Verifying antecedents affecting entrepreneurial intention among business students in higher education the case of vietnam national university hanoi international school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL GRADUATION PROJECT VERIFYING ANTECEDENTS AFFECTING ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION AMONG BUSINESS STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE CA

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

GRADUATION PROJECT

VERIFYING ANTECEDENTS AFFECTING ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION AMONG BUSINESS STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE CASE OF VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI- INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Student’s name: Le Thi Mo

Hanoi – Year 2020

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

GRADUATION PROJECT

VERIFYING ANTECEDENTS AFFECTING ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION AMONG BUSINESS STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE CASE OF VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HANOI- INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

SUPERVISOR: MBA Pham Huong Trang STUDENT: Le Thi Mo

STUDENT ID: 16071082 COHORT: QH-2016

MAJOR: International Business

Hanoi – Year 2020

LETTER OF DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the Graduation Project: “Verifying antecedents affecting entrepreneurial intention among business students in higher education: The case of Vietnam National University Hanoi - International School” is the results of my own research and has never been published in any work of others During the implementation process of this project, I have seriously taken research ethics; all findings of this projects are results of my own research and surveys; all references

in this project are clearly cited according to regulations

I take full responsibity for the fidelity of the number and data and other contents of my graduation project

Hanoi, 25 th May 2020

Student,

Mo

Le Thi Mo

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my

advisor MBA Pham Huong Trang who inspired me to do the thesis, guided me how

to do make it done properly

I would like to express my gratitude to all lecturers and professors at Vietnam

National University Hanoi – International School, who gave me many practical

knowledge in all four academic years That helped me a lot when I conducted this

research

Besides, I also would like to say thank you to all participants who helped me

answering the questionnaire and getting the data

I really thank to all people helping me to finish this thesis research

Finally, I wish all the best will come to my professor and all lecturers at Vietnam

National University- International School Wish everyone more happiness in life

and more success in career

Thank you all very much !

Student,

Le Thi Mo

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 2

1.1 Problem background 2

1.2 Research Objective 4

1.3 Research Scope 4

1.4 Research Questionnaire 4

1.5 Research Structure 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Entrepreneur and entrepreneurship 6

2.2 Entrepreneurial intention 7

2.3 Previous model about entrepreneurial intention 8

2.4 Literature Gaps 9

CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESIS 12

3.1 Fundamental model 12

3.1.1 Theory of Reasoned Actions (TRA) 12

3.1.2 Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) 13

3.2 Research development model and hypothesis 15

3.2.1 Attitude 15

3.2.3 Subjective norms 18

3.2.4 Entrepreneurial self-efficacy 18

3.2.5 Risk- taking propensity 20

3.2.6 University environment 21

3.2.7 Entrepreneuship education 22

3.2.8 Perceived family and social support 23

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 25

4.1 Research Process 25

4.2 Data Collection and Sampling 26

4.3 Designing Questionnaire 27

4.4 Analyzing Data Plan 32

CHAPTER 5: DATA ANALYSIS 36

5.1 Data Description 36

5.2 Reliability Analysis 42

5.2.1 Reliability of Entrepreneurial intention- EI scale 42

5.2.2 Reliability of Atitude toward entrepreneurship – ATE scale 44

5.2.3 Reliability of Perceived Behavioral Control – PBC scale 45

5.2.4 Reliability of Subjective Norms – SN scale 46

5.2.5 Reliability of Entrepreneurial self-efficacy 47

5.2.6 Reliability of Risk-taking propensity –RTP scale 48

5.2.7 Reliability of University Environment – UE scale 49

5.2.8 Reliability of Entrepreneuship education – EE scale 50

5.2.9 Reliability of Perceived family support- PFS scale 51

5.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) 52

5.4 Composite reliability ,Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity 58

5.5 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) 59

5.6 Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and hypothesis testing 62

