Student's Entrepreneurial Intention in Higher Education – The Entrepreneurship Intention Questionnaire Applied at ESCE – Polytechnic Institute of Setubal

Abstract

The choice to pursue an entrepreneurial path is the result of a complex cognitive journey. It's vital to comprehend this mental process as it unfolds during the educational phase, especially since entrepreneurship is now a potential career option for a growing number of students. This paper explores and evaluates entrepreneurial intentions (EI) and their antecedents among 132 students from College of Business Administration (ESCE), Polytechnic Institute of Setubal (IPS). To collect data, the research used part of the Entrepreneurial Intentions Questionnaire (EIQ) designed by Liñán and Chen (2009) with additional demographic questions. This paper also examines the role of age, gender, work experience and self-employment in affecting personal attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and entrepreneurial intentions. The research is based on a study developed by Liñan and Chen (2009) that was applied in two different cultures: Spain and Taiwan. This research adds another comparison with students from Portugal and the results allowed the confirmation of the findings of previous studies concerning the relationship between the entrepreneurial intention and the personal attitude and perceived behavioral control.