Identifying and Measuring Factors affecting Entrepreneurial Intention in Engineering Students of Al-Zahra University

The evolution of countries' economies from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy doubles the need for universities to shift from teaching and research to triple education, research, and entrepreneurship. Students, as one of the most important human resources of universities, have a key role to play in this. The purpose of this study was to identify and measure the factors affecting entrepreneurial intention in engineering students of Al-Zahra University. For this purpose, a survey strategy with a sample size of 438 people was used. Research findings show that entrepreneurial personality traits have a significant positive relationship with students' attitudes to entrepreneurship. There is also a significant positive relationship between entrepreneurial attitude and students' entrepreneurial intentions. In addition, there was a significant positive relationship between perceived support for entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intention, but no significant negative relationship between perceived barriers to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intention. Also, among the various engineering disciplines, mechanical engineering students, and among the various academic years, freshman students have the most entrepreneurial intention. The most important policy recommendations in this study include entrepreneurship training for students, continuous monitoring of entrepreneurship attitudes and students' entrepreneurial intentions, and finally, promotional activities and structural reforms to increase student entrepreneurship support and reduce student entrepreneurship barriers.