Nexus between entrepreneurship education, motivations, and intention among Indian university students: The role of psychological and contextual factors

This study assesses the impact of different psychological and contextual factors on entrepreneurial motivations and the role of entrepreneurial motivations in determining the entrepreneurial intention of students at Indian universities. The paper also explores whether gender acts as a moderator in the entrepreneurial motivation-intention relationship. Cross-sectional data were collected by administering a questionnaire to 329 students who had received entrepreneurship education during their course program. A confirmatory factor analysis model was run to ensure the model's fitness, reliability, and validity, while structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses. The study validates the following key findings. First, the psychological factors of perceived cultural support and entrepreneurship education foster entrepreneurial motivations, which help determine students' entrepreneurial intention, whereas fear of failure negatively affects students' entrepreneurial motivations. Second, the contextual factors of government support policies and access to entrepreneurial finance do not influence entrepreneurial motivations. Third, entrepreneurial motivations significantly enhance the entrepreneurial intention of students. Fourth, gender negatively moderates the entrepreneurial motivation-intention relationship. The study contributes to the literature on the entrepreneurial motivation-intention relationship using psychological and contextual factors and also explores the interaction effect of gender on that relationship.