Motivational Factors Relating to Entrepreneurial Intention: A Study of Postgraduate Management Students in India

Abstract

With the growing importance of entrepreneurship all over the world, and particularly in Asia, this paper aims at studying the motivational factors relating to the entrepreneurial intention of postgraduate management students in India. What are the factors which motivate university students to start a new business venture after completing their studies? Are they related solely to the personality of the individual or are they related to his/her support systems or is it a combination of both? The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and the given variables like attitude towards self-employment, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, perceived educational support and perceived structural support. For this purpose, a model based on the theory of planned behavior and entrepreneurial support models was proposed and empirically tested on a sample of 382 postgraduate management students in India. The sample was collected from across seven management colleges in Kerala. The findings reveal that all the five factors, namely attitude towards self-employment, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, perceived educational support and perceived structural support, have a positive effect on the entrepreneurial intention of an individual.