What Can Universities Do to Promote Entrepreneurial Intent? An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

Our university has promoted entrepreneurship extensively through networking events, business plan competitions, funding sources, degree programs, and on-campus incubators. But do these efforts work? We integrate and extend intentions-based models and the psychosocial cognitive model to develop a model of entrepreneurial intent and behaviour. We test our theory using partial least squares structural equation modelling on survey data collected from 334 undergraduate business students in Canada. We find that the belief constructs, namely: subjective norms toward entrepreneurship, prevalence of entrepreneurship on social milieu, and goal-orientation are found to positively influence the attitude constructs of the: 1) desirability of an entrepreneurial career; 2) perceived feasibility of an entrepreneurial career. These attitudes, in turn, positively impact entrepreneurial intent, which subsequently positively influences entrepreneurial behaviour. We, thus, found support for the hypotheses that university support for these psychosocial influences has a positive effect on student entrepreneurial intent and behaviour. Practical implications are discussed and future directions are suggested.