Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2008
Abstract
The importance of entrepreneurship to economic development is widely debated and acknowledged. With rising unemployment and growing disenchantment with corporate employment, more policy makers and scholars are turning to entrepreneurship and self employment as a solution to youth unemployment. College experiences and learning have the potential to change attitudes, beliefs and focus not only in a student's general life outcomes but also in career orientation. Colleges therefore provide a window of opportunity for creating positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship and influencing students' entrepreneurial self efficacy making careers in entrepreneurship more feasible and desirable. The manner in which these factors inter-relate is the essence of social cognitive career theory which postulates that environmental variables can moderate, mediate or directly affect the relationship between interest and career intentions or goals as well as the relationship between intentions and action. Research in higher education has shown student engagement to be one of the processes through which college impacts on student outcomes. The extent of this involvement is in turn influenced by college characteristics. This study explores the impact of college entrepreneurial orientation on students' entrepreneurial self efficacy and attitudes towards entrepreneurship on the one hand and their entrepreneurial intentions on the other as mediated by students' involvement in college activities in and out of class. Student involvement or engagement is hypothesized to impact on entrepreneurial intentions through increased exposure to vicarious experience, expanded information and supportive networks. Engagement is also hypothesized to mediate the influence of prior exposure to entrepreneurship, gender and perceptions of formal learning on self efficacy and attitudes towards entrepreneurship.
Keywords
entrepreneurship, business education, college environments, engagement, self efficay, attitudes, intentions
Rights
© The Author(s). Kelvin Smith Library provides access for non-commercial, personal, or research use only. All other use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly reproductions, redistribution, publication or transmission, whether by electronic means or otherwise, without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.
Department/Center
Design & Innovation
Recommended Citation
Kamau-Maina, Rosemary, "Encouraging Entrepreneurial Intentions: The Role of University/College Environments and Experiences" (2008). Student Scholarship. 187.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/187