Entrepreneurial Intention in Romanian Engineering Students: Expanding the Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract

This study analyzes the entrepreneurial intention of Romanian engineering students. We had a sample of 700 students (mean age = 23.14; SD = 2.92; 378 males and 322 females) who belonged to three technical universities and completed an online survey between October and December 2023. This research extends the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explore the factors influencing students’ entrepreneurial intentions. In addition to base TPB components, such as attitude, normative and perceived behavioral control factors, we considered curiosity and well-being. Three structural equation models were used, one after the other, through the method of partial least squares (PLS-EM). The results show that attitude, perceived control behavior and curiosity have a positive impact on entrepreneurial intention, whereas subjectivenorms, surprisingly, have a negative impact on it. Psychological well-being expressed through autonomy is not associated with entrepreneurial intention in our sample of students. This article contributes to a better understanding of entrepreneurial intention in engineering students.

Keywords

• theory of planned behavior
• entrepreneurial intention
• curiosity
• well-being
• autonomy