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THE IMPACT OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ASPECTS, FAMILY FACTOR & UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT ON ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION
(PERSPECTIVE OF STUDENTS OF ALEXANDRIA UNIVERSITIES)
1EZZ EL DIN AHMED CHIHA, 2PROF. DR. MOHAMED A. NASSAR, 3PROF. DR. ALAA ABDELWAHED ABDELBARY, 4PROF. DR. AIMAN AHMED RAGAB
1Candidate Of Doctorate Of Business Administration Garaduate School Of Business Arab Academy For Science, Technology And Maritime Transport (Aastmt),
2Professor of Hotel Marketing Faculty of Tourism And Hotels, Alexandria University, Egypt 3Vice President for Postgraduates Studies and Scientific Research Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (Aastmt),
4Dean of Garaduate School of Business Arab Academy for Science, Technology And Maritime Transport (Aastmt),
Abstract
Purpose - The research aimed to explore the influence of university environment, entrepreneurial aspects on the entrepreneurial intention of universitiesstudents. Design/methodology/approach - This research is based upon a questionnaire conducted to the students of Alexandria Universities.
Findings -The findings from this research revealed that, universities students perceived their entrepreneurial passion, university environment and family factor impacting their entrepreneurial intention, with a higher priority if compared to the variables of risk-taking and emotional intelligence, which they considered with no impact on their mentioned entrepreneurial intention; additionally, they thought that their self-efficacy served as a mediator, allowing their entrepreneurial passion to positively influence their entrepreneurial intention, however this latter mediatorwasn't perceived to be affected neither by their planning nor innovation characteristics.
Keywords - universities students, entrepreneurial intention, university environment, family factor, entrepreneurial aspects, Egypt.
1. INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurship refers to the act of recognizing and developing possibilities involving controllable resources and value generation. Entrepreneurship is seen as the primary driver of the creation of jobs, expansion of the economy, innovation, and product marketing in today's culture. It is focused on people and their decisions and deeds when founding or running a business. Because work isn't always done for money, it serves to improve the human potential and create jobs. Self-actualization, happiness, and independence are a few powerful motivators. Additionally, it greatly aids in the production of income, employment prospects, and chances for personal development (Mortan et al., 2014). In light of this, it is anticipated that the main objective of entrepreneurship education is concentrated on helping students develop their entrepreneurial potential, skills, and ambitions in line with the demands of the whole economy. Entrepreneurship activity requires both entrepreneurial ambition and entrepreneurial education as preconditions. Therefore, individuals' purposes determine their conduct, and their behaviors determine their action (Farrukh et al., 2017).
Accordingly, a person's desire in beginning a new firm determines whether he/shehas entrepreneurial intent. It is a crucial precursor to someone's entrepreneurial endeavor in relation to the beginning of a
Egypt
Egypt Egypt
family factor and
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new business and the performance that follows (Miao et al., 2018). It's also crucial to remember that the entrepreneurial process is broken down into stages, with the first stage—the entrepreneurial intention—serving as the main understanding component. Investigating the factors that affect this objective is essential to comprehend the process of organization creation (Ferreira et al., 2018). Students today need to be content, driven, and engaged in terms of their entrepreneurial tendencies. In this respect, study programs must be attractive. Students are in need for a creative environment in which they can learn, work together and develop ideas. Students must interact with successful people from the economy; that is an important part of their study programs. This stems from the notion that new generations of universitiesstudentsneed practical knowledge; thiscanbe provided through creating student incubatorsin addition to similar activities, by the faculties (Bjekic and Jelaca, 2019). Moreover, entrepreneurship in Egypt represents an important concept; in a nutshell, Egypt is a developing country where the business environment is characterized by a need for improving the private sector's jobs, representing a current below-average rate, if compared to the world's countries. Therefore, a large transformation is required in numerous fields, such as the political, economic and social fields. In this context, efforts are perceived, to ensure the development of the Egyptian entrepreneurial system in various areas, from which we mention: the initiation of flexible regulations and the elimination of bureaucracy; noting that Egyptian entrepreneurship possesses a positive future, represented in the opportunity of reaching both local and global new market segments, the matter that urges the need for more jobs creation (Zaki and Zeini, 2019).
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
This section is concerned with illustrating the literature regarding the impact of entrepreneurial aspects, family factor & university environment on entrepreneurial intention to create the hypotheses to be verified in the following sections.
2.1 ENTREPRENEURIAL EVENT MODEL
Shapero and Sokol developed in 1982, the Entrepreneurial Event Model (EEM). It is widely employed to clarify an entrepreneurial process where intentionality is critical. The notion holds that the combination of initiative, aptitude, management, relative autonomy, and risk may be used to explain the formation of new firms. The paradigm states that entrepreneurial intention (EI) is a function of how something is viewed as desirable and doable, and that this route is impacted by the social and cultural sphere. Shapero asserted that, on the assumption that human actions have inertia that can be disrupted or modified by something, and that EI develops in part as a result of exposure to entrepreneurial activity, perceived desirability and feasibility influence the relative believability of different alternatives (Zhang et al., 2014).