5.6.1 Structural Equation Modeling 62

5.6.2 Hypothesis testing 65

5.7 Mediation Analysis 68

5.8 BOOTSTAP 69

5.9 T- TEST , ANOVA 69

5.9.1 Independent Sample T Test 69

5.9.2 ANOVA 71

CHAPTER 6 : CONCLUSION 73

6.1 Conclusion and discussion 73

6.2 Research contribution 77

6.3 Practical contribution 77

6.4 Limitations and future research 78

6.4.1 Limitations 78

6.4.2 Future research 78

REFERENCES 80

APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE 90

APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE 97

TABLE OF NOTATIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS

AC Accounting, Analysis, and Auditing

ATE Attitudes towards entrepreneurship

CFA Confirmatory Factor Analysis

MIS Management Information Systems

PBC Perceived behavioral control

PFS Perceived family and social support

RTP Risk- taking propensity

SEM Structural equation modeling

SN Subjective norms

SPSS Statistical Package for Social Sciences

TPB Theory of Planned Behaviour

TRA Theory of Reasoned Action

UE University environment

VNU – IS Vietnam National University Hanoi- International Scool

LIST OF TABLE

Table 3.1 Some researches about entrepreneurial intention 16

Table 4.1 Summary about research method 26

Table 4.2 Likert scale of agreement extent 27

Table 4.3 Mesuring items for questionnaire 27

Table 4.4 Encoded items for data testing 32

Table 5.1Descriptive Statistics 36

Table 5.2 Reliablity statistics of EI scale 42

Table 5.3Reliablity statistics of EI scale after remove EI4 43

Table 5.4 Reliablity statistics of ATE scale 44

Table 5.5Reliablity statistics of ATE scale 45

Table 5.6 Reliablity statistics of ATE scale after remove PBC1, PBC5 45

Table 5.7Reliablity statistics of SN scale 46

Table 5.8 Reliablity statistics of SN scale 47

Table 5.9 Reliablity statistics of ESE scale after remove ESE5 48

Table 5.10 Reliablity statistics of RTP scale 48

Table 5.11 Realiblity statistics of UE scale 49

Table 5.12 Reliablity statistics of EE scale 50

Table 5.13 Reliablity statistics of PFS scale 51

Table 5.14 Summary of reliability scale 51

Table 5.15 KMO and Bartlett's Test 52

Table 5.16 Total variance explained 53

Table 5.17 Pattern Matrix 54

Table 5.18 KMO and Bartlett's Test after remove EE3 55

Table 5.19 Pattern matrix after remove EE3 56

Table 5.20 Summary about factors after applying EFA 57

Table 5.21 Composite reliability, average variance extracted , descriminant value 58 Table 5.22 Goodness-of-fit indices for the measurement model 59

Table 5.23 Goodness-of-Fit Indices for the mesurement model 61

Table 5.24 Regression weights 64

Table 5.25 Standardized regression weights 64

Table 5.26 Goodness-of-Fit Indices for the structual model 65

Table 5.27 Results for the hypotheses testing 66

Table 5.28 Direct, indirect and total effects for variables 68

Table 5.29 Analysis results of Bootstap 69

Table 5.30 Veryfy differences in the entrepreneurial intention by gender 70

Table 5.31 Veryfy differences in the entrepreneurial intention by year of school 71

Table 5.32 Veryfy differences in the entrepreneurial intent by major at university 72 Table 6.1 Some activities and subjects about entrepreneuship in VNU-IS 74

Table 6.2 Some subjects about entrepreneurship in VNU-IS 74

LIST OF CHARTS AND FIGURE

Figure 3.1 Theory of Reasoned Actions 12

Figure 3.2 Theory of Planned Behavior 13

Figure 3.3 Proposed research model 15

Figure 4.1 Research process proposed by the author 25

Figure 5.1 Gender Distribution 38

Figure 5.2 Class level of students 38

Figure 5.3 The major of students 39

Figure 5.4 Education level of parents 40

Figure 5.5 Occupation of parents 41

Figure 5.6 Monthly Income 41

Figure 5.7 Test result of measurement models 60

Figure 5.8 Test result of SEM linear structure model 63

Figure 5.9 Research model with path coefficient and p-value 67

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study aims to identify the factors that affect the entrepreneurial

intention of university students in the economics area at Vietnam National University Hanoi - International School From there, policy implications are introduced in order to promote the entrepreneurial spirit of the students

Methodology: A survey was administered from first-year students to graduated

students studying business in VNU- International School, yielding a total sample of

322 The research method was conducted through surveys by questionnaires and multivariate data analysis including Cronbach‟s Alpha, EFA, CFA, SEM

Findings: This paper has used the theory of planned behavior developed by Ajzen

(1991) The results identified eights factors impacting on students‟ intention including: attitude, perceived behavior control, subjective norms, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, risk-taking propensity, university environment, and entrepreneurship education, perceived family support The implications of this study expected to significantly contribute to the improvement of international education and cooperation programs in Vietnam National University Hanoi- International School

Implication:

Research implications: This study has identified attitudes, perceived behavior

control and subjective norm play important role in startups intention Additional, personal characteristics such as self-efficacy and risk-taking propensity contributed the most to the prediction of entrepreneur intention

Practical implications: This study helps International School get more information

about the student‟s entrepreneurial intention Therefore, educators and educational policymakers should take into account factors in entrepreneurship education in order to foster students‟ entrepreneur intention

Keyword: Entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, Risk-taking

propensity, Entrepreneurship education, Start-up, Starting a business, Start-up spirit

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Problem background

Start-up plays an important role for creative activities, economic development and job creation for workers (Moica et al, 2012) For example, in the United States, average income has increased 700 times since the 19th century until now (Baumol, 2004), more than 90% of assets and 34 million jobs were created by startups in the 1980s and 90s (Timmons & Spinelli, 1999) In Vietnam, the contribution of new businesses, especially small and medium enterprises from the private sector, accounts for nearly 50% of GDP and attracts about 90% of new labor (VCCI, 2018) Thus, promoting entrepreneurship is a good solution for job creation, increasing the dynamics of the economy and reducing unemployment

