Empirical Study on the Role of Passion, Individual Differences, and Innovativeness between Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Education Institutions and Entrepreneurial Intention: A Moderated Mediating Model

Entrepreneurship is a powerful tool that reduces unemployment, boosts economic growth, and promotes innovation and social change. With a focus on the promotion of entrepreneurial intention possessed by higher education institutions offering entrepreneurship education, this study assesses the indirect impact of higher education institutions in developing entrepreneurial intention through passion as a mediator. It also investigates the moderating role of individual differences and innovativeness between the entrepreneurship education in higher education institution and the entrepreneurship educational outcome, namely entrepreneurial intention. Also, the moderated mediation relationship between entrepreneurship education in a higher education institution and entrepreneurial intention is assessed. To conduct the cross-sectional study, data was collected from 636 students perusing an entrepreneurship course at colleges affiliated with Bharathiar University in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu (India). A questionnaire with 37 items is used to collect the data as ratings from respondents. The moderated mediation model is designed and tested using the bootstrapping method in the Hayes PROCESS macro model. According to the findings, the association between entrepreneurship education in higher education institutions and passion is negatively moderated by individual differences and innovativeness. Further, the study revealed that the combined effect of the higher education institution, individual differences, and innovativeness on entrepreneurial intention is mediated by passion.