ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION AMONG INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS:

TESTING A MODEL OF ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION

Wei Li, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
501 E. Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820
217-721-9969; weili3@uiuc.edu
ABSTRACT
Researchers have suggested that intention models offer a significant opportunity toward better
understanding and prediction of entrepreneurial activities. This study uses an intention model,
the theory of planned behavior, to study the entrepreneurial intentions of Chinese and Indian
students at a top university located in the Midwest United States. Survey data provides strong
support for this theoretical model. Entrepreneurial intention was predicted significantly by
personal attractiveness and perceived feasibility. Social norms were found to be non-significant,
but this surprising finding was explained well by interview data. The research finding
implications for educators are also provided.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Education influences young peoples aspirations toward entrepreneurship. There is a need to
understand the predictors of entrepreneurial intention in order to better nurture potential
entrepreneurs during their university years. Researchers have suggested that the theory of
planned behavior (TPB) offers a significant opportunity toward better understanding and
prediction of entrepreneurial activities. An exploratory study tested the TPB model in the context
of international students at an American university, a group neglected in current entrepreneurship
research.
Using survey and interviews, this study was conducted at a top university located in the Midwest
United States. The population included Chinese and Indian students. The survey data from 361
students show that almost one out of six Chinese or Indian students have strong entrepreneurial
intention. Statistical analysis suggests that the theory of planned behavior can be applied to study
entrepreneurial intention among Chinese and Indian students. Entrepreneurial intention was
predicted significantly by personal attractiveness of being an entrepreneur and perceived
feasibility of doing this, with perceived feasibility being a stronger predictor than personal
attractiveness. Social norms, the influence of important others opinions, were found to be
non-significant; however, the interview data provided sound explanations for this surprising
finding: internal locus of control of respondents and their habit of making their own decisions.
This study not only addressed the missing gap in current literature upon entrepreneurship, but
provided implications for university educators. The findings from this study raised awareness of
entrepreneurial intention among international students, so university educators can better help
nurture the valuable spirit among this special group, respond to their special needs when
necessary and thus possibly bring out more future entrepreneurs. This study also implies that it
might be an effective way for university educators to enhance perceived feasibility if they intend
to increase the level of entrepreneurial intention on campus.

INTRODUCTION
Since education can influence young peoples attitudes and aspirations toward entrepreneurship,
there is a need to understand how to develop and nurture potential entrepreneurs during their
university years. The macro-environmental changes since the 1980s have brought higher
entrepreneurial aspirations (Wang & Wong, 2004). Research has shown that owning their own
business is appealing to many students (New Orleans CityBusiness, 2005; New Pittsburgh
Courier, 2003). For example, the latest Junior Achievement Enterprise Poll has shown that more
than two-thirds (68.4%) of the polled students want to own their own business (New Orleans
CityBusiness, 2005).
Prior research has focused on university student career aspirations (Moy & Lee, 2002; Teo &
Poon, 1994), but few empirical studies have examined the entrepreneurial propensity of
university students as a source of future entrepreneurs (Wang & Wong, 2004). Even among the
research on entrepreneurial propensity of university students, only domestic students have been
studied (Ede, Panigrahi & Calcich, 1998; Gaither, 2004; New Pittsburgh Courier, 2003).
Similarly, although numerous studies have been done on minority/ethnic entrepreneurs
(Amatucci, et al, 2000; Feldman, Koberg & Dean, 1991), little research has looked at university
students who are minorities or are from different countries, i.e., international students. A
literature review in Sociological Abstract, EBSCO, ABI/Inform, Web of Science, UMI, Current
Content etc. confirmed that so far no study has looked at the entrepreneurial interests of
international students. Therefore, there is a missing gap in the current literature on
entrepreneurship research regarding entrepreneurial intentions of international students.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This exploratory study was conducted to address the current gap in entrepreneurship research by
answering the following research questions: (1) What is the level of entrepreneurial intention
among international students? (2) What are the predictors of entrepreneurial intention among
international students?
Many studies have investigated the entrepreneurial intentions of students, but most studies
focused on personal, situational or psychological factors, such as gender, family background,
risk-averse attitude, need for achievement, locus of control, tolerance of ambiguity,
self-confidence and innovativeness (Crant, 1996; Koh, 1996; Wang & Wong, 2004). However,
current literature has indicated that predicting entrepreneurial activities by modeling only
situational or personal factors usually resulted in disappointingly small explanatory power and
even smaller predictive validity (Krueger, Reilly & Carsrud, 2000, p411). Researchers have
suggested that intention models offer a significant opportunity toward better understanding and
prediction of entrepreneurial activities (Krueger, et al, 2000). These researchers have used
Ajzens theory of planned behavior (TPB) to study senior university business students
entrepreneurial intentions. Their empirical data have shown that TPB is a useful model since the
whole model was significant and the adjusted R 2 was 0.35(p<0.0001) (Krueger, et al., 2000,
p422). Thus, the theory of planned behavior may serve as a valuable tool for understanding
entrepreneurial intentions. So, this study was conducted to see if the theory of planned behavior
can be applied in the context of international students.

