AN EXAMINATION OF UNIVERSITY STUDENT ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS BY TYPE OF VENTURE

Learning what initially drives university students to be open to the thought of starting their own businesses has been of great interest to entrepreneurship researchers/educators. Past literature looks at a variety of important motivators that impact student intentions toward entrepreneurship but has tended to view entrepreneurial intentions as a homogeneous construct. This study uses Ajzen's theory of planned behavior to examine university students' intentions to start various types of ventures (small lifestyle, small high income and high growth). Results indicate that intentions to start small high income and high growth ventures share many commonalities and are significantly driven by behavioral beliefs and perceived behavioral control. Intentions to start small lifestyle ventures, on the other hand, are found to be independent from intentions to start either small, high income or high growth ventures and are not as well explained by the theory of planned behavior. Implications and ideas for future research and entrepreneurship education are discussed.