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ET
51,4 The effects of attitudes and
perceived environment conditions
on students’ entrepreneurial
272
intent
An Austrian perspective
Erich J. Schwarz, Malgorzata A. Wdowiak, Daniela A. Almer-Jarz
and Robert J. Breitenecker
Department of Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship,
Klagenfurt University, Klagenfurt, Austria

Education þ Training
Vol. 51 No. 4, 2009
pp. 272-291
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0040-0912
DOI 10.1108/00400910910964566
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine key factors influencing students’ intent to create a
new venture. Based on Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour and Autio’s model of intention, it aims to
develop a model of entrepreneurial intent that incorporates both human and environmental factors.
Specifically, the proposed model aims to focus on three constructs to predict the entrepreneurial intent,
i.e. general attitudes (toward money, change, and competiveness), the attitude toward
entrepreneurship, and the perception of the university environment and regional start-up
infrastructure.
Design/methodology/approach – In June 2005, 35,040 students of medicine, law, and technical,
natural, social and business science from seven universities in Austria (electronic survey) were
contacted. The response rate was 8.10 per cent. A total of 2,124 cases were considered in the final
analysis. A multiple linear regression model with attitudes, perceptions of environment conditions,
and selected control variables (age, gender, field of study) was estimated to test the hypotheses.
Findings – With the exception of the attitude toward competitiveness, all other paths regarding
general and specific attitudes are significant. Pertaining to the environment conditions, only
significant effects of the university on students’ interest in business founding were detected. Other
environment factors have no impact on entrepreneurial intention among students in Austria. In
addition to that, significant differences in entrepreneurial intent regarding age, gender and field of
study were found. Despite variation in the intent level between students of different fields of study,
any significant differences in the effects of predictor variables on the entrepreneurial intent among the
investigated student population were not discovered.
Research limitations/implications – Future research should place more emphasis on interaction
between personal and environmental factors. Besides, students’ social networks (family and friends)
should be included in the analysis of entrepreneurial career decision.
Practical implications – The universities in Austria should more extensively address
entrepreneurship education to students of other subjects than business sciences. An important
component of entrepreneurial training is a social learning process. In this respect, inviting successful
entrepreneurs (role models) to the lectures or enabling students small business experience via
interaction with local entrepreneurs can be viewed as supportive actions. Developing entrepreneurial
skills as crucial life capacities should be the main target of all university faculties.
Originality/value – The paper lays the foundation for a better understanding of the “intent
preconditions” in the context of new venture creation, particularly in the context of Austrian students.
Keywords Entrepreneurship, Attitudes, Perception, Students, Austria
Paper type Research paper
Introduction Students’
In the last decade, there has been growing interest in undertaking and intensifying entrepreneurial
actions to promote and support the idea of entrepreneurship as an attractive alternative
to wage employment among students in Austria and around the globe. There are intent
several reasons for this tendency. First, well-educated entrepreneurs are expected to
create ventures that grow faster than the enterprises of their counterparts. The
importance of education for the successful performance of new ventures is well 273
recognized both by management practitioners and researchers (Cooper et al., 1994;
Kennedy and Drennan, 2001). Second, due to the restructuring processes in
organizations following intensified competition on the market worldwide, previous
advantages connected with wage employment in established, mostly large enterprises
such as job security or reward of loyalty currently offer less appeal, thus increasing the
desirability of self-employment (Kolvereid, 1996; Lüthje and Franke, 2003). Finally, the
unemployment among graduates in Europe has been growing during recent years.
Austrian universities have endeavored to response to changing framework
conditions and new social demand since a decade. National experts evaluating
entrepreneurship education at universities in Austria within Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor (Apfelthaler et al., 2008) reveal a wide spectrum of educational activities
undertaken at graduate and postgraduate level. Entrepreneurship as field of study of
business sciences, entrepreneurship courses for students of technical studies, business
plan competitions, and advance training for business founders in local incubators (such
as AplusB competence centers) are major examples of integration entrepreneurship in
educational programs.
Entrepreneurial intent has proven to be a primary predictor of future
entrepreneurial behaviour (Katz, 1988; Reynolds, 1995; Krueger et al., 2000).
Therefore, investigating what factors determine the entrepreneurial intent is a
crucial issue in entrepreneurship research. In general, intent can be defined as “a state
of mind directing a person’s attention toward a specific object or a path in order to
achieve something” (Vesalainen and Pihkala, 1999, p. 3). A common theoretical
framework for models explaining pre-start up processes is the theory of planned
behaviour that views behavioural intent as an immediate determinant of planned
behaviour (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). It applies particularly, when the behaviour is
rare, hard to observe, or involves unpredictable time lags (Krueger et al., 2000).
Entrepreneurship can be viewed as the type of planned behaviour, for which intention
models are appropriate (Autio et al., 1997; Krueger et al., 2000). In previous research,
personal and environment-based determinants of entrepreneurial intent such as
personality traits, attitudes toward entrepreneurship, or social environment have been
extensively discussed (Begley et al., 1997; Brandstätter, 1997; Davidsson, 1995; Franke
and Lüthje, 2004; Robinson et al., 1991; Segal et al., 2005). However, there have been
only a limited number of studies addressing influence factors for students’
entrepreneurial intention (Lüthje and Franke, 2003; Wang and Wong, 2004). In
addition, research results are partly inconsistent. Specifically, it is not widely known
whether environment or the individual characteristics drive the students’ career
decision toward self-employment. A central question that arises is what factors
determine entrepreneurial intent among students.
The objective of the paper is to examine key factors influencing students’ intent to
create a new venture. Based on previous research, we incorporate both internal and
ET external influence factors into a model. In particular, we investigate the affect of
51,4 individuals’ attitudes in general and toward self-employment on their choice of
entrepreneurial carrier. Furthermore, we examine whether the perception of
environment, including the university setting, has an impact on the students’ intent
to found their own businesses.
We tested the model in June 2005 on the Austrian student population encompassing
274 various fields of study. The size of the population was about 35,040 students. The
respondents received an e-mail with brief information about the survey’s objectives
and a link to the questionnaire that was available online. A total of 2,838 students (8.10
per cent) completed the questionnaire. In the final analysis, 2,124 cases were
considered. A multiple linear regression model with attitudes and perceptions of
environments as well as with selected control variables (age, gender, field of study) was
estimated to test the hypotheses.
The paper consists of four main parts and a conclusion. The introduction is followed
by the discussion of the results of previous research on entrepreneurial intent. Based
upon the presented findings, the subsequent part is concerned with the development of
a model of entrepreneurial intent among students. This section is followed by the
outline of methodology used in the study and the discussion of regression results.
Implications for future research and universities are included in the final conclusions.

