ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION DETERMINANTS IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: AN ANALYSIS FROM A GENDER PERSPECTIVE

The present study focus on the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education as an instrument for the promotion of the entrepreneurial intention, as well as the influence of gender in the implementation of new business initiatives. Adopting the perspective of the theory of planned behavior, the differential effect of gender on entrepreneurship intention in a group of participants in an entrepreneurship education project in the university context is analyzed. The results suggest that, although there were no gender differences in the levels of entrepreneurial intention, the predictor variables of this dimension differ depending on the sex of participants. Thus, in the case of men, self-efficacy is the main explanatory variable of entrepreneurial intention, whereas for women the most predictor variable is perceived controllability. These results may have important implications for the design of enterprise education programs in relation to the need for pedagogical elements that distinguish the skills and competencies to be developed for women and men, in order to achieve improvements in their entrepreneurial intention.