Creat ive Educati on
2012. Vol.3, Supplement, 95-100
Published Online December 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ce) DOI:10.4236/ce.2012.38b021
95
Entrepreneurial Intentions and Its Influencing Factors:
A Survey of the University Students in Xi’an China
Zhengxia Peng, Genshu Lu, Hui Kang
Institute of Higher Education, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
Received 2012
Based on a survey of 2,010 senior university students from nine universities in Xi’an, China, this paper
anal yzes t he student ’s ent repreneur ia l intent ion level and it s infl uencing fac tor s. The res ults show t hat the
perceived subjective norm of university students has significantly positive influence on their entrepre-
neuria l attitude a nd the entrep reneu rial s elf-efficac y while all t hese factor s influenc e their ent repreneur ial
intenti ons signi ficantly. This paper also examines the infl uence of other factors s uch as indi vidual/psycho-
logic al fac tor s, fa mily back ground fac tors and soci al environment fa ctors , and f urther dis cuss es its polic y
implications.
Key words: Entr epreneurship; Entrepreneurial Intention; University Students
Introduction
Entrepreneurship is a process of creation and of realizing
values for entrepreneurs (Morris & Jones, 1999). The entrepre-
neurial activities play quite important roles in promoting eco-
nomic and social development. For these reasons, in recent
decades, the problems of entrepreneurship are focused by lots
of scholars and policy makers. Because of the development of
mass higher education in China, the employment problem of
university graduates is more and more serious. To solve this
problem, Chinese government emphasizes promoting the em-
ployment by entrepreneurship and starts to encourage and sup-
port university graduates to create their own business. Univer-
sity graduates’ employment by starting their own business is
not only encouraged and advocated by government, but it is
also th e actual choi ce of graduat es. However, at pr esent there i s
a low proportion of entrepreneurship in Chinese graduates. To
promote the entrepreneurship of graduates and drive the em-
ployment by entrepreneurship, it is necessary to explore the
entrep r eneurial intentions of university students and their in-
fluencing factors.
For more than fifty years, researches about entrepreneurship
can be divided into the following stages：in 1960s，after the
publication of The Achieving Society by McClelland(1961),
researchers mainly focused o n the effect of perso nality traits of
entrepreneurs on their entrepreneurial behaviors. In 1980s and
1990s, researchers turned their attentions to the impact of indi-
vidual intentions of entrepreneurship on their entrepreneurial
behaviors. Meantime, th e empirical study about entrepreneur ial
intentions and their influencing factors emerged in large num-
bers. Some researchers argued that compared with individual
personality variable; individual intentions of entrepreneurship
were more effective and had stronger explanatory ability in
prediction of their entrepreneurial behaviors (Ajzen, 1987).
During this period, six major entrepreneurial intention models
were proposed, including the Entrepreneurial Event Model by
Shapro (1982), the Theory of Planned Behavio r b y Ajzen (1991)
and so on. Since the 21st century, some researchers put forth
some new models on the basis of modifying and criticizing
these models. For example, Elfving, Brännback, & Carsrud
(2009) pointed out those current entrepreneurial intentions
models were often linear and static and put forth a Contextual
Model of Entrepreneurial Intentions to avoid these limitations.
By analyzing current researches about individual’s entrepre-
neurial intentions and their influencing factors, some problems
can be found. One is that the influencing factors involved in
current researches are often a partial rather than a comprehen-
sive and systematic analysis. The other is that current re-
searches mainly uses statistical methods like descriptive statis-
tics, variance analysis, regression analysis, cluster analysis and
path analysis, which are used to discuss the linear relation be-
tween the independent variables and dependent variables and
are hard to present the relations between variables as a whole
(Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001). This inevitably leads to biased
results.
To overcome these limitations in current researches, based
on a sample survey conducted on 2,010 senior university stu-
dents in nine different types of universities in Xi’an, China in
2009, this paper gives a more systematical and overall discus-
sion about the influence of individual, family and social envi-
ronment factors on the entrepreneurial intentions of university
students. Furthermore, in order to discuss relations between
variables as a whole, this paper applies structural equation
modeling to verify the relation between the entrepreneurial
intentions of university students and their influencing factors.
