Impact of Environmental, Social Values and the Consideration of Future Consequences for the Development of a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intention

Abstract

Sustainable entrepreneurship focuses on finding ways to monetize future products, nature conservation, life support, and communities. Therefore, the intention has been identified as one of the key drivers to perceive business opportunities and ultimately leverage them, which increases interest in investigating it, especially from a sustainability perspective. The purpose of this study was to investigate the intention of sustainable entrepreneurship through a modified version of the theory of planned behavior based on survey data of 520 university students studying in Punjab, Pakistan and using structural equation modeling for quantitative analysis. The study sought to incorporate three additional constructs (environmental values, social values, and consideration of future consequences) to explain the relationship between the antecedents of sustainable entrepreneurial intention. This study shows that sustainable entrepreneurship, social norms, attitudes, and perceived behavioral control praise students’ sustainable intentions. Environmental values, intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, and consideration of future consequences (CFC-F and CFC-I) indirectly influence sustainable entrepreneurial intentions. The study also highlights the contradictory roles of CFC-I in reversing the pursuit of sustainable entrepreneurship. Indeed, the finding proposed that educational and other practitioners can improve attitudes and behaviors by promoting sustainable entrepreneurship through value creation and forward-looking activation strategies.