Entrepreneurial intent in previous research

Early research on entrepreneurship and factors influencing the decision to start a new
venture concentrate on the personality characteristics of individuals. A number of
personality factors have been recognized as relevant for entrepreneurial intent and
success, e.g. need for achievement, risk taking propensity, internal locus of control, or
innovativeness (Brockhaus and Horwitz, 1986). However, the personality approaches
are not without critics (Gartner, 1988; Robinson et al., 1991). As an alternative to the
personality theories, since the 1990s the attitude approach has become widely used for
the prediction of the likelihood to found an enterprise (Douglas, 1999; Robinson et al.,
1991). This study continues along these lines.
According to the theory of planned behaviour, individual’s attitudes have an impact
on behaviour via intention. In particular, there are three fundamental attitudinal
antecedents of intent: personal attitude toward outcomes of the behaviour, perceived
social norm, and perceived behavioural control (self-efficacy). They have proven to
account for a large part of the variance in intentions (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). In
general, attitudes can be defined as “a learned predisposition to respond in a
consistently favourable or unfavourable manner with respect to a given object”
(Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975, p. 6). They are relatively less stable than personality traits
and can be changed both across time and across situations in virtue of the individual’s
interaction with the environment (Robinson et al., 1991). Therefore, entrepreneurial
attitudes may be influenced by educators and practitioners. In a new venture context,
Robinson et al. (1991) emphasize the necessity to distinguish between general attitudes
related to the broad psychological disposition of an individual and domain attitudes
referring to the person’s more specific attitude toward entrepreneurship. The
application of specific attitudes increases the accuracy of the measurement within the
specified domain, thus improving the predictability of the behavioural intent. The
importance of attitudes, both in general and toward entrepreneurship, in explaining
people’s aspiration to create a new venture has been recognized and empirically Students’
confirmed in previous studies (Autio et al., 1997; Douglas, 1999; Krueger et al., 2000; entrepreneurial
Madl, 1997; Robinson et al., 1991). However, the empirical findings employed to
support the direction and significance of the attitude-intent relationship are partly intent
inconsistent. The inconclusive evidence results primarily from a wide variation in
research context and in the measurement of both independent and dependent variables.
In the following, we concentrate predominately on empirical studies addressing 275
entrepreneurial aspirations among students in order to draw conclusions for a model
suitable for a university student context.
Douglas (1999) has investigated the relationship between the intention to start one’s
own business and individual’s attitudes toward income, independence, risk, and work
effort. Results of his empirical study suggest that individuals with a more positive
attitude toward independence (autonomy) and risk are characterized by a higher
willingness to become entrepreneurs. However, people’s attitudes to work efforts
correlate negatively with the intent to be self-employed. He also found no significant
difference with regard to the attitude toward income (money). Contrary to Douglas’s
findings, Wang and Wong (2004) reported a non-significant influence of risk-averse
attitude on entrepreneurial interest. Autio et al. (1997) have also provided an insight
into the role of general attitudes in entrepreneurial career choice. They examine the
influence of attitudes toward achievement, autonomy, money, change, and
competitiveness upon entrepreneurial conviction (the perceived ease of starting and
running a new venture) viewed as the primary determinant of entrepreneurial
intention. With the exception of competitiveness, they found individual’s general
attitudes to have a high moderating influence on entrepreneurial conviction. In
particular, the need for achievement and a positive attitude to autonomy emerge as
influential attitudinal moderators of entrepreneurial conviction. Autio et al. (1997)
additionally confirm a positive impact of attitude toward entrepreneurship on
entrepreneurial conviction. In a survey of university business students, Krueger et al.
(2000)[1] found support for the theory of planned behaviour. Personal attitudes toward
the act, i.e. entrepreneurship, and self-efficiency, in particular, act as significant
predictors of entrepreneurial intention. However, they report a non-significant impact
of the remaining attitudinal variable, i.e. perceived social norm, on entrepreneurial
intent. In their analysis of the entrepreneurial aspirations of business students at two
universities in German-speaking countries and one of the leading USA academic
institutions, Franke and Lüthje (2004) found a strong positive relationship between the
attitude toward self-employment and the intention to become an entrepreneur. In a
survey of students of technical disciplines at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Lüthje and Franke (2003) examine the impact of personal dispositions and
of perceived environmental conditions for founding a new venture on entrepreneurial
intent. They reveal that the attitude toward entrepreneurship is the most important
determinant of entrepreneurial intention.
Another stream of studies in the entrepreneurship discipline focuses on
