Author(s): Mohammed Worku
Entrepreneurial intention is a key concept in research on new ventures creation. Though, there is no clear or consistent definition and an unvarying way to measure entrepreneurial intention. Much is not known whether graduating students today have entrepreneurial intention. However, there is abundance of literature on the effect of demographic factors on entrepreneurial intention among graduating students. This study has been undertaken to investigate the effect of demographic factors on entrepreneurial intention among graduating students at Mizan Tepi University. Theory of planned behavior is adopted to specifically look at the effect of attitude towards entrepreneurship, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on entrepreneurial intention. Also, as a moderator factors, entrepreneurship education and personality trait are integrated into the model. Graduating students of Mizan Tepi University for the year 2019/20 academic year were considered as a population. The Sampling technique was proportionate stratified sampling with a total sample of 216 respondents. To collect the required data, questionnaires methods with five point Likert scale was used and analyzed via SPSS version 16.0. The findings show that the main effects, namely perceived behavioral control, personality trait, attitude towards entrepreneurship, perceived subjective norm have positive relationship and significant effect on entrepreneurial intention among graduating students. It is also found that entrepreneurship education has a positive and insignificant effect on entrepreneurial intention among graduating students. It also suggests the future is owned by risk takers and not security seekers. So, it is expected of from the policy makers, universities and students to play