Attitudinal and motivational determinants of entrepreneurial intentions among university students in Yemen

Abstract

Unemployment, especially among young people, represents a huge challenge not only at the nations, but at the international level as well. Entrepreneurship is regarded as a panacea that can reduce, if not eradicate, the burden of unemployment on individuals and nations as a whole. It has been established that becoming an entrepreneur is an intentional decision that requires intensive cognitive processing and planning. Therefore, it is critically important to understand what motivates people, especially the young, to develop positive attitudes that foster intentions to be entrepreneurs. The main objective of the present study is to integrate Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to better understand motivation, attitudes and entrepreneurial intention of youth. Specifically, it aims at testing the motivational sequence in which Basic Psychological Needs constructs from SDT influence entrepreneurial intention directly and indirectly through the attitudinal constructs from TPB. Further, the study aims at examining the moderation role that gender may play in the relationship between attitudinal factors and entrepreneurial intention. Data were obtained from 622 final year university students representing several study disciplines at two universities in Yemen. Standardized instruments were employed to measure SDT constructs, namely autonomy, competence and relatedness, and TPB constructs, namely attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and entrepreneurial intention. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model and structural relationships. The findings suggest that firstly: autonomy and competence need fulfilment influenced entrepreneurial intention in unmediated structural model. Secondly, the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and SDT constructs was fully mediated by the attitudinal constructs of TPB. Finally, gender did not play a moderation role between the attitudinal factors and entrepreneurial intention. The contribution of the present study lies in the integration of SDT and TPB, which offers a deeper understanding of the motivational process of students to start their own businesses. SDT and TPB are complementary as SDT constructs explain the origins of TPB. The attitudinal determinants operate as proximal antecedents of intention and motivational determinants operate as distal predictors of entrepreneurial intention through the attitudinal determinants. This provides evidence for the proposed motivational sequence. It is recommended that future research should build upon the current model and consider investigating the link between entrepreneurial intention and behaviour.