The Role of Theory of Planned Behavior on Entrepreneurial Intention of Greek Business Students

Charitomeni Tsordia, Dimitra Papadimitriou

Abstract


Purpose – The main purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to measure and compare the entrepreneurial intention of business students attending the first and the fourth year of Business studies in a Greek university in order to determine the impact of curriculum and (2) to explore the role of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in explaining students’ entrepreneurial intention.
Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 186 students attending the 1st (108) and the 4th (78) year of studies at Business Management. Besides descriptive statistics, T-test, correlations, and multiple linear regressions were estimated to test hypotheses.
Findings – The three components of the Theory of Planned Behavior seem to play a differentiated role in the formation of the entrepreneurship intentions of business student, with subjective norms proved to be insignificant in the process of intention formation. Furthermore, the role of entrepreneurial curriculum and content was insignificant in influencing the rather weak intentions of business students to pursue a self-employed career. Fourth year students after attending a number of business, related courses were found to report on average less strong entrepreneurship intentions compared to the first year students.
Originality/value – This study represents a first systematic quantitative effort to measure and compare the entrepreneurship intentions of the first and fourth year students of a Greek university and explore the effect of the components of TPB.

Keywords


entrepreneurial intention; Theory of planned behavior; attitudes; entrepreneurial curriculum and content; business students; Greece

Full Text:

PDF

References


Ajzen, I. (1991), “The theory of planned behavior”, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 179–211. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T

Ajzen, I. (2001), “Nature and operation of attitudes”, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 52, pp. 27–58. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.27

Ajzen, I. (2002), “Constructing a TPB questionnaire: conceptual and methodological considerations”, http://chuang.epage.au.edu.tw/ezfiles/168/1168/attach/20/pta_41176_7688352_57138.pdf (accessed January 5, 2015).

Bank of Greece Eurosystem, Economic analysis & research development, statistics Department (2014), Bulletin of Conjunctural Indicators, November–December 2014, available at: http://www.bankofgreece.gr/BogEkdoseis/sdos201411-12.pdf (accessed March 4, 2015).

Bates, T. (1995), “Self-employment entry across industry groups”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 143–56. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0883-9026(94)00018-P

Binks, M. (2005), "Entrepreneurship education and integrative learning", from http://www.ncge.org.uk/downloads/policy/Entrepreneurship_Education_and_Integrative_Learning.doc.

Bird, B. (1988), “Implementing entrepreneurial ideas: the case of intentions”, Academy of Management Review 13 (3), 442–454.

Davidsson, P. (1995), “Determinants of entrepreneurial intentions”, Paper prepared for the RENT IX Workshop, Piacenza, Italy.

Ferreira, J.J., Raposo L.M., Rodrigues, R.G., Dinis, A. and do Paco, A. (2012), “A model of entrepreneurial intention: An application of the psychological and behavioral approaches”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 424–440. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14626001211250144

Iakovleva, T. and Kolvereid, L. (2009), “An integrated model of entrepreneurial intentions”, Int. J. Business and Globalisation, Vol. 3, No. 1.

Ismail, Μ., Khalid, S., Othman, M., Jusoff, Hj.K., Rahman, N., Kassim, K. and Zain, R. (2009), “Entrepreneurial Intention among Malaysian Undergraduates”, International Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 4, No. 10.

Keat, O.Y., Selvarajah, Chr. and Meyer, D. (2011), “Inclination towards entrepreneurship among university students: An empirical study of Malaysian university students”, International Journal of Business and Social Science, Vol. 2, No. 4.

Kolvereid, L. (1996), “Prediction of employment status choice intentions”, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 47–57.

Liñán, Fr. and Chen, Y. (2006), “Testing the Entrepreneurial Intention Model on a Two-Country Sample”, Departament d'Economia de l'Empresa.

Oosterbeek, H., Praag, M. and Ijsselstein, A. (2010), “The impact of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurship skills and motivation”, European Economic Review Vol. 54, pp. 442–454.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2009.08.002

Piperopoulos, P. (2012), “Could higher education programmes, culture and structure stifle the entrepreneurial intentions of students?”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 461–483. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14626001211250162

Postigo, S. and Tamborini, F. (2002), “Entrepreneurship education in Argentina: The case of San Andres University”, International Entrepreneurship Education and Training Conference, IntEnt02, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Robinson, P.B. and Sexton, E.A. (1994), “The effect of education and experience on self-employment success”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 9, pp. 141–56. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0883-9026(94)90006-X

Solesvik, M., Westhead, P., Kolvereid, L. and Matlay, H. (2012), “Student intentions to become self-employed: the Ukrainian context”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 441–460. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14626001211250153

Souitaris, V., Zerbinati, St. and Al-Laham, A. (2007), “Do entrepreneurship programmes raise entrepreneurial intention of science and engineering students? The effect of learning, inspiration and resources”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 22, pp. 566–591. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2006.05.002

Tkachev, A. and Kolvereid, L. (1999), "Self-employment intentions among Russian students”, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development: An International Journal, Vol. 11, pp. 269–280. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/089856299283209

Wu, S. and Wu, L. (2008), “The impact of higher education on entrepreneurial intentions of university students in China”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 752–774. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14626000810917843




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/ijsr.2015.4.1.23
Date of publication: 2015-08-10 11:19:05
Date of submission: 2015-08-10 10:59:43


Statistics


Total abstract view - 2052
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 0

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2015 Charitomeni Tsordia, Dimitra Papadimitriou

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.