The effects of characteristics, attitudes and perceived environment conditions on youths' entrepreneurial intent

Abstract

This paper adopts Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to investigate factors affecting youths' entrepreneurial intentions, including entrepreneurial characteristics, attitudes, and perceived environmental conditions. The result shows that entrepreneurial characteristics and attitudes directly affect intention. More specifically, entrepreneurial family background and education indirectly influence intention by impacting individuals' characteristics. Social environment indirectly impacts entrepreneurial characteristics by directly influencing family background and education. Furthermore, this empirical study has provided several implications: Higher education should involve practical case studies when offering entrepreneurship modules for the purpose of cultivating entrepreneurial characteristics and attitudes of youth students. Moreover, the government should develop a more favorable environment for entrepreneurs by creating an urban atmosphere of innovation and entrepreneurship, improving the pertinence of policy supports in social environment, guiding youth to have a correct understanding of entrepreneurship, and facilitating the transformation of entrepreneurship programs into practices.