The Effect of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy on Agricultural Student's Entrepreneurial Intention at University of Zanjan

Given the importance of entrepreneurship in providing new job opportunities and help create sustainable jobs on the one hand, and considering the importance of entrepreneurial intention as the most important factor to predict entrepreneurial behaviors on the other hand, it seems inevitable to study factors affecting entrepreneurial intention. Accordingly, the main purpose of this research was to study the effect of entrepreneurial intention on agricultural students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The statistical population of the study contained of all M.Sc. students in agriculture faculty of Zanjan University in 2014- 2015 academic year (N=469). According to Bartlett et al. (2001) table, a sample size of 285 was selected using a stratified random sampling method (n=285). Data were collected using the standard questionnaires of De Noble et al. (1999) and McGee et al. (2009) in order to measure of entrepreneurial intention and Linan and Chen (2009) and Lorz (2011) for measuring entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts. Construct validity and composite reliability of the research instrument were tested by estimating the measurement model and they were satisfactory after making necessary corrections. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicated that entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial self-efficacy of majority of students were at low and medium levels for both variables. Also, the results showed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy had a positive and significant effect on dependent variable of entrepreneurial intention explaining about 40 percent of its variances.