Role of religiosity, social factors, and perceived subjective norms on entrepreneurial intention: a study on tertiary level students

This study aims to investigate the role of religiosity, perceived social norms, and social factors on the entrepreneurship intention of tertiary level students in Saudi Arabia. It envisions a research framework with the mediating role of personal attitude towards entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Data were collected from the students studying at universities in Saudi Arabia through an online questionnaire survey. A total of 429 usable responses were collected. PLS-SEM was used for data analysis. The result shows that the perceived subjective norm, social factors, and religiosity have no direct relationship with entrepreneurial intention. However, personal attitude towards entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial self-efficacy fully mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and perceived subjective norms, social factors, and religiosity. It implies that the family, mass media, government, educational institutes, and religious leaders can play a definitive part in ensuring the flow of entrepreneurs in a country, particularly in Saudi Arabia. The study contributes in two major ways. First, most of the studies based on TPB designed their research in line with three factors, namely, perceived social norm, personal attitude, and perceived behavioral control (self-efficacy) as the straightforward antecedents of entrepreneurial intention. But this study redesigns the model with the mediating role of personal attitude and self-efficacy. Second, even though religiosity is studied as a determinant of EI by a few studies, there is no such study in the context of Saudi Arabia, which is primarily a Muslim-dominated country, and religion plays an influential role in the social, political, and economic life of the people here. From this viewpoint, it is a pioneering research.