Entrepreneurial Intention: A Gender Study in Business and Economics Students from Chile

Abstract

The study of entrepreneurial intention sheds new light on the complex dynamics of entrepreneurial behavior. This research contributes to the academic debate by examining the gap in studies on entrepreneurial intention in Latin America, considering the importance of gender differences and their effects on entrepreneurial intention. Thus, this study is a contribution to research on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to social equity, in the areas of quality education (SDG 4), gender equality (SDG 5), and inequalities reduction (SDG 10). To study gender entrepreneurial intention phenomena differences, researchers have taken refuge in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and focused their analysis on a group of economics and business students from a coastal campus of a Chilean University. In a two-step methodological process, the authors verified the applicability of the entrepreneurial intention questionnaire (CIE) with the selected sample and then calculated entrepreneurial intention using the CIE instrument. Contrary to general literature results, the study shows that there are no significant gender differences in entrepreneurial intention levels. Furthermore, there is neither evidence for gender differences in any of the three entrepreneurial intention factors, i.e., (a) attitudes, (b) subjective norms, and (c) control of perceived behavior.