environment conditions as determinants of people’s aspiration to start a company.
The environment can provide an explanation as to why the relationship between
personal-related factors and entrepreneurial intent is not always deterministic in
nature (Lüthje and Franke, 2003). Aldrich and Zimmer (1986) have also stressed that
individuals cannot be viewed as atomized decision-makers who operate as autonomous
ET entities. Likewise, the representatives of the attitude approach to the prediction of
51,4 entrepreneurship remark that attitudes do not exist “in isolation” (Robinson et al., 1991,
p. 19). Therefore, it is reasonable to focus on the entrepreneurial process as an
embedded process in a social, cultural and economic context. Previous research that
recognized the importance of external influence factors for an individual’s interest to
become an entrepreneur concentrated particularly on a person’s social networks, on the
276 image of entrepreneurs in society, on socio-cultural norms, and on barriers to
entrepreneurship (Autio et al., 1997; Begley et al., 1997; Lüthje and Franke, 2003).
However, empirical studies linking external conditions for entrepreneurship and
individuals’ career choice also provide inconsistent results.
Raijman (2001) examines the role of social networks in which individuals are
embedded in predicting entrepreneurial intent. His results confirm that having close
relatives who are entrepreneurs increases the willingness to be self-employed. Begley
et al. (1997) analyse the impact of four socio-cultural conditions of entrepreneurship, i.e.
importance of work, value of innovation, shame of failure and status of
entrepreneurship in a society, on business students’ interest in becoming an
entrepreneur in seven different countries. The social status of entrepreneurship
emerges as a good predictor of entrepreneurial interest. They reported a
non-significant influence of shame of failure and relevance of work in a society.
Finally, they found a negative relationship between value of innovation and intent, i.e.
individuals who believed innovation was highly regarded were less likely to want to
start a company. Lüthje and Franke (2003) demonstrate that the student’s
entrepreneurial intent is also directly affected by perceived entrepreneurship-related
barriers and support factors. Specifically, the more favourable students perceived
support actions for entrepreneurship to be, the stronger their entrepreneurial intention
was. When students realized a hostile environment for business founders, e.g. credit
conditions as being too restrictive, they were less likely to become entrepreneurs
irrespective of their attitude toward self-employment. In another study, Franke and
Lüthje (2004) examine the influence of the university environment on entrepreneurial
intent. Results of their study suggest that the lower level of student’s founding
intention follows from a negative appraisal of the university’s activities to provide
students with the knowledge required to start a business and to support the process of
new venture creation actively. In addition, the differences in entrepreneurial intent
relative to the individual’s perception of the university environment were significant
and stronger than the differences with regard to personality traits, attitudes and
socio-economic environmental factors. Contrary to Franke and Lüthje (2004), Autio
et al. (1997) found support provided by the university environment to have a negative
impact on entrepreneurial intent.
The partial inconsistency of the findings of previous research indicates that there is
still a necessity to improve our understanding of the preconditions of entrepreneurial
intent. In particular, it seems to be crucial to develop interactive models with the aim of
explaining entrepreneurial behaviour as a function of the person and the environment
conditions.

Model of entrepreneurial intent

Based on previous research, we have developed a model of entrepreneurial intent that
incorporates both personal and environment-related influence factors. Specifically, the
proposed model focuses on three constructs to predict the entrepreneurial intent, i.e. the Students’
general attitudes, the attitude toward entrepreneurship, and the perception of entrepreneurial
environment conditions. The constructs are expected to explore preconditions of
entrepreneurial intent (Figure 1). intent
As mentioned above, attitudes have been proven to explain approximately 50 per
cent of the variance in intentions (Autio et al., 1997). In a new venture context, it is
reasonable to distinguish between general attitudes of an individual and specific 277
attitudes toward entrepreneurship (Robinson et al., 1991). We investigate the impact of
three general attitudinal dispositions on students’ interest to become an entrepreneur,
i.e. attitudes toward change, money, and competitiveness. We hypothesize that
students with a favourable attitude toward the given objects are more likely to have
stronger aspirations to start a business. For example, individuals possessing a positive
attitude toward change are characterized primarily by the propensity to view as
attractive rather than threatening those situations that are ambiguous, changing
rapidly, or unpredictable (Shane et al., 2003). Because the challenges associated with
new venture creation are by nature unpredictable, persons with such a psychological
disposition are more likely to see the founding of a company as an attractive career
alternative. A favourable attitude toward money refers to individuals who view high
incomes as a symbol of success (achievement) and as means to attain autonomy,