Literature Review
Definition of Entrepr e ne urial Intentions and Their
Measurements
Individual’s entrepreneurial intentions are the important va-
riables to predict their entrepreneurial behaviors. But research-
ers have no an identical definition about individual’s entrepre-
neurial intentions. On one hand, referring to individual’s entr e-
preneurial intentions, the current literatures adopt some similar

Z. X. PENG ET AL.
96
concep tions, like career ori entation (Franci s & Bannin g, 2001),
nascent entrepreneurs (Korunka,et al, 2003) and so forth. On
the other hand, researchers often give operational definitions
when they define individual’s entrepreneurial intentions, re-
sulting in discrepancy. This paper takes the senior university
students who rarely engage in entrepreneurial activity as re-
search objec ts. We defi ne the e ntrepre ne uria l inte ntion in t his paper
as a mental orientation such as desire, wish and hope influen-
cing their choice of entrepreneurship.
Currently the measurement to individual’s entrepreneurial
intentions includes single variable method and multivariable
method. Single variable method is to measure individual’s en-
trepreneurial intentions by single variables such as individual’s
expectation, preference, plan, behavioral anticipation. It can
also be divided into researcher judgment method and individual
self-report method. Even though the single variable method is
simple and clear, its validity and reliability are not so ideal
because of over simplicity. Multivariable method is a method
used by researchers to improve the validity and reliability of
measurement. They judge individual’s entrepreneurial inten-
tions by multivariable or from various dimensions to reduce
errors (Chen, Greene, & Crick, 1998; Van Gelderen, et al,
2008).
The Influenc ing Factors of Individual’S
Entrepreneurial Intentions
Researchers also have a deep and wide discussion on the in-
fluencing factors of individual’s entrepreneurial intentions
while measuring their entrepreneurial intentions. They propose
many analyzing models, among which The Entrepreneurial
Event Model by Shapero & Sokol (1982) and The Theory of
Planned Behavior by Ajzen(1991) are the representative ones.
Some researchers have proposed new models about entrepre-
neurial intentions (Davidsson, 1995; Elfving, Brännback, &
Carsrud, 2009; Krueger & Brazeal,1994). These models ana-
lyze many different factors affecting individual’s entrepre-
neurial intentions. They can be divided into three categories:
individual or psychological factors, family background factors
and social and envi ro nmental facto r s.
Individual/psychological factors
Many researchers have explored the impact of individual’s
gender on their entrepreneurial intentions. Some researchers
find that males have stronger intentions than females (Matthews
& Moser, 1995). Some argue that the low entrepreneurial inten-
tions for females because of their low self-efficacy. They may
avoid starting their own business for the lack of necessary ca-
pability (Fielden, et al, 2003 ). Some stereot yped images caused
by their responsibilities of supporting the family, raising the
children may have negative influence on females’ entrepre-
neurial intentions (Lee, et al, 2011).
Researchers also focus on t he personal ity traits’ ef fect on in-
dividual’s entrepreneurial intentions. Some researchers consi-
dered personality traits as an important factor. Compared with
other people, entrepreneurs show some personality traits such
as strong achivement orientation, strong individual control ,
willingness to ta ke risks, endurance, and intelligence (Shaver,
1995), but other researchers hold that those personality traits
cannot be taken as an effective explanation of their choice of
starting business (Gartner,1985).
Some researches present that individual’s attitudes to entre-
preneurship are apparently related to their entrepreneurial be-
havior, which is mediated by intentions (Ajzen & Fishbein,
1977). Ajzen(1991) points out individual’s attitudes constitute
the important influencing factors of their entrepreneurial inten-
tions.
Krueger argue that individual’s entrepreneurial intentions are
also impacted by their subjective norm which is influenced by
perceived expectation level from those who are important to
him or her like relatives, parents, friends, colleagues and so
forth to their certain behaviors and individual’s obedience to
these expectation s ( Krueger , 1993) .
The relation between the self-efficacy of individual’s entre-
preneurship and their entrepreneurial intentions has been veri-
fied b y man y resear ches (Chen, Greene & Crick, 1998). Krueger
& Brazeal (1 994) argue th at individu al’s judgment on the feasi-
bility of starting a business comes from the judgment on their
self-efficacy of implementing and planning their entrepreneuri-
al behavior. Boyd & Vozikis (1994) state that self- efficacy
influences not only the formation of individual’s entrepreneuri-
al intentions, but also the possibility of creating a firm in the
future.
According to Garzón (2010), individual’s entrepreneurial
competence p lays a deter minan t role in the earl y stage o f start-
ing a business. McClelland (1961) indicates that adults’ entre-
preneurial intentions can be predicted by the entrepreneurial
competence i n their ch ildhood . Thereafter, so me scholar s study
on individual’s entrepreneurial competences and their impact
on entrepreneurial intentions from different perspectives (Bird,
1995; Chandler & Jansen, 1992; Chen, Greene & Crick, 1998).
Man(2000) concludes that entrepreneurial competences are the
integrated abilities by which entrepreneurs succeed in imple-
menting entrepreneurial activities, including opportunity com-
petencies, relationship competencies, conceptual competencies,
organizing competencies, strategic competencies and co m mi t-
ment competencies. Even though at present a large number of
researches about entrepreneurial competences exist, they sel-
dom discuss the relationship between entrepreneurial compe-
tences and entrepreneurial intentions. Schmitt-Rodermund (2004)
concludes that student’s entrepreneurial competences refer to
their leadership, curiosity and entrepreneurial skills which are
influenced by personality traits and family’s education.
Some researchers find that the prior entrepreneurial expe-
riences may have impact on individual’s entrepreneurial inten-
tions (Krueger, 1993). Their prior entrepreneurial experiences
can not only develop individual’s entrepreneurial intentions, but
can also accumulate experiences and skills for future entrep r e-
neurial activities. Some researches, however, indicate that the
prior entrepreneurial experiences just have slight influences on
individual’s knowledge of entrepreneurship and have no signif-
icant impact on their entrepreneurial attitudes (Davidsson,
1995).
Family background factors
Some researches discuss the impact of family background
factors on individual’s entrepreneurial intentions. Current re-
searches explain families’ impact on individual’s entrepre-
neurial intentions mainly from role molding perspective and
believe parents play an important role in children’s entrepre-
neurial career. Nevertheless, some researches do not think par-
ents’ behaviors would set examples to influence children’s
entrep r eneurial intentions (Churchill,et al,1987). Entrepreneurs’
children do not proportionally become Entrepreneurs (Krueger
& Dickson, 1993).
Social environment factors
Stephen, Urbano, & Hemmen (2005) state that social envi-

Z. X. PENG ET AL.
97
ronment factors like legal rules, government support is an im-
portant factor influencing individual’s entrepreneurship. Scholars
indicate that social environment factor is an adjusting variable
which impacts individual’s entrepreneurial intentions by the
interaction with individual’s attitudes (Shapero & Sokol, 1982).
It is noteworthy that as Lüthje & Frank (2003) mentioned there
are both supporting and hindering factors among social envi-
ronment factors.
Based on literature review above, this paper will provide a
comprehensive analysis on the impact of individual/psycho-
logical factors, family background factors and social environ-
ment factor s on individual’s entrepreneurial intentions.
Research Design
Research Sample
We take senior university students from nine different types
of universities in Xi’an, China in 2009 as subjects of our re-
search. We take class as unit to investigate st udent s from eleven
majors in nine different universities which include national key
universities, regular universities and independent colleges. Ap-
proximately 2,450 questionnaires were distributed and 2,165
were returned. There are 2,010 valid questionnaires including
1241 males and 769 females with a valid rate of 92.84 percent.