According to Ajzen (1991), behavior is determined by the individuals intention to perform, or not
to perform, a given behavior. Meanwhile, intention is determined by attitude toward the behavior,
subjective norms and perceived behavior control. If the target behavior is more attractive to the
individual, the intention will be higher; similarly, the more supportive the social norms, i.e., the
people around this individual think this individual should perform the target behavior, the higher
intention; the more perceived feasibility, the higher intention. In Ajzens theory of planned
behavior, attitude toward behavior refers to the degree to which a person has a favorable or
unfavorable evaluation appraisal of the behavior in question, subjective norms refer to the
perceived social pressure to perform or not to perform the behavior, and perceived behavior
control refers to the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behavior and it is assumed to
reflect past experience as well as anticipated impediments and obstacles (Ajzen, 1991, p188).
Although it is widely accepted that entrepreneurship begins as a way of thinking and should
not be confined to business (Clouse, Goodin & Aniello, 2000). For the purpose of the current
study, an entrepreneur is narrowly defined as someone who is self-employed or starts his/her
own business. Thus, in the present study, intention refers to the target behavior of being
self-employed or starting a business, attitude toward behavior refers to personal attractiveness
of being self-employed or starting a business, subjective norms refer to the social norms of
being self-employed or starting a business, and perceived behavior control refers to the
perceived feasibility of being self-employed or starting a business. As suggested by the research
questions, the current study focuses on the entrepreneurial intention and the predictors of
entrepreneurial intention instead of the intention-behavior part. The following figure can
succinctly present the theoretical framework, i.e., the theory of planned behavior in the context
of entrepreneurial intention.
FIGURE 1
Applying TPB in the Context of Entrepreneurship
Personal Attractiveness
Social Norms

Entrepreneurial Intention

Perceived Feasibility
RESEARCH DESIGN
This study used a mixed-method design for data collection and analysis. A survey questionnaire
was employed to collect quantitative data and in-depth interviews were employed to collect
qualitative data. The interviews were conducted after the survey data were collected and
preliminarily analyzed. The study was conducted at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), a top university in the United States. The targeted population for
this study included Chinese and Indian students at UIUC. Chinese and Indian students were
chosen for three main reasons. First, these students had already demonstrated some amount of
entrepreneurial spirit by going abroad to pursue their academic degrees. Secondly, Chinese and

Indian students account for a large portion of international students at UIUC. According to the
data provided by the Division of Management Information at UIUC, 838 Chinese students and
583 Indian students registered in Spring 2005 (537, female and 884, male). They make a fairly
large sample frame (1,421). In addition, markets in both China and India are burgeoning and
there are plenty of opportunities for start-ups. It will be interesting to see if students from these
two countries have strong entrepreneurial intentions.
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
The survey instrument was mainly provided by the prestigious researchers in the
entrepreneurship arena 2 . The researcher adapted some measures when developing the
questionnaire according to the specific context of this study. Then the questionnaire was
reviewed by survey experts from the University of Illinois and pilot tested with 17 Chinese and
Indian students. Changes were made based on the feedbacks from the pilot test. Questions were
answered on a 5-point liker-scale (from 1 to 5). The final version of the questionnaire was
launched online on July 21, 2005, and a survey reminder was sent out two weeks later. Chinese
and Indian students received the survey invitation via their UIUC email account. By August 7,
2005, 364 students replied to the survey, with a 25.6% response rate. Later, three replies were
found not valid and so were deleted before the data analysis process began. At the end of the
online questionnaire, students who were very interested in entrepreneurship were invited for a
follow-up one-hour plus interview. An interview guide was developed and part of the interview
involved predictors of entrepreneurial intentions. 10 Chinese and 9 Indian students participated
the follow-up interviews.
The survey data, based on 361 valid replies, were analyzed by using SPSS 13.0. Multiple
questions were asked for each component in the theory of planned behavior model. Reliability
analysis was conducted for each component. Some questions were thrown out of the whole
model testing if the Cronbachs alpha level was lower than the recommended level (0.7) because
of these questions. After this process, all the Cronbachs alpha levels were higher than 0.7,
varying from 0.704 to 0.908. The interview data were analyzed by using the qualitative data
analysis methods proposed by Miles and Huberman (1994).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Among the 361 questionnaire respondents, 54% are Chinese and 46% are Indian; 63% are male
and 37% are female; 20% are undergraduate students, 17% are master students and 63% are
doctoral students. Among the 19 interviewees (10 Chinese and 9 Indians), 15 are male and 4 are
female, and 7 are undergraduate students, 3 are master students and 9 are doctoral students.
In order to answer the first research question (What is the level of entrepreneurial intention
among international students?), we can look at the descriptive statistics generated by SPSS. The
mean entrepreneurial intention level is 2.67 (1 means not at all, 2 means very little, 3
means a little, 4 means to some extent and 5 means quite a lot) , which means that the
average level is between very little to a little. A further breakdown of the 361 responses
shows that 15.8% respondents have considered starting their own business or are preparing to
start their own business to some extent or quite a lot. These data indicate that almost one out

