Sustainable entrepreneurial intentions: Exploration of a model based on the theory of planned behaviour among university students in north-east Colombia

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is considered the basis of economies, in which finding ways to stimulate it is a constant object of research. With the increasing awareness of social and environmental sustainability, sustainable entrepreneurship has emerged as an area of research interest. In traditional entrepreneurship, countless studies have addressed the business creation behaviour based on psychological theories such as the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). However, the area of sustainable entrepreneurship calls for further research. This study aims at exploring model that explains sustainable entrepreneurial intentions among university students based on the main determinants of the TPB model (attitudes towards sustainable entrepreneurship, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control), and extends it by involving predictors such as altruism, education for entrepreneurship aspects, and self-efficacy. To do so, a survey was applied to 314 undergraduate students in Bucaramanga, Colombia. By performing multiple regression analysis, results showed that sustainable entrepreneurial intentions are influenced by the individuals’ attitudes towards sustainable business creation, the level of perceived difficulty to carry out that action, and the subjective norms. Furthermore, these dimensions are positively influenced by the altruistic values that the individuals possess, the education for sustainable entrepreneurship as well as the belief they have of themselves to achieve goals.