Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate the entrepreneurial intention of Italian female students according to the Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). In particular, we analysed the women’s intention to become entrepreneurs because the relevance of the female entrepreneurship phenomenon is a growing issue. Indeed, millions of women are involved in creating and operating enterprises, which suggests that women are an important engine of economic growth for developing countries. Using survey data from 441 Italian female students, we found that social pressure influences business students’ intention to become entrepreneurs. Focusing on female students, their intention is affected also by the perceived behavioural control. These results are of interest for policy makers and regulators in promoting entrepreneurial skills among young populations, with consequent reduction of the unemployment rate. Finally, this paper provides a new model that helps to understand the students’ entrepreneurial intentions based on gender role.
Highlights
The creation of new enterprises is at the basis of economic and social development [1,2]
Other studies claim that young student entrepreneurs have more innovation and technology skills as well as flexibility, which positively affects their perceived behavioural control and, their entrepreneurial intentions [24,25,26]
We focused on the prediction of entrepreneurial intentions rather than on its realisation because the increasing flexibility of jobs has led to increasing uncertainty of permanent work
Summary
The creation of new enterprises is at the basis of economic and social development [1,2]. Many countries have focused their economic and social growth on the entrepreneurship [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. The positive effect of young entrepreneurship has a beneficial impact on the economics and political aspects of a country [11]. Many studies have investigated several potential factors, such as intentions, motivations, previous experiences, education, attitudes, personal traits and social contexts that may influence entrepreneurial initiatives [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23]. Other studies claim that young student entrepreneurs have more innovation and technology skills as well as flexibility, which positively affects their perceived behavioural control and, their entrepreneurial intentions [24,25,26]
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