Research Article: 2021 Vol: 24 Issue: 4S
Albet Maydiantoro, University of Lampung
M. Thoha B. Sampurna Jaya, University of Lampung
Muhammad Basri, University of Lampung
Dwi Yulianti, University of Lampung
Risma Margaretha Sinaga, University of Lampung
Suparman Arif, University of Lampung
Citation: Maydiantoro, A., Jaya, T. M. B. S., Basri, M., Yulianti, D., Sinaga, R. M., & Arif, S. (2021). The influence of entrepreneurial attitudes, subjective norms and self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of management Information and Decision Sciences, 24(S4), 1-12.
Entrepreneurship is an important component in economics, especially for students in universities. However, it is not clear what aspects of entrepreneurship play the most significant role in student success. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effect of entrepreneurial attitudes on entrepreneurial intentions, self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intentions, and subjective norms on entrepreneurial intentions. The research model carried out is a quantitative type and is a cross-sectional study. The population in this study was students of the University of Lampung in Indonesia. The sampling technique used purposive sampling with the criteria for final semester students or at least semester 6 to consider decision making after graduation. The number of samples in this study was 436 people. Hypothesis testing was assisted by research data analysis using SPSS version 21 software. The results showed that entrepreneurial attitudes had a significant effect on entrepreneurial intentions. In addition, subjective norms also have a significant effect on entrepreneurial intentions. Likewise, self-efficacy also has a significant effect on entrepreneurial intentions. The test of the three variables that affect students 'interest in entrepreneurship can be said that the subjective norm variable is the variable that most influences students' entrepreneurial interest. Study implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed.
Attitude; Self-efficacy; Subjective norms; Entrepreneurial intention.
Entrepreneurship is an important component in economics (Etzkowitz et al., 2000). The entrepreneurial process necessitates the creation of new business opportunities, the ability to think creatively, the determination to never give up, and the willingness to take risks (Brockner et al., 2004). This has a strong link with innovation and has helped economic growth (Lee, 2013) and is a means for knowledge transfer in the context of the company and the social-economic conditions of the community (Heidenreich, 2012; Dudin et al., 2013).
Traditionally, the entrepreneurial planning process has been based on planned behaviour theory (TPB) (Tornikoski & Maalaoui, 2019; Ahadiat et al., 2021), which considers entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The literature validates this theory with entrepreneurial intentions to explain entrepreneurial events (Fayolle & Liñán, 2014). In various studies, this theoretical framework was used to analyze external and internal factors and business intentions (Paul et al., 2017). For students, this relationship's study is significant, which has increased the scientific community and research institutions' interest (Greenhalgh et al., 2016).
However, it is not clear what elements to try in entrepreneurship education in Higher Education (Henry et al., 2017). Traditionally, this education has focused on management skills (Asah et al., 2015; Dicke et al., 2015). However, some personal skills characterize entrepreneurial behaviour (Shabbir et al., 2016; Stephan & Drencheva, 2017). This ability is related to creativity, enthusiasm and an adventurous spirit (Gu et al., 2017; Chang & Shih, 2019). Despite the fact that more literature on Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), direct and indirect relations between personal abilities, management skills and components of the theory are still known (Cavusoglu et al., 2015; Zhu et al., 2018). The literature shows that personal abilities contribute to entrepreneurial intentions (Anggadwita & Dhewanto, 2016; Farrukh et al., 2018).
However, this feature's role in the business is not clearly agreed upon. Therefore, the substitution relationship and the indirect effect on TPB need to be explored (Alzubaidi et al., 2021). To fill in the literature gaps, we used the multi-dimensional structure of entrepreneurial self-efficacy proposed by (McGee & Peterson, 2019). Many studies have shown that there is a direct relationship between self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions (Nowi?ski et al., 2019). However, recent research has shown that this connection is not just direct. Students' entrepreneurial attitudes mediate the connection between self-efficiency and intent (Tsai et al., 2016; Rosique-Blasco et al., 2018).
The possible influence between attitudes, subjective standards, self-efficacy and business intentions raises the following research issues discussed in previous literature:
Entrepreneurial Intentions
The main issue in the planned behaviour theory (Ajzen, 2015) is the person's intensity to carry out a behaviour since the intention is a middle variable that causes the behaviour of an attitude and other variables. Some things that must be taken into account in the variable of intent are 1) Intent to respond as an intermediate to motivating factors that affect behaviour. 2) The intention is not as subtle as someone dared to try. 3) Intention also doesn't matter how much effort a person plans to put into it. 4) Intention is most closely related to the next behaviour.
