Unveiling Entrepreneurial Intentions: A Study of Business Graduates in South Punjab's Higher Education Institutions with a Focus on Gender Moderation

Abstract

In underdeveloped countries like Pakistan there is lack of entreprenurial activities.In order to enhance the entreprenurial activity,it is the need of the hour to identify the personal & socio-economic factors that leads towards the creation of new ventures. Current study was an effort to examine the determinants (entrepreneurial attitudes, lack of fiancé, financial returns and entrepreneurial motivation) of entrepreneurial intentions among business graduates of higher education institutions (HEIs) of southern Punjab, Pakistan with moderating role of gender. The study has used quantitative research design. Population of the study was all the business graduates of HEIs of Southern Punjab. Convenience sampling was used to select the respondents from target population. Sample size was 370.A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data from respondents.SmartPLS & SPSS software was used for the analysis of collected data. The findings have established significant positive relationship of all determinants with entrepreneurial intentions except attitude. Moreover, the results have shown that gender does not moderate the relationship between determinants and entrepreneurial intentions of business graduates. Future research can be conducted to explore the reasons for such unexpected results. This study has made a significant contribution to the literature and came to the conclusion that there is a dire need to encourage entrepreneurial mind-set among youth and to create awareness and skills that are necessary to create new businesses.