The study, conducted by Adissu Ketemaw, Shimelis Zewdie and Mekonnen Bogale of the Department of Management at Jimma University’s College of Business and Economics, set out to examine how universities contribute to knowledge production and to the building of an entrepreneurship ecosystem that fosters the entrepreneurial intentions of graduate students. Using a survey questionnaire, the researchers collected data from graduating students and analyzed it with both descriptive and inferential statistics. Their primary analytical tool was structural equation modeling, a technique that allows researchers to test complex networks of cause and effect simultaneously, while principal component analysis was used only for initial scale purification rather than as a confirmatory method.

The headline finding is that an integrated and supportive entrepreneurship ecosystem, mediated through what the authors call knowledge production practice, significantly shapes the entrepreneurial mindset of graduate students. In other words, the ecosystem does not simply push students toward entrepreneurship directly; part of its influence flows through the university’s capacity to generate, share and apply knowledge in ways that build students’ confidence and competence.

The statistical details reveal a clear hierarchy of influence. Industry collaboration emerged as the strongest predictor of students’ entrepreneurial intentions, with a standardized path coefficient of 0.566 and a p-value below .001, indicating an effect very unlikely to be due to chance. Entrepreneurial support programs came next, with a coefficient of 0.357, also highly significant. Entrepreneurial education followed with a coefficient of 0.254 and a p-value of .003. Incubation centers, often assumed to be the flagship of campus entrepreneurship, had a significant but comparatively weaker effect, with a coefficient of 0.225 and a p-value of .001.

That ranking carries a provocative message for university administrators and policymakers. Real-world exposure to companies, internships, networking events and partnerships with industry appears to matter more than dedicated physical infrastructure such as incubator facilities. The survey instrument itself hints at why: students were asked whether their institutions established partnerships with industry to facilitate real-world experiences, whether internship opportunities existed, and whether collaborations had fostered a culture of innovation and given them valuable experience that increased their confidence in pursuing entrepreneurship. Items like these suggest that the mechanism at work is experiential, students learning what business actually feels like, rather than merely acquiring office space or funding.

The mediating role of knowledge production practice is the study’s central theoretical contribution. The researchers measured this construct through items probing whether institutions provide resources and opportunities that facilitate knowledge generation, whether they encourage collaborative learning and idea sharing, whether teachers offer hands-on learning experiences and innovative techniques, and whether the institution’s overall research, development and innovation culture promotes entrepreneurship. The analysis showed that knowledge production practice significantly mediates the relationships between ecosystem components and entrepreneurial intention, with indirect effects ranging from a coefficient of 0.052 to 0.156, all statistically significant at p below .05.

Mediation analysis of this kind matters because it identifies the pathway through which an intervention works. If industry collaboration boosts entrepreneurial intention partly by enriching the knowledge students produce and internalize, then simply signing partnership agreements is not enough; the partnerships must be designed so that knowledge actually flows to students and transforms how they think and solve problems. Similarly, entrepreneurship education and support programs appear to work, at least in part, by building knowledge production capability, suggesting that curricula emphasizing critical thinking, problem-solving and real-world applications pay dividends beyond the classroom.

The survey’s measurement of entrepreneurial intention itself was deliberately broad, capturing whether students found an entrepreneurial career attractive, whether they felt confident in their ability to succeed, whether they were comfortable with the uncertainty associated with entrepreneurship, and whether they believed their family and colleagues would approve of their decision to start a business. This last dimension is notable in the Ethiopian context, where social expectations around employment can weigh heavily on graduates. The inclusion of perceived approval from family and colleagues acknowledges that entrepreneurial intention is not formed in a social vacuum.

The authors argue that their study advances the existing literature by developing an integrated framework linking the components of the entrepreneurship ecosystem, namely entrepreneurship education, training and support programs, incubation, and industry collaboration, with entrepreneurial intention through the mediating mechanism of knowledge production capability. Universities, they contend, play a transformative role by providing educational knowledge, experiential opportunities, institutional support and real-world exposure. The practical implication is that a holistic ecosystem linking education, support services, incubation and industry collaboration can empower students to transition from job seekers to job creators, fostering sustainable entrepreneurship in Ethiopia.