Figure 1.
Model of entrepreneurial
intent
ET freedom and power (Lim and Teo, 2003). Such features are often connected with the
51,4 picture of successful entrepreneurs. Therefore, individuals with a positive attitude
toward money may be more likely to want to be self-employed. A final individual’s
disposition – attitude toward competitiveness – pertains to the willingness to win.
Such aspiration often cannot be quickly realized by young people employed in the
already existing organizations. Therefore, individuals might tend to fulfil their desire
278 to win by founding an own firm. A favourable attitude to competitiveness is thus
viewed as a factor influencing entrepreneurial motivation positively (Autio et al., 1997).
In view of the above, the following hypotheses related to the general attitudes of
individuals will be tested:
H1.1. Students with a positive attitude toward change are more likely to have a
stronger intention to become entrepreneurs.
H1.2. Students with a positive attitude toward money are more likely to have a
stronger intention to become entrepreneurs.
H1.3. Students with a positive attitude toward competitiveness are more likely to
have a stronger intention to become entrepreneurs.
The importance of domain-specific attitudes in explaining entrepreneurial intent and
behaviour has been recognized in entrepreneurship research (Kolvereid, 1996;
Robinson et al., 1991). In the model, attitude toward entrepreneurship also acts as a
primary determinant of students’ willingness to be self-employed. This factor refers to
the individual’s perception of the personal desirability of performing the behaviour, i.e.
creation of a new venture, and corresponds to the attitude toward the act in the theory
of planned behaviour (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Krueger et al., 2000). Obviously, the
more students value the entrepreneurial career path, the stronger their interest to start
a business (Franke and Lüthje, 2004). Therefore, we hypothesize:
H2. Students with a favourable attitude toward entrepreneurship are more likely
to have a stronger intention to become entrepreneurs.
The intent to become self-employed does not depend exclusively on students’ attitudes
connected with entrepreneurship. Due to the fact that individuals do not exist and do
not act in isolation, they also take environmental conditions into account in their
decision-making processes. So, for example, entrepreneurial education may affect
students’ entrepreneurial behaviour positively (Hynes and Richardson, 2007). When
students perceive the environment – including a university environment – as
entrepreneurship-supportive, they can be more likely to create a new venture. On the
other hand, when they observe a hostile environment for business founders (e.g., credit
conditions that are too restrictive or insufficient legitimacy of entrepreneurship), they
can be less willing to become entrepreneurs irrespective of their attitude toward
self-employment. Therefore, the following hypotheses related to the perception of
environment will be tested:
H3.1. Students who perceive entrepreneurship-related support positively are more
likely to have a stronger intention to become entrepreneurs.
H3.2. Students who perceive entrepreneurship-related barriers negatively are
more likely to have a weaker intention to become entrepreneurs.
 H3.3. Students who perceive university environment as entrepreneurship- Students’
supportive are more likely to have a stronger intention to become entrepreneurial
entrepreneurs.
intent
Methodology and results
Sample and method
The population is built on students from four universities[2] and three Universities of 279
Applied Science[3] in Austria. Those universities offer studies across a broad scope of
fields: medicine, law, and technical, natural, human, social and business sciences. Since
the middle of the 1990s all students in Austria are issued with an e-mail address, which
enables them to manage their studies (register for courses, register for exams, and
access information about courses). These e-mail addresses are administered by the
universities. With the exception of students who started before the mid-1990s and
those who do not want to have an e-mail address (range of 1-2 per cent) the universities
have at their disposal the e-mail addresses of all students. Within this study, the
universities provided us with this data source. With the exception of the technical
university (for this university we obtained only 55 per cent of the addresses), the
analysis refers to the almost whole population of the students of those seven
institutions.
The data collection was conducted in June 2005. The respondents received an e-mail
with brief information about the survey’s objectives and a link to the questionnaire that
was available online. The size of the population was about 35,040 students. A total of
2,838 students (8.10 per cent) completed the questionnaire. We excluded all cases with
more than 30 per cent of missing data and did not consider those students for this
analysis, who did not state their field of study. Because we applied a control in this
analysis regarding the difference of entrepreneurial intention of students in diverse
study fields, we excluded all students with two or more registered studies in different
faculties. Thus, the sample size was reduced to 2,124 cases.
We have 628 students in the sample, who are registered in a degree course of
“Business”, 496 students who study in the field of “Humanities” and 1,000 students who
have registered in a study of “Science and Technology”. The youngest students in the
sample are 18 years old and the oldest student is about 63 years of age. The students are
24 years old on average. The age of the students varies in a statistically significant
manner with the faculty membership (ANOVA, p-value ,0,001). The students in Science
or Technology are on average one year younger than students in Business and on
average two years younger than students in the faculty of Humanities. The sample
consists of 47.5 per cent men and 52.5 per cent women. The differences between gender
and field of study are statistically significant (Chi-square test, p-value , 0.001) with
more female students (80.2 per cent) of “Humanities” and more male students of Business
(56.3 per cent) and “Science and Technology” (74.3 per cent) (see Table I).
We are also able to report group mean differences concerning the items of
entrepreneurial intention. We applied an ANOVA to test for significant differences in
the mean scale values. For all three scales, we can report significant differences in the
mean values in relation to faculty membership and gender. Male students and students
who are registered in a study course of Business or Science and Technology are on
average more interested in founding a business and have on average a higher intention
to start a business in the next two or five years (see Table II).
ET Faculty
51,4 Science/
Business Humanities technology Total

