Entrepreneurial intentions of university students in an emerging economy

PurposeThis paper aims to develop an empirical model that examines whether a student’s proactive personality or the university support environment (education support, concept development support and business development support) affects their entrepreneurial intentions. Additionally, the relative strengths of a student’s proactive personality and the university environment influences are compared.Design/methodology/approachA total of 141 students attending a well-established and internationally renowned Malaysian higher education institution completed a questionnaire survey. Results were based on correlation and regression analysis.FindingsResults indicate that a proactive personality and concept development support have significant impact on students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Additionally, the results showed that a student’s proactive personality had a greater effect on their entrepreneurial intentions than that of the university support environment.Originality/valueThe paper demonstrates one of the few attempts to examine the effects of both a proactive personality and university support environment on entrepreneurial intentions in an emerging economy context. Specifically, we reconfirm students’ personality traits as a more important predictor of their entrepreneurial intentions than environmental factors in the Malaysian context. Additionally, by also demonstrating concept development support as a significant predictor of entrepreneurial intentions, we provide new insights into how universities in emerging economies can foster the entrepreneurial intentions of their students. This result adds to the academic literature on entrepreneurial intentions in emerging economies.