The intention is a unique guide that combines the deep concern of a person with certain actions. Based on the description above, it can be concluded that the intention is for someone to act or to do certain things. The formation of intentions can be explained by the theory that people are always intended to behave (De Leeuw et al., 2015; Ajzen, 2020). This theory states that attitude to behaviour is the basis that plays a role in intention. The behaviour factor has two major aspects, namely the person's conviction that it can be in the form of individual opinions that don't necessarily correspond to reality, showing or not showing certain behaviour results and an aspect of individual knowledge of the purpose of the attitude. The more positive the person's faith in the effects of an object of attitude, the more favourable his attitude is towards the object of attitude and vice versa (Maydiantoro et al., 2021). The intention in the concept of planned behaviour theory is explained by several factors, namely attitudes, subjective norms, and behaviour control (Botetzagias et al., 2015; Bagheri et al., 2019; Qi & Ploeger, 2019).
In its development, the concept of behaviour theory explains the background factors that form the basis for behavioural intentions such as knowledge, risk-taking, information and so on. The development of intentions can be explained by the theory of planned conduct which assumes that human beings are always intended to behave (Ajzen, 2020). This theory says that intent functions as the basis for the development of intentions as attitude behaviour, behavioural control and subjective norms. Several research results explain the factors that play a role in explaining entrepreneurial intentions directly but not comprehensively, such as self-efficacy (Liñán & Fayolle, 2015; Ip et al., 2018; Asimakopoulos et al., 2019; Wu et al., 2019) and entrepreneurial attitudes (Zabelina et al., 2019). Research has furthermore found that in a group of existing business owners, self-efficacy has an impact on entrepreneurial intentions but does not affect the business intentions of respondents who are about to start a business (Piperopoulos & Dimov, 2015). It is possible that the attitude and self-efficacy for entrepreneurship have not yet been formed in the group that will start entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurial Attitude
Entrepreneurial intention research stems from attitude research. Attitude is said to be an evaluative response. Evaluation response means that an attitude-expressed form of reaction occurs in a person's assessment process, which stimulates bad, negative and annoying, then crystallizes as a possible reaction to the attitude object. This is based on an evaluation response. The response will only arise when individual visits are faced with a stimulus that requires an individual reaction (Robledo et al., 2015; Arvidsson & Coudounaris, 2020). Many studies have shown that behaviour related to attitudes can even be predicted from attitudes ( Shropshire et al., 2015; Brick & Lewis, 2016; Blazar & Kraft, 2017). This result is quite rational. However, some researchers still question the relationship between these behaviours because they found few positive messages between attitudes and behaviours (Ardoin et al., 2015). (Bergmann et al., 2016) has concluded from several studies that before between attitudes and behaviour rarely reaches 0.30 (if squared, it shows only 9 per cent of the variability in behaviour is caused by attitudes). An entrepreneurial attitude is a general feeling or evaluation of entrepreneurship. They are based on beliefs and evaluations of entrepreneurs or a business. Entrepreneurial attitudes can be shown by the attitude of starting a business is interesting, a serious view of entrepreneurship, attractive in finding business ideas, consideration of starting a business, enjoying personal satisfaction in starting a business, and providing quality of life in starting a business (Maydiantoro et al., 2021).
Self-Efficacy
In addition to control behaviour, behavioural behaviour is individual behaviour to behave. Success is determined by individual factors, namely individual self-control in doing business (Chatterjee et al., 2015; Haws et al., 2016; Efendi et al., 2019). One form of entrepreneurial behaviour control is self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is an individual's belief (perception) regarding the ability to form entrepreneurial behaviour as measured by self-efficacy (Piperopoulos & Dimov, 2015), namely confidence in the ability to start a business, human resource leadership, can work under pressure, which is able to identify potential areas in the business, and is able to formulate a number of actions according to the opportunities that exist. Successful individuals have better self-confidence than individuals who fail in trying. Specifically, individuals who have self-confidence that self-confidence in entrepreneurship are not determined by external factors but depend on the business owner (Javed et al., 2018; Martins et al., 2018).
Subjective Norms
The role of the environment around the business owner also forms entrepreneurial intentions. In the concept of the Theory of Reasoned Action, it is stated as a subjective norm. Subjective standards, namely individual beliefs in standards, the environment and the individual motivation to comply with these standards (Cho & Lee, 2015; Bartle & Harvey, 2017). Subjective standards are the opinions of other parties which are considered to be important by persons who suggest that certain behaviours may or may not be displayed and motivate or may not exert a willingness to express views or opinions of other parties which are considered important to individuals or who are not here to function as entrepreneurs (Maggino, 2015). The reference group includes all groups which influence the attitude or the behaviour of the person directly (face to face) and indirectly, which is called subjective rules. The reference group has a strong influence on the choice of behaviour for individuals because it is a model in behaviour (Higgs, 2015).
