Investigating the Intentions, Self-Efficacy and Motivators behind Entrepreneurial Decisions of Business Students

Oct 15, 2026

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The study investigates the intentions, self-efficacy, and motivators behind entrepreneurial decisions among business students. A self-constructed 39-item questionnaire collected data from 250 MBA students in Lahore across 02 public and 02 private universities. Mean scores, standard deviations, and correlations were computed, and one-sample t-tests and independent-samples t-tests were used to analyze the results. Students rated self-efficacy highest, followed by intentions and motivators.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Entrepreneurial Intention

Entrepreneurial Self-efficacy

Motivators (implied)

Investigating the Intentions, Self-Efficacy and Motivators behind Entrepreneurial Decisions of Business Students Shaukat Ali Raza * and Muhammad Irfan** Abstract The study investigated the intentions, self-efficacy and motivators behind entrepreneurial decisions of business students. A self-constructed 39-items questionnaire was used to collect the data from a convenient sample of 250 students of MBA program from the business schools of 02 public and 02 private universities of Lahore. Mean scores, standard deviations and correlations were calculated and one-sample t-test and independent samples t-test were employed to analyze the data. Students rated self-efficacy at the top followed by intensions, and motivators leading to their entrepreneurial decisions. A significant higher emphasis on intentions, self-efficacy and motivators was found in making the entrepreneurial decisions by the business students from public sector universities against those from private sector. No such significant difference was found in case of gender of the respondents. The study recommended especially the private sector business schools to put extended efforts to develop intensions, self-efficacy and motivators of their students up to the highest level to help them make entrepreneurial decision. Keywords: Intentions, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, motivators, business graduates * Assistant Professor, Department of Business Education, IER, University of the Punjab, Lahore. E-mail: [shaukat_ali_5@yahoo.com](shaukat_ali_5@yahoo.com) ** Graduate of Department of Business Education, IER, University of the Punjab, Lahore. Introduction Entrepreneurship is not just creating a new business. The simplest way to know entrepreneurship is to recognize the vision to identify opportunity where others see confusion, contradiction and disorder (Kuratko & Hodgetts, 2004) . Taking it as a blend of ability to plan, communication skills, marketing skills, interpersonal skills, basic management skills, and leadership skills, Bam (2015) described entrepreneurship as the journey of opportunity exploration and risk management to create value for profit and/or social good characterized with the ability to plan to meet goals in a variety of areas, including finance, marketing, production, sales and personnel; communication skills to explain, discuss, sell and market their goods or services; marketing skills which attract people wanting to buy goods or services; interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships with customers, employees, financial lenders, investors, lawyers and accountants; basic management skills to know the direction company is moving in; and leadership skills to develop a vision for the company and to inspire employees to pursue it as imperative for success. Entrepreneurship is not a new concept. Muljadi (2011) has provided a detailed account of the origin of entrepreneurship as a factor in microeconomics. Its study started from the work of Richard Cantillon and Adam Smith in the late 17th and 18th centuries, got theoretical ground in the late 18th and 19th centuries and established its empirical ground during the last 40 years in business and economics. The understanding of entrepreneurship in 20th century depends on the work of economists Joseph Schumpeter, Carl Menger, Ludwing von Mises and Friedrich von Hayek. Harvard Business School is the pioneer institute where first entrepreneurship courses were taught in 1930s and afterward this field got increasing attention since 1970s. About 400 universities in United States were active in entrepreneurship education by 1990 while now this figure exceeds from 700 (Fiet, 2001) . The entrepreneurial decisions of the students are based on their intentions, self-efficacy, and motivators which are going to be discussed in the following paragraphs. Entrepreneurial Intention Lee, Wong, Foo, and Leung (2011) explained in line with Krueger, Reilly, and Carsrud (2000) that entr

FAQs

What variables does the study examine regarding students’ entrepreneurial decisions?

The study examines entrepreneurial intentions, self-efficacy, and motivators behind the entrepreneurial decisions of business students.

How was data collected and analyzed in the study?

A self-constructed 39-item questionnaire was used with 250 MBA students, and the analysis employed mean scores, standard deviations, correlations, plus one-sample and independent-samples t-tests.

What differences were found between public and private university students?

Public-sector business students showed significantly higher emphasis on intentions, self-efficacy, and motivators compared with private-sector students.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Fans