Gender differences among university students towards sustainable entrepreneurship

ABSTRACT

The objective of this paper is to understand gender differences in sustainable entrepreneurial intentions among university students through the attitude, education, and moral obligations of an individual. The data was collected from 372 students from the universities of the northern part of India. Results of the study revealed that moral obligation plays a strong predicting role in sustainable entrepreneurship intentions (SEI) in both subsamples. Even females have a stronger influence of moral obligation on the intentions than males. Also, education about sustainability has a trivial influence on the SEI in the whole sample. Surprisingly, attitude and education about sustainability do not influence the intentions about sustainable entrepreneurship among university students. The study will help the universities to amplify the role of gender in entrepreneurship intentions particularly the one supporting sustainability. The present study is among the first very few to focus on the gender differences among students toward SEI.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainability
• entrepreneurship
• intentions
• students
• education
• gender

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). (2022). Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2021/2022 Women’s Entrepreneurship Report. 18 November 2022. https://www.gemconsortium.org/reports/womens-entrepreneurship

2 NITI Aayog, Government of India. (2022). About WEP [Women Entrepreneurship Platform]. https://wep.gov.in/about-wep

3 Press Information Bureau. (2021). NITI Aayog partners with Cisco to foster women entrepreneurship in India. Government of India press release, 26 August. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID = 1749197