of six Chinese or Indian students have quite strong entrepreneurial intention.

A regression analysis was conducted in order to answer the second research question (What are
the predictors of entrepreneurial intention among international students?). By regressing
entrepreneurial intention on personal attractiveness, social norms and perceived
feasibility, we got the following results:
TABLE 1
Model Summary
Model Summary
Model
1

R
.757a

Adjusted
R Square
.569

R Square
.573

Std. Error of
the Estimate
.70005

a. Predictors: (Constant), Personal Attractiveness, Social

Norms, Perceived Feasiblitlity

TABLE 2
ANOVA
ANOVAb
Model
1

Regression
Residual
Total

Sum of
Squares
228.981
170.547
399.528

df
3
348
351

Mean Square
76.327
.490

F
155.745

Sig.
.000a

a. Predictors: (Constant), Personal Attractivenss, Social Norms, Perceived Feasiblitlity

b. Dependent Variable: Entrepreneurial Intention

TABLE 3
Coefficients in the Linear Regression
Coefficientsa

Model
1

(Constant)
Personal Attractiveness
Social Norms
Perceived Feasiblitlity

Unstandardized
Coefficients
B
Std. Error
-.150
.169
.379
.041
-.031
.039
.545
.054

Standardized
Coefficients
Beta
.412
-.031
.447

t
-.884
9.349
-.812
10.083

Sig.
.377
.000
.417
.000

a. Dependent Variable: Entrepreneurial Intention

FIGURE 2
Results for Theory of Planned Behavior
Personal Attractiveness
Social Norms
Perceived Feasibility

t = 9.349, p<0.00001

Entrepreneurial Intention

t = 10.083, p<0.00001

Figure 2 shows significant, though not complete, support for the theory of planned behavior in

