Entrepreneurial Intention Model: Empirical Results with Management Students in Serbia

Abstract

Research Question: This paper analyses which elements influence the entrepreneurial intention in Serbian entrepreneurial practice. Motivation: With this research, we want to draw attention of the public, decision-makers and entrepreneurs to entrepreneurship as a huge potential for the nation’s long-term economic growth in Serbia. To enlarge the number of potential entrepreneurs and, therefore, the final number of entrepreneurs, a more detailed explanation of all the phases as well as the prediction of entrepreneurship is necessary. As far as the first phase is concerned, this research starts from the adoption of the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) and tests relative contributions of motivational antecedents to the entrepreneurial intention (EI). Mixed results from literature for model specifications, especially for the contribution of subjective norm (SN), lead to the general need for more empirical support. Idea: Considering findings that the influence of motivational antecedents on EI differs due to national cultures (Linan & Chen, 2009), we conducted the empirical investigation to test the model in the context of Serbian entrepreneurial practice. Data: Primary data were collected from 191 responses to the questionnaire distributed among the students of Master management studies and junior and senior students of undergraduate management studies at the Faculty of Management in the first semester of 2019/2020. Tools: To confirm the construct validity and to improve the quality of the measurement model and its application to new dataset, methods that validate the model were applied: Cronbach’s alpha, factor analysis, the Heterotrait–Monotrait ratio of correlations and the Fornell-Larcker criterion. To test the hypotheses, the structural equation modelling was used. Findings: The proposed EI model achieved statistically significant explanatory power of almost 50% of the variations in EI, due to personal attitude (PA) and perceived behaviour control (PBC). The study adds empirical evidence in the context of Serbian entrepreneurial practice about the role of SN as the antecedent of PA and PBC. Age, a role model and work experience showed statistically significant influence as control variables. Contribution: The study extends the literature by empirically testing Ajzen’s theory in the context of an emerging economy and offers an input for practical implementation of findings.