Intention of Business Graduate and Undergraduate to Become Entrepreneur: A Study from Pakistan

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of personal and contextual factors on entrepreneurial intention of business graduates and undergraduates in Pakistan. Survey information from 114 students from department of management sciences, The Islamia University Bahawalpur was collected through self administrative questionnaires. Regression analysis, correlation, ANOVA, and descriptive statistics were employed to get results. The results indicate that students have moderate intention to become entrepreneurs. Personal experience and family business background are positive predictors; gender has no significant impact, increase in age reduces the likelihood to start a business. Interestingly, students who have studied Entrepreneurship as a course are less enthusiastic to be self employed compared to who have not studied. There are many obstacles like social, capital, government, and environmental which are responsible of this behavior. Policy makers, universities and practitioners should reduce the hurdles and provide role models and appreciating environment to increase the entrepreneurial intention