Entrepreneurial Intention among Commerce Graduates in Punjab: The Role of Self-Efficacy, Family Support and Institutional Environment

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigates the determinants of entrepreneurial intention (EI) among undergraduate and postgraduate commerce graduates in Punjab, India, with particular emphasis on three under-examined contextual factors: self-efficacy, family entrepreneurial support, and institutional environment. While the global literature on entrepreneurial intention is extensive, its application to commerce-stream students in non-metropolitan Indian states — where career choice is strongly shaped by conservative occupational norms and limited institutional infrastructure — remains inadequately explored.
Design/Methodology/Approach: A structured questionnaire was administered to 480 commerce and management students from ten higher educational institutions in Punjab, selected through stratified random sampling across institutional types (government, private aided, private unaided) and geographic locations (urban and rural). The theoretical framework is grounded in Ajzen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behaviour, augmented with contextual variables specific to the Indian higher education landscape. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted to identify the latent construct structure, followed by Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using SmartPLS 4 to test the hypothesised directional relationships. One-way ANOVA and independent samples t-tests were used to examine demographic group differences in EI scores.
Findings: Self-efficacy emerged as the strongest determinant of entrepreneurial intention (β = 0.43, p < 0.001), followed by institutional environment (β = 0.29, p < 0.001) and family entrepreneurial support (β = 0.22, p < 0.001). Attitude toward entrepreneurship significantly mediated the relationship between family support and entrepreneurial intention. Significant gender and location-based differences were observed: male students and urban students reported substantially higher entrepreneurial intention scores. The structural model explained 61.7% of the variance in entrepreneurial intention and demonstrated good fit (CFI = 0.931, RMSEA = 0.056).
Practical Implications: The findings call for targeted institutional investments in entrepreneurship cells, mentorship programmes, and role-model-driven awareness initiatives — particularly in government colleges and rural institutions where both self-efficacy and institutional environment scores are significantly lower. Gender-specific interventions addressing female students' lower self-efficacy perceptions are strongly recommended.
Originality/Value: This paper delivers original, first-hand evidence on the entrepreneurial intention of commerce graduates in Punjab — a population and geographic context not previously studied with this level of methodological rigour — and offers a theoretically grounded, contextually enriched extension of the standard TPB framework.

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