2.2 SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY
According to Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), a psychological view of how individuals behave, the social environment has a considerable influence on motivation, learning, and self-regulation (Schunk and DiBenedetto, 2020). The Social Cognitive Theory claims that planning performs anefficient role in regulating human motivation and behavior.According to this anticipatory control system, assumptions can be formed about the outcomes of taking a certainregulation. The theory identifies a variety of important elements that significantly affect behavior. The first component involves perceived self-efficacy, which is related to the way individuals see their capacity to perform a certain action needed to accomplish an objective. The second essential concept in Social Cognitive Theory is outcome expectancies, or how people think about the various outcomes of their actions. SCT considers aims, perceived barriers, and facilitators along with these two cognitions (Luszczynska and Schwarzer, 2015).
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2.3 THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR
Theory concerning planned behavior (TPB) provided an all-encompassing framework for examining any activity. The model's main objective was to understand any motivating factors that could have affected conduct in a way that was beyond the individual's control in addition to anticipating behavior. Additionally,understanding behavior entailed locating and controlling the causes of that behavior; if this was possible, the behavior might be altered (Davids, 2017).
An individual's relationship between a certain behavior and the result that behavior creates is referred to as the behavioral beliefs. Though just some of the individuals' views about behavior are easily accessible, they may have many opinions about it. The concept of normative views describes how one perceives what other people and groups that are closely related to him/her, believe about a certain behavior. Depending on the behavior, these people could be friends, relatives, mentors, coworkers, or any other significant person or group. The things that a person thinks either helping or hindering a behavior, are referred to as control beliefs. According to the individuals' perceptions of their level of control over the variables that may help or hinder performance, their perception of behavioral control is determined (Davids, 2017).
2.4 DAVIDSSON'S MODEL
According to Davidsson'sModel (1995), economic and psychological variables might influence college students' inclinations to start their own businesses (Karabulut, 2016). Davidsson made a contribution by introducing the idea of conviction as the main factor influencing intention. Conviction is a result of both general and specific attitudes (Byabashaija and Katono, 2011). In fact, in 1995, Davidsson provided a model that postulated that domainand general attitudes may have an effect on entrepreneurial intention (Izquierdo and Buelens, 2011).
2.5 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT AND ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION
The entrepreneurial inclinations of international university students were examined by Gieure et al. (2019). The study suggested a model that accounts for the environmental, social, and individual factors that may have an effect on students' ambitions to launch their own enterprises. The study's targeted population involveda variety of university students from both local and international institutions who were enrolled in various institutions. A survey that was given to 276 students was used to collect the data. The research showed that students who attended universities with high standards were more likely to have entrepreneurial aspirations.
Moraes et al. (2018) investigated the ways in which elements of the academic and entrepreneurial contexts influenced undergraduate students' inclinations to launch their own firms. The researchers created a model that takes into consideration risk-taking, the academic environment, self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial qualities as factors on self-efficacy as well as direct influences on entrepreneurial ambition. The necessary data was collected using the quantitative method from 287 undergraduate students in their final year at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). The findings of the investigation demonstrated that students' intents to start their own businesses were influenced by the academic setting, self-efficacy, and a risk-taking mentality.
2.6 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAMILY FACTOR AND ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION
The essential effects of family background (parents' employment and immigration status) on the entrepreneurial purpose of Vietnamese business students was studied by Nguyen (2018). A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 372 university-level business students from three universities in Ho Chi Minh City.The findings revealed that adolescents with independent contractor parents perform better on measures of entrepreneurial goals, even if the variance was not statistically
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observed. Also, the academic performance of kids whose parents moved from rural to urban regions was comparable to that of students whose parents stayed at home.
Farrukh et al. (2017) investigated how family background influenced business students' entrepreneurial ambitions in Pakistani private institutions. To collect data, structured questionnaires were employed; 500 questionnaires were issued to students, but only 306 valid questionnaires were eventually collected.The results demonstrated that students'entrepreneurial ambitions were positively impacted by family background.
2.7 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RISK-TAKING AND ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION
Gurel et al. (2021) carried out longitudinal research to examine if higher education has an equivalent impact on men's and women's entrepreneurial aspirations, particularly in connection to risk-taking inclinations. Using a self-administrated survey instrument, data from 215 students majoring in business and engineering at five specialized Turkish colleges were collected. The survey took place during the first and fourth years of study. The findings revealed that education and risk-taking proclivity mediated the connection between genders and entrepreneurial intention, with higher levels of education increasing women's entrepreneurial intention independent of their risk-taking proclivity.Generally speaking, the gain is more likely to benefit women who take less risks.
