Female Students' Entrepreneurial Orientation and Entrepreneurial Intention

Abstract Purpose- Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation is measured through three major dimensions, which are Innovativeness, Risk taking ability and Proactiveness. Individual entrepreneurial orientation is a psychological construct and helps in understanding the reasons for an individual's engagement in entrepreneurial activities. The paper discusses the impact of entrepreneurial orientation on the entrepreneurial intention of female students in higher education in the western province. Design/methodology/approach- The study adopted a quantitative research approach. An online service was conducted. The online questionnaire was prepared from existing literature and distributed to a sample of 216 female students in higher education institutes in the Western Province. To test the hypothesized relationships between the constructs, regression analysis was performed. Findings- Results suggested that entrepreneurial orientation had a partial impact on entrepreneurial intention among female students in higher education. Proactiveness and risk-taking did not have a significant impact on entrepreneurial orientation. Innovativeness had a positive significant impact on entrepreneurial orientation. The study supports the arguments of the findings of other studies: females have lower individual entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial intention. Implication- The study support to build a strong entrepreneurial eco-system for female university students through the model used in this study. Future researchers can make a comparative study between male and female university students. Future researchers could use other entrepreneurial variables such as entrepreneurial efficacy as mediating variables. Keywords: Entrepreneurial intention, Entrepreneurial orientation, Innovativeness, Pro-activeness, Risk-takin