Saeid Karimi

Effects of role models and gender on students’ entrepreneurial intentions

Purpose – This paper aims to, drawing on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), explore the effects of entrepreneurial role models on entrepreneurial intention (EI) and its antecedents and examines the question of whether the effects vary by gender. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from a sample of 331 students at seven universities in Iran. Structural equation modelling and bootstrap procedure were used to analyse the data. Findings – Consistent with the TPB, our results show entrepreneurial role models to indirectly influence EIs via the antecedents of intention. No gender differences in the relationship between perceived behaviour control and EIs were found, but gender did moderate the other relationships within the TPB. Attitude towards entrepreneurship was a weaker predictor and subjective norms a stronger predictor of EIs for female students than for their male counterparts. Furthermore, perceived behaviour control and attitudes towards entrepreneurship were more strongly influenced...

Fostering Students' Competence in Identifying Business Opportunities in Entrepreneurship Education.

Opportunity identification and, in particular, the generation of new business ideas is becoming an important element of entrepreneurship education. Researchers and educators, however, struggle with how opportunity identification competence can be enhanced. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to test the ability of students to generate new business opportunities when they participated in a redesigned entrepreneurship course with specially developed creativity exercises. Pre- vs. post-test comparisons showed the students who followed the course to subsequently have a higher level of divergent thinking, also with respect to the students who did not enrol in the course. The results also indicate that the course has a significant effect on the students’ abilities to generate a greater number and more innovative business ideas in the experimental group; while the control group showed no significant changes in business idea generation. The implications of the results for developing opportunity identification competence and entrepreneurship education are presented.

Testing the relationship between personality characteristics, contextual factors and entrepreneurial intentions in a developing country

Drawing upon the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), we developed and tested a conceptual model which integrates both internal personality factors and external contextual factors to determine their associations with motivational factors and entrepreneurial intentions (EIs). We then investigated if the model of EI applies in a developing country, namely Iran. We also set out to identify the most relevant factors for EI within this developing country context. Do distal predictors of EI including personality factors (i.e. need for achievement, risk taking and locus of control) and contextual factors (i.e. perceived barriers and support) significantly relate to EI via proximal predictors including motivational factors (i.e. attitudes towards entrepreneurship and perceived behavioural control [PBC])? Data were collected on 331 students from 7 public universities. The findings support the TPB for EI in Iran. All three motivational factors related to EI, but PBC showed the strongest association, which is different than in developed country contexts. Possible explanations for these differences are discussed. All three personality characteristics indirectly related to EI via the proximal attitudes towards entrepreneurship and PBC. Perceived contextual support and barriers indirectly related to EI via proximal PBC while perceived barriers also directly related to EI.

Application of Structural Equation Modelling to Assess the Effect of Entrepreneurial Characteristics on Students’ Entrepreneurial Intentions

Entrepreneurship is considered to be an important driver for economic growth. Entrepreneurial intention is, based on the literature, suggested to be a predictor of future entrepreneurial behaviour. Entrepreneurial intention is influenced by several factors including entrepreneurial characteristics. Several studies have examined the relationship between entrepreneurial characteristics and success entrepreneurs. However, there is very little research available on personality factors that drive students’ intentions to start a new business. This study investigates the effect of entrepreneurial characteristics of students at Iranian universities on their entrepreneurial intentions. A survey instrument was designed to measure entrepreneurial intentions as dependent variable as well as entrepreneurial characteristics including need for achievement, risk-taking propensity, innovativeness, self-efficacy and need for independence as independent variables. The sample of 346 students included students studying business, agriculture, and engineering at seven established universities at both graduate and undergraduate levels. Structural Equation modelling (SEM) was employed to test causal relationships among independent and dependent variables. The results indicate that entrepreneurial intention is significantly influenced by entrepreneurial self-efficacy and need for achievement. However, risk taking propensity and need for independence. do not have a direct significant impact on students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Furthermore, the results show that the effect innovativeness is mediated by entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The results of the study provide educators, administrators and policy makers inside and outside universities valuable insights with respect to entrepreneurship education. It may serve students better by increasing its focus on entrepreneurial self-efficacy and need for achievement.

The role of entrepreneurial knowledge as a competence in shaping Iranian students’ career intentions to start a new digital business

This purpose of this paper, drawing on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), is to develop an integrated model of entrepreneurial career intentions incorporating the role of motivational factors along with entrepreneurial knowledge. Specifically, this study proposes the existence of a relationship between entrepreneurial knowledge and digital entrepreneurial intentions and asserts that this relation is mediated by the motivational factors.,Data were collected from a sample of 150 computer sciences students from four public Iranian universities using a questionnaire.,Results indicated that the two motivational factors (namely, attitudes towards digital entrepreneurship and perceived behavioural control) significantly relate to digital entrepreneurial intentions. In addition, entrepreneurial knowledge indicates indirect effects on intentions via these two motivational factors.,The results of this study have clear implications for both educators and policymakers.,The study helps to understand the role of entrepreneurial knowledge in shaping digital entrepreneurial intentions through developing an integrated intention model based on the TPB. The results also indicate that the TPB fully accounts for the indirect effects of entrepreneurial knowledge.

Entrepreneurship Education with Impact: Opening the Black Box

Entrepreneurship education (EE) has become globally widespread. Governments, universities, and private institutions increasingly deploy resources dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship competencies amongst entrepreneurs as well as in society at large. However, this exponential growth of initiatives did not go hand in hand with a similar development of scholarly research, hence hindering our understanding of the impacts of EE.