The factors affecting entrepreneurial aspirations were investigated by Yoopetch (2021). The study's sample consisted of female workers from a range of hospitality industries, including restaurants, hotels, and spa facilities. A survey was intended to collect the essential information from 416 female hospitality professionals with at least one year of experience, such as those working in hotels and dining establishments. The investigation was designed to target young to mid-level professional women in the hospitality industry. The findings revealed that the women's risk-taking mentality, self-efficacy, subjective norms, and empowerment were important factors in predicting whether or not they planned to pursue entrepreneurship. The data also revealed that an individual's willingness to accept risks had the biggest influence on his/her intention to start a business. In other words, female employees were more likely to establish their own firm when they had a favorable attitude towards taking risks.
2.8 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION
Owoseni et al. (2021) investigated the relation between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial ambition within undergraduates by recruiting 200 students from the Entrepreneurship and Business Management Open Distance Learner program in Nigeria's South-West. Participants filled out self-report questionnaires about their emotional intelligence and corporate objectives. According to the findings, the combination of all emotional intelligence traits indicated entrepreneurial aspirations. At Sabah, Malaysia's private universities, Hassan and Omar (2016) looked into how students' intentions to launch their own enterprises were influenced by their emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial mentality. 213 students from a private college in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, were surveyed using a structured questionnaire instrument to gather data. The findings of the investigation revealed that emotional intelligence traits were related to the motivation and outlook of being an entrepreneur. Furthermore, this study's findings showed a critical correlation between having an entrepreneurial attitude and having that purpose.
2.9 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENTREPRENEURIAL PASSION AND ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION
Syed et al. (2020) revealed the association between entrepreneurial passion and driving entrepreneurial objectives while investigating the mediating role of innovation and the moderating influence of curiosity. The information was submitted by 295 undergraduates who had been enrolled in a research group at a Midwest University and granted their informed consent for data collection. The findings revealed that innovation influenced the association between entrepreneurial zeal and
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intentions to some extent. Furthermore, those with high curiosity levels had a stronger mediating effect than those with low curiosity levels.
Moreover, Neneh (2022) investigated the connection between entrepreneurial enthusiasm and intention, as well as the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy with both entrepreneurial enthusiasm and intention.It was found that entrepreneurial enthusiasm had a significant positive effect on entrepreneurial intention and self-efficacy.
2.10 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENTREPRENEURIAL PASSION AND SELF-EFFICACY
Hadizadeh et al. (2015) conducted a correlational research methodology. The major goal of this study was to investigate how self-efficacy affects entrepreneurs' entrepreneurship enthusiasm. The four components of self-efficacy were evaluated in order to do this. The conscious mind was viewed as the mediator, and these dimensions include vicarious experience, performance successes, verbal persuasion, and emotional stimulus. 120 staff members of Tehran scientific parks (SPs) were looked at in order to research the influence of these factors on entrepreneurial zeal. Data were analyzed using the multiple regression method. According to the study's findings, self-efficacy and entrepreneurial passion were positively correlated, with performance success having the most impact on the sample population's entrepreneurial enthusiasm.
Norena-Chavez and Guevara (2020) investigated how entrepreneurial passionmediated the connection between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and creative activity. 358 individuals from the same variety of companies were involved in the sample. The results showed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy is significantly correlated with entrepreneurial passion.
2.11 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PLANNING AND SELF-EFFICACY
Through a long-term experimental study, Luszczynska et al. (2016) investigated the influences of planning, education-based conditions, and self-efficacy while encouraging teens to select fruit and vegetables over foods rich in calories. 506 randomly chosen youths were the source of the data. Therefore, it was revealed that a substantial correlation exists between the cognitive mediators of self-efficacy and planning.
Zhang (2016) provided an example of how planning might affect one's sense of competence and probability to engage in physical exercise. The information from 20 participants was gathered using three online surveys. The research revealed that self-efficacyrecorded this mediation in an interface between planning, self-efficacy, and physical activitywhich explained 16% of the variation in behavior. If a person is self-effective, planning seems to have a higher likelihood of turning into physical action.
2.12 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INNOVATION AND SELF-EFFICACY
In this regard, Jaiswal and Dhar (2015) revealed the significance of transformational leadership in predicting employee creativity, as well as the moderating influence of creative self-efficacy and the mediating impact of innovation atmosphere. 372 workers and the individuals who had direct supervisory responsibility for them were the subject of an empirical investigation. The findings showed that creative leaders may foster an environment that fosters employee innovation. It was also demonstrated that individuals with high creative self-efficacy participate in inventive activities when placed in an environment that is favorable to innovation.
Dan et al. (2018) looked at the connections between the concept of structural empowerment, innovative behavior, self-efficacy, and success. In the spring of 2017, 460 nurses responded to an anonymous poll for the investigation. The findings revealed a positive connection between inventive conduct and professional achievement, as well as self-efficacy, which moderated the link between structural empowerment and career success. The data also revealed that self-efficacy, which
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correlates positively with career achievement, recorded the association between inventive activity and work success.