The family is the largest consumer buying company in society and is the subject of extensive research (Carlucci et al., 2015; Rana & Paul, 2017). Family members are the most influential group of people because they are closest to people, in particular in Indonesia. Among other things, their role includes activities to be performed by a person.
Based on theoretical studies and previous research results, three hypotheses can be put forward in this study: H1: Entrepreneurial attitudes affect entrepreneurial intentions, H2: Self-efficacy affects entrepreneurial intentions, H3: Subjective norms affect entrepreneurial intentions, H4: Attitudes, self-efficacy and subjective norms affect entrepreneurial intentions.
Participants
The participants of this study were 436 students at the University of Lampung with the criteria for final semester students or at least semester 6 with the consideration of entrepreneurial decision making after graduation.
Instruments
This study uses primary data obtained by distributing questionnaires. In conducting the survey, researchers used a personal approach by distributing questionnaires that were given and collected directly from respondents because their location was in one place or closed together.
The researcher asked the respondent to fill in the questionnaire questions included in the list given to the respondent.
The previous questionnaire has tested its validity and reliability. The validity test results using the Pearson product-moment correlation technique show that all items of each variable are valid. Then, from the results of the reliability test with Cronbach's alpha, it is known that all items are declared reliable. The final data collected from the research sample were then analyzed using descriptive analysis and regression analysis by first fulfilling the classic assumption test requirements, namely the normality test, linearity test, heteroscedasticity test, and multicollinearity test.
Data Analysis
The research conducted is quantitative by testing the hypothesis, namely the analysis of research data using SPSS version 21 software.
The types of respondents in this study were described by gender, age, and faculty.
Gender
The criteria for respondents based on gender determined in this study are based on gender, which is grouped into two genders, namely male gender and female gender. From these data, the number of female respondents is more than that of men. Male respondents were 179 respondents or 41%, while female respondents were 257 respondents or 59%. (Figure 1)
Age
The criteria for respondents based on age were grouped into six age groups. Most respondents were 21 years old, 253 people (58.03%). In contrast, the lowest respondent's age was 24 years, namely ten people (2.29%). The details of the age of the respondents can be seen in Table 1.
Table 1 The Criteria for Respondents Based on Age |
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No | Age (years) | Frequency (n) | User Percentage (%) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 19 | 15 | 3,44 | |||
2 | 20 | 71 | 16,28 | |||
3 | 21 | 253 | 58,03 | |||
4 | 22 | 62 | 14,22 | |||
5 | 23 | 25 | 5,73 | |||
6 | 24 | 10 | 2,29 | |||
Total | 436 | 100 |
Source: Primary Data 2020
Faculty
The characteristics of the respondents based on the faculty obtained in this study are presented in Table 2.
Table 2 The Criteria for Respondents Based on the Faculty |
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No | Faculty | Frequency (n) | Presentase (%) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Teacher training and education | 83 | 19 |
2 | Economics and Business | 61 | 14 |
3 | Social science and political science | 64 | 15 |
4 | Technique | 57 | 13 |
5 | Agriculture | 68 | 16 |
6 | Mathematics and Natural science | 46 | 11 |
7 | Law | 57 | 13 |
Total | 436 | 100 |
Source: Primary Data 2020
The characteristics of respondents based on faculty are grouped into seven faculty groups, namely teacher training and education (FKIP), economics and business (FEB), social and political science (FISIP), mathematics and natural sciences (FMIPA), engineering (FT), law (FH) and agriculture (FP). The study's Respondents were fairly evenly distributed, ranging from 11% to 19%. However, the largest group of respondents from FKIP was 83 respondents (19%), and the smallest group of respondents from FMIPA were 46 respondents (11%).
Analysis of Variable Descriptions
Research Descriptive analysis for each variable shows a positive value on agreed answers with a high average percentage of answers. The attitude variable is 62.21% which shows the respondent's interest in business opportunities. For the self-efficacy variable, an agreed score of 47.2% was obtained on the indicators of self-evaluation and future beliefs regarding his career choices as an entrepreneur. Whereas in the subjective norm variable, respondents gave agreed answers with an average percentage of answers of 55.81%, which means that the assumptions, suggestions, and expectations of the closest person influence the respondent's thinking pattern. The entrepreneurial intention variable of the respondent who stated agrees as much as 52.3%, which means that most respondents are interested in becoming entrepreneurs in the future.
