Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to assess the effects of entrepreneurial education on engineering students’s entrepreneurial intention

Abstract

This study aims to assess the impacts of three components from Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) on Entrepreneurial intention and analyze the mediating effects of these three components in the relationship between Entrepreneurial education and Entrepreneurial intention and in the relationship between Self-Efficacy and Entrepreneurial intention among engineering students. Data were collected via a structured questionnaire from engineering students at Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. The methodology employed Structural Equation Modelling Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) using SmartPLS (version 3.3.3) to assess the relationship among variables. Findings confirm the directly positive relationship between Attitude toward entrepreneurship, Perceived behaviour control and Subjective norms on engineering student’s entrepreneurial intention. These three components of TPB mediate the relationship between Entrepreneurial education, Self-Efficay and engineering student’s entrepreneurial intention. This study contributes toward the understanding of engineering student’s entrepreneurial intention in Vietnam as an emerging market in Asia. The mediating effects of three components of TPB have been systematically investigated and the indirect roles of Entrepreneurial education and Self-Efficay have been validated by applying employed Structural Equation Modelling Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS). Managerial implications are discussed to promote engineering student’s entrepreneurial intention in Vietnam. Higher education leaders and policymakers can utilise the findings to construct the initiatives of entrepreneurship development and their implementation for engineering students.