2.13 THE MEDIATION RELATIONSHIP OF SELF-EFFICACY BETWEEN ENTREPRENEURIAL PASSION AND
ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION
Neneh (2022) discovered a connection between entrepreneurial passion and intention and investigated the impact of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in the context of this relationship. A total of 500 valid responses were supplied by university students. According to the results, entrepreneurial self-efficacy had a large and positive indirect effect on entrepreneurial intention.
Indyastuti et al. (2021)conducted a study that aimed to investigate the relationships between entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial intention, and entrepreneurial enthusiasm. 236 women who own businesses were the focus of this study's sample of Banyu MAs housewives. Therefore, a positive relationship was observed between entrepreneurial excitement and intention. Also, it was observed that self-efficacy is considered as a mediator between entrepreneurial enthusiasm and intention.
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The selected research methodology is covered in this section. The research intends to explore the link between university environment, family factor, entrepreneurial aspects, and entrepreneurial intention. As such, the research philosophy chosen relies on the research purpose and questions. The analytical descriptive method is the cornerstone of positivism philosophy in studies that describe the existing reality of the phenomena with the aim of deciding whether this reality is genuine or needs to be adjusted. As a result, both the deductive technique and the quantitative approach are used. The research variables are as follows (Figure 1):
• Dependent Variable: Entrepreneurial Intention.
• Independent Variable: University Environment, Family Factor, Risk-Taking, Emotional Intelligence, Entrepreneurial Passion.
• The Intervening Variable: Self-Efficacy and its characteristics of Planning and Innovation
University Environment ---a_
lr ^ Entrepreneurial Intention
-"
Entrepreneurial Aspects Risk Taking Emotional Intelligence H3 / / H4 / / / H5/ / S / m
Entrepreneurial Passion Self-Efficacy /
Planning ^^ Innovation
Figure 1 : Conceptual Framework
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Accordingly, from the framework the research hypotheses could be stated as follows:
H1 : University environment has a positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention.
H2: Family factor has a positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention.
H3: Risk-taking has a positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention.
H4: Emotional intelligence has a positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention.
H5: Entrepreneurial passion has a positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention.
H6: Entrepreneurial passion has a positive and significant relationship with self-efficacy.
H7: Planning has a positive and significant relationship with self-efficacy.
H8: Innovation has a positive and significant relationship with self-efficacy.
H9: Self-efficacy has a positive and significant mediating relationship between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intention.
For the subject research, a large-scale single survey instrument and a single respondent per questionnaire, was distributed among Alexandria universities students. The data for this survey was collected between March 2022 and May 2022 via a Likert scale questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised three sections. The student's perceptions of university environment, family factor, and entrepreneurial aspects (namely, risk-taking, emotional intelligence, entrepreneurial passion, mediated also by self-efficacy that is affected by the influencing entrepreneurial characteristics of both planning and innovation) are examined in the first section. The second section assesses the student's entrepreneurial intention. The third section surveys socio-demographic information of the student, as a respondent.
Alexandria universities students were targeted as respondents, from several faculties, of either public or private universities in Alexandria. Academic instructors assisted in the distribution process of mentioned questionnaires; other respondents were approached by the researcher. Reminders were sent to the academic instructors twice a week for three months, till the targeted sample reached an adequate number of respondents.
The survey was initially created in English. To eliminate bias and permit a wider variety of respondents, the questionnaire was expertly translated into Arabic.A bilingual expert then translated the Arabic questionnaire back into English to make sure it was correct and that the content and readability of each item was maintained in the translation. The original and back-translated versions were compared to guarantee conceptual similarity, where necessary, translation faults were fixed. Finally, a number of bilingual researchers independently cross-checked the translated version. To avoid bias, the Arabic questionnaire was visually comparable to the English version. The survey was carried out in two phases. To measure the scale's reliability and validity and to allow for final revisions, the initial draft of the questionnaire was sent to 41 respondents for pilot testing. Validity and reliability tests were thus conducted for the 41 pilot survey questionnaires for further refinements. Some statements in the questionnaire were rephrased, to enhance the clarity of the final study questionnaire and to improve the factor loading of mentioned statements, in their concerned constructs. Finally, the second draft of the questionnaire was ready to be distributed, after the mentioned conducted modifications. To help increase the response rate, the Arabic and English questionnaires were replicated online via a provided link that was electronically sent, for the use of potential respondents. The surveys were self-administered by the researcher, and the received sample size was 613 responses.The questionnaire was adopted from several studies (Sherer et al., 1982; Vigoda-Gadot and Meisler, 2010; Fouad et al., 2016; Balgiashvili, 2017; Moraes et al., 2018; Manaf et al., 2021; Bieleke and Keller, 2021; Ivcevic and Hoffmann, 2022).
