Determinants of students’ entrepreneurial intention to compete in a fast-pitch competition

Abstract

Despite the heightened popularity of entrepreneurship education, there remain open questions regarding best practices in co-curricular programs. Using the theory of planned behavior, the authors examine how students’ intention is shaped to increase the likelihood of participation in entrepreneurship co-curricular programs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the relation between entrepreneurial identity and entrepreneurial intention theory. They find the popular personality trait, openness, is related to ambition, which reveals the interaction between personal elements (personality/identity) and contextual elements (aspirations to success/intention), a novel finding in the literature. This further illustrates the interconnectedness between the theory of planned behavior and the entrepreneurial event model

Keywords:

• Co-curricular programs
• entreprenueurial identity
• entrepreneurial intention
• entrepreneurship education
• fast-pitch competition
• theory of planned behavior

Acknowledgments

The authors thank two student assistants, Jinha Jeong and Rebecca Honadic, who provided critical service by preparing survey instruments and administering the survey. Such a generous support for the project grantor cannot be fully appreciated.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Teaching Resource Center at California State University, San Bernardino, under the Community Inquiry Grant in 2015–2016