Entrepreneurial universities and women entrepreneurship: a cross-cultural study

Abstract

Purpose Through a cross-culture study, the purpose of this paper is to understand about how entrepreneurial universities can foster entrepreneurship in women by attending to psychological and environmental factors and personality traits that encourage women to form entrepreneurial intent. Design/methodology/approach The authors test the proposed conceptual model on a cross-cultural sample comprising 350 students from Italy, a developed country, and from Albania, an emerging country. Structural equation modeling is used to validate the proposed model and test the hypothesized relationships. Findings In both Italy and Albania, entrepreneurial universities significantly impact entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions in women. The major differences relate to psychological factors that predict self-employment attitudes and intentions. Specifically, risk-taking propensity and locus of control are important antecedents of attitudes in both samples; the need for independence is a significant predictor only in the Italian sample; need for achievement has significant influence only in the Albanian sample. Originality/value To better understand and interpret the phenomenon of female entrepreneurship, the authors use the theory of planned behavior to investigate entrepreneurial universities located in Italy, a developed country, and Albania, an emerging country.