Entrepreneurial intention in young university students

Abstract

The importance of the study of entrepreneurial intention lies in the understanding of such behavior in individuals and the associated factors for entrepreneurship. The aim of this study is to identify significant relationships between some variables (age, family background, entrepreneurial development, locus of control, managerial self-efficacy, and subjective norms) and the entrepreneurial intention of young university students. To achieve the identification of these relationships, 15 718 surveys from the GUESSS study for Colombia were used, in which 76 higher education institutions took part between June and October 2018. Two logistic models were matched: the first with the intention for entrepreneuring immediately after graduating, and the second with the same intention five years after graduating. All the relationships under test turned out to be significant, but the direction of the relationship (positive or negative association) differed for some of them at the two time points that were analyzed. Initially, implementation intentions and managerial self-efficacy had positive relationships with entrepreneurial intention (the higher the value of these, the higher the entrepreneurial intention), while subjective norms showed a negative relationship (the lower the value, the higher the entrepreneurial intention). However, when these relationships were examined five years later, the direction of the relationship was reversed.