Assessing the entrepreneurial intention among M.com students of a private and public university in West Bengal: An empirical study

Abstract

Identifying entrepreneurial intention is the first step in executing entrepreneurial behaviors since intention is identified as the single best predictor of human behavior. Firstly, this paper aims to identify and compare the relevant factors influencing entrepreneurial intention among M.Com students of a private and public university by incorporating Shapero’s Entrepreneurial Event Model (EEM). Secondly, it focuses on investigating the variation in responses of the students towards the relevant factors based on their demographic characteristics, such as gender. As a sample, 100 students of M.Com programme of a private and public university in West Bengal have been considered by adopting random sampling technique. Data were collected using a questionnaire. To fulfill the objectives, the study has adopted RWS to identify and compare the relevant factors of EEM that influence entrepreneurial intention among M.Com students of a private and public university. Moreover, non-parametric tests like Mann-Whitney U have been conducted using SPSS 20 version software to measure the variation in responses among the students based on their gender. The results exhibit that M.Com students of private university are more inclined towards entrepreneurship compared to those of public university. Moreover, male students prefer entrepreneurship over other career options compared to female students.