Entrepreneurial intentions for university students: Quality, concern, ability, and personal background

Previous findings reveal a difference between the attitude about entrepreneurship and actual behavior, which implies that intentions are influenced by attitudes, while being moderated by other factors. Later researchers developed a variety of intentions models. Today university students and graduates see the opportunity of founding a company as an attractive alternative to salary or wage employment. Yet the question needs to be investigated further so as to discover the influencing elements. After an initial survey, a list of 16 items was generated A confirmatory factor analysis suggested these items could be segregated into three constructs, which are entrepreneurship quality, personal concern, and self assessment of ability. These three aspects, together with personal background, form the antecedents of the students' entrepreneurial intentions. Taking 164 university students as sample, using one-way ANOVA and discriminant analysis, we look at whether the three antecedents above influence the students' entrepreneurial intentions. Moreover, we also look at the relationship between students' personal background and the three constructs. Students vary according to gender, education, age, current employment status, and entrepreneurial history. And the result is astonishing.