Do University Ecosystems Impact Student’s Entrepreneurial Behavior?

ABSTRACT The goal of this study is to propose a conceptual model for assessing the impact of entrepreneurship supportive university ecosystems (ESUE) on student’s entrepreneurship related behavioral characteristics: entrepreneurial intention (EI) and entrepreneurial characteristics (EC). The empirical research used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and a sample of 1,012 observations. Findings indicate that an ESUE has a positive influence on student’s EI. However, this effect is mostly perceived on the changing of student’s EC than on the direct stimulation for becoming entrepreneurs. Moreover, student’s EI is also influenced by the greater entrepreneurial ecosystem in which universities are embedded. Evidences hint at the possibility that the university’s push for entrepreneurship is insufficient. University and/or public managers stand to benefit from our findings for reassessing their current arrangements for fostering student entrepreneurship and designing new, more efficient mechanisms. Moreover, the literature presents a myriad of localized assessments of small countries, whereas this research provides a rough nation-wide overview of a continent-sized nation, thus contributing to the testing of the model against different contexts.