Extending the mediation role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on enhancing students’ entrepreneurial intentions: A moderated mediation model

Entrepreneurship education provided by higher education institutions is essential in equipping students with the required abilities to initiate and develop successful businesses. However, existing literature on its contribution has yielded inconclusive results. This study explores the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in enhancing the entrepreneurial intentions of business students, while adopting a moderated mediation analysis with entrepreneurship education as the predicting variable and the entrepreneurial environment as the moderating variable. Data was collected from 271 business undergraduates in Tanzania, and analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results revealed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy is a significant mediator in the influence of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intentions. Furthermore, the study identified the moderation role of the entrepreneurial environment in the indirect effect of entrepreneurship education on enhancing entrepreneurial intentions with entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediator. Therefore, the study recommends that higher education institutions empower students with entrepreneurial self-efficacy to promote entrepreneurial intentions, while also creating environments conducive to entrepreneurship that support these intentions. Finally, the study discussed limitations and suggested future research directions. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd