Decoding Entrepreneurial Traits Among University Students from the Global South: The Moderating Roles of Gender and Work Experience

Research on students’ inclination towards entrepreneurial activities has garnered worldwide attention from scholars and practitioners. However, there is a lack of studies from the Global South investigating entrepreneurial inclinations and their antecedents among university students in business management. Therefore, this study examines the impact of gender and work experience on entrepreneurial characteristics, that is, self-efficacy, motivations and inclination. This study utilizes ‘social cognitive theory’ to analyse how gender and work experience influence the associations among self-efficacy, entrepreneurial incentives (career, innovation and independence) and entrepreneurial inclination. This study utilized a ‘partial least squares structural equation modelling’ technique to analyse data collected from 364 students in a postgraduate business management programme. The results support significant relationships between entrepreneurial inclination and its predictors. Further, work experience demonstrates a more uniform moderating effect across variables, whereas gender mainly moderates the independence motive and entrepreneurial inclination. The study findings can assist all stakeholders in fostering an environment that encourages students’ interest in entrepreneurial activities, considering their gender and work experience, particularly in a developing country in the Global South. The research enriches entrepreneurial literature by contextualizing findings within a developing country and offering implications for gender-related policy and experiential entrepreneurship education.