Effect of Social Capital Dimensions on Entrepreneurial Intention of Agricultural Students

The present study was conducted to investigate and formulate the effects of social capital dimensions on entrepreneurial intentions. The population of this study consisted of all fourth year agricultural students of Yasouj University (N=196), that by using Patten (2002) sampling table, 130 student were selected as the sample using the random simple sampling method. The main instrument of study was questionnaire that included four latent variables: the cognitive social capital, structural social capital, relational social capital and entrepreneurial intentions. In order to investigate the validity, reliability and fitting of latent variables and test of hypothesis, structural equation modeling with LISREL8.54 software was used. Results of Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the validity, reliability and fitness of latent variables. Results of structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that relational and cognitive social capital dimensions can predict entrepreneurial intention. But, structural social capital was not recognized as predictor of entrepreneurial intention. Finally, for helping managers, planners and researchers in higher agricultural education system, a number of practicable suggestions were proposed to reinforce entrepreneurial intentions of agricultural students.