Age
Mean 24.4 25.0 23.2 24.0
280 SD 4.2 6.1 2.9 4.3
Minimum 18 18 18 18
Maximum 44 63 43 63
Gender
Men n 353 398 257 1,008
% 56.2 80.2 25.7 47.5
Women n 275 98 743 1116
% 43.8 19.8 74.3 52.5
Total
Table I. n 628 496 1,000 2,124
Sample descriptive % 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Entrepreneurial intent
How likely to set up How likely to set up
How interested in a business during the a business during the
setting up a business? next two years? next five years?

Business Mean 3.44 1.73 2.58

SD 1.24 0.94 1.14
Humanities Mean 3.04 1.56 2.30
SD 1.24 0.86 1.07
Science/
technology Mean 3.32 1.60 2.44
SD 1.23 0.88 1.13
Man Mean 3.48 1.74 2.65
SD 1.24 0.95 1.13
Woman Mean 3.08 1.51 2.23
SD 1.22 0.82 1.08
Total Mean 3.29 1.63 2.45
SD 1.25 0.90 1.13
Table II.
Mean students Notes: Five-point Likert-scale with levels ranging from 1 ¼ “completely uninterested” to
entrepreneurial intention 5¼ “strongly interested” and 1 ¼ “very improbably” to 5 ¼ “very probably”; ANOVA to test for
according faculty significant differences in the mean scale values. For all three scales we can report significant
membership and gender differences in the mean values in relation to faculty membership and gender

Missing values amounting to less than 30 per cent were replaced by using the
EM-algorithm with NORM 2.03. In order to test the relationship between the attitudes,
perception of environment, and entrepreneurial intent of the investigated students’
population, principal component analysis with Varimax rotation was employed to
extract uncorrelated factors (Cohen et al., 2003). A multiple linear regression model
with these factors was estimated to test the hypotheses. Previous research suggests
that also demographic characteristics such as age or gender may substantially affect
entrepreneurial intent and behaviour (Shook et al., 2003). Therefore, we include age, age Students’
squared, and gender into the model. Due to the student context, we also control for the entrepreneurial
field of study. The numeric variable age was included as linear and quadratic term to
test the inverse u-shaped relationship between age and entrepreneurial intent. To intent
control for gender a dummy variable for female students, and to control for faculty
membership two dummies for students registered in a study course of “Business” and
“Humanities” were included. Thus, the baseline categories in the regression model are 281
male students registered in a study of “Science or Technology”. We have also tested the
model for differences of effects for students in different fields of study by including
interaction effects with the faculty dummies for all predictor variables (Fox, 1997).
Because we could not detect any faculty differences in the effects between predictor
variables and the entrepreneurial intention, we refrained from reporting these findings
in the results section. This finding confirms applicability of the model for different
fields of studies in an Austrian context.

Measurement
To measure the entrepreneurial intent, general attitudes, attitude toward
entrepreneurship, and perception of the environment, we adopted scales from Autio
et al. (1997). We measured all items on a five point Likert-scale with the levels
1 ¼ “completely uninterested” to 5 ¼ “strongly interested”, 1 ¼ “very improbably” to
5 ¼ “very probably” and 1 ¼ “strongly disagree” to 5 ¼ “strongly agree”, depending
of the question. All items used in the study are listed in Table III.
In previous research, entrepreneurial intention has been measured in different ways.
Both an individual’s preference for self-employment and a time dimension of this
career path have been taken into account. We measured entrepreneurial intention with
three items capturing both perspectives. General attitudes comprise three constructs,
i.e. attitude toward competitiveness (two items), attitude toward money (two items),
and attitude toward change (two items). The attitude toward entrepreneurship was
measured also by two items. The perception of the university environment refers to the
degree to which the university is perceived as a supporting organization to start a new
venture. The construct was measured by a set of four statements. The perception of
entrepreneurship-related support relates to the degree to which external conditions to
start a business, particularly financing factors, are perceived positively. This construct
includes two items and the perception of entrepreneurship-related barriers consists of
three items.
We perform principal component analysis to extract uncorrelated factors for further
analysis (Cohen et al., 2003). The reliability of the measures was tested by estimation of
the following coefficients (Homburg and Giering, 1996): the indicator reliability, the
Cronbach Alpha, the factor reliability, and the average variance explained. All values
of the indicator reliability are above 0.4, thus indicator reliability is given. For all
constructs the factor reliability and the average variance extracted are above the
required threshold of 0.7 and 0.5, respectively. The Cronbach Alpha for all measures is
for four out of the eight constructs above 0.7. The constructs of attitude toward
competitiveness, attitude toward entrepreneurship, environmental support and
environmental barriers show a Cronbach Alpha value lower than 0.7, but all other
reliability measures are fulfilled. Thus, the results of the reliability of constructs can be
considered to be satisfying (see Table IV).
ET
n Items Construct
51,4
1. How interested are you in setting up your own Entrepreneurial intent
business?
2. How likely is it that you will set up (another)
business during the next two years?
282 3. How likely is it that you will set up (another)
business during the next five years?
4. In my university, people are actively encouraged to University environment
pursue their own ideas
5. The courses provide students with the knowledge
required to start a new company
6. There is a well functioning support infrastructure in
place to support the start-up of new firms
7. The creative atmosphere inspires us to develop ideas
for new businesses
8. Banks do not readily give credit to start up Environment support
companies
9. It is hard to find capital providers
10. There are not sufficient subsidies available for new Environment barriers
companies
11. Qualified consultant and service support for new
companies are not available
12. The bureaucratic procedures for founding a new
company are unclear
13. I work harder in situations where my performance is General attitude toward
compared against that of others competitiveness
14. It annoys me when other people perform better than I
do
15. If you have a high income, that is a sign that you General attitude toward money
have had success in your life
16. It is important for me to make a lot of money
17. I find working in stable and routinized environments General attitude toward change
boring
18. I need constant change to remain stimulated, even if
this would mean higher uncertainty
19. I’d rather be my own boss than have a secure job Attitude toward entrepreneurship
Table III. 20. I’d rather found a new company than be the manager
Terms in analysis of an existing one