The unemployment rate of graduated students has been increasing in recent years According to the announcement of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs in 2019, there are about 225,000 unemployed bachelors and masters This shows that promoting and creating strong motivation for student start-up activities is very important However, the start-up journey is not simply the establishment of a new business, it needs to be seen in a process from intention to action (Hisrich et al., 2013) The intention to start a business is an early stage of entrepreneurship and is influenced by exogenous factors (Anderson & Jack, 2002) Intention expresses an individual's willingness to act and is a direct premise of the behavior (Ajzen, 2011) Research by Amitage & Corner (2011), Kibler et al (2014), shows that the intention

to predict about 50% of the actual behavior

Moreover, understanding the mechanism that influences entrepreneurial intentions

is seen as an effective measure to improve the number and quality of the entrepreneurs (Boulton & Turner, 2005; Mellor et al., 2009) Therefore, to promote start-up activities for students, it is necessary to assess the originating factors of entrepreneurial intent Over the years, there has been plenty of researches on the topic of entrepreneurship Notably, numerous researchers around the world are

interested in the factors affecting on intentions to start a business of individuals The previous studies such as Karimi et al., 2014, Soria-Barreto et al (2017) showed that there are three main elements to the fundamental factors affecting the entrepreneurial intention such as entrepreneurship education; environmental elements (economic); and personal elements

In Vietnam, in recent years, government agencies have had many policies and programs to support startup activities for individuals In particular, the specific subjects that most of start-up programs target to is students so that they can promote creativity, build a career and applying their knowledge in business There have been

a number of studies on students' entrepreneurial intentions and focus on economic students (Phan Anh Tu & Giang Thi Cam Tien, 2015, Hoang Thi Thuong (2014) and studies tend to turn indirect relationships of factors influencing start-up into direct relationships However, empirical evidence shows that their startup intention

is still low, and the majority of graduates tend to apply to active businesses Besides, the startup operations in our country in recent years are evaluated as a movement and inconsistency Therefore, it is imperative to study the current state of students' startup intention to propose solutions for promoting their entrepreneurial spirit

Vietnam National University Hanoi- International Sschool has been reputing to be the most experienced university in Vietnam university system over the years In addition, students in the university are energetic, whole-hearted, and eager to learn, and especially full of business ideas and entrepreneurial intentions Therefore, to encourage them to start a business, it is necessary to study the factors affecting students' entrepreneurial intention That is the reason why I decided to conduct a research of "Verifying antecedents affecting entrepreneurial intention among business students in higher education: The case of Vietnam National University Hanoi - International School”

1.2 Research Objective

The purpose of this research is to explore the awareness of IS‟s students toward the entrepreneurial intention More importantly, my objective is to understand the factors that affect IS‟s students entrepreneurial intentions

1.3 Research scope and subject

 Research subject: The study analysis the theoretical and practical issues about student's entrepreneurial intention at Vietnam National University

Hanoi- International School

a business so the thesis is limited to research at VNU- IS

 Scope of the research time: The entire study includes both theoretical research and survey implemented in 3 months from February to May

2020

 Scope of the research object: Thesis research from freshman to graduated students at VNU- IS

1.4 Research Questionnaire

The thesis aims to answer the following research questions:

 What are the factors that affect the entrepreneurial intention of students at Vietnam National University Hanoi- International School?

 What is the impact level of each factor on student’s entrepreneurial intention

at Vietnam National University Hanoi - International School?

1.5 Research Structure

The thesis is divided into six chapters as following:

 Chapter 1: Introduction – introduces briefly about problem background of entrepreneur, research objectives, research questions

 Chapter 2: Literature Review - summaries the findings of the previous studies about entrepreneurial intention

 Chapter 3: Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis –explains the theory used

in the research, give research development model and explains the hypothesis

 Chapter 4: Research Methodology – provides about the methodology used to the research, design questionnaire survey

 Chapter 5: Data Analysis – analysis results from SPSS and AMOS software

 Chapter 6: Conclusion – answers research questions, gives some solutions, research and practical contribution, limitations and future research

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Entrepreneur and entrepreneurship

There are many definitions for entrepreneurs developed over a few recent decades Katila, R., (2012) defined as “a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk Besides, Belicove et al (2012) described that instead of being an employee, an entrepreneur runs a small business and takes all the risks and rewards of a business venture, idea,

or goods or services offered for sale Entrepreneurs are often viewed as business leaders and innovators with new business ideas and processes

Kirzner (1985) and Korpysa, (2012) explained that an entrepreneur is a person who might optimize information in such a the way to discover new and improved business opportunities ,while Bygrave W.D and Hofer C.W, (1991) who define an entrepreneur as " someone who perceives an opportunity and creates an organization to pursue it" Similarly, Schumpeter (1947) considered that " entrepreneurs are people who create new products or services in the new or existing market"

It is also essential to distinguish between the two terms "Entrepreneurship" and

"Entrepreneur"

Entrepreneurship can broadly be defined as the creation or extraction of value (Gaddefors,2017) Entrepreneurship has traditionally been defined as the process of designing, launching and running a new business, which typically begins as a small business, such as a startup company, offering a product, process or service for sale

or hire (Diochon, 2011) It has been defined as the “…capacity and willingness to develop, organize, and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit( Gaddefors,2017).”

