Investigating the Impact of the Entrepreneurial Passion on Entrepreneurial Intentions: A Parallel Mediation Approach

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study aims to examine college students’ entrepreneurial intentions enrolled in engineering and management programs. The study mainly focuses on exploring the role of entrepreneurial passion in stimulating favorable intentions to start a business venture. Ajzen’s “Theory of planned behavior” was used as a conceptual model, and entrepreneurial passion was added to the basic framework of the model as a contextual variable. Moreover, to offset the confounding effect of extraneous variables, gender, and family business exposure were taken as control variables. Data were collected from 376 college students using a structured questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data in Amos 22.0. The analysis of the data revealed that attitude toward entrepreneurship emerged as the most important determinant of entrepreneurial intentions, followed by subjective norms, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial passion. Moreover, the results of the parallel mediation analysis revealed that the three basic constructs of the theory of planned behavior model were partially mediating the effect of passion on entrepreneurial intentions. The study presents implications for policymakers and governments for boosting entrepreneurship among students so that higher economic growth can be achieved.