Entrepreneurial intention of academic students in the time of COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamel Krichen ◽  
Haithem Chaabouni

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate the consequences of the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the entrepreneurial intentions of academic students. In addition, this research examined whether the pandemic reinforces the tendency to operate new businesses or represents a barrier to the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities.Design/methodology/approachThis study was conducted with a sample of university students. Risk perception and contextual variables were measured. Information was collected from 308 university students enrolled at the University of Sfax (Tunisia) who participated by responding to a structured questionnaire distributed in electronic form by email.FindingsThe results show that university students perceive higher levels of personal entrepreneurial risk than other types of entrepreneurial risks (financial risk and social risk). Perceived financial risk only has a significant effect on entrepreneurial intention for students who view the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity. Regarding perceived contextual support, only perceived educational support has a significant and positive effect on entrepreneurial intention.Research limitations/implicationsThe results have important practical implications for identifying entrepreneurial intentions. They indicate that universities have an essential role in providing educational support for students by implementing awareness and training programs for entrepreneurship. Furthermore, they reveal the differentiated effect of the COVID-19 crisis on the risk perceptions of participants according to their views of the crisis as a threat or as an opportunity.Originality/valueThis is one of few studies that have examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic (positive or negative) on the entrepreneurial intention of academic students.

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 835-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Arrighetti ◽  
Luca Caricati ◽  
Fabio Landini ◽  
Nadia Monacelli

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of a prolonged economic recession on the entrepreneurial intentions of young people (university students) distinguishing between propensity to start a new business (i.e. degree of interest in entrepreneurship) and perceived likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur (i.e. probability to start a business in the future). Furthermore this study verifies if the recession strengthens the orientation to exploit new market opportunities, or simply supports self-employment objectives. Design/methodology/approach Entrepreneurial intention was measured in terms of propensity to start a new business and perceived likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur. Psychosocial and economic variables were measured as well. Information was gathered through questionnaires distributed in both electronic and paper-and-pencil form to a sample of 3,684 Italian University students enrolled in 12 different faculties. Findings First, this study found that while the perception of the economic crisis as an obstacle to new business creation does not impact on the propensity toward entrepreneurship, it has a negative and highly significant impact on the likelihood to start a business. Second, when a distinction is made between opportunity- and necessity-based types, results show that while for the latter the crisis impacts only on the perceived likelihood to become an entrepreneur, for the former it affects both dimensions of entrepreneurship, i.e., both propensity and perceived likelihood. Moreover, neither family support nor economic institutions are perceived as relevant in sustaining entrepreneurial intentions. On the contrary, the university is considered as a key support entity. Research limitations/implications Reliance on cross-sectional questionnaires instead of an experimental design imposes caution about the causal relationships between predictors and entrepreneurial intent. Originality/value The present paper is one of the few studies concerning the influence of rapid worsening of external economic context (severe recession) on the entrepreneurial intent.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 659-680
Author(s):  
Agu Godswill Agu ◽  
Okwuagwu Okuu Kalu ◽  
Chidadi Obinna Esi-Ubani ◽  
Paul Chinedu Agu

Purpose The purpose of this study is to integrate and extend two models of entrepreneurial intention to investigate the drivers of sustainable entrepreneurial intention among intermediate undergraduate university students in Nigeria. Specifically, this paper aims to introduce education for sustainable entrepreneurship into the integrated model, thereby fitting the model into the context of sustainable entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach Data was gathered with the help of a structured questionnaire from 435 students of a university in Nigeria. The students passed through a special entrepreneurship training in which they were educated on the concept and practice of sustainable entrepreneurship. SmartPLS was used to test the proposed structural model. Findings The findings revealed that education for sustainable entrepreneurship significantly influences all variables of the integrated model, but has nonsignificant direct influence on sustainable entrepreneurial intention. Sustainable entrepreneurial intention is significantly driven by attitude and propensity to act. Therefore, the inclusion of education for sustainable entrepreneurship into the regression equation adds to its explanatory power. Originality/value This study contributes toward understanding of sustainable entrepreneurial intention of intermediate university students in a developing world context – Nigeria. Above all, it is among the few studies that shed light on the strength of education for sustainable entrepreneurship in the formation of sustainable entrepreneurial intention among students. This study proposes integration and extension (by adding education for sustainable entrepreneurship) of the theory of planned behavior and entrepreneurial event model in learning about students’ intentions to engage in sustainable entrepreneurship.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Greeni Maheshwari

