Predicting the Sustainability-Oriented Entrepreneurship Intentions of Business School Students: The Role of Individualistic Values

Abstract

This study sought to determine whether Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour could be used to predict the intention of selected Zimbabwean business school students towards sustainable entrepreneurship. The study also examined whether the relationships between the predictor variables of the theory of planned behaviour and sustainable entrepreneurial intention were moderated by the respondents’ individualistic value orientations. A positivist worldview and a quantitative cross-sectional survey were used to collect data from 210 business school students who had completed postgraduate entrepreneurship courses at two public universities in the western region of Zimbabwe. The predictors of the hypothetical model explained 49 percent of the variance in respondents’ intentions to pursue sustainable entrepreneurship. Only the attitude toward the behaviour variable had a statistically significant direct impact on sustainable entrepreneurial intention. Subjective norms had an indirect effect on sustainable entrepreneurial intention, which was entirely mediated by attitude toward behaviour. Individualistic values had no statistically significant moderating effect on the relationships between the predictors of intention and the intention to engage in sustainable entrepreneurship. The study’s findings have implications for business schools’ efforts to contribute to the goal of sustainable development. The study contributes to the development of the literature by evaluating the relevance of the theory of planned behaviour to sustainable entrepreneurship.

Keywords

• attitude towards behaviour
• higher education institutions
• individualism
• theory of planned behaviour
• sustainable entrepreneurship intention