How Does The Perception Of Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Affect Entrepreneurial Intention Among University Students In Saudi Arabia?

Entrepreneurship receives a lot of attention from researchers and practitioners because of their critical role in fostering socio-economic development. Despite the existence of numerous studies that examined the factors that affect entrepreneurial intention, most of them have concentrated on examining the impact of personal factors on developing entrepreneurial intention. Following the suggestions of recent studies to examine the environmental factors, this study focuses on examining the impact of entrepreneurial ecosystem factors in predicting entrepreneurial intention among university students in Saudi Arabia. The study adopted a quantitative approach using a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire as the data collection instrument directed to undergraduate business students enrolled at a public university in Saudi Arabia. The hypothesized relationships are tested with data collected from 259 respondents by using the multiple regression analysis. The empirical findings revealed that two factors of entrepreneurial ecosystem, mainly access to physical infrastructure and social factors, have a significant positive predictive relationship with entrepreneurial intention. The results provide empirical evidence to the policy makers in Saudi Arabia recommending that policy makers should examine various combinations of different entrepreneurial ecosystem factors to predict entrepreneurial intention among students. The study proposes that it is not mandatory that the high levels of all entrepreneurial ecosystem factors are important to predict high entrepreneurial intentions, rather in some conditions the low levels of certain factors are obligatory to predict high levels of entrepreneurial intentions.