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to investigate the influence of personality traits, individual factors and theory of planned behaviour (TPB) components (personal attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control) on entrepreneurial intentions of university students. The study further aims to determine which factors have a higher influence on the entrepreneurial intentions of the students.Design/methodology/approachThe data was collected using an online survey from 164 students studying in universities in Vietnam. The study used confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression to analyse the data.FindingsResults suggested that educational support has no impact on entrepreneurial intentions but individual factors such as self-efficacy, risk propensity and need for power and all the TPB components influenced entrepreneurial intentions. The TPB components had a higher influence on entrepreneurial intentions of students as compared to individual factors.Originality/valueOnly a few studies have been conducted to determine the strength of factors affecting entrepreneurial intensions of the students. This study demonstrates that TPB components have the highest influence on entrepreneurial intentions. Moreover, the study introduces an independent variable, need for power which is rarely used in any such studies and this adds a new component to the already existing research framework and in academic literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9249
Author(s):  
Nosheena Yasir ◽  
Nasir Mahmood ◽  
Hafiz Shakir Mehmood ◽  
Osama Rashid ◽  
An Liren

Intentions have been described as a key driver of sustainable entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and eventually activity. As a result of this study, interest may increase in entrepreneurship intentions across numerous entrepreneurial levels and styles, specifically from the point of view of sustainability. However, research to date has not been able to completely determine how the intrinsic complications of instantaneously producing social, environmental, and economic means will have an impact on the intentions of university students. This study sought to inspect the impact of self-transcending and self-enhancing value on the advent of intentions. The theory of planned behavior is an adaptive theory that this study quantitatively analyzed using a structural equation model and survey data from 577 university students in Punjab, Pakistan. The empirical findings show that altruistic, biospheric, hedonic, and egoistic values all have an indirect effect on sustainability-driven entrepreneurial intentions, which is important to understand when assessing attitudes toward sustainable entrepreneurship and perceived behavior control. In essence, attitudes, perceived behavior, and social norms all affect aspirations to become a sustainable entrepreneur. In real-world terms, the findings indicate that by using value activation techniques to increase attitudes and educational interest, practitioners may promote sustainable entrepreneurial intentions. It is also suggested how government services could be improved as part of the strategy.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thuy Thu Nguyen ◽  
Diep Ngoc Do

Purpose This study aims to investigate the structural relationships between pedagogy methods, creativity and entrepreneurial intentions. This study theorizes that work-integrated and active learning methods positively influence personal creativity, which in turn positively influences entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, entrepreneurial inspiration moderates the impact of creativity on entrepreneurial intentions. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 701 valid questionnaires from university students is used to investigate the proposed research model empirically. As the methodological approach, structural equation modelling with multigroup analysis is used. Findings The statistical results confirm the positive impacts of work-integrated and active learning methods on individual perceived creativity and of creativity on entrepreneurial intentions. Further, inspiration towards entrepreneurship moderates the link between individual creativity and entrepreneurial intentions. Originality/value This research fills the gap in the realm of examining the structural relationship among learning methods, creativity and entrepreneurial intentions in an emerging economy context. Specifically, this study confirms experiential teaching methods as important predictors of the development of students’ creativity capability and the moderating role of entrepreneurial inspiration in the relationship between perceived creativity and entrepreneurial intention. These results add to the academic literature on entrepreneurial intentions in emerging economies and provide new insights into how universities in emerging economies can foster the entrepreneurial intentions of their students.