For a country with a rapidly growing graduate population and persistent pressure on formal employment, the findings arrive at a consequential moment. The study’s methodological rigor, including ethical approval from Jimma University’s Institutional Review Board, voluntary participation with written informed consent, and adherence to the Declaration of Helsinki, lends weight to its conclusions. Its open-access publication means that educators, policymakers and researchers across the Global South can examine the full framework and adapt it. The broader lesson may extend well beyond Ethiopia: wherever universities hope to cultivate the next generation of founders, the evidence suggests they should invest as heavily in the connective tissue between campus and industry, and in the knowledge that flows through it, as in the bricks and mortar of incubation.

Subject of Research: The effect of university entrepreneurship ecosystems on graduate students' entrepreneurial intention in Ethiopia, mediated by knowledge production practice

Article Title: Examining the effect of entrepreneurship ecosystem on entrepreneurial intention of graduating students a mediating role of knowledge production practice in case of Ethiopian Universities

Article References: Ketemaw, A., Zewdie, S., & Bogale, M. (2026). Examining the effect of entrepreneurship ecosystem on entrepreneurial intention of graduating students a mediating role of knowledge production practice in case of Ethiopian Universities. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04912-0

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04912-0

Keywords: entrepreneurship ecosystem, entrepreneurial intention, knowledge production, Ethiopian universities, graduate students, industry collaboration, incubation centers, structural equation modeling, entrepreneurship education, higher education, sustainable entrepreneurship, Jimma University

The research focused on the practical elements embedded in four specialisations: Accounting Education, Entrepreneurship Education, Office Management Education, and Marketing and Distributive Education. These practical components ranged from accounting software use, tax and audit training, and application of international financial reporting standards, to business plan development, startup projects, mentorship, and enterprise simulations. Office management training covered office software, administrative tools, document handling, communication tasks, and ethics simulations, while marketing students reported on sales campaigns, customer analysis, branding, distribution tasks, and digital marketing practices. The outcome measure assessed elements such as digital competence, cross-cultural communication, adaptability, soft skills, and global employability.

Methodologically, the study adopted a descriptive survey design. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire titled the Questionnaire on the Influence of Practical Components of Business Education on the Production of Globally Competitive Graduates in Public Universities, rated on a four-point Likert scale. Content validity was established through expert review by two Business Education specialists and one measurement and evaluation expert. Reliability was tested in a pilot involving 30 final-year students from a public university outside the study area, yielding an overall Cronbach’s Alpha of 0.87, with subscale coefficients between 0.81 and 0.89. To reduce common method bias, participants were assured of anonymity, items were self-administered, and reverse-coded items were included where appropriate. Data collection spanned four weeks, and the analysis was carried out in SPSS using descriptive statistics and regression techniques at a 0.05 significance level.

The theoretical backbone of the study is the Skill Complementarity Theory, which posits that individual skills generate greater value when combined with complementary competencies. Applied to business education, technical expertise in accounting, entrepreneurship, office management, or marketing becomes more impactful when integrated with digital literacy, soft skills, and global awareness. The researchers argue that this framework helps explain why integrated practical training, rather than isolated specialisation, appears to produce the strongest effects on graduate readiness, adaptability, and professional confidence.

The results revealed a clear hierarchy among the four practical strands. Practical components in Entrepreneurship Education emerged as the strongest single predictor, explaining about 23.1 percent of the variance in the production of globally competitive graduates, with a correlation coefficient of 0.481 and an F-value of 28.565 with a significance value below 0.001. Marketing and Distributive Education followed, accounting for roughly 15 percent of the variance (R = 0.387, F = 16.752, p < 0.001). Accounting Education showed a weaker but still statistically significant influence, explaining 8.5 percent of the variance (R = 0.291, F = 8.787, p = 0.004). Office Management Education, by contrast, explained only 2.4 percent of the variance (R = 0.156), and its F-value of 2.371 with a p-value of 0.127 fell short of the significance threshold, meaning the null hypothesis for that component was retained.

When all four practical components were analysed together, the