EXAMINING THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP READINESS AMONG OMANI STUDENTS USING THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ON DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to investigate the entrepreneurship intentions among the Omani students. For this purpose, we utilized the theory of planned behavior and its three components including attitude, social norms, and perceived behavioral control and checking their effects on entrepreneurship intentions among the students. Data is collected from UTAS-Nizwa final year students (n=85). Key findings of the study are that attitude towards entrepreneurship (β=.705, P<05) have positive and significant effects on entrepreneurship intentions among the students. Additionally, we compared the results based on four demographic factors namely gender, age, the field of study, and father’s profession. Our result shows that the influence of attitude, social norms, and perceived behavioral control on entrepreneurship intentions among the student is significantly different based on the field of study and the father’s profession. We concluded that the theory of planned behavior is a suitable tool for understanding entrepreneurship among the youngsters and attitude, social norms, and demographic factors are important predictors of entrepreneurship intentions among students.