Determinants of entrepreneurial intention: new evidence/Determinantes de la intencion emprendedora: nueva evidencia/Determinantes da intencao emprendedora: nova evidencia

This study analyses the determinants of entrepreneurial intention in business students of a Chilean university. In line with other classic studies of entrepreneurial intention, explanatory factors such as self-efficacy and the locus of internal control were used. The degree of student's risk aversion was also used as an explanatory variable. A structural equation model (SEM) is used to estimate results so as to avoid problems related with the impossibility to observe the latent factors. The results show that the degree of students' risk aversion significantly affects, in a positive and direct form, their entrepreneu rial intention. On the contrary, it was found that the other two variables, self-efficacy and the locus of internal control, which also affect positively the student's entrepreneurial intention, do it in an indirect manner, through the risk aversion variable. Consequently, results suggest that the most basic distinguishing characteristic of entrepreneurial business students is the degree of personal risk aversion to act under uncertain business conditions. Therefore, educational efforts should focus on the students' risk aversion levels, in order to enhance their entrepreneurial intention.