Instruments
Every student was required to finish a questionnaire which
inclu des ind ividu als’ ch aracteri stics , famil ies’ so cial and econo mic
status, individual’s entrepreneurial intentions and their influencing
fac to r s.
The measuring instrument of student’s entrepreneurial
intentions.
We took instruments designed by Chen, Greene & Crick (1998)
and Van Gelderen, et al. (2008) as references in designing our
measuring instrument of student’s entrepreneurial intentions.
The measuring questions are design from the dimensions of
entrepreneurial interest, expectation, preparation, profession
preference with limitation and are compiled by Likert’s scale
with six grades of answers. The results of principal component
facto r anal ysi s indicate th at the university student’s entrepreneurial
intentions factor can be measured by 5 questions, which provides
65.46% explanation of university student’s entrepreneurial
intentions variance while the results of reliability analysis
ind icate that reliability coefficient of the scale is 0.868.
The measuring instruments of influencing factors of univer-
sity student’s entrepreneurial intentions
Analyzing the relevant literature, this paper discusses the
impact of individual/psychological factors, family background
fac to r s and social environment factors on university student’s
entrepreneuri al intentions (EI).
Individual / psychological factors:
personality traits refers to the measuring scale by Athayde
(2009), we design 12 items to measure the university student’s
personality traits whose results of principal component factor
analysis show that university student’s personality traits can be
measured from the dimensions of innovation orientation (IO),
achievement orientation (AO), risk propensity (RP) and indi-
vidual control (IC), which can explain 71.50% of university
student’s personality traits variance and the reliability coeffi-
cient of every factor ranges from 0.75 to 0.83.
Entrepreneurial Attitudes (EA), Subjective Norm (SN), En-
trepreneurial Self-Efficacy (ESE), entrepreneurial Competence
(EC), refers to the measu ring scale by Davidsson (1995), Liñán
& Chen (2009), Kaut on en,et al,(20 09 ), Man(2000), we design
items to measure these aspects. The results of principal com-
ponent factor analysis show that their factor consisting of items
can provide explanation of variance fro m 62.56% to 68.89%,
and the reliab ility coefficient o f every aspects ranges fro m0. 82
to 0.88.
Individual/psychological factors also include Prior Entrepre-
neurial Experiences (PEE) and so on.
Family background factors contain grandparents’ entrepre-
neurial experiences (GEE), parents’ and siblings’ entrepre-
neurial experiences (PSEE), relatives’ entrepreneurial exp e-
riences (REE), and friends’ entrepreneuri al experiences ( FEE).
Social background factors include：
Entrepreneurial Policy Supporting (ESP)：The measure ment
of supporting policies is judged by the student’s answer to the
item “presently our country support entrepreneurial activities
greatly”.
Entrepreneurial Environment (EE)：The results of principal
component factor analysis show that the entrepreneurial envi-
ronment factor consisting of two items can explain 81.81%
variance an d reliability coefficient is 0.79.
Entrepreneurial Resistance (ER)：It is measured from the
aspects o f self-confidence, fund, time, family support, commer-
cial skills and entrepreneurial education. The results of princip-
al component factor analysis show it can explain 49.32% of
variance an d the reliability coefficient is 0.79.
The Analyt i c Model of Student’S Entre pr e neurial
Intentions
By literat ure review, th is paper const ructs a concep tual mod-
el which reflects the influence of individual/psychological fac-
tors, family background factors and social environment factors
on university student’s entrepreneurial intentions(as shown in
Figure 1). The software such as SPSS and AMOS are used to
analyze survey dat a.
Gender
PEE
EC
IO
AO
RP
IC
GEE
PSEE
REE
FEE
ESP
EE
ER
EA
SN
ESE
EI
Figure 1.
Analytic Model for University Student’s Entrepreneurial In-
tent ions and t he Infl uencing F ac to rs.

