Shades of green: A latent profile analysis of sustainable entrepreneurial attitudes among business students

Abstract

This study aims to enhance our understanding of the heterogeneity in sustainable and entrepreneurial attitudes among business students, to promote sustainable business practices and entrepreneurship that can effectively address environmental and social challenges. By utilising the theory of planned behaviour as a conceptual lens and employing latent profile analysis as an analytical approach, the study examines the presence of diverse profiles among first-semester business students at the University of Southern Denmark based on students' sustainable attitude, individual entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial perceived behavioural control. It investigates how these profiles differ regarding students' sustainable and entrepreneurial intentions. The analysis reveals the existence of five distinct profiles within the student population: the Confident Entrepreneurial Mindset Students, the Sustainable Students, the Average Sustainable and Entrepreneurial Students, the Sustainable, Non-entrepreneurial Students, and the Sustainable and Entrepreneurial Diffident Students. Notably, only entrepreneurial intention varied significantly across these profiles. Identifying distinct profiles contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the student population's entrepreneurial and sustainable attitudes. This, in turn, enables the development of more sophisticated models to comprehend the complex processes underlying students' intentions towards sustainable entrepreneurship. By gaining deeper insights into sustainable entrepreneurship education, these findings provide valuable implications for fostering sustainable business practices among business students and effectively addressing environmental and social challenges.