Regression results and discussion

The regression analysis indicates that there are differences in the entrepreneurial
intention concerning gender, field of study, and age.
The coefficient of the dummy for female students is negative to a highly significant
degree. Thus male students have a higher intention toward entrepreneurship. Previous
research also suggests that women – including female students – have a less positive
attitude toward entrepreneurship and a lower desire to found an own firm than their
male counterparts (Ede et al., 1998; Kourilsky and Walstad, 1998). In this respect, it is
worth reporting gender related results of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
(Apfelthaler et al., 2008). In Austria, 61.9 per cent of all individuals involved in
entrepreneurial activities in 2007 were male and 39.1 per cent – female. There are
 Students’
Average
No. of Factor Indicator Cronbach Factor variance entrepreneurial
Construct items n loadings reliability Alpha reliability explained intent
Intention 3 3 0.897 0.805 0.746 0.860 0.673
2 0.795 0.632
1 0.764 0.583 283
Attitude toward 2 17 0.885 0.783 0.736 0.866 0.763
change 18 0.862 0.744
Attitude toward 2 16 0.888 0.789 0.760 0.877 0.781
money 15 0.879 0.772
Attitude toward 2 13 0.847 0.718 0.538 0.792 0.656
competitiveness 14 0.770 0.594
Attitude toward 2 20 0.862 0.743 0.699 0.850 0.739
entrepreneurship 19 0.857 0.735
Environmental 2 8 0.824 0.679 0.603 0.805 0.674
support 9 0.818 0.670
Environmental 3 11 0.824 0.680 0.674 0.802 0.577
barriers 12 0.773 0.598
10 0.673 0.453
University 4 6 0.813 0.661 0.811 0.873 0.633
environment 4 0.797 0.635 Table IV.
7 0.788 0.622 Factor loadings and
5 0.784 0.615 reliability of scales

different reasons for the lower intent and involvement to be self-employed among
females. First, women entrepreneurship is usually more constrained by limited
financial and social resources (Harris and Gibson, 2008). Second, the failure rate among
female entrepreneurs is higher than is the case for male business founders. We may
assume that both aspects reduce female students’ enthusiasm and willingness to be
entrepreneurs. In addition to that, the issue of family planning cannot be neglected in
the reasoning for the lower intent to found a firm among female students. In Austria,
transition from a traditional (patriarchal) to a more egalitarian family model has been
observed; however, it is a lasting, generations-encompassing process.
The estimated parameter of the dummy for business studies is significantly
positive. Thus, students registered in a study of “Business” have a higher
entrepreneurial intention than students in the field of “Humanities” and “Science or
Technology”. It is consistent with the results of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
(Apfelthaler et al., 2008). According to this report, students of business sciences have
the most extensive possibilities to learn entrepreneurship.
The two coefficients for age and age squared are significant to a level of 0.1 per cent.
The sign of the coefficient of age squared is negative. So, we were able to detect an
inverse u-shaped relationship between entrepreneurial intention and the student’s age.
There are two issues worth discussion in this context. First, decisions pertaining to
career choice usually reflect a cognitive process, in which work aspirations change
with the increase of career-related knowledge and experience (Kruger et al., 2000).
ET Second, the career-making process is also affected by behavioural factors such as
51,4 uncertainty avoidance that reflect the life experience of the individual (Henry et al.,
2003).
In the case of young students who have already finished high school, we observe a
low entrepreneurial intent. Such young individuals usually do not have any precise
plans regarding their occupational future or any knowledge about the nature of
284 entrepreneurship at that time. With increasing age, students’ entrepreneurial intent
grows. This might reflect an increase in career-related knowledge of later-stage
students who are close to graduation and usually have precise work plans. The
asymmetry regarding the perceived and factual picture about self-employment is at
that time lower than in case of their younger colleagues. So, if they decide to be
entrepreneurs they will probably follow their aspiration. In addition to that, such
young people are usually very open to new experiences and various career
opportunities, including being entrepreneurs. Finally, we detect that entrepreneurial
intent declines as students exceed the age of 35. It might be due to the fact that
uncertainty avoidance of individuals usually increases in the course of time due to the
higher consciousness about potential risks (Bhidé, 2000; Schwarz et al., 2005).
Entrepreneurship is strongly associated with risk of failure due to the liabilities of
newness and smallness (Cooper et al., 1994). So, older individuals may be more likely to
avoid such kinds of uncertainty. In Figures 2 and 3, the relationship between age and
intent depending on gender and field of study is presented.

