The Entrepreneurial Intention of Algerian Students: Between Disillusionment of the Entrepreneurial Climate and Self-Confidence

Abstract

This article studies the entrepreneurial intention of Algerian students to explain the weakness in business creation in the country. Theoretical and empirical evidence on this subject is scarce, particularly among young Algerians. By combining two dominant research trends in the field of entrepreneurship, namely an approach based on contextual factors, and one based on individual characteristics, we examined the impact of perceived entrepreneurial climate and entrepreneurial self-efficacy on Algerian students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Our study, contextualized in the student environment, aims to analyze how entrepreneurship education moderated the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. Based on a sample of 302 students, our survey yielded two important results. The first was the negative effect of perceived entrepreneurial climate on entrepreneurial intention. The second was that as a moderating factor, entrepreneurship education did not reinforce the significant direct influence of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on the intention to start a business among Algerian students. These insights may help improve the level of entrepreneurial intention within developing countries.