Impact of Creativity, Autonomy, and Workload on Entrepreneurial Intention of Students: The Mediating Role of Attitude toward Entrepreneurship

Researchers have focused on entrepreneurial intention and contextual and individual factors affecting it as a robust theoretical framework for explaining entrepreneurial behavior. This study investigated the effect of creativity, autonomy, and workload with the mediating role of attitude on the entrepreneurial intention of students in a coherent framework. This research is an applied study in terms of goal, a quantitative study in terms of approach, and a descriptive-correlational study in type. The statistical population included all humanities students at Shahed University out of whom 340 people were selected by the simple randomization technique. The data collection instrument was a standard questionnaire. Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS) using the SmartPLS software package. The results showed that attitude and creativity had a significant and positive effect on students' intentions, but autonomy did not have a significant effect on the intention at the 95% confidence level. The workload had a significant and negative effect on intention and attitude. The mediating role of attitude was also confirmed. The findings provided evidence for the importance of creativity and autonomy in the formation of entrepreneurial intention among students. It was argued that attitude could act as a mechanism to transform creativity and autonomy into the intention. Therefore, it is suggested to the policymakers in the education systems to create a supportive environment and appropriate training to overcome the challenges of entrepreneurship and seek to create a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship in creative students.