The study in hand aimed towards investigating the influence of business management program on intentions to opt entrepreneurship as career among undergraduate university students. The study was longitudinal in nature and data were collected in two phases. In phase I, students were interviewed at the time of joining the undergraduate business management program. That is, at the time of admission or during orientation classes. In phase II, same students were interviewed with same set of questions after the completion of one year in the university BBA program. The study was based on Azjen's theory of planned behavior (TPB) and investigated the intentions to opt entrepreneurship as career among university students. The study found a significant change in three attitude components as well as entrepreneurial intentions after joining the business management program. Further, subjective norms i.e., pressure from society, family, friends etc., were identified as most important factor influencing entrepreneurial intentions among undergraduate business management students in India.
TopIntroduction
Entrepreneurship may be referred as the creation of a new independent business firm (Davidsson, 1995). Policymakers firmly believe that entrepreneurial activities can boost economic growth of a nation and solve many other problems such as poverty, unemployment, etc. There are limited job opportunities in today’s highly vying job environment (Keat et al., 2011) in both public as well as private sector. As the government and private organizations have failed to provide right type of employment, students are becoming more inclined towards starting an entrepreneurial venture. It’s not only the unemployment but also the underemployment, which push youth towards starting their own firm. There are a huge number of job holders who believe that fixed salary jobs fail to fulfill their ambitions in terms of income, growth, and opportunity to capitalize on their own potential. Today’s job environment also failed to provide so-called job security to the employee. And hence, they are inclined towards starting up a business enterprise.
The changed job environment prompted youths to look for an education which can equip them with employable skills along with necessary competencies to startup an entrepreneurial venture.
In response of changing expectations of youth and job scenario, educational institutions introduced several entrepreneurial educational programs aimed towards promoting entrepreneurship as a career (Postigo & Tamborini, 2002).Entrepreneurial education may be referred as a pedagogical process involving the stimulation of entrepreneurial activities, acts, and mentality among students (Binks, 2005).Other than developing basic competencies of starting and managing a business enterprise, entrepreneurship education should nurture imagination as well as creativity, flexibility along with critical thinking, and ability to see opportunities in change (Drucker 1994, Timmons & Spinelli, 2004).
Problem Statement:
“Undertaking a study that apply Aizen’s Theory of Planned Behavior to investigate undergraduate business management students intentions to opt entrepreneurship as a career”
Literature Review
Entrepreneurial intentions are a thoroughly researched area of academic research (Keat et al., 2011). From a long period of time, scholastic models such as Shapero and Sokol (1982); Krueger and Carsrud (1993), Davidsson (1995), Peterman & Kennedy (2003), etc., attempted to describe intentions to opt entrepreneurship as a career option. Scholars agree that most of the models on entrepreneurial intentions find their roots in Azjen’s (1987, 1991) theory of planned behavior.