Fostering Entrepreneurial Mindsets: Factors Shaping Student Intentions in a Challenging Economic Landscape

Abstract

This research aims at investigating factors affecting entrepreneurial intention among university students in Selva Central-Peru. The study seeks to explore how perceptions of behavioural and social norms, as well as entrepreneurs’ self-efficacy, impact entrepreneurial intentions among students. The research method used is a quantitative one, which in turn praises data obtained through questionnaires applied to 114 active students and analysed by statistical methods. Confirmed the positive influences of self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intention are six times larger than those of attitude and subjective norms, with 79.2% explained variance, respectively, in relation to the proposal model’s findings. Results showed that although the majority of students demonstrated medium to high entrepreneurship intentions, much scope remains for increasing this. These findings confirm just how critical it is to provide an educational context that supports entrepreneurial locus of control-building and, in so doing, draws on broader conversation within the education-occupational landscape. With this, the study highlights avenues to better leverage entrepreneurship as a pathway toward sustainable livelihoods and economic inclusion in an economically divided region.

Keywords

• entrepreneurial intention
• high education
• self-efficacy
• subjective norm
• theory of planned behaviour
• university students