4. RESULTS AND FINDINGS
Following the identificationof viable approaches in the previous section, this section attempts to conduct the analysis and reviews the results of the research with the goal to achieve the purpose and
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objectives of the study. The process of data analysis involves several processes, including the normality test, correlation, and SEM, as well as the validity and reliability of the data. The completed study is applied by utilizing SPSS program (Statistical Program for Social Sciences) - version 25 and AMOS program (Analysis of a Moment Structures) - version 24 since they are considered as comprehensive and well-liked statistical software packages.
4.1 DATA TESTING USING VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
Accordingly, the validity and reliability tests for the research variables are shown in Table 1; the table reflected as well the following facts: Regarding university environment construct, the first statement is deleted as it has a weak loading (FL < 0.40). Moreover, concerning family factor construct, the statements number 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 are deleted as they have weak loading (FL < 0.40). Also, the statements number 1 and 3 for risk-taking construct have a weak loading (FL < 0.40), which means that they need to be deleted. In addition, the statements number 7, 10, 13, 14, 15 and 16 of emotional intelligence construct are deleted as they have weak loading (FL < 0.40). Moreover, nothing was deleted for entrepreneurial passion construct. According to self-efficacy construct, the statements number 1, 3, 8, 9, 13, and 15 are deleted as they have weak loading (FL< 0.40). Also, nothing was deleted for planning construct. Finally, the statements number 4, 6, 7, 10, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20 of innovation construct are deleted as they have a weak loading (FL < 0.40). However, nothing was deleted for entrepreneurial intention construct. Therefore, all constructs (after excluding the above-mentioned statements) have adequate factor loading (FL) being beyond cutoff values.
Table 1 contained both an appropriate Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) sample adequacy score (higher than 0.5) and a significant Bartlett's Sphericity test. The AVE was shown to be more than 50%, and it was shown that all of the FL of the studied items for each of the variables under research were above 40%. Accordingly, it was revealed that the variables under examination had appropriate convergent validity. Cronbach's alpha values are all greater than 0.7, suggesting that the variables have acceptable levels of reliability. As a result, the results exhibited great convergent validity and acceptable reliability.
Table 1: Validity and Reliability Test
Variables KMO Cronbach's Alpha AVE % Items FL
UE1 Excluded
UE2 0.718
University Environment 0.859 0.894 70.309 UE3 0.720
UE4 0.624
UE5 0.773
UE6 0.680
FF1 0.548
FF2 0.584
FF3 0.670
FF4 0.649
Family Factor 0.915 0.914 62.471 FF5 0.567
FF6 0.621
FF7 0.674
FF8 0.684
FF9 Excluded
FF10 Excluded
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Variables KMO Cronbach's Alpha AVE % Items FL
FF11 Excluded
FF12 Excluded
FF13 Excluded
FF14 Excluded
FF15 Excluded
FF16 Excluded
FF17 Excluded
FF18 Excluded
FF19 Excluded
FF20 Excluded
FF21 Excluded
FF22 Excluded
RT1 Excluded
RT2 0.553
RT3 Excluded
Risk-Taking 0.773 0.756 50.775 RT4 0.593
RT5 0.530
RT6 0.449
RT7 0.414
EI1 0.591
EI2 0.531
EI3 0.543
EI4 0.535
EI5 0.663
EI6 0.575
EI7 Excluded
Emotional Intelligence 0.907 0.909 55.177 EI8 0.527
EI9 0.511
EI10 Excluded
EI11 0.496
EI12 0.547
EI13 Excluded
EI14 Excluded
EI15 Excluded
EI16 Excluded
EP1 0.566
EP2 0.620
EP3 0.673
EP4 0.537
Entrepreneurial Passion 0.946 0.940 58.123 EP5 0.565
EP6 0.568
EP7 0.578
EP8 0.575
EP9 0.537
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Variables KMO Cronbach's Alpha AVE % Items FL
EP10 0.572
EP11 0.591
EP12 0.563
EP13 0.613
SE1 Excluded
SE2 0.604
SE3 Excluded
SE4 0.620
SE5 0.675
SE6 0.615
SE7 0.619
SE8 Excluded
Self-Efficacy 0.950 0.943 63.723 SE9 Excluded
SE10 0.584
SE11 0.606
SE12 0.685
SE13 Excluded
SE14 0.589
SE15 Excluded
SE16 0.690
SE17 0.723
PLAN1 0.472
PLAN2 0.559
PLAN3 0.575
PLAN4 0.575
PLAN5 0.572
PLAN6 0.520
PLAN7 0.534
Planning 0.958 0.951 57.728 PLAN8 0.610
PLAN9 0.678
PLAN10 0.657
PLAN11 0.580
PLAN12 0.611
PLAN13 0.633
PLAN14 0.581
PLAN15 0.518
PLAN16 0.561
INN1 0.400
INN2 0.426
INN3 0.638
Innovation 0.921 0.881 51.513 INN4 Excluded
INN5 0.565
INN6 Excluded
INN7 Excluded
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Variables KMO Cronbach's Alpha AVE % Items FL
INN8 0.563
INN9 0.572
INN10 Excluded
INN11 0.540
INN12 0.542
INN13 Excluded
INN14 0.467
INN15 Excluded
INN16 Excluded
INN17 Excluded
INN18 0.438
INN19 Excluded
INN20 Excluded
EIN1 0.693
EIN2 0.689
Entrepreneurial 0.893 0.912 69.661 EIN3 0.767
Intention EIN4 0.733
EIN5 0.582
EIN6 0.716
4.2 Normality Testing for the Research Variables
The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test of normality, which evaluates the normality assumption for populations with more than 50 assessments, is widely used for determining if an array of data is normal. P-values greater than 0.05 are employed for showing the data's normal distribution. This is the recognized normality test.