Z. X. PENG ET AL.
98
Results
The Current Situation of Unive r sity Student’S
Entrepreneurial Intentions
This pap er uses five it ems in clu ding entr epr eneuri al int erests,
entrepreneurial expectations, entrepreneurial preparation and
profession preference with limitation to measure university
student’s entrepreneurial intentions. Students’ answers can be
divided into six grades (1 = extremely agree, 6 = extremely
disagree). We can see that, to the item “My goal is to become
an entrepreneur”, 48.8% students choose extremely agree and
agree while those choose disagree and extremely disagree ac-
count for 5.8%. So we can say the percentage of students who
take entrepreneurship as their goal is relatively high. To the
item “I will try all my best tocreate my own business”, 39.8%
students choose extremely agree and agree while those choose
disagree and extremely disagree account for 11.5%. This num-
ber shows university students have high expectation to entre-
preneurship. To the item “I’ve already prepared everything for
starting a business”, 33.9% students show extremely agree and
agree while 13.9% of them show disagree and extremely disag-
ree, which indicates that university students are actively pre-
paring for starting their own business. Referring to the profes-
sion preference with limitation, the answers to item “Though
failure, I will continue to create my own business until suc-
ceed” show that 40.0% students choose extremely agree and
agree while only 8.1% of them show disagree and extremely
disagree. To the item “Even though the strong rejection from
parents, I will still commit to starting my business”, 36.6%
students show extremely agree and agree while only 11.4% of
them show disagree and extremely disagree, which indicates
that even when they meet restrictions, university students have
strong entrepreneurial intentions. Generally speaking, the re-
sults reflect strong entrepreneurial intentions of university stu-
dents.
Analysis of University Student’S Entrepreneurial
Intentions and Their Inf luencing Factors U sing
Structural Equation Model
In order to analyze more accurately the impact of individu-
al/psychological factors, family background factors and social
environment factors on university student’s entrepreneurial
intentions, we utilize structural equation modeling (SEM) to
verify the conceptual model we constructed. In terms of the
research and recommendation of Hau, Wen, & Chen (2004), we
select goodness of fit indicators like χ2, GFI, CFI, RMSEA,
NNFI to examine the degree of model fit. During these indica-
tors, it’s better for Chi-squar e test n o t to r each si gni ficance. B ut
the value of Chi-square is easily influenced by sample size. If
the sample si ze is large, the value is easy to reach si gnificance.
CFI is a goodness of fit index with many strong points, which
has less impact from sample size. Even though RMSEA is also
influenced by sample size, it is insensitive to the misspecifica-
tion model with few parameters, so it is also rarely influenced
by sample size, the smaller the value of RMSEA is, the fitter
the model is. The large value of NN FI (TLI) indicates a good fit,
but this indicator would vary with the change of sample size.
Figure 2 shows the results of the analysis on conceptual
model shown in Figure 1 by AMOS18.0 (standardized regres-
sion weights). In Figure 2, the path with significance is re-
served (p < 0.05). The goodness of fit index of this model is χ2
= 1189.138 (df = 118, p = 0.001). Since this survey has large
Figure 2.
Analysis on University Student’s Entrepreneurial Intentions and Their
Influencing Factors: Structural Equation Mod e l (n=2,010).
sample size (n = 2.010), it is easy to reach significance. GFI =
0.935, RMSEA = 0.067, CFI ＝ 0.924, NNF I = 0.902. The
values of the goodness of fit indexes suggest a reasonably high-
fitting model.