2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 779-803
Author(s):  
Yaser Hasan Salem Al-Mamary ◽  
Mohammed Abdulrab ◽  
Mohammed A. Alwaheeb ◽  
Naif Ghazi M. Alshammari

PurposeThis research intends to contribute to the literature of entrepreneurial intentions through determining the factors impacting the entrepreneurial intentions among students in different academic programs. This is in order to enhance and improve entrepreneurship-related procedures within relevant universities.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted by a structured survey questionnaire on 261 students in the University of Hail. The questionnaire was developed based on previous studies. The proposed hypotheses were tested by the use of the structured equation modeling (SEM) via using Amos software.FindingsThe results of the current study support the theoretical integration of the model as most of the hypotheses have been accepted. The results of the survey also show that attitudes toward behavior, self-efficacy, autonomy, risk-taking, pro-activeness and competitive aggressiveness are expressively related with entrepreneurial intention. Yet, social norms and innovativeness are not considerably connected with entrepreneurial intention.Research limitations/implicationsThis study seeks to contribute to the relevant literature by integrating the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the entrepreneurial orientation model (EO). This is in order to identify the factors impacting the intention of entrepreneurship among Saudi university students. As the case in many studies, this present study has some limitations. The main limitation lies in that it would not be possible to generalize the study's findings. This is due to the fact the research is the outcome of examining and studying one Saudi university. Therefore, it would be better to conduct similar studies in other Saudi universities in order to generalize the findings of the study.Practical implicationsThe study's results could be of value to policymakers and university administrators in Saudi Arabia universities by which they could be enabled to allocate resources, develop strategies and provide all requirements for the sake of improving entrepreneurial skills among university students. This comprehensive model can be used as a tool for planning and prioritizing resources in bid for providing the required support as this support would reinforce the entrepreneurial opportunity of university students. As such, students would have better thinking about entrepreneurial work and thus would be assisted in achieving their professional goals and the broader goal of nation building.Originality/valueSince today's youth are viewed as the potential future entrepreneurs, they should be encouraged to achieve the Saudi Kingdom's goals through creating suitable employment opportunities for them by supporting entrepreneurship. Therefore, pointing out the factors impacting the entrepreneurial intention of students will contribute to developing the field of entrepreneurship among young people in Saudi Arabic in general. In addition, realized outcomes would create an exciting new knowledge with regard to the entrepreneurial intention among the youth at the university level.


2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 718-736
Author(s):  
Swagatika Sahoo ◽  
Rajeev Kumar Panda

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of the contextual antecedents on the individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO) of university graduates, which, in turn, affects their entrepreneurial intentions (EIs). Design/methodology/approach Primary data were collected in the form of 510 valid responses from engineering students across two technical universities in India, through a structured questionnaire consisting of scales adapted from the extant literature, and the data were empirically validated in this study. The reliability and validity measures of the constructs were validated through the confirmatory factor analysis, and the proposed hypotheses were validated using structural equation modelling. Findings The results of this empirical analysis validate that the contextual antecedents have a significant positive impact on students’ entrepreneurial orientation (EO), which, in turn, has a significant positive influence on EIs. Research limitations/implications This analysis depicts the significance of EO as a perceptual driver at the individual level and substantiates that the availability of resources such as startup capital, access to business information, social networks and supportive university context significantly affects the decision-making process of an individual to venture into an otherwise uncertain occupation of entrepreneurship. Practical implications The study has the likely potential to help university administrators and policymakers to allocate resources, develop strategies and provide effective entrepreneurial learning in entrepreneurship-oriented courses aimed at honing entrepreneurial skills and self-confidence of the university students. This holistic model can be used as a tool for resource planning and prioritising in order to provide the desired contextual support essential for fostering the IEO of the university students towards adopting entrepreneurial career, thereby assisting them to achieve their career goals and the broader objective of nation-building. Originality/value This study adopts an innovative approach to empirically validate the EO construct at the individual level, which has been studied at the organisation (firm) level till today. This research explores the relevant contextual antecedents and analyses their impact on IEO as well as the explanatory capacity of IEO to explain students’ EIs in the contextual backdrop of universities in a fast transitioning economy like India.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Powers ◽  
Séverine Le Loarne-Lemaire ◽  
Adnane Maalaoui ◽  
Sascha Kraus

