Individual and Educational Factors Affecting Entrepreneurial Knowledge, Attitude and Intention of Agricultural Students: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study (Case: College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Tehran University)

Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs are important factors in the development of the country and therefore, it is necessary that this subject area be given special attention by researchers, planners, and policy makers. The purpose of this study is to answer the question of whether the level of entrepreneurial knowledge, attitude and intention of students has changed compared to previous years or not; and whether the impact of individual and educational factors on students' entrepreneurial knowledge, attitudes and intentions has changed over the time. The study used repeated cross-sectional design. The statistical population consisted of senior students at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Tehran University in the academic year 2013-14 (group A) and 2019-20 (group B). 120 students from group A and 98 students from group B were selected. The main instrument for data collection was questionnaire. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed by views of professors and experts and Cronbach's alpha (knowledge= .82, attitude= .91, intention= .88). Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Findings showed that the level of entrepreneurial knowledge, attitude and intention of students has changed compared to previous years and has improved significantly. Findings indicated the impact of entrepreneurship courses, entrepreneurial experience, and entrepreneurial family on entrepreneurial knowledge, attitude and intention of agricultural students. In addition, there were positive and significant relationships between students' entrepreneurship knowledge and entrepreneurship attitude with entrepreneurial intention. Totally, the results show a promising and motivating issue that, consequently, by improving entrepreneurship rules and regulations and business ease indicators, we can see the transformation of entrepreneurial intentions into entrepreneurial activity.