Robbins & Coulter (2012) stated that “entrepreneurship is the process of starting new businesses, generally in response to opportunities” Entrepreneurship, according

to Onuoha (2007), “is the practice of starting new organizations or revitalizing mature organizations, particularly new businesses generally in response to identified

opportunities.” Entrepreneurship is defined as "the process of creating a new venture and new organization" (S Shane and S Venkataraman,2000) In general, entrepreneurship can be considered as a spirit of innovation and creativity

The core elements of entrepreneurship are the ability to seize business opportunities; risk-taking attitude; and ideas for innovation - creativity Researchers have given some characteristics of entrepreneurship: (1) Ability to create business opportunities; (2)Be independent and take responsibility; (3) Develop creative ideas and innovate problem-solving methods, and (4) Having business ethics and social responsibilities From that, the main motivations of a startup are to first assert himself and then to contribute to society Meanwhile, the motivation for money and prosperity is secondary

2.2 Entrepreneurial intention

The entrepreneurial intention defined as the intention of an individual to start a new business (Krueger, 2009) The entrepreneurial intention is the first step toward entrepreneurial behavior (Krueger & Carsrud, 1993), and it plays an essential role in the decision to create a new firm (Liñan and Chen, 2009;)

The Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991; 2011) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) has been widely used to analyze entrepreneurial intentions

According to this theory, the intention shows the eagerness of an individual and becomes the determinant to perform a specific behavior (Ajzen 1991; 2011) According to Sesen (2013), Entrepreneurial intention can be defined as the relation

of an individual's intention to start a business Or as Fayolle, Liñán & Moriano (2014) define this as a process that drives the planning and implementation of a business creation plan Shirokova et al (2016) argue that an individual‟s intention

to start a business stems from their recognition of opportunities, leveraging available resources and environmental support to create their own businesses Students‟ entrepreneurial intentions stem from student ideas and are properly

guided by educational programs and trainers (Oyugi, 2014) This study uses the definition of student entrepreneurial intention

2.3 Previous model about entrepreneurial intention

Researchers such as Mwiya, et.al (2017), Ozaralli, N et al., (2016) applied the theory of planned behavior among students and confirmed that attitudes towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control positively affect to startups intention Attitude towards the behavior refers to the degree to which the individual holds a positive or negative personal valuation about being an entrepreneur (Ajzen, 2002, Mwiya,et.al, 2017) Perceived behavior control is a condition where people believe that behavior is easy or difficult to do( Cruz et al.,2015) Subjective norms are aspects of socially personal beliefs from influential people (Ajzen, 1985), (Kautonen, T., Gelderen, M., & Fink, M., 2015)

A model conducted and extended by Karimi et al., 2014 showed that some exogenous variables related to EI through the motivational antecedents of EI Based

on the theory of planned behavior, Saeid Karimi et al 2014 stated that personality factors (achievement, risk-taking, and locus of control) and contextual factors (perceived barriers and supports) significantly related to startups' intention Personality, especially risk-taking propensity, emerged as the strongest variables to correlate with startups' intention In contrast, the subjective norm to be least important for entrepreneurship in a model based upon the TPB (Krueger et al.,2000; Karimi et al., 2014)

Soria-Barreto et al (2017) used the model of theory of planned behavior and mediated by entrepreneurial education, the university environment, and the prior entrepreneurial exposure to generate entrepreneurial intention in higher education students The results showed that entrepreneurial education is the best predictor to reinforces the perceived control of behavior They found that gender has a moderate impact on perceived behavior control and entrepreneurial education

A study conducted by Nguyen Thu Thuy (2014) was conducted with nearly 700 students in Hanoi The thesis combined three groups of environmental factors, personal experiences, and university education experience to develop a model of factors affecting the start-up potential of university students The findings pointed out that experiences gained during university and participation in extracurricular business activities that have an impact on students' startup's intention, while the student's major has no impact on the desire to start a business

Hoang Thi Thuong (2014) inherited some factors such as individual personality, university environment, which referenced in previous research topics, the author pointed out additional variable affecting entrepreneurial intention is the financial market conditions This study indicated that market economic conditions have a significant influence on entrepreneurship However, the element of perceived desirability (attitude towards entrepreneurship) is still the most important cause leading to the student's intention to start a business

From the literature, it can be said that the trend to research on entrepreneurial intention will become more popular In the context of an integrated economy, young people, and especially students have access to diverse business opportunities, entrepreneurship is seen as an effective way to deal with social and community issues and creating new values for the economy

