Entrepreneurial Intentions among Students of Higher Institutions in Eritrea

Abstract

This study focused on investigating the entrepreneurial intentions among Business and Engineering final year students in the Eritrean higher institutions. Specifically, it aimed to examine students’ entrepreneurial intentions based on the theory of planned behavior. Moreover, the influence of demographic characteristics and parents’ entrepreneurial background on the students’ entrepreneurial intention was examined. To investigate the entrepreneurial intention, 100 students were selected randomly as a sample and a questionnaire was used as an instrument to collect data. SPSS 20 was used to analyze the data while t-test, correlation, and regression have been utilized for finding out the results. Results have revealed that students’ entrepreneurial education background and parents’ entrepreneurial experience have not shown any impact on the students’ entrepreneurial intention. What is more, the personal attitude, perceived behavioral control and risk taking readiness have shown a positive and significant impact on Eritrean higher institutions students’ entrepreneurial intention. However, the social norm has a negative but insignificant impact on the students’ entrepreneurial intentions.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial intention, parents’ entrepreneurial experience, risk taking, theory of planned behavior