Author: PENGZHAO YUE

Issue: 2023-2024

Abstract:

The world economy has entered a period of transformation, with rapid technological progress, increasing downward pressure on the social economy, and slowing economic growth. How to stimulate new drivers of economic development has become the biggest concern for economic development at present. The role of entrepreneurial activities in sustainable economic development has attracted high attention from governments around the world. Cultivating the entrepreneurial intention and competence of college students, fully tapping their entrepreneurial potential, will help achieve China’s transformation from a country with abundant human resources to a country with strong talent. Entrepreneurship, as the most dynamic element in economic development, has always been the driving force of socio-economic development. In recent years, private universities have developed rapidly in China, and private education is playing an increasingly important role in China. College students are one of the groups with the greatest entrepreneurial potential, and it is urgent to strengthen the entrepreneurial intentions of private university students. Entrepreneurship intention is the best entry point for entrepreneurial behavior research and has become the focus of entrepreneurship research worldwide. In China, research on entrepreneurial intention is still in its infancy. Although experts and scholars have conducted extensive research on the influencing factors of entrepreneurial intention, there are still certain problems.

Based on the Theory of planned behavior, self-efficacy theory and entrepreneurship theory, this paper uses the combination of theoretical analysis and empirical research methods, and 532 valid questionnaires from four colleges and universities in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China, to empirically test the mechanism and path of the impact of private college education on college students’ entrepreneurial intention by using Latent and observable variables path analysis, multiple Mesomeric effect test, interaction effect test and other methods, And relevant conclusions were discussed. The main research content and conclusions are as follows:

Firstly, the main factors influencing the entrepreneurial intention of private university students in the Chinese context were examined. This study found that male students have significantly higher entrepreneurial intentions than female students; In terms of professional categories, college students majoring in science and engineering still have the highest entrepreneurial intention among this group; College students with entrepreneurial experience have higher entrepreneurial intentions than those without entrepreneurial experience; Students from self-employed families have significantly higher entrepreneurial intentions influenced by their parents’ professional backgrounds.

Secondly, empirical testing was conducted to examine the direct pathway of entrepreneurship education in private universities on college students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Research has found that entrepreneurship education has a significant positive impact on college students’ entrepreneurial intention, and entrepreneurship education can significantly promote the improvement of college students’ entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, this study found that entrepreneurial experience has a positive moderating effect between entrepreneurial education and college students’ entrepreneurial intention; The background of family self employment has a negative moderating effect between entrepreneurship education and college students’ entrepreneurial intention; Gender did not show a significant moderating effect between entrepreneurship education and college students’ entrepreneurial intention.

Thirdly, based on the Theory of planned behavior, social cognition theory and self efficacy theory, this study constructed a multiple Mesomeric effect Relational model between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intention, and used Bootstrap method to test the Mesomeric effect. The research results show that entrepreneurship education has a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy; Entrepreneurial attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy are positively correlated with entrepreneurial intention; Entrepreneurial attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy play a partial mediating role in the impact of entrepreneurial education on college students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Further research found that the multiple parallel mediation path of entrepreneurial education’s impact on college students’ entrepreneurial intention has significantly improved than the Mesomeric effect of the previous single path (Theory of planned behavior, self-efficacy).

Keywords: private college students, entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, Theory of planned behavior