FACTORS AFFECTING ENTREPRENEURIAL ATTITUDE OF FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

Purpose of the study: This research study aims to measure the entrepreneurial attitude of female university students and investigates the factors contributing to the development of entrepreneurial attitude among female students in Pakistan. The core objective of the study was to develop entrepreneurial attitudes among females and make them capable to adopt small-scale businesses. Methodology: A quantitative approach was employed to measure the entrepreneurial attitude of female students and further exploring different factors affecting the attitude of female students towards adopting the business as a career option. In this study, a survey method was used in which quantitative data on female students’ entrepreneurial attitude and different affecting factors were collected from 2576 female students from eight public sector universities located in Punjab province. The entrepreneurial attitude scale was used as a survey instrument originally developed by Ali, Topping, and Tariq (2011) and further modified by the researchers to measure the entrepreneurial attitude of female students. A factor-based scale was developed to measure the effect of these factors on female students’ entrepreneurial attitudes. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and regression techniques by using SPSS 16th Version. Results: Findings of multiple regression analysis exhibits that the role of education is the best contributor to the female students’ entrepreneurial attitude. The other contributing factors are family support, technological assistance, business environment, and social support but their contribution is small whereas government initiatives and legal provisions were not supportive for developing entrepreneurial attitudes among female students. Applications of this study: This study can be useful for arranging entrepreneurial career development programs for the development of the entrepreneurial attitude among female students and make them capable to start their entrepreneurial endeavours. Novelty/Originality of this study: The novelty of this study was to investigate the effects of different familial, social, educational, political, environmental, and legal factors on female students’ entrepreneurial attitudes.