Figure 2.
Estimated relationship
between age and intention
conditional to gender
 Students’
entrepreneurial
intent

285

Figure 3.
Estimated relationship
between age and intention
conditional to faculty
membership

Concerning attitude we can report three highly significant relationships with

entrepreneurial intention. The coefficients of attitude toward change, attitude toward
money and attitude toward entrepreneurship are significantly positive to a level of 0.1
per cent. The estimated coefficients for the attitude toward change and the attitude
toward money are 0.093 and 0.067, respectively. The significant coefficients indicate
that H1.1 and H1.2 have to be supported. The attitude toward entrepreneurship
appears as the most relevant predictor of entrepreneurial intent among students
(b ¼ 0:378, t-value ¼ 19.517). Therefore, H2 is supported. The estimated parameter for
attitude toward competitiveness is not significant. This may be due to the fact that a
positive attitude toward competitiveness is necessary not only for entrepreneurs in
order to achieve success. This attitude has also become very important for employees
since the work environment has changed. H1.3 has to be rejected.
Entrepreneurial intent is also predicted significantly by external factors. The results
confirm that a positive perception of university actions to foster entrepreneurship leads
to a stronger willingness to start an own business in the future (b ¼ 0:066, p , 0.001).
Thus, H3.3 is supported. We cannot report a significant relationship between
entrepreneurial intention and the environmental support (H3.1) or between intention
and environmental barriers (H3.2). Thus, these two hypotheses have to be rejected (see
Table V).
ET
Variable Estimate S.E t-value
51,4
Control variables Intercept 2 2.181 * * 0.356 2 6.134
Age 1.436 * * 0.245 5.853
Age-squared 2 0.203 * * 0.041 2 4.973
Woman 2 0.274 * * 0.044 2 6.259
286 Business 0.201 * * 0.048 4.196
Humanities 0.048 0.056 0.859
Attitude Attitude toward change 0.093 * * 0.019 4.816
Attitude toward money 0.067 * * 0.019 3.452
Attitude toward competitiveness 0.009 0.019 0.470
Attitude toward entrepreneurship 0.378 * * 0.019 19.517
Environment Environmental support 0.007 0.019 0.363
Environmental barriers 2 0.030 0.019 2 1.561
University environment 0.066 * * 0.020 3.370
Residual standard error 0.883
R-squared 0.230
Adj. R-squared 0.226
F-statistic with 12 and 2,111 df 52.630 * *
Table V.
Regression results Note: * * Level of significance: p , 0.001

In sum, Austrian students’ intent to found their own business is influenced

primarily by individual dispositions like attitudes toward entrepreneurship, change
and money. The effects are consistent with the results of past research placed in
other country/cultural contexts. Regarding external influence factors such as
financial support for founders or socio-cultural norms existing in the local
community, only the university environment emerges as an intent predictor. These
results are thus partly contrary to the effects detected in a non-Austrian context
that report a strong impact of the non-university environment conditions on
students’ intent. In the context of Austrian students, university courses on
entrepreneurship and small business management as well as incubators located on
campus appear to be crucial for waking students’ enthusiasm and interest in
business ownership (see Table VI).

Conclusions
In this paper, we have investigated determinants of entrepreneurial intent among
students. Attitudes have proven to be important for predicting entrepreneurial
aspiration. In addition, environment-based factors have been recognized as relevant
aspects. Consequently, we have developed a model comprising those factors. In
particular, we have investigated three constructs, i.e. the general attitudes (toward
money, change, and competitiveness), the attitude toward entrepreneurship, and the
perception of environment conditions. With the exception of the attitude toward
competitiveness, all other paths regarding individual dispositions are significant.
Pertaining to the environment conditions, we could detect only significant effects of the
university on students’ interest in business founding. Other environment factors such
as financial support for entrepreneurs or bureaucratic procedures related to opening a
firm have no impact on entrepreneurial intention among students in Austria. These
 Students’
Hypothesis Result
entrepreneurial
H1.1 Students with a positive attitude toward change are Supported intent
more likely to have a stronger intention to become
entrepreneurs
H1.2 Students with a positive attitude toward money are Supported
more likely to have a stronger intention to become 287
entrepreneurs
H1.3 Students with a positive attitude toward Not supported
competitiveness are more likely to have a stronger
intention to become an entrepreneur
H2 Students with a favourable attitude toward Supported
entrepreneurship are more likely to have a stronger
intention to become entrepreneurs
H3.1 Students who perceive entrepreneurship-related Not supported
support (loans of banks, capital providers) positively
are more likely to have a stronger intention to
become entrepreneurs
H3.2 Students who perceive entrepreneurship-related Not supported
barriers negatively are more likely to have a weaker
intention to become entrepreneurs
H 3.3 Students who perceive the university environment as Supported Table VI.
entrepreneurship-supportive are more likely to have Summary of hypotheses
a stronger intention to become entrepreneurs tested

