavioral control of female students. However, findings of this study also suggest that the university’s environment and support system has a positive but negligible influence on the attitude toward the behavior of the same students. The outcomes of this study will help the university assess the efficacy of its innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives in promoting entrepreneurial activities. By understanding its entrepreneurial efficacy, the institution will be better equipped to raise the perceptions of venture feasibility and desirability, thus increasing students’ perceptions of opportunity.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine gender related factors and entrepreneurial intentions of students in selected tertiary institutions in Nigeria. It was as well focused on the barriers to male and female entrepreneurial activities in the selected tertiary institutions in Nigeria, to determine how effective entrepreneurship education is shaping the entrepreneurial intentions of female and male students in the selected tertiary institutions, examine how entrepreneurial intention of male and female students differ in the selected tertiary institutions; and to assess the gender stereotype for male and female students in the selected tertiary institutions. Theoretical Framework: The common stereotypical view of females being submissive to their male counterparts is said to be clashing with the inherent nature of entrepreneurship intention, and the propensity towards launching an entrepreneurial business may be seen as an impairing factor for female students. In this sense, the paper has sought to systematically review various publications on gender related factors and entrepreneurial intentions of students of public tertiary institutions. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study adopted a cross-sectional survey method using a structured questionnaire. The study area comprised of selected public tertiary institutions in Southwest Nigeria. Six tertiary institutions were selected for the purpose of this study. Students that have participated in entrepreneurship education in the selected tertiary institution in Nigeria are the target population for the study. Data from 351 respondents were assessed based on gender related factors and entrepreneurial intentions of students in selected tertiary institutions in Nigeria using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings: The study found female students facing more barriers in balancing academic and entrepreneurial activities compared to male students. The study recommends that proper orientation should be given to students on the importance of entrepreneurship education and how it can help them to become self-employed after school and students should be properly oriented on barriers and gender stereotypes, and how it influence their entrepreneurial intentions. Originality/Value: The study therefore concludes that the distribution of barriers is not the same across the two categories of gender. Meanwhile, balancing academic and entrepreneurial activities, bad state of the economy and lack of capital as well as access to funds were the most popular barriers to entrepreneurial activities among tertiary institution students in Nigeria. Entrepreneurship education has statistically significant influence on entrepreneurial intention of students in Nigerian tertiary institutions. Three gender based stereotypes: active and energetic, sensitive to the needs of others and prone to position were statistically significantly different between female and male students which are not sufficient for generalization in this study. Nevertheless, the level of entrepreneurial intention is the same across the two categories of gender.

The study aims to investigate the factors affecting entrepreneurial intentions of master level business students in addition to the moderating effect of selected demographic factors. Consolidation of theory of planned behavior and self-efficacy, the study used analytical research design to investigate and analyze the predictors of entrepreneurial intentions among the Master’s Degree Business Management students. Validated questionnaire was used for the survey from the 248 students. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to test sample adequacy and testing hypotheses. The study concluded with significant positive impact of educational support, subjective norms, need for achievement and risk-tolerance on entrepreneurial intentions of students with some selected moderating influences of gender, family background and family and friends support. The study refuted the gender influence in entrepreneurial intentions of management students while significant positive influence of business family background, and family and friend support. The findings of the study are applicable for universities and policy makers for the implementing entrepreneur-oriented course, assignments and evaluation models to create entrepreneurial intentions among the future business owners, managers and business developers. This study has covered the total population of a particular course offered by a university which provided evidence for the originality of the study.

Despite dedicated effort and research in the last two decades, the entrepreneurship field is still limited by little evidence-based knowledge of the impacts of entrepreneurship programs on the entrepreneurial intention of students in pre-university levels of study. Further, gender equity continues to be an issue in the entrepreneurial sector, particularly in STEM-focused entrepreneurship. In this context, this study was designed to explore the effects of a one-day female-focused STEM-based entrepreneurship program (for brevity, we call it the OzGirlsEntrepreneurship program) on the entrepreneurial intention of secondary school female students. The study collected data from two surveys completed by 193 secondary school female students, aged 14–16 years, who participated in the OzGirlsEntrepreneurship program. This program encouraged girls to develop and implement creative computational solutions to socially relevant problems, with an Internet of Things (IoT) component using the micro:bit device. The findings reveal that a key factor in the development of entrepreneurial attitudes in young female students is associated with soft-skills development, particularly in the areas of creative thinking, risk-taking, problem-solving, and leadership development. The importance of meaningful human connections, including positive role modelling and peer to peer learning were also important factors in fostering entrepreneurial intent. With these factors in mind, our findings highlight that the OzGirlsEntrepreneurship program substantially increased the entrepreneurial intention of secondary school female students. In addition, this study offers actionable implications and recommendations to develop and deliver entrepreneurship education programs for secondary school level students.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the entrepreneurial intentions of undergraduate university students in Ethiopia by making a comparative analysis among different groups of students.Design/methodology/approachA total of 156 students completed entrepreneurship intention questionnaire. The questionnaire has seven parts extracting information about personal attraction, subjective norm, self‐efficacy, entrepreneurial intention, need for achievement,locusof control, and instrumental readiness. The respondents were asked to state their agreement/disagreement on statements on a seven‐point Likert type scale.FindingsThe result identified that students who had undergone entrepreneurship education (business management student in this case) tend to have better entrepreneurial intention than those who had not taken entrepreneurship course (engineering students). Also, it was observed that male management students have higher personal attraction towards entrepreneurial career, subjective norms, self‐efficacy and achievement need than female management students, as well as male and female engineering students, while female management students have the lowest instrumental readiness than students in other groups. The study did not find significant difference in entrepreneurial intention of students who had exposure to entrepreneurial activity through family and those who had no such exposures.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitation of this research lies in the sample size and the study units (universities) from which samples have been taken. Future research is recommended to predict entrepreneurship intention of students by taking larger sample from more universities in the country.Practical implicationsThe study strongly suggests the need to incorporate entrepreneurship education in the curriculum of technical disciplines in Ethiopian universities.Originality/valueThe research provides assessment of entrepreneurship intention of university students in the country/culture which was not explored in the past and hence it further enriches literature and helps to universalize intention theories.

