Influence of sustainability and innovation on the entrepreneurial intention of Brazilian and Portuguese university students

Luis Eduardo Brandão Paiva,Sílvia Maria Dias Pedro Rebouças,Tereza Cristina Batista De Lima,Raimundo Eduardo Silveira Fontenele,Eugénia Maria Dores Maia Ferreira

doi:10.1590/1679-395167527

Luis Eduardo Brandão Paiva, Sílvia Maria Dias Pedro Rebouças + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/1679-395167527

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Abstract

Abstract This study analyzes the influence of sustainable and innovative behavior on the entrepreneurial intention of Brazilian and Portuguese university students. It seeks to develop a model based on behavioral theory planned for entrepreneurial intention, an adaptive-innovation theory for innovative behavior and sustainability. An exploratory survey was conducted with university students from the Federal University of Ceará (Brazil) and the University of Algarve (Portugal). For data analysis, multivariate analysis techniques such as factorial analysis, logistic regression and classification and regression trees (CART) were used. The results confirm: (i) there is a positive relation between the entrepreneurial intention of the university students and the existence of their own businesses; (ii) there is no positive relationship between the professional experience of university students and their entrepreneurial intention; (iii) there is a positive relationship between the innovative behavior of university students and their entrepreneurial intention; (iv) there is a positive relationship between the sustainable behavior of university students and their entrepreneurial intention. In general, the results contribute to overcome the gap in the empirical literature that aligns phenomena such as entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainability, giving this study an innovative character, which allows recommendations for future research.

Highlights

In recent decades, entrepreneurship has been considered preponderant for the economic development of a country (TEIXEIRA and DAVEY, 2010; HISRICH, PETERS and SHEPHERD, 2014)
From the specific objectives and the hypotheses, it was confirmed that the methodology was pertinent to meet the objectives of the proposed research
When highlighting the professional experience in Entrepreneurial Intention (EI) of the university students, this variable did not have influence in the EI of the university student, and this was registered in the perspective that the university students without professional experience revealed preponderance in having EI

Summary

Introduction

Entrepreneurship has been considered preponderant for the economic development of a country (TEIXEIRA and DAVEY, 2010; HISRICH, PETERS and SHEPHERD, 2014). Entrepreneurial intention is directly linked to entrepreneurship, and can be considered an intrinsic individual process. Liñán and Chen (2009), Thompson (2009), Teixeira and Davey (2010) and Fayolle and Gailly (2015) point out innumerable models that are based on entrepreneurial intention, which rely on predicting potential entrepreneurs. Another phenomenon that is widely recurrent in research concerning entrepreneurship is innovation, since the entrepreneur can be considered an innovator, capable of proposing critical solutions to problem solving (KIRTON, 1976; SOOMRO and SHAH, 2015). In order to understand innovative behavior, the theoretical perspective of Kirton (1976) – Theory of Adaptation-Innovation is used, because it has notoriety and relevance in research related to the behavior of the individual linked to innovation

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