results are rather contrasting to the effects discovered in past research on graduate
entrepreneurship in other cultural contexts. However, it has to be noted that we have
not evaluated environment conditions themselves but relied our analysis on students’
subjective judgments.
We were also able to detect significant differences in entrepreneurial intent
regarding gender, age and field of study. Similarly to past research, we found male
students to be more enthusiastic about business ownership than their female
counterparts. In this respect, it is worth noting that female entrepreneurship in Austria
increased in recent years (Apfelthaler et al., 2008; Sammer and Schneider, 2006) but the
transition toward a more democratic family model, which would enable the young
females to consider and choose entrepreneurship as a career path to a higher extent,
has not yet been completed. Next, we were able to detect an inverse u-shaped
relationship between entrepreneurial intention and students’ age. Finally, we observed
that students of humanistic subjects have the lowest intent to found a new business.
Students of business sciences who have the widest opportunities to learn about
entrepreneurship at the Austrian universities have the highest interest in business
ownership. Despite variation in the intent level between students of different fields of
study, we have not found any significant differences in the effects of predictor
variables on the entrepreneurial intent.
There are some limitations that have to be considered by interpreting the results.
First, we have included only selected general attitudes in the model. Even though
we believe that these indicators are crucial to entrepreneurial intent as past research
reveals, there are also further attitudes that might be important in the
ET entrepreneurial context such as the attitude toward autonomy. Originally, we have
51,4 integrated that attitude in the model. However, our data analysis has showed that
the attitude toward autonomy strongly correlates with the specific attitude toward
entrepreneurship. So, we have excluded this factor from the analysis. Also, the
Cronbach Alpha of some constructs used in our analysis (e.g. attitude toward
competitiveness) lies slightly below the satisfactory level of 0.7. But due to the fact
288 that all other reliability measures are fulfilled with respect to those constructs, they
have been considered in the analysis.
In order to increase students’ intention to become entrepreneurs, several actions can
be recommended. The results indicate that entrepreneurial intent is strongly affected
by the perception of university environment. So, in the context of Austrian students,
university courses on entrepreneurship and small business management as well as
incubators located on campus play a central role in waking students’ enthusiasm and
interest in business ownership. But significant differences in the intent level between
students of different disciplines indicate that the universities should more extensively
address entrepreneurship education to students of other subjects than business
sciences. Besides theoretical subjects, an important component of entrepreneurial
training is a social learning process. In this respect, inviting successful entrepreneurs
(role models) to the lectures or enabling students small business experience via
interaction with local entrepreneurs can be viewed as supportive actions. Developing
entrepreneurial skills as crucial life capacities should be the main target of all
university faculties.
A further important result of this study is that a positive attitude toward
entrepreneurship increases students’ willingness to become entrepreneurs. Striving for
autonomy can be strengthened by assignment of personal responsibility. In this
context, long term activities in the educational system are necessary. Global
Entrepreneurship Monitor (Apfelthaler et al., 2008) reveals that the situation of
entrepreneurial training, which develops essential life skills and sensitises scholars to
an entrepreneurial career alternative, is dramatically different in Austrian schools than
at the universities. Promoting role models and organizing business idea competitions
with attractive awards in secondary schools might be useful steps toward increasing
enthusiasm for entrepreneurship and autonomy among young people.
Students’ decision about their occupational future is a complex process. A large
body of literature on entrepreneurial intent addresses person-related perspectives but
neglects various external circumstances that might influence students’ career choice to
start-up a business. Future research should place more emphasis on both human and
environmental factors. In this respect, besides regional infrastructure and university
education for entrepreneurs, students’ social networks (family and friends) should be
included in the discussion. In addition to that, a transition process from entrepreneurial
intent to factual entrepreneurship is worth examining.

Notes
1. Precisely, Krueger et al. (2000) have tested the theory of planned behaviour and Shaper’s
model of the entrepreneurial event. As mentioned before, in the theory of planned behaviour
attitudes have proven to be the primary determinant of behavioural intention (Fishbein and
Ajzen, 1975). In particular, there are three attitudinal antecedents of intent: personal attitude
toward outcomes of the behavior, perceived social norm, and perceived behavioral control
 (self-efficacy). In the model of the entrepreneurial event, intention depends upon perceived Students’
desirability (personal attractiveness of new venture creation), perceived feasibility, and
propensity to act upon opportunities (Krueger et al., 2000). entrepreneurial
2. Klagenfurt University, University of Graz, Technical University of Graz, Medical University intent
of Graz.
3. University of Applied Science Joanneum, University of Applied Science Campus 02,
Carinthian University of Applied Science. 289

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