the context of entrepreneurial intention of Chinese and Indian students. Table 1 and Table 2 show
that adjusted R 2 for the regression of personal attractiveness, social norms and perceived
feasibility upon entrepreneurial intention was 0.569 (p<0.00001). These data indicate that
statistically the model is highly significant and that more than half of the variation in
entrepreneurial intention can be explained by the three predictors together in this model. The
results imply that the theory of planned behavior can be applied to study entrepreneurial
intention in the context of this study.
From Table 3, we can see that although the social norm component upon entrepreneurial
intention was not significant (p = 0.417), entrepreneurial intention was predicted significantly
(p<0.00001) by personal attractiveness and perceived feasibility (p<0.00001). Therefore, we can
say that the more personal attractiveness, the higher intention, and the more perceived feasibility,
the higher intention. Furthermore, from the coefficients in Table 3, we can say that perceived
feasibility represents a stronger influence than personal attractiveness on entrepreneurial
intention. These results mean that personal attractiveness to being self-employed or starting a
business and perceived feasibility of doing this influence those respondents entrepreneurial
intention, whereas social norms of being self-employed or starting a business do not.
Although the raw correlation between social norms and intention was significant (r= 0.252,
p<0.01), social norms turned out to be non-significant in the model. This is contrary to what the
model suggests. There are two possible reasons: (1) there was systematic problem in the survey
instrument measuring social norms and (2) social norms do not predict entrepreneurial intention
in the case of Chinese and Indian students. Five questions were asked for this variable and the
Cronbachs alpha level was 0.908 during the reliability test. Thus its not very likely that the
non-significant results came from non-reliable instruments. The second possible reason, the real
predictive power of social norms in the current context, was investigated in the interview. The
interview data provided legitimate explanations for this surprising finding.
First, most respondents had internal locus of control. When asked about the locus of control,
most interviewees said: I definitely believe that my own actions determine the rewards that I
obtain. Correspondingly, previous research has indicated that a high internal locus of control
reduced the impact of social norms (Ajzen, 1987 and Bagozzi, Baumgartner & Yi., 1992, cited
by Krueger et al., 2000, p424). Krueger et al. (2000) also reported a non-significant relationship
between social norms and entrepreneurial intention when applying the theory of planned
behavior. In addition, generally speaking, important people (including parents and significant
others) in the respondents life want them to have a stable job and lead a comfortable life instead
of taking risks to be an entrepreneur. These students can have a chance to study abroad, which
usually implies that they are also quite outstanding in their home countries; therefore, it is
reasonable to predict that they can find a decent job after getting a degree from UIUC. So, their
entrepreneurial intention is more of a choice than a necessity. It is fair to say that the social
influence was not great for these interviewees who had quite strong entrepreneurial intentions.
This is not consistent with the assumption in the theory of planned behavior, but it provides
strong support for the survey finding. Furthermore, most respondents are used to making their
own decisions. Some examples of comments are listed here. I will definitely listen to what my
parents say and what my wife says. But after considering their input and the specific market
situation, I will make up my mind by myself; I want to be an entrepreneur because I like my

idea too much and I want to convert it into an enterprise. Another contributing factor is the huge
societal or cultural difference between the U.S. and China/India. Studying in an American
university, these students have learned to be determined based on their own judgment. As many
interviewees mentioned, their parents opinion is based on their perception in India/China since
they may not know what is really going on in the United States.
SO WHAT?
The findings of this exploratory study provide a couple of implications for the educators in the
field of entrepreneurship. First of all, the empirical data show that there is entrepreneurial
intention among international students, and that a large portion of these students have rather
strong entrepreneurial intention. This study may bring more awareness for educators so they can
help nurture the valuable spirit among this special group and thus possibly bring out more
entrepreneurs. Furthermore, because this group of nascent entrepreneurs comes from a different
country, they may have some special needs. It may be necessary for university educators to find
out if they need special support and to be responsive to their particular needs.
Secondly, this study has shown that perceived feasibility is a stronger predictor of
entrepreneurial intention than personal desirability; therefore, university educators may want to
enhance perceived feasibility if they intend to increase the level of entrepreneurial intention on
campus. For example, in addition to providing general success stories, it may be helpful to
provide cases of entrepreneurs who are university alumni. In the case of UIUC, some students
dont think the success stories of MIT or Stanford students are very helpful, since UIUC is
located in Midwest where the entrepreneurial atmosphere is much weaker compared with that in
east and west coast areas. Also, university educators may help provide some financial support,
even if limited, for students who want to test their ideas on a smaller scale. The success of pilot
testing can help increase the perceived feasibility concerning future ventures.
CONCLUSION
This exploratory study addressed the missing gap in current literature regarding entrepreneurship.
It is one of the first studies looking at entrepreneurial interest among international students in the
United States. The findings from this study can be a starting point for future research and spur
more research in this field. The mixed-methodology design in this study can provide valuable
reference for future research on entrepreneurial interest among other international students or
domestic students at UIUC, or students from other universities. In terms of theoretical
contribution, this study has shown that the theory of planned behavior is very useful and it
provides a sound theoretical framework toward understanding the antecedents of entrepreneurial
intentions. Future researchers may want to refine the model, for example, deleting the variable of
social norms. Since this is an exploratory study and the sample in this study is rather unique, one
might want to be cautious about interpreting or transferring the findings from this study.
ENDNOTES
1. The author of this paper would like to thank the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for funding this project and Fernando Elichirigoity and

Cynthia Kehoe for supervising this project. Also, the author would like to thank reviewers for providing
detailed comments on this paper.
2. Special thanks to Norris F. Krueger and Peter Hackbert for providing the initial survey instrument and
valuable inputs for this paper.

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