Aims: The scientific literature on Entrepreneurial Intention (EI) among agricultural university students in Sri Lanka is meager. Therefore, the focus of this study was to evaluate the EI and to understand what factors affect on EI of the final year undergraduate students of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
 Study Design: The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design. A stratified simple random sample of 100 final year undergraduates that represented 50% of each of the three degree programs of the Faculty of Agriculture, university of Peradeniya were selected for the study. The primary data was collected through a self-administered structured questionnaire.
 Place and Duration of Study: Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka from October 2018 to February 2019.
 Methodology: The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used to measure the EI. Thus, it examined the influence of personal attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control factors on EI. Short-term risk taking, perceived structural support and social capital on business start-up were examined as additional variables to the theory.
 Results: The results revealed that each of the TPB variables significantly (P = 0.05) affect on EI, with an overall R2 = 0.606. Attitudes were the strongest predictor of EI, followed by subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. However, overall level of EI of the students was neutral. Awareness programmes, financial support, introducing and updating the entrepreneurial subjects were some major suggestions of the respondents to improve entrepreneurship among the students.
 Conclusion: Attitudes toward entrepreneurship is the strongest predictor of EI. However, overall EI of the students was neutral. Improving individual attitudes through motivational programmes, providing an approving nature of the staff towards entrepreneurship (subjective norms), mechanisms to develop entrepreneurial capabilities among students and linking entrepreneurship to the present curriculum, would be important to improve the EI of the students leading to a greater entrepreneurship.

Ready to Dare? A Case Study on the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Business and Engineering Students in Turkey

Purpose: The research objectives were to analyze the demographical factors that influence the entrepreneurial intentions of university students; To analyze the relationship between students Personality traits and the students’ entrepreneurial intentions and to analyze how Entrepreneurship education, affects entrepreneurial intentions. Design/methodology/approach: The data was collected through a questionnaire to evaluate variables that affect entrepreneurial intentions. The samples of the study included randomly selected, 254 undergraduate students, and the analysis was done using SPSS. Findings: The study revealed that the Personality traits (Students’ Attitudes) had an impact on the Entrepreneurial intention of the students. It is also revealed that the Perception of the students after Entrepreneurship education changes them and influenced their entrepreneurial intentions. Further, it is also confirmed that all the demographic factors did not influence the Entrepreneurial intention of the students but only the factors – Nationality and Residence influenced the Entrepreneurial intention of the students. Research limitations/implications: It is recommended to offer a variety of technical/vocational courses to help entrepreneurs to overcome challenges, as well as a funding structure for students who pitch unique business ideas. Also, to have strong, leading, and social personality training, to make decisions, and to have crisis skills training in marketing, project development, business acceleration, customer service, etc. will also help the future interested entrepreneurs. Social Implications: The formation of a community-wide culture of proper entrepreneurial practices, as well as its inclusion in the school curriculum, will help to build human capital towards embracing entrepreneurship in Oman. Educating future generations about entrepreneurship, developing its concept, encouraging pioneers, giving them all types of support, and creating the right investment climate will help them to become successful future entrepreneurs. Creating a national innovation system will open the door to a wider range of funding options as it provides a financial environment to students who propose unique ideas for new projects. Originality / Value: The study was restricted to the selected variables such as Perception (after Entrepreneurship Education), Personality Traits (Students’ Attitudes), and Entrepreneurial intention to Start a New Business. The study can be extended to all the other socio-economic factors. The study was dealt with students who had a basic knowledge of Entrepreneurship. Similar studies can be extended to all students who were not having Entrepreneurship Education etc. Keywords: Entrepreneurship Education, Perception after Entrepreneurship Education, Students’ Attitudes, Personality Traits, Entrepreneurial Intention