Entrepreneurship education ecosystems and entrepreneurial career intentions of university students

Abstract

Bangladesh is considered a least developed country and has a relatively high unemployment rate among university graduates. The efforts of the Bangladeshi government to transform the country into a knowledge-based economy has been ignited by these factors. However, it remains a challenge for the Bangladeshi government to persuade university graduates to pursue an entrepreneurial career path, rather than to seek employment post-graduation. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of entrepreneurship education ecosystem components on entrepreneurial career intentions among students studying at 16 Bangladeshi public universities, with entrepreneurial self-efficacy assessed as a mediating factor. The study adopted a positivist philosophy, for which the Theory of Planned Behaviour was used for framing the formulated eight hypotheses. A deductive approach, explanatory research design, quantitative methodology and cross-sectional time horizon were utilised to conduct the study. Forty-five items were taken from the existing literature for a questionnaire survey to measure the variables after an initial pilot survey was conducted. Using a simple probability random sampling technique, 1,100 samples were collected via an online questionnaire survey from a population of 24,980 students. SPSS and SEM, using Smart-PLS 3.2.9, was used for developing the model and analysing the data. The results revealed that six were supported from among eight hypotheses (H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 and H7) and two were not (H1 and H8). The findings of this study have significant implications for redesigning entrepreneurship programs to improve the impact of entrepreneurship courses and Furthermore, these findings will assist many stakeholders in the entrepreneurship education ecosystem, including the government, policymakers, researchers, and students. to motivate business start-ups in Bangladesh. Previous empirical research on the effect of entrepreneurship education ecosystem components on the entrepreneurial career intentions of university students has been predominantly limited to developed and developing countries, with few exploring least developed countries. Our findings extend this literature by examining the effect of entrepreneurship education ecosystem components on entrepreneurial career intentions of university students in the context of a least developed country, Bangladesh. In addition, prior research in this field has illuminated how to develop teaching competencies for teaching entrepreneurship education. This study adds to this literature by providing methods and practices teachers can apply in their entrepreneurship education and how their teaching methods shape entrepreneurial activity.

Date of Award	2022
Original language	English