Entrepreneurial Behavior among University Students: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan
Keywords:
Entrepreneurial intention, self-control, personal attitude, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, need for achievementAbstract
Interdependent relationships among various psychological factors are instrumental in shaping university students’ general behavior toward entrepreneurship. Our study explored these relationships and their contingent and moderating effects through various factors, such as need for achievement, selfcontrol, and relational support, and how they influence entrepreneurial behavior, given the presence of variables like entrepreneurial intention, creativity, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, educational support, and personal attitudes. Primary data were collected through a questionnaire circulated among 300 respondents from two top-tier universities in Pakistan, followed by tests of reliability and validity both in SPSS and AMOS. The relationship testing was done through structural equation modeling using AMOS interpreted in terms of Alpha (at three significance levels) and Beta values for more regressed relationship testing. Results showed: a) significant behavioral tendencies of university students towards entrepreneurial behavior; b) the mediating effect of need for achievement was not significant among entrepreneurial intention and behavior relationship (however, this effect was significant when tested directly among these two variables); c) the moderating effect of self-control on the underlining variables was significant as a whole except for educational support; and d) relational support proved to moderate the relationship between personal attitudes and entrepreneurial behavior.
References
Ahmed, I., Nawaz, M. M., Ahmad, Z., Shaukat, M. Z., Usman, A., Rehman,
W. U., & Ahmed, N. (2010). Determinants of students’
entrepreneurial career intentions: Evidence from business
graduates. European Journal of Social Sciences, 15(2), 14-22.
Ajzen, I. (1991). Theory of planned behaviour. Organizational Behavior and
Human Decision Processes, 50. 179–211.
Alsos, G. A., & Kolvereid, L. (1998). The business gestation process of
novice, serial, and parallel business founders. Entrepreneurship
Theory and Practice, 22(4), 101-114.
Aslam, T. M., Awan, A. S., & Khan, T. M. (2012). An Empirical study of
family background and entrepreneurship as career selection among
university students of Turkey and Pakistan. International Journal of
Business and Social Science, 3(15), 118-123.
Athayde, R. (2009). Measuring enterprise potential in young people.
Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33(2), 481-500.
Carr, J. C., & Sequeira, J. M. (2007). Prior family business exposure as
intergenerational influence and entrepreneurial intent: A theory of
planned behavior approach. Journal of Business Research, 60(10),
-1098.
Carter, N. M., Gartner, W. B., Shaver, K. G., & Gatewood, E. J. (2003). The
career reasons of nascent entrepreneurs. Journal of Business
Venturing, 18(1), 13-39.
Carter, S., & Ram, M. (2003). Reassessing portfolio entrepreneurship. Small
Business Economics, 21(4), 371-380.
CUNNINGHAM, J. B.; LISCHERON, J. Defining Entrepreneurship.
Journal of Small Business Management, 1991, v. 29, p.45-61.
DRENNAN, J; KENNEDY, J; RENFROW, P. Impact of childhood
experiences on the development of entrepreneurial intention.
Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2005, v. 6, p. 231-238.
Dwyer, A. L., & Cummings, A. L. (2001). Stress, self-efficacy, social
support, and coping strategies in university students. Canadian
Journal of Counselling.
Fillis, I. and Rentscheler, R. (2010). The role of creativity in
entrepreneurship. Journal of Enterprising Culture, 18 (1), 49-81.
Florida, R. (2009) “Entrepreneurship, creativity, and regional growth”. The
Emergence of Entrepreneurship Policy, In Hart, D. M. (Ed.),
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 39-59
Ford, J. K., MacCallum, R. C., & Tait, M. (1986). The application of
exploratory factor analysis in applied psychology: A critical review
and analysis. Personnel Psychology, 39(2), 291-314.
Gaddam, S. (2007). A conceptual analysis of factors influencing
entrepreneurship behaviour and actions. The Icfaian Journal of
Management Research, 6(11), 46-63.
Gartner, W. B., Carter, N. M., & Reynolds, P. D. (2010). Entrepreneurial
behavior: Firm organizing processes. In Handbook of
Entrepreneurship Research (pp. 99-127). Springer, New York, NY.
Gedik, Ş., Miman, M., & Kesici, M. S. (2015). Characteristics and attitudes
of entrepreneurs towards entrepreneurship. Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 195, 1087-1096.
Gross, J.J., Richards, J.M., John, O.P. (2006). Emotion regulation in
everyday life. In: Snyder,
Ishiguro, J. (2015). What influences entrepreneurial career choice?: An
exploratory analysis of the Sally Caird's Get2 for Japanese high
school students. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, 21(1), 44.
KARIMI, S.; CHIZARI; BIEMANS, H. J. A.; MULDER M. Entrepreneurship
Education in Iranian Higher Education: The Current State and
Challenges. European. Journal of Scientific Research ISSN, 1450-
X, v. 48, n. 1, pp. 35-50, 2010.
Kautonen, T., van Gelderen, M., & Tornikoski, E. T. (2013). Predicting
entrepreneurial behavior: A test of the theory of planned behavior.
Applied Economics, 45(6): 697–707.
Kautonen, T., Hatak, I., Kibler, E., & Wainwright, T. (2015). Emergence of
entrepreneurial behaviour: The role of age-based self-image.
Journal of Economic Psychology, 50, 41-51.
Kraaijenbrink, J., Bos, G., & Groen, A. (2009). What do students think of the
entrepreneurial support given by their universities?. International
Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 9(1), 110-125.
Krueger Jr, N. F., Reilly, M. D., & Carsrud, A. L. (2000). Competing models
of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of business venturing, 15(5-6),
-432.