PurposeThis article contributes to the literature on entrepreneurship for people with disabilities through a better understanding of the impact of entrepreneurial self-efficacy perceptions on entrepreneurial intentions in populations with lower levels of self-esteem. It investigates the entrepreneurial intention and self-efficacy of a population of students suffering from dyslexia, which is a learning disability.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on the study of a data set of 796 male and female adolescents in the USA, aged 13–19 years, both with and without dyslexia. The sample is a convenient one. The whole sample replied to the questionnaire on their self-efficacy perception and their intention to create, one day, their own venture. They also self-declare their dyslexia. Regressions have been conducted to answer the research question.FindingsResults show that having dyslexia has a negative impact on entrepreneurial self-efficacy perceptions. They also reveal that self-efficacy perceptions mediate the relationship between dyslexia and entrepreneurial intentions and their three antecedents (social norms, control behavior and perceived ability).Research limitations/implicationsThe sample is composed of students from private schools and might socially be biased.Practical implicationsOur findings relaunch the debate on the necessity to develop education programs that consider the personal-level variables of students, specifically the development of entrepreneurial self-efficacy among adolescents with disabilitiesSocial implicationsSuch findings should help to better understand students who are suffering from dyslexia and help them find a place in society and economic life.Originality/valueThis is so far the first study that has been conducted on dyslexic adolescents.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-151
Author(s):  
H.M. Kamrul Hassan

Purpose Entrepreneurial intention plays a crucial role in the research and application of social entrepreneurship (SE). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the factors affecting students’ intention towards social entrepreneurship (ISE). The study has taken entrepreneurial self-efficacy, along with entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial network and perceived university support that have an impact on intentions, which instills interest amongst students in being future entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach Data were primarily taken from a survey of 380 university students from public and private universities in Chattogram, the business capital of Bangladesh. Students were preliminarily selected, focussing on different profiles such as male/female, age, socio-economic status, education level, university status and employment level. Initially, using factor analysis factors were analyzed and later multiple regression analysis was used to identify the relationship with ISE. Findings The study on the student reveals that four aspects significantly impacted the preference of students’ ISE. This study reinforces the influence of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, along with entrepreneurial education, as the factors contributing to aid young graduates recognizing and fostering an ISE. Entrepreneurial networks and perceived university support were found to have no association with social entrepreneurial intentions. Originality/value This paper contributes to the understanding of the factors and provides a basis for explaining factors that affect the intention of students towards SE. It can contribute to future research related to social entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, it was concluded that forming social entrepreneurial intention is highly influenced by entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurship education.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hina Munir ◽  
Sidra Ramzan ◽  
Miao Wang ◽  
Yasir Rasool ◽  
Muhammad Saleem Sumbal ◽  
...  

Purpose Drawing on the entrepreneurial event model (EEM), entrepreneurship education programs (EEPs) and perceived contextual support (adapted from social cognitive career theory) and perceived contextual barriers, this study aims to unravel the differences in entrepreneurial activity among university students in higher education institutes in two diverse Asian countries. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a cross-sectional survey-based data collection technique using paper and electronic methods. The study analyzes data using descriptive statistics, principal component analysis, reliability analysis and logistic regression analysis via SPSS version 25. Findings The findings show the positive influence of perceived desirability and feasibility on entrepreneurial intentions; however, the stronger desirability was found among university students in China and stronger feasibility toward entrepreneurial intentions among Pakistani students. The study reveals the negative significant influence of EEPs on entrepreneurial intentions, and this finding is consistent across both samples. Furthermore, the findings show that university students in both countries show insignificant impact of perceived contextual support in predicting entrepreneurial intentions. Finally, the study confirms the negative influence of perceived barriers on entrepreneurial intentions in both contexts. Originality/value This study provides differences in entrepreneurial activity by combing EEM, EEPs, perceived contextual support and barriers in two diverse Asian countries, and to the best of author’s knowledge, no previous study considered these factors in a single framework. Furthermore, the findings of the study enrich existing literature and also provide policy recommendations for practitioners.


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