Are the Intentions to Entrepreneurship of Men and Women Shaped Differently? The Impact of Entrepreneurial Role-Model Exposure and Entrepreneurship Education

How the exposure to role models and entrepreneurship education shape perceptions and attitudes toward entrepreneurship differently in men and women is analyzed in the context of Ajzen's theory of planned behavior. To this end, structural equation modeling is applied to data from a sample of 338 final-year undergraduates. The results show that external factors seem to be more critical in the case of women to generate entrepreneurial behavior. In particular, exposure to parental role models has a significantly more favorable influence on attitude toward entrepreneurship in women than men, and exposure to entrepreneurship education has a greater effect over their perceived entrepreneurial behavior control in women than in men.