An Exploration of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Model in Agricultural Faculties From the Viewpoint of Agriculture Students

The present research aimed at explaining the entrepreneurial ecosystem model in agricultural faculties from the viewpoint of agriculture students. The research was an applied study in goal and an exploratory sequential mixed-methods study in approach. Fifteen startup experts were analyzed using purposive sampling in the qualitative phase. In the quantitative phase, the population was composed of 3781 agriculture students out of whom 416 students were selected using a random sampling method with proportional allocation based on the Cochran formula. The validity of the research instrument (closed-ended questions) was measured by discriminant validity using the average variance extracted (AVE) index which was acceptably higher than 0.5 for the studied constructs. The reliability was assessed using the combined reliability (CR) method, which was acceptably higher than 0.6 for the studied constructs. Cronbach's alpha was also estimated at higher than 0.7 for the research constructs. Data were analyzed by frequency and mean in the descriptive part and confirmatory factor analysis in the inferential part. According to the findings in the qualitative phase, human capital, policymaking, socio-cultural, support, market development, and financial-economic components had the most number of codes, respectively. The quantitative findings showed that the most important components based on factor loadings in the entrepreneurial ecosystem model of agricultural faculties included human capital (0.96), support (0.95), socio-cultural component (0.94), policymaking (0.92), market development (0.88), and financial-economic component (0.83). Notably, human capital was perceived by the agriculture students to be the most important component for the growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in agriculture faculties. Therefore, agricultural faculties are recommended to provide the students with an opportunity for experiential teaching and learning in the fields of entrepreneurship and launching new startups.