Assessing entrepreneurial intentions through experiential learning, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial attitude

This work investigates the impact of entrepreneurial experiential learning (EL) on students’ entrepreneurial intention (EI), through the lens of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE). To provide a comprehensive viewpoint, the direct impact of entrepreneurial attitude (EA) on entrepreneurial intention has also been looked at. This study, has adopted existing scales to measure entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial attitude, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. For experiential learning, a structured scale has been designed on the basis of its existing scales. Data were collected from 669 students, enrolled in entrepreneurial courses/programs. Punjab, Haryana, and National capital region (NCR) are the three Indian regions considered for the survey. The results highlight that there is a positive influence of experiential learning on entrepreneurial intention though β-value is low (0.042). While the β-value with mediation influence of entrepreneurial self-efficacy between experiential learning and entrepreneurial intention was 0.090 (0.697*0.130), which states that entrepreneurial self-efficacy mediates and enhances the relationship between experiential learning and entrepreneurial intention. It was also found that there is a direct and strong influence of entrepreneurial attitude on entrepreneurial intention (β-value, 0.872). Thus, there is a need to focus on entrepreneurial attitude, as it strongly influences the intentions of the students. Overall results have a bearing that experiential learning; entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial attitude emerged as important predictors of entrepreneurial intention and explained 89.6% of variations in the model. Moreover, experiential learning with the mediation of entrepreneurial self-efficacy had more impact on entrepreneurial intention. Thus, there is a need to focus on entrepreneurial self-efficacy as well as experiential learning.