Born or made? The role of organizational support, proactive personality, and creativity in shaping entrepreneurial intentions

Oct 15, 2026

This study explores how perceived organizational support, proactive personality, and creativity shape university students’ entrepreneurial intentions. A questionnaire survey collected data from 456 undergraduate students across three universities in Guizhou Province, then tested the relationships among the variables. Results show perceived organizational support significantly and positively affects creativity; proactive personality also significantly enhances creativity. Perceived organizational support further predicts both proactive personality and entrepreneurial intentions, while creativity significantly increases entrepreneurial intentions. Findings support educational administrators in designing supportive environments and creativity-focused initiatives and inform future entrepreneurial education and support policy.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

African Educational Research Journal Vol. 13(2), pp. 191-200, May 2025 DOI: 10. 30918/AERJ.132.25.019 ISSN: 2354-2160 Full Length Research Paper Born or made? The role of organizational support, proactive personality, and creativity in shaping entrepreneurial intentions Wang Fang and Jirawan Deeprasert* Rattanakosin International College of Creative Entrepreneurship, Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosi, Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, 73170, Thailand. Accepted 1 May, 2025 | ABSTRACT
This study aims to explore the role of perceived organizational support, proactive personality, and creativity in shaping university students' entrepreneurial intentions. Through a questionnaire survey conducted with 456 undergraduate students from three universities in Guizhou Province, we collected data on students'entrepreneurial intentions and analyzed the impact of perceived organizational support, proactive personality, and creativity on their entrepreneurial intentions. The findings reveal that perceived organizational support has a significant positive effect on students' creativity, and proactive personality also significantly enhances creativity. Furthermore, perceived organizational support positively influences both proactive personality and entrepreneurial intentions, while creativity has a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial intentions. Through data analysis of the relationships between these variables, this study provides valuable insights for educational administrators, emphasizing the importance of creating a supportive environment and fostering creative thinking in cultivating entrepreneurial awareness and intentions. The findings offer theoretical foundations and practical recommendations for future entrepreneurial education and support policies in the field of education.
Keywords: Creativity, entrepreneurial intentions, perceived organizational support, proactive personality, university students. | | --- | | *Corresponding [author. E-mail: jirawan.dee@rmutr.ac.th](author. E-mail: jirawan.dee@rmutr.ac.th). | INTRODUCTION With the continuous increase in the number of university graduates in China, the issue of student employment has become increasingly pressing. In 2022, the number of university graduates reached 10.76 million, setting a historic high and intensifying employment pressures. In this context, entrepreneurship is regarded as an effective means to alleviate these employment challenges. Entrepreneurship not only drives economic growth and innovation but also facilitates structural economic adjustments, reduces regional wealth disparities, and addresses issues related to employment and poverty (Stoica et al. , 2020; Zainea et al. , 2020) . To encourage more students to engage in entrepreneurial activities, fostering entrepreneurial intention is of paramount importance. Entrepreneurial intention is a stable predictor of entrepreneurial behaviour (Abbasianchavari and Moritz, 2021; Nakara et al. , 2020) and serves as a key driving force behind entrepreneurial action (Gieure et al. , 2020) . Thus, enhancing the entrepreneurial intention of university students is essential for promoting entrepreneurial activity Afr Educ Res J 192 (Adu et al. , 2020) . Based on previous research findings, perceived organizational support has been shown to significantly enhance university students’ entrepreneurial intentions (Saeed et al. , 2018) . Moreover, perceived organizational support has been found to positively influence proactive personality traits (Kanten and Ulker, 2012) . Proactive personality is defined as a disposition's tendency to take initiative, persist in efforts, and actively influence one’s behaviour and environment when facing various situations in learning, life, and career development (Kim et al. , 2009; Seibert et al. , 1999) . Moreover, previous studies have identified the influence of perceived organizational support and proactive personality on entrepreneurial behaviour, f

FAQs

What is the main purpose of the study?

The study examines how perceived organizational support, proactive personality, and creativity influence university students’ entrepreneurial intentions.

How was the data collected and from whom?

A questionnaire survey collected data from 456 undergraduate students from three universities in Guizhou Province.

What key relationships were found among the variables?

Perceived organizational support increases creativity; proactive personality also boosts creativity. Perceived organizational support predicts proactive personality and entrepreneurial intentions, and creativity positively impacts entrepreneurial intentions.

Oct 15, 2026

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