The Development of Entrepreneurial Intention amongst University Students: The Influence of Individual and Contextual Factors

The swift enhancement of technology has affected the business environment while higher education alone no longer plays a definitive role in the employment process. To meet the emerging requirements of employers, individuals, specifically students, need to develop more entrepreneurial tendencies. The aim of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the entrepreneurial intention (EI) of university students.

In order to do so, eight constructs (EI, individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO), self-efficacy, perceived educational support, perceived relational support, perceived structural support, knowledge sharing and gender) and their items taken from existing literature were used within the proposed model, and the constructed hypotheses were evaluated using structural equation modelling (SEM).

In total, 268 surveys were returned by students of various universities. The findings of this study show that self-efficacy is the strongest influencer of students’ EI. The findings also show the mediating influence of self-efficacy on the environmental components. Additionally, male students are more likely than female students to have EI. Overall, this study will help establish the influencers of EI among university students.