Does university play significant role in shaping entrepreneurial intention? A cross-country comparative analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to foster entrepreneurship among students and incubate more start-ups for economic prosperity, universities around the globe are required to play key role in developing overall conducive eco-system for student fraternity. Some previous studies have analysed student entrepreneurship and impact of entrepreneurship courses. However, role of universities as provider and enabler of entrepreneurial environment and its impact on entrepreneurial intent among students has not been studied in a cross-cultural context. Considering this, present study seeks to examine role played by universities in fostering entrepreneurial intention among post-graduate students. Design/methodology/approach – Researcher has taken the framework suggested by Kraaijenbrink et al. (2010) to understand university environment and theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1985) to measure entrepreneurial intention and its antecedents among final year post-graduate management students of India, Malaysia and Singapore. Total sample size is 1,097. Data are analysed with help of exploratory factor analysis, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and structural equation modelling (SEM). Findings – Two factors emerge out of analysis in relation to university environment and support: first, targeted cognitive and non-cognitive support and second, general educational support. With help of SEM, attempt is made to find relationship between these two factors and entrepreneurial intention. It is found that university environment and support has significantly positive relationship with perceived behavioural control. With help of MANOVA, it is found that there is statistically significant difference between perceived university environment and support factors among students of India, Singapore and Malaysia. With this, for both factors highest mean score is found among students of Malaysia, followed by students of Singapore and India. Originality/value – Study has closely examined role played by university environment and support to foster entrepreneurship among young students. Findings of the study can be used by post-graduate educational institutes to design pedagogy, create enabling entrepreneurship support system and work towards becoming an entrepreneurial university.