Impact of Education on Entrepreneurial Intentions among Students in Republic of North Macedonia

Abstract

Entrepreneurship contributes to the development of small businesses which play a crucial role in the economic growth, productivity gains and job creation. Many authors argue that education is one of the main factors which may stimulate entrepreneurial intentions. Therefore, in this paper we explore the educational impact on entrepreneurial intentions among students in Republic of North Macedonia. We build the research on the basis of the Ajzen‟s Theory of planned behavior (TPB) that explains intentions by means of attitudes, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms. The research instrument and the sample were adopted from Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students‟ Survey from 2016th and the sample envisaged 124 students from 3 universities on the territory of Republic of North Macedonia. The results identified that Perceived behavioral control differs between the students being exposed to entrepreneurial education and those who were not. Also, we identified that the university atmosphere is connected to the entrepreneurial intentions and students with entrepreneurial skills and knowledge possess higher entrepreneurial intentions. Attitude toward behavior has positive correlation with university atmosphere so exposing students to entrepreneurship training is expected to mobilize their attitudes and to have a positive effect on intentions to start a new business