The Achievement of Entrepreneurship Competence and Entrepreneurial Intentions: Gender Role, Attitude and Perception of Entrepreneurship Controls Mediation

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the different models on the factors that influence achievement of entrepreneurial competence and entrepreneurial intentions, between male and female students, which is mediated by attitudes and control perceptions of entrepreneurship. The participants of this study included 192 students who took entrepreneurship courses in various study programs at Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta in the even semester of 2015-2016 academic year. Entrepreneurial intentions, entrepreneurial attitudes, perceptions of entrepreneurial control, and achievement of entrepreneurial competencies data were obtained using questionnaires, while the student gender information was gathered from the university database. Data analysis was performed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) statistics through Partial Least Square (PLS) in multiple group analyses with the help of Smart PLS 3.1.7 software. The results stressed that the students’ achievement of entrepreneurship, after completing entrepreneurship subject, did not have direct effect to their entrepreneurial intentions. Furthermore, the achievement of entrepreneurial competence had a significant positive effect on entrepreneurial intentions by mediating a combination of attitudes and perceptions of entrepreneurial control in male students with a t-statistic of 4.401, at p < 0.05 and in female students with a t-statistic of 5.072 at p<0.05. The model difference test results obtained were t-statistics of 0.913, with p>0.05, which suggest that there is no significant difference in the model of the effect of achievement of entrepreneurial competence on entrepreneurial intentions, between male and female students, which is mediated by entrepreneurial attitudes and perceptions of entrepreneurial control.