Entrepreneurial skills and their impact on entrepreneurial intentions in university students

Abstract

The objective of this research is to identify the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies and their impact on entrepreneurial intention, with the goal of determining which competencies should be considered when designing actions to promote entrepreneurial intention among university students. For this purpose, we developed a direct structured questionnaire and administered it to 1,141 students from the Accounting, Administration, and Computer Science programs at the Faculty of Accounting and Administration of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The results show that entrepreneurial competencies consist of three main variables: skills and abilities, attitudes, and knowledge. Although all three variables significantly influence entrepreneurial intention, our findings indicate that knowledge has the greatest impact on individuals' intention to start a business. These results highlight the fundamental role of Higher Education Institutions in designing and implementing programs to promote entrepreneurial intentions.