2.4 Literature Gaps

 Gaps in research about entrepreneurial intention:

Firstly, the impact of prefixes in the theory of planned behavior on individual startup intentions is controversial issues The results of theory in previous studies showed that main factors such as attitude toward entrepreneurship and perceived behavioral control have a positive relationship with entrepreneurial intention such

as Leong, CK (2008); Kautonen, T., et al (2015), Yordanova & Tarrazon, (2010) However, the subjective norm factors have heterogeneity results in the previous

search Some researcher such as Peterman & Kennedy, (2003); Veciana, Aponte & Urbano, (2005), Kolvereid (1996a) proved that subjective norm has a negative relationship with entrepreneurial intent Thus, re-testing this relationship plays an important role in validating and generalizing the theory

Secondly, the theory of planned behavior is used in the thesis as the underlying basis, which is considered a new thing in researches in Vietnam Liñán & Chen's research confirms the impact of prefixes on entrepreneurial intent is different across cultures, environments, and social classes Up to the present, theory of planned behavior application studies have been carried out mostly in developed countries, where entrepreneurial intentions of individuals often stem from demand, interests and to increase income ( Devonish, D., Alleyne et al 2010) In contrast, low- and middle-income countries such as Vietnam, the intention to start a business often arises as a single option to survive and maintain a living income( Bosma, N et al 2008) Therefore, the research results in developed countries cannot be applied in Vietnam in particular and developing countries in general It is necessary to have different research to verify the prefixes of TPB applied for the Vietnamese environment and especially for students

Third, most studies in Vietnam such as Hoang Thi Thuong (2014), Phan Anh Tu et al.,(2016), Nguyen Quoc Nghi et al., (2016), Nguyen Quoc Nghi et al.,(2017) ,when applying the theory of planned behavior only consider three prefixes that directly affect the intention to start a business Due to methodological limitations, the authors convert indirect relationships in the TPB model into direct relations without evidence on direct relations Koe's study confirmed that adding other exogenous variables to the model can provide greater accuracy in prediction, the intention of action does not depend solely on the individual's perceptions of entrepreneurship or the opinions of people around (Koe, W L, 2016) In fact, TPB only explains from 30% to 50% of entrepreneurial intention (Liñán, F., & Chen 2011) Even the father

of TPB advises researchers to consider adding feasible variables to the research

model Therefore, contemporary scholars tend to apply the three prefixes of TPB to consider starting a business and adding some other impact variables into the model with the desire to bring a more accurate assessment of intent, more appropriate to the research context

In this research, the model considers the groups of variables that indirectly affect the intention to start a business through three direct prefixes of TPB At the same time, the research model of the thesis also adds a number of questions and classifies factors based on the object that has a significant impact such as personal, university, family with the desire to bring a more accurate assessment about the students' entrepreneurial intentions

CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESIS 3.1 Fundamental model

3.1.1 Theory of Reasoned Actions (TRA)

Figure 3.1 Theory of Reasoned Actions

The theory of reasoned actions aims to explain the relationship between attitude and behaviors within human action The theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) shows that the behavior is determined by the intention to perform the actual behavior Attitude is an individual‟s favorable or unfavorable feeling about performing a particular behavior An individual will intend to perform a particular behavior when the individual evaluates it positively The subjective norm is defined

as the perception of influencer (family, friends, ) that individuals approve or

disapprove of the behavior

Theory of reasoned actions indirectly explains the process of forming students' entrepreneurial intent The theory of reasoned action suggests that stronger intentions lead to increased effort to perform the behavior, which also increases the likelihood for the behavior to be performed ( Ajzen,1991)

Summary, theory of reasoned actions was developed to predict behavior and understand the effects of people's motivations on actual behavior, and these actual behaviors are not controlled by personal factors, which is also a limitation of this theory

Attitude

Subjective

Norms

3.1.2 Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)

The theory of planned behavior (TPB; Ajzen 1991) was an effort to extend the TRA

to include behaviors that are not entirely under volitional control This theory was developed by Ajzen (1991) as a framework that might be applied to different behavioral contexts, and it was introduced to the entrepreneurial intention context

by Krueger and Carsrud (1993) Theory of the Planned Behavior (Ajzen 1991) contains three explanatory variables: attitude towards entrepreneurial behavior (ATE), subjective norms (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC)

Figure 3.2 Theory of Planned Behavior

Ajzen (1991) defined that attitude toward behavior “ refers to the degree to which a person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation or appraisal of the behavior in question” The second factor is termed subjective norm, which “refers to the perceived social pressure to perform or not to perform the behavior” The third antecedent of intention is perceived behaviour control, which “refer to the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behavior”

The attitude toward the behavior, the subjective norm, and the perceived behavioral control affect the development of a behavioral intention In particular, perceived behavioral control is considered not only to affect behavioral achievement directly but also to affect it indirectly through behavioral intention