Table 2 shows that all of the study variables have P-values of 0.000, which is less than 0.05, indicating that they are not normally distributed.
Table 2: The Formal Testing of Normality
Research Variables K-S
Statisti c df Si g.
University Environment 0.268 613 0. 000
Family Factor 0.288 613 0. 000
Risk-Taking 0.290 613 0. 000
Emotional Intelligence 0.285 613 0. 000
Entrepreneurial Passion 0.312 613 0. 000
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Self-Efficacy 0.282 613 0. 000
Planning 0.272 613 0. 000
Innovation 0.336 613 0. 000
Entrepreneurial Intention 0.281 613 0. 000
Because the sample size exceeds 150 respondents, the informal test of normality might be utilized to discover approaching normality. The range of -1 to 1 is an acceptable range for normality, although the normal distribution has zero skewness and kurtosis.Because some of the skewness and kurtosis values are more than the allowed range of -1 to 1, the informal test determines that the data are not quite normal. Non-parametric tests are used to explain the relationship between the variables in the study.
Table 3: Informal Testing of Normality
N Skewness Kurtosis
Statistic Statistic Std. Error Statistic Std. Error
University Environment 613 -0.573 0.099 0.459 0.197
Family Factor 613 -0.574 0.099 0.713 0.197
Risk-Taking 613 -0.227 0.099 0.203 0.197
Emotional Intelligence 613 -0.600 0.099 0.429 0.197
Entrepreneurial Passion 613 -0.588 0.099 1.207 0.197
Self-Efficacy 613 -0.599 0.099 -0.164 0.197
Planning 613 -0.347 0.099 0.015 0.197
Innovation 613 -.0603 0.099 1.205 0.197
Entrepreneurial Intention 613 -0.716 0.099 1.246 0.197
4.3 TESTING RESEARCH HYPOTHESES USING CORRELATION AND SEM
The link between entrepreneurial intention and university environment, family factor, entrepreneurial aspects is examined in this section. To investigate such relationships, first a correlation analysis is conducted, followed by a structural equation modeling (SEM) and route analysis. Because the data under examination is not normally distributed as clarified previously, the Spearman's correlation is used. Accordingly, the correlation analysis is conducted first;Table 4 depicts the correlation matrix concerning the connection between all variables in the research.
It could be observed that University environment has a significant positive relation with entrepreneurial intention, as the P-value <0.05 (P-value = 0.000), with a coefficient 0.267. Also, Family factor has a significant positive relation with entrepreneurial intention, as P-value = 0.000, with a coefficient 0.398. In addition, Risk-taking has a significant positive relation with entrepreneurial intention, as P-value = 0.000, with a coefficient 0.211. Moreover, Emotional intelligence has a significant positive relation with entrepreneurial intention, as P-value =0.000, with a coefficient 0.372.Entrepreneurial passion has a significant positive relation with entrepreneurial intention, as P-value= 0.000, with a coefficient 0.403.Entrepreneurial passion has a significant positive relation with self-efficacy, as P-value = 0.000, with a coefficient 0.173.Planning has a significant positive relation
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with self-efficacy, as P-value = 0.000, and the coefficient =0.192.Innovation has a significant positive relation with self-efficacy, as P-value = 0.007, with a coefficient 0.109.Self-efficacy has a significant positive relation with entrepreneurial intention, as P-value = 0.000, with a coefficient 0.227.
