Perceived Value Of Entrepreneurship And Its Impact On University Students' Entrepreneurial Intention

Entrepreneurial activity begins with the formation of individual's entrepreneurial intention. Though not all individuals with entrepreneurial intention become entrepreneurs, the study of entrepreneurial intention still offers us a means to better explain and predict entrepreneurship. Previous researches studied the entrepreneurial intention from the aspects of situational influence and personal traits, instead of viewing it as an outcome of interaction between entrepreneurial activity and individuals. In this paper, a new concept, perceived value of entrepreneurship, is adopted and a new model of the formation of entrepreneurial intention based on perceived value of entrepreneurship has been proposed.The paper is mainly composed by five sections: the literature review; Perceived value of entrepreneurship; The perceived value of entrepreneurship scale: development and validation; The model of entrepreneurial intention formation based on perceived value of entrepreneurship; Incentive mechanism for university students' entrepreneurial intention.Firstly, a literature review on entrepreneurship, especially entrepreneurial intention was presented. By summarizing the evolution and the empirical analysis of the most important entrepreneurial intention models as well as researches on graduate start-up in China, the study highlights the need for research that incorporates advanced concept in cross-discipline.Secondly, through the analysis of the characteristics of entrepreneurial intention, a new concept—perceived value of entrepreneurship was developed on the basis of perceived value theory in marketing research.Thirdly, by means of a multi-dimensional procedure, the author has developed and tested a scale of measurement of the perceived value of entrepreneurship with the benefit and sacrifice components. The benefit component has five dimensions while the sacrifice component has two dimensions. Results from the present study demonstrate that both of the reliability and validity of the scale are satisfying. Furthermore, the relationships between attitude and perceived value in their prediction of behavioral intention were examined, resulting in three competing models. Thus, the three models were utilized to assess which one best explains university students' entrepreneurial intention. Results revealed that perceived value of entrepreneurship was direct antecedent of entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurial attitude lead to perceived value of entrepreneurship.Finally, specific theoretical and managerial implications for establishing incentive mechanism for university students' entrepreneurial intention are discussed, based on the empirical results of the above two sections.