As a general rule, the more favorable the attitude toward behaviour and the subjective norm, and the greater the perceived behavioural control, the stronger the person's intention to perform the behaviour should be Finally, given a sufficient degree of actual control over the behaviour, people are expected to carry out their intentions when the opportunity arises , Ajzen, I (2002)

There are several shortcomings in the theory of planned behavior It does not consider other variables that affect behavioral intention and an individual's motivation, such as mood, or experience, environmental or economic factors that may influence a person's intention to perform a behavior

The discussion about the relationship between the variables of the theory of planned behavior model and entrepreneurial intention will be declared in the following section Besides, five moderating factors such as entrepreneurial self-efficacy, risk-taking propensity, university environment, and entrepreneurship education, perceived family support are also added in the model

3.2 Research development model and hypothesis

Figure 3.3 Proposed research model

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

3.2.1 Attitude

Attitude toward behaviour is positive or negative evaluation of the individual's performance on certain behaviours( Saraih, U N et al , 2020) For start-up activities, students' attitude toward entrepreneurship can also be understood as a sense of positivity or motivation to start a business when given the opportunity (Fishbein, M (1975), (Kautonen, T., Gelderen, M., & Fink, M., 2015) A positive attitude towards start-up activities expressed in the viewpoint of wanting to open a business and become more self-employed than to work for a business (Tella, A., & Issa, A O.,2013)

self-Some studies showed that attitude towards entrepreneurship has a direct influence

on entrepreneurial intention such as Autio, E et al., (2001), Liñán, F., & Chen (2009), Kautonen, T., et al (2015) In other words, individuals who have a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship tend to shape their intention to start up more strongly than those who have little interest in entrepreneurship (Franke, N., & Lüthje, C.,2004) Schwarz et al (2009) separated components of attitude into components such as attitude toward change, attitude toward money, attitude toward competition, and attitude toward change with entrepreneurship has a positive impact

on the intention to start a business The results show that there is no statistical evidence to accept the relationship between attitude towards competition to intention to start a business The remaining hypotheses are accepted

Recently, the research of ( Sahut, J M., Gharbi, S., & Mili, M.,2015) listed many studies applying the theory of planned behavior in measuring the intention of starting a business and concluding that the attitude has the most influence on the entrepreneurial intention Pihie (2009) finds that attitude toward entrepreneurship and behavioral control evaluation have a positive impact on entrepreneurial intention

Table 3.1 Some researches about entrepreneurial intention

Tkachev and Kolvereid (1999) Students ATT, PBC, SN affects entrepreneur

intention Autio et al (2001) Students PBC is the most impportant component Emin (2006), Boissin et al

(2009)

Students ATT is the most impportant component

Source : Author’s collection

Hypothesis :

H1: Attitudes towards entrepreneurship will positively influence students’ entrepreneurial intentions

3.2.2 Perceived behaviour control

Perceived behavior control is a condition where people believe that a behavior is

easy or difficult to do( Cruz et al.,2015) Perceived behaviour control reflect the

confidence of each individual when deciding to start a business

Perception of behavioral control can be assessed by an individual's perception of the viability, development of startup enterprise, the likelihood of success, personal knowledge, and experiences, or knowledge accessibility to help business feasibility (Akmaliah & Lope Pihie, 2018) indicated that students who engaged in more startup activities had higher perceptive behavior control Wood & Bandura (1989) also argued that university education should focus on providing students with effective self-development experiences because entrepreneurship education can enhance students' knowledge and experience, leading to an increase in students‟ self-efficacy This is consistent with the results of Basu & Virick (2008), suggesting that early exposure to entrepreneurship education will have a positive effect on perceptive behavioral control (Basu & Virick, 2008) In addition, students with previous startup experience will be more confident with their abilities, leading to higher startup intentions

Studies show that behavioral control awareness has a positive influence on entrepreneurial intentions because the perception of high feasibility is a factor that promotes an individual's entrepreneurial desires and spirit Ajzen, I (1991) ; Liñán, F., & Chen, YW (2006); Leong, CK (2008) also confirmed that the addition of perceived behavioral control factors to the model significantly improved the predictive results of the intention with the conclusions of TPB applied studies showing that this factor contributes significantly to predicting behavior with large regression coefficients Therefore, this study hypothesizes:

For jobs requiring a lot of deliberation like Startup, those around you can be a motivating or hindering factor individuals to do the job The role of subjective norms for entrepreneurship is controversial Some authors argued that subjective norms were an essential factor in predicting startups intentions (Kolvereid & Isaksen, 2006; Yordanova & Tarrazon, 2010, Kautonen, T., Gelderen et al 2015) Meanwhile, others pointed out that subjective norms were not important (NF Krueger et al., 2000; Linan & Chen, 2009), even some author completely ignored this factor when measuring entrepreneurial intention (Peterman & Kennedy, 2003; Veciana et al , 2005) Kolvereid (1996a), with a survey of first-year university students in Norway, showed that subjective norms directly correlated with entrepreneurship

