Planned Behavior and Perceived Job Crisis: Modeling Entrepreneurial Intention among Private University Students

Abstract

 Purpose - This study explores the relationships among attitudes toward entrepreneurship, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, perceived job crisis, and students' entrepreneurial intention in a labor-constrained economy.

Methodology - The study employed a quantitative, explanatory research design, with a cross-sectional survey of 317 undergraduate and postgraduate students from private universities in Bangladesh. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).

Findings - The findings suggest that the strongest predictor of entrepreneurial intention is the perceived behavioral control. The effect of perceived job crisis is also positive and significant, suggesting that employment uncertainty is a push factor for entrepreneurship. The attitude toward entrepreneurship is significantly but negatively correlated with the entrepreneurial intention, whereas the subjective norms do not have a significant impact. Altogether, the model describes a significant percentage of the variance in entrepreneurial intention, which proves the applicability of contextual labor market perception as well as cognitive determinants.

Implications and Value - This paper adds to the entrepreneurship literature by incorporating the perceived job crisis into the framework of TPB, bringing a behavioral-contextual explanation of the entrepreneurial intention in a developing economy. It offers empirical data to prove that entrepreneurship activity among the graduates of private universities can be mostly driven by necessity, not by social pressure and favorable attitudes.