Table 4: Correlation Matrix for the Research Variables
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
1.University Environment r 1.000
P-value
n 613
r .279** 1.000
2.Family Factor P-value .000
n 613 613
r .453** .379** 1.000
3. Risk-Taking P-value .000 .000
n 613 613 613
4.Emotional Intelligence r .334** .428** .438** 1.000
P-value .000 .000 .000
o -C n 613 613 613 613
JSt 5. r .197** .369** .252** .381** 1.000
rc F Entrepreneurial P-value .000 .000 .000 .000
rc 0J LO Passion n 613 613 613 613 613
r .377** .544** .421** .487** .487** 1.000
6. Planning P-value .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
n 613 613 613 613 613 613
r .285** .463** .364** .490** .462** .580** 1.000
7. Innovation P-value .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
n 613 613 613 613 613 613 613
r .324** .167** .360** .104** .173** .192** .109** 1.000
8.Self-Efficacy P-value .000 .000 .000 .010 .000 .000 .007
n 613 613 613 613 613 613 613 613
9. r .267** .398** .211** .372** .403** .450** .391** .227** 1.000
Entrepreneurial P-value .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .000
Intention n 613 613 613 613 613 613 613 613 613
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Second, thestructural equation modeling (SEM) is conducted. The (SEM) analysis for the influence of the research variables is shown in Table5; it is possible to observe that:
Table 5: SEM Analysis for the Research Variables
Estimate P R2
Entrepreneurial Intention <--- University Environment 0.146 ■feie-fe
Entrepreneurial Intention <--- Family Factor 0.115 0.023
Entrepreneurial Intention <--- Risk-Taking -0.139 ■feie-fe 0.245
Entrepreneurial Intention <--- Emotional Intelligence 0.111 0.151
Entrepreneurial Intention <--- Entrepreneurial Passion 0.225 ■feie-fe
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Estimate P R2
Entrepreneurial Intention Self-Efficacy 0.144 ■feie-fe
Self-Efficacy Entrepreneurial Passion 0.195 0.006 0.020
Self-Efficacy <--- Planning 0.042 0.664
Self-Efficacy <--- Innovation -0.122 0.238
For the first hypothesis "University environment has a positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention", (P-value = 0.000; Estimate = 0.146), a significant positive effect of the university environment is seen on entrepreneurial intention.Accordingly, the first hypothesis (H1) is supported.
For the second hypothesis "Family factor has a positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention", (P-value = 0. 023; Estimate = 0. 115), a significant positive effect of family factor on entrepreneurial intention is noted.Therefore, the second hypothesis (H2) is supported. For the third hypothesis "Risk-taking has a positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention", (P-value = 0. 000; Estimate = -0.139), a significant negative effect of risk-taking on entrepreneurial intention is recorded. Therefore, the third hypothesis (H3) is not supported. For the fourth hypothesis "Emotional intelligence has a positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention", (P-value = 0.151), it can be seen that there is an insignificant effect of emotional intelligence on entrepreneurial intention. Therefore, the fourth hypothesis (H4) is not supported.
For the fifth hypothesis "Entrepreneurial passion has a positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention", (P-value = 0. 000; Estimate = 0.225), entrepreneurial passion has a significant positive effect on entrepreneurial intention. Therefore, the fifth hypothesis (H5) is supported.
For the sixth hypothesis "Entrepreneurial passion has a positive and significant relationship with self-efficacy", (P-value = 0.006; Estimate = 0.195), there is a significant positive effect of entrepreneurial passion on self-efficacy.Therefore, the sixth hypothesis (H6) is supported. For the seventh hypothesis "Planning has a positive and significant relationship with self-efficacy",
(P-value= 0.664),there is an insignificant effect of planning on self-efficacy.Therefore, the seventh hypothesis (H7) is not supported.
For the eighth hypothesis "Innovation has a positive and significant relationship with self-efficacy",
(P-value= 0.238), there is an insignificant effect of innovation on self-efficacy.Therefore, the eighth hypothesis is not supported.
For the ninth hypothesis "Self-efficacy has a positive and significant mediating relationship between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intention", (P-value = 0. 000; estimate = 0.144), there is a significant positive effect of self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intention. Hence, self-efficacy may act as a mediator between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intention. Entrepreneurial passion has a significant and positive impact on self-efficacy (P-value = 0.006; Estimate = 0.195). Furthermore, it was found that self-efficacy played a role in mediating the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intention. This was due to the fact that there is a significant positive effect of entrepreneurial passion on entrepreneurial intention when self-efficacy is present.The ninth hypothesis (H9) is therefore supported.
As a result, Figure 2below shows how the SEM model applied to the research variables is represented.
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Figure 2: SEM for the Research Variables
After conducting thestructural equation modeling (SEM), an evaluation of the final research model, is performed, thus highlighting that the model fit indices are all within acceptable limits and thresholds, where GFI was calculated to be 0.900, CMIN/DF was found to be 2.164, AGFI was 0.884, CFI of Bentler-Bonett was 0.936, RMSEA was 0.044.
5. RESEARCH DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
In the emerging economy context of Alexandria universities in Egypt, the current paper examined the impact of entrepreneurial aspects, family factor, and university environment on entrepreneurial intention; it thus examined how Alexandria universities students are intended to conduct entrepreneurship in the future. The empirical study findings showed that the first hypothesis—that the university environment has a positive and significantrelationship with entrepreneurial intention—is supported. Also, it was discovered that the second hypothesis, family factor has a positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention, is supported. These outcomes matched what the literature study had discovered, including (Farrukh et al., 2017; Moraes et al., 2018; Nguyen, 2018; Gieure et al., 2019).