Self-efficacy is proved to be a significant impact on the success of startup behaviors (Drnovšek et al., 2010); (Sánchez ,2011) In entrepreneurship research (Miao, Qian,

& Ma, 2017), ESE is an important psychological impact on entrepreneurial motivation, intention, behavior, and performance, as well as being a critical target outcome of entrepreneurship training and education Tsai, K.H.,(2016) proposed that startup self-efficacy and start-up intention merged each other, and they were affected by other factors such as startup attitudes and planned startup control

In recent researches, Pihie, Z A L., & Bagheri, A (2013); Ahlin, B et al., (2014); Shaheen, N et al (2018) pointed out that the most important and positive factor, directly and indirectly, influencing students‟ entrepreneurial intention was their self-efficacy The more students are interested in startup and considering that becoming

an entrepreneur brings more benefits than doing other jobs, the higher their startup intention is However, the impact of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on gender is not clear Wilson, Kickul et al., (2007) pointed out its effected higher on males than females while Mueller and Conway Dato-on (2013) found that there were no big gap between the perceived self-efficacy of male and female

As stated by Ajzen (1991), when individuals believe that performing a certain action can achieve a positive result, they would exhibit stronger preference toward this action, and then develop the intention to perform it As we know, the self-efficacy of individuals will affect their target-setting actions and their confidence in achieving that goal Their self-efficacy for the entrepreneurs has a strong correlation with their perceived self-reliance and entrepreneurial behavior (Boyd and Vozikis, 2014) Therefore, it is proposed in this study that if entrepreneurs believe they have the ability to perform and achieve an entrepreneurial task, they would be more resolute in their entrepreneurial attitude

Liñán (2008 ) claimed that if a person has a strong self-efficacy in running a company, he or she may perceive the low risk of start-up success herefore, people who have high self-efficacy in entrepreneurship may have a high level of

willingness to start a business In other word, entrepreneurial self-efficacy can influence perceived behavioural control positively

3.2.5 Risk- taking propensity

Risk-taking propensity or willingness of individuals to take risks is one of the factors in encouraging people to be an entrepreneur rather than people who dislike risk or risk aversion They proved that willingness to accept risks or risk appetite is individual features distinguish between entrepreneurs and who is not a businessman According to Pascoe & Mortimer (2014), risk-taking propensity and entrepreneurship have a close relationship Risk-taking propensity plays a crucial element in entrepreneurship (Tang & Tang, 2007) Some previous researches give practical proof of the existence of a positive relationship between these two variables and business intention (Bonnett and Furnham, 1991; Lüthje and Franke , 2003; Hisrich and P Peters, 2005)

Recent empirical evidence indicates that risk propensity is the strongest factor, which is the antecedent of entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial intentions (Zhao, Seibert, & Lumpkin, 2010) Students have higher propensity to take risk,they develop a favourable appraisal of the entrepreneurial behaviour, which in turn is associated with higher EI Prior studies addressed the risk-taking propensity effect

on ATE such as Rexhepi, G et al(2013), Karimi (2017) According Bezzina (2010) finds that risk-taking propensity or the willingness to take chances gives a positive and significant impact on entrepreneurship, an entrepreneur will take risks after analyzing the situation carefully and develop a strategy to minimize the effect of its

risk Consequently, they have less probability of suffering from anxiety, carries a sense of control, and expect positive outcomes (Zhao et al., 2015)

However, several earlier studies empirically found contrary results, arguing that entrepreneurs operating small businesses did not display positive attitudes to risk and did not perceive themselves as risk-takers (Davidsson, 1989; R A Baron, 1998) Based on the literature as a whole, this study perceives risk-taking propensity

as a significant determinant of entrepreneurial attitude; however, the earlier findings indicate that a deeper examination of the construct is necessary

University environemnt has significant impact on startup intention of students through speciffic courses and offerings (Laguía González et al., 2019) Some researchers also found that the university entrepreneurship environment supports and develops students‟ entreprenuership before they graduate (Guerrero et al., 2016)

or that it motivates students‟ startup intention by affecting on personality traits, attitudes and their socioeconomic perception (Schwarz, E J., et al., 2009) University environment has relationship and important impact on students‟startup intention

al, (2011), Karali (2013), Quang Cuong (2017), Tu and Tien (2015) proved that business education and entrepreneurship plans have a positive connection with each other; entrepreneurship education is an effective way to inspire students to have business intentions, to do business and to increase the proportion of students who take risks in business It‟s because business education equips students with the essential business knowledge and skills to build entrepreneurship; helps them dare

to face difficulties in future business; helps them become entrepreneurs when they have basic knowledge about business management while minimizing risk (Ekpoh and Edet, 2011) Turker & Selcuk (2009), in a study conducted with undergraduated

students in Turkey and Malaysia, concluded that entrepreneurship education has a positive and significant impact on entrepreneurial intentions