When we systematically examine the influence of individu-
al/psychological factors, family background factors and social
environment factors on university student’s entrepreneurial
inten tions, we can see that: 1) In individual /psychological fac-
tors, university student’s prior entrepreneurial experience has
significantly positive impact on their subjective norm and en-
trepreneurial self-efficacy while entrepreneurial competence
and individual’s control exert significantly positive impact on
their subjective norm, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entre-
preneurial attitude. Risk propensity exerts significant positive
impact on student’s subjective norm. The factors like gender,
innovation orientation and achievement orientation have no
significant impact on student’s entrepreneurial attitude, subjec-
tive norm and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. 2) Family back-
ground factors like the entrepreneurship of grandparents, par-
ents, relatives and friends have no significant impact on stu-
dent’s entrepreneurial attitude, subjective norm and entrepre-
neurial self-efficacy. They just have indirect connect with st u-
dent’s prior entrepreneurial experience. 3) In social environ-
ment factors, supporting policies, entrepreneurial environment
exert significantly positive impact on entrepreneurial attitude,
subjective norm and entrepreneurial self-efficacy of university
students. 4) Subjective norm of university students also have
significantly positive influence on their entrepreneurial attitude
and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. 5) Entrepreneurial attitude,
subjective norm and entrepreneurial self-efficacy of university
students produce significantly positive impact on their entre-
preneurial intentions while entrepreneurial resistance exerts
significantly negative impact on their entrepreneurial inten-
tions.
Conclusions and Discussions
Based on a sample survey conducted on 2,010 seni or univer-
sity students in Xi’an, China in 2009, this paper analyzes the
entrepreneurial intentions of university students and their in-
fluencing factors. The results suggest that university students
have strong entrepreneurial intentions.

Z. X. PENG ET AL.
99
This paper systematically explores the influence of other
factors such as individual/psychological factors, family back-
ground factors and social environment factors on the entrepre-
neurial intentions of university students. The results indicate
that the subjective norm of university students has significantly
positive influence on their entrepreneurial attitude and the en-
trepreneurial self-efficacy and all these factors exert signifi-
cantly positive influence on their entrepreneurial Intentions. In
individual/psychological factors, university student’s entrepre-
neurial experience has significantly positive impact on their
subjective norm and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Entrepre-
neurial competence and individual’s control of university stu-
dent exert significantly positive impact on some intervening
variables, such as student’s ent repreneurial attitude, subjective
norm and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, by which they produce
significantly positive impact on student’s entrep reneuri al inten-
tions. Student’s risk propensity also exerts significant positive
impact on their subjective norm. By this intervening variable,
their entrepreneurial intentions are affected. Family background
fac to r s have no significant impact on student’s entrepreneurial
attitude, subjective norm, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and en-
trepreneurial intention. In social environment factors, both
supporting policies and entrepreneurial environment of society
exert significant positive impact on student’s entrepreneurial
attitude, subjective norm, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy,
which exert significant positive impact on student’s entrepre-
neuri al intention s as intervenin g variables. S ome entrepren euri-
al resistances caused by lack of self-confidence, funds, time,
family support, business skills and entrepreneurial education
have significantly negative impact on student’s entrepreneurial
intentions.
The results mentioned above are of significance to policy
making. In three types of factors including individual/psycho-
logical factors, family background factors and social environ-
ment factors, except family background factors, individual/
psychological factors and social environment factors have sig-
nificant influence on university student’s entrepreneurial inten-
tions. Family background factors of university students can’t be
controlled by policy, but individual/psychological factors and
social environment factors can be regulated by education and
relevant policy instruments. For instance, we can support uni-
versity students for creating their own business and promote
their entrepreneurial competence, self controllability and en t re-
preneurial self-efficacy to make them acquire more successful
entrep reneurial exper iences by taking a seri es of measures such
as entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial skill training,
developing appropriate risk propensity, making a encouraging
and supporting atmosphere, setting up entrepreneurial funds
and incubating entrepreneurship of university students. By
these education and supporting policies, individual/psycho-
logical status of university students and social environment are
expected to be changed to promote university student’s entre-
preneurial intentions, reaching the goal of promoting employ-
ment by entrepreneurship.
Acknowledgements
This paper is supported by Program for New Century Excel-
lent Talents in University of Ministry of Education (NCET-
08-0452), Program for Humanities and Social Sciences Plan-
ning Fund of MOE(2012) and Program for Humanities and
Social Sciences Youth Fund in Western and Frontier Areas of
MOE(2012), and program of the Specialized F und for t he Bas ic
Research Operating expenses Program of Central College in
2011(sk2011004), wh i ch is warmly thanked.
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