Nevertheless, based on the predicted outcomes of the SEM (structural equation modeling) analysis for the research variables, it became apparent that neither the third hypothesis, which looked at thepositive and significantrelationship between risk-taking and entrepreneurial intention, nor the fourth hypothesis, which looked at the positive and significant relationship between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial intention, received support by the empirical study conducted in the
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present article. Several findings were at odds with the conclusions of the literature study, including (Hassan and Omar, 2016; Yoopetch, 2021; Gurel et al., 2021;0woseni et al., 2021). Also, the sixth hypothesis looked at the positive and significant relationship between entrepreneurial passion and self-efficacy, while the fifth hypothesis studied the positive and significant relationship between entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intention. Both hypotheses were supported by the empirical research. These outcomes were adequate with the conclusions of the literature study, which included (Hadizadeh et al., 2015;Syed et al., 2020; Norena-Chavez and Guevara, 2020; Neneh, 2022).
However, the empirical study demonstrated that neither the eighth hypothesis, which conducted a search in the positive and significant relationship between innovation and self-efficacy, nor the seventh hypothesis, which looked at the positive and significant relationship between planning and self-efficacy, were supported. These outcomes didn't line up with the conclusions of the literature review we covered, including (Jaiswal and Dhar, 2015; Luszczynska et al., 2016;Zhang, 2016; Dan et al., 2018).
The ninth hypothesis, which examined the positive and significantmediating relationshipof self-efficacybetween entrepreneurial passion and entrepreneurial intention, was experimentally supported, according to the assessed values of the SEM (structural equation modeling) analysis for the study variables. These outcomes matched the conclusions of the literature study, including (Indyastuti et al., 2021; Neneh, 2022).
6. RESEARCH RECOMMENDATIONS
Building on the above findings and conclusions, it is evident that universities students in Alexandria perceive the important factors impacting their entrepreneurial intention that concerns their future career. Hence, this section offers a number of recommendations for practical implementation of universities students' entrepreneurial intention and for future research.
6.1 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BUSINESS
1. Higher education universities must include the shift in attitude, talents, and skills related to entrepreneurship, into their regular academic curriculum in order to support university students' ambitions to start their own businesses.
2. New methods are required to communicate with individuals who are considered emerging entrepreneurs and so assist them in developing their entrepreneurial activity.
3. Policymakers at all levels are recommended to uncover pertinent information, to help them reevaluate and enhance the public policies they have in place, to raise entrepreneurial intention among individuals, particularly among the young generation.
4. It is recommended that entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs may both discover motivation, suggestions, and techniques to strengthen their entrepreneurial intention.
5. It is necessary to strengthen the link between entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurship. Teachers and instructors who teach entrepreneurship courses have the opportunity to teach learners how to critically evaluate their own actions.
6.
6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
1. Investigating the entrepreneurial intention at the macroeconomic level of the economy as opposed to just the level of faculty students, may be helpful.
2. Future studies are advised to look at the entrepreneurial intention of additional particular groups, such as workers, the jobless, postgraduate students, and students in higher educational institutions.
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3. Researchers would be advised to analyze the responses concerning the entrepreneurial intention of these different groups of people; this would certainly add different insights to the perception of entrepreneurial intention.
4. Future research may be conducted to cover a wider coverage to include all Egyptian universities with their diversified years of study, in order to enrich future studies in this field.
5. It issuggested that future research may investigate further studies to be carried out on other countries, whether Arab or Foreign, to bring out entrepreneurial intention issues, as perceived in different cultures, in the developed and developing countries as well, especially since the researcher has developed a validity tested questionnaire and that can be used by future researchers when conducting related studies.
7. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
The main way that this research contributed to the current literature on entrepreneurial intention, is by grouping the many different elements from the literature that have an influence on entrepreneurial intention and putting them together in a framework that recapitulates them, identifying the intention of the university students in their future careers. Nevertheless, there are a number of limitations pertaining to the empirical investigation of the research:
1. The research on hand has limited the scope of the study to the universities student sector. Nevertheless, the sector can be diversified to include other different groups (such as employees; unemployed individuals).
2. The exclusion of other types of students (such as students of high educational institutions or even post-graduate students) as respondents. Therefore, future research is recommended to include respondents of other educational levels.
3. It is challenging to benchmark or evaluate the study findings against certain standards or requirements. The fact that secondary data, such a systematic database for successful entrepreneurship endeavors, are very few, particularly in Egypt; this is the primary cause of this challenge.
4. The selection of the survey strategy, is sometimes criticized. Nonetheless, the survey strategy was still selected to be used in the empirical study of the research, as surveys conducted through detailed questionnaires are quite commonly used in similar studies in the literature, especially when secondary sources of data are unavailable.
5. Despite the fact that a sample of college students would be chosen in a cluster, it is not easy to apply the intra-cluster heterogeneity and inter-cluster homogeneity criteria, nevertheless. As a result, there may be some bias in the sample.
6. The questionnaire was basically distributed in Alexandria universities, one of the major cities in Egypt. Wider coverage to include all Egyptian universities with their diversified years of study is expected to enrich future research.
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