However, some studies did not found a clear link between entrepreneurship education and the youth‟s entrepreneurial intention in developing enterprises (Gorman, Hanlon & King, 1997; Alberti, 1999).In summary, when universities provide students with as much as startup knowledge, motivating activities for the startup, etc., students‟ entrepreneurial intentions will be higher

3.2.8 Perceived family and social support

Family support is an important factor in an individual‟s capacity to become an entrepreneur (Fatoki, 2010; Keat et al., 2011; Mahajar, 2012) The literature shows that support from family shapes the perceived desirability to establishing a business (Ismail et al., 2009) According to Crant (1996), being raised in an entrepreneurial family significantly impacts an individual‟s intention to be self-employed, as parents can serve as mentors for their children and implant the idea of starting their own business (Matthews & Moser, 1995) Recently, Z Peng, Lu, and Kang (2013) found that families significantly impact an individual‟s entrepreneurial intentions via role modeling, whereby parents play crucial roles in their children‟s future entrepreneurial careers

Empirical evidence showed that family support affects support for entrepreneurship,

by assuring people that support a favorable business environment such as resources, equipment and money (Mahajar, 2012) Therefore, we supposed that family support

have significantly impact perceived behavioral control and entrepreneurial intention

Government support is assistance with access to finance, training support, entrepreneurship advice, assistance with market access, it related to subjective norms that promote entrepreneurial intent (Grimaldi and Gradi, 2005), (Radas and Bozic, 2009) Ambad and Damit 2016 showed that government policies support entrepreneurship in a positive way, encouraging businesses in the early stages after starting a business

H8a: Perceived behavioural control will mediate the relationship between perceived family and social support and entrepreneurial intentions

H8b: Subjective norm will mediate the relationship between perceived family and social support and entrepreneurial intentions

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4.1 Research Process

Figure 4.1 Research process proposed by the author

Identify research problem

Literature review and previous research

Proposed model and preliminary questionnaire

Final questionnaire Cronbach‟s Alpha

SEM

Testing of reliability

Test measurement model

Test structural model

Conclusions and Recommendations

Research results, recommendation CFA

Pilot testing (n=20)

Real testing (n=322)

EFA Testing Testing of KMO and Bartlett‟s test

Testing percentage of variance

Table 4.1 Summary about research method

A survey was administered from first-year students to graduated students studying business in VNU- International School, yielding a total sample of 322

All of the students from any majors, any ages are included in this target sample Two methods face-to-face and google doc file were used to collect data

- 290 questionnaire were distributed online via google doc file

- 32 questionnaire were distributed face-to-face in Vietnam National University Hanoi- International School

Sample Size

This research is following quantitative approach, with the number of of variables is

42 Hence, the sample size is: 42*5= 210 And the total number for distributing questionnaire is 322

4.3 Designing Questionnaire

The questionnaire is used in this study composed of two sections:

⁻ The first section is introduction and it contained 7 questions for demographic informations

⁻ The second section consisted 42 measuring items such as attitude, perceived behavior control, subjective norms, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, risk-taking propensity, university environment, and entrepreneurship education, perceived family support and entrepreneurial intention The questionnaire items are adopted from previous studies such as Krueger et al., 2000; Autio et al., 2001; Linan & Chen, 2009, etc

All the items reflecting the independent and dependent variables were responded to along a 5 point Likert scale ranging from 1 indicating “strongly disagree” to 5 indicating “strongly agree.”

Table 4.2 Likert scale of agreement extent

Agree Strongly

Agree

Table 4.3 Mesuring items for questionnaire

Entrepreneurial

intentions

(EI )

1 My professional goal is to become an entrepreneur

Likert

1 – 5

Ajzen, 1991; Liñán and Chen, 2009

2 I intend to start a business idea

in the near future ( during school or after graduation)

Likert

1 – 5

Hu et al.,2016

3 I will make every effort to start and run my own business

Likert

1 – 5

Ajzen, 1991; Liñán and Chen, 2009

4 I'm not really confident about starting my own business

Likert

1 – 5

Ajzen, 1991; Liñán and Chen, 2009

5 I have very seriously thought about starting a business

Likert

1 – 5

Ajzen, 1991; Liñán and Chen, 2009

6 I prefer to be an entrepreneur rather than to be an employee in a company/organization

Likert

1 – 5

Boissin et al., 2009; Liñán and Chen, 2009

2 A career as an entrepreneur is totally attractive and gives me great satisfaction

Likert

1 – 5

3 Being an entrepreneur implies more advantages than disadvantages to me

2 I can control the creation process of a new business

2000

2 My friends and teachers will support my decision to start a business

Likert

1 – 5

3 The important people around

me will support my decision to start a business

Likert

1 – 5

4 The career of my parents and family members influenced my decision to start a business

Likert

1 – 5

Self- development

4 I can remain calm when facing difficulties because I can rely on

my coping abilities

Likert

1 – 5

Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1995)