Hypothesis Analysis
H1: Entrepreneurial attitudes affect entrepreneurial intentions
On the basis of the F test results, the Fcount value (4.879) > Ftable (1.40) with a meaning value of 0.009 is lower than that of 0.05. So Ha was accepted, and Ho was rejected. This shows that an entrepreneurial attitude affects students' entrepreneurial intentions. Based on observations made in students' daily lives on campus, it is evident that students who have an entrepreneurial attitude are actually brave enough to start a business. The businesses opened are quite diverse, for example, by opening the service and trade industry, the creative industry and the food and beverage industry. However, they are still on a small scale. Hypothesis 1 test results also support research (Do Paço et al., 2015; Hussain & Norashidah, 2015; Krueger, 2017; Teixeira et al., 2018).
H2: Self-efficacy affects entrepreneurial intentions
On the basis of the F test, Fcount (4.611)> Ftable (1.40) is 0.012, meaning it is less than 0.05 mean value. So Ha was accepted, and Ho was rejected. This shows that self-efficacy affects students' entrepreneurial intentions. Students who have started their own business actually have quite good knowledge of the business. These students got a pretty good provision about business from the observations made from formal and informal education and social interactions. These things form high self-efficacy so that these students dare to start a business. The results of hypothesis testing III support the research of (Piperopoulos & Dimov, 2015; Rosique-Blasco et al., 2018; Nowi?ski et al., 2019; Schmutzler et al., 2019; Shi et al., 2019).
H3: Subjective norms affect entrepreneurial intentions
The Fcount value (6,577) > Ftable is based on the results of the F test (1.40). The value is 0.002, which means that it is less than the value of 0.05. So Ha was accepted, and Ho was rejected. This shows that subjective norms affect students' entrepreneurial intentions. Like the first condition (positive attitude towards entrepreneurship), 35% of the students observed were brave to become entrepreneurs because of their entrepreneurial family background. The family played a big role in instilling a subjective norm that being an entrepreneur was as successful as other professions. This also relates to the environment in which students interact, most of which also interact with other business people. The results of hypothesis testing II support the research of ( Yousaf et al., 2015; Farooq et al., 2016; Santos & Liguori, 2019; Shah et al., 2020).
H4: Attitudes, self-efficacy and subjective norms affect entrepreneurial intentions
On the basis of the results of the F test, Fcount value (5.698) > Ftable (1.37) is 0.025, meaning that the value is less than the value of 0.05. So Ha was accepted, and Ho was rejected. This shows that age-controlled attitudes, subjective norms, and self-efficacy affect student entrepreneurship. When viewed as a whole, students who dare to start a business tend to have these three factors already. In fact, students who have not dared to start a business tend not to have these three factors optimally. Meanwhile, the Adjusted R2 value is 0.146 or 15.6%. Thus, students' entrepreneurial intentions are determined by attitudes, subjective norms, and self-efficacy by 15.6%. Other factors convince the remaining 84.4%.
This study concludes that entrepreneurial attitudes significantly affect entrepreneurial intentions. The higher the positive attitude of students’ in entrepreneurship, the higher the entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, subjective norms also significantly influence entrepreneurial intentions. Subjective norms as external factors have contributed to encouraging student interest in entrepreneurship, such as success stories from business actors will increase entrepreneurial interest. Likewise, self-efficacy also significantly affects entrepreneurial intentions. This shows that there is a significant role of self-efficacy in encouraging students' interest in entrepreneurship or the higher the student's self-efficacy, the higher the student's entrepreneurial intention. The three variables that influence students' entrepreneurial interest can be stated that the subjective norm variable is the variable that most influences students' entrepreneurial interest at the University of Lampung.
Based on the results of this study, the following suggestions are given:
The results show that entrepreneurial attitudes have a significant effect on entrepreneurial intentions. The higher the positive attitude of students in entrepreneurship, the higher the entrepreneurial intention. It is suggested that lecturers encourage their students to improve entrepreneurial attitudes so that they will increase entrepreneurial intentions.
It was found that subjective norms also had a significant effect on entrepreneurial intentions. Subjective norms as external factors also encourage student interest in entrepreneurship, such as success stories of business actors will increase interest in entrepreneurship. It is suggested that entrepreneurship learning be able to invite guest lecturers from entrepreneurial circles to increase student interest in entrepreneurship.
It was found that self-efficacy encourages students' interest in entrepreneurship or the higher the student's self-efficacy, the higher the student's entrepreneurial interest. So it is suggested that in entrepreneurship lectures, students can continue to be motivated to increase self-confidence.
Based on the joint testing of the three variables in influencing students 'interest in entrepreneurship, it can be said that the subjective norm variable is the variable that most influences students' entrepreneurial interest. So it is suggested that in the lecture the portion of presenting guest lecturers from business actors needs to be improved.
To other researchers, it is necessary to conduct research at other universities, to test the results of this study.