Agyeman, Fredrick Oteng

Yes! I want to be an entrepreneur: A study on university students' entrepreneurship intentions through the theory of planned behavior

By Sampene, Agyemang Kwasi

As students in university happen to be the carbon copy of the society, they equally turn out to exhibit talents that precede action and an unswerving attitude towards entrepreneurial behaviors. Nevertheless, empirical research backing their entrepreneur intention (EI) in the emerging economies is lacking, and Ghana is no exception. This study examines entrepreneur intention (EI) among university students through the lens of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). For this purpose, we collected data from 370 students of the University of Cape Coast School of Business (UCC-SoB) by a survey study design approach. Then we analyzed the results through the PLS-SEM technique. The outcome of our study indicated that attitude towards entrepreneurship, perceived social norms, perceived entrepreneurial capacity, and entrepreneurship education directly influence entrepreneurship intention. Moreover, the results revealed that entrepreneurship education mediates the relationship between attitude towards entrepreneurship, perceived social norms, perceived entrepreneurial capacity, and entrepreneurship intention. We also found that perceived university support moderates the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship intention. The empirical findings from our research contribute to a better understanding of underlying factors that influence student entrepreneurship intention. The study recommends that training, business model development, exchange programs, entrepreneurship clubs, entrepreneurship pitch, and business incubators be incorporated into the entrepreneurship programs offered in the various universities to help promote entrepreneurship intention among students.