Impact of Entrepreneurial Inspiration, Awareness, and Skills on University Students’ Entrepreneurial Intentions: The Mediating Role of Entrepreneurial Education

Ghulam Mujtaba, Siti Nur ‘Atikah Zulkiffli (), Siti Falindah Padlee, Wan Norhayati Mohamed and Najahul Kamilah Aminy Sukri
Additional contact information
Ghulam Mujtaba: Faculty of Business, Economic and Social Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Malaysia
Siti Nur ‘Atikah Zulkiffli: Faculty of Business, Economic and Social Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Malaysia
Siti Falindah Padlee: Faculty of Business, Economic and Social Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Malaysia
Wan Norhayati Mohamed: Faculty of Business, Economic and Social Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Malaysia
Najahul Kamilah Aminy Sukri: Faculty of Business, Economic and Social Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus 21030, Malaysia

Administrative Sciences, 2025, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: In the pursuit of development and evaluation, entrepreneurship is the key to unlocking the shackles of poverty and unemployment. However, Pakistani students often catch themselves lacking the catalyst that ignites the entrepreneurial flame due to the absence of the essential knowledge, skills, and creative mindset, which can lead to significant challenges and a dim attitude toward entrepreneurial intentions. The harsh reality is that the rate of new business formation in Pakistan is only 1.5%. Therefore, the study aims to shed light on the impact of entrepreneurial inspiration, entrepreneurial skills, and entrepreneurial awareness on the intentions of Pakistani university students with the mediating effects of entrepreneurial education. Revealing the importance of entrepreneurial education in shaping the minds and desires of the students, seven hypotheses were developed based on social cognitive theory (SCT). A comprehensive survey was used to collect primary data from final-year business students, with a sample size of 865, from seven universities in the Punjab region of Pakistan that provide higher education in entrepreneurship and the data were analyzed in two stages, namely a model measurement and structural model Via Smart PLS 4. The findings clearly augment entrepreneurial inspiration, entrepreneurial skills, and entrepreneurial awareness, which can ignite the flames of entrepreneurship among Pakistani students. Moreover, entrepreneurial education plays a crucial role in mediating relationships and motivating students to choose entrepreneurship as a future occupation. However, the study is restricted to the Punjab region of Pakistan and focuses solely on final-year business students. This study serves as a guiding light of hope for academics, policymakers, and educational institutions to emphasize the need to revamp the business education landscape in Pakistan to foster entrepreneurial passion among our future leaders.

Keywords: entrepreneurial inspiration; entrepreneurial awareness; entrepreneurial knowledge; entrepreneurial intention; social cognitive theory; university students; Pakistan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L M M0 M1 M10 M11 M12 M14 M15 M16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/1/15/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/1/15/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:15:y:2025:i:1:p:15-:d:1559224

Access Statistics for this article

Administrative Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Nancy Ma

More articles in Administrative Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().