Author

  • Justice Malebana

    • Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa
    • South Africa

Abstract

This paper investigates the entrepreneurial intentions of 329 final-year commerce students in a rural university in the Limpopo province. The study is based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). The objectives of the study were to test whether the TPB can help explain the entrepreneurial intentions of rural university students; to determine whether rural students will have intentions to start a business and to test the validity of the entrepreneurial intention questionnaire in a South African context. The study was conducted by means of a survey. SPSS was used to analyse the data. The results indicate that entrepreneurial intention of the respondents can be predicted from the attitude towards becoming an entrepreneur, perceived behavioural control and subjective norms. The findings reveal that the TPB is a valuable tool in understanding entrepreneurial intention of rural university students in South Africa. The majority of students intend to start a business in the future and the entrepreneurial intention questionnaire was found to be a valid instrument to measure the entrepreneurial intention of students in a South African context. Recommendations for policy makers, entrepreneurship educators and researchers have been highlighted.

Keywords

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Malebana, J. (2014). Entrepreneurial intentions of South African rural university students: A test of the theory of planned behaviour. Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, 6(2), 130-143. https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v6i2.476

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Research Paper

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Vol. 6 No. 2 (2014) Tourism, Consumption & Strategic Leadership View issue contents

Published

2014-02-28

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