A Study on Entrepreneurial Intention of University Students in Bangladesh

Entrepreneurial intention is the function of motives and barriers encountered by the university students during their studies. As the unemployment rate among the university graduates is the highest in Bangladesh, the research focused on university students with the aim to predict their entrepreneurial behaviors. Previous studies identified different environmental contexts of the countries have different influence on the perception regarding motives and barriers of entrepreneurial intention of the students. Hence, to stimulate the development of entrepreneurship, it is important to uncover university student’s perceptions regarding the motives and barriers to develop entrepreneurship and their influences on entrepreneurial intention of the graduates. To conduct the research, the primary data were collected from 398 business students using simple random sampling method through self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the demographic profiles of the respondents. A multivariate statistical technique like Factor Analysis was used to identify the factors influencing entrepreneurial intention and Regression Analysis was used to predict the significant impact factors. It is evident in the study that the driving factors like autonomy and market opportunity has significant positive impact whereas barriers like financial and government support, lack of skills has significant negative impact on the student’s entrepreneurial intentions. This paper will assist the policy makers, educational institutions and researchers to develop several implementable strategies like enterprise education, liberal tax system, financial and regulatory support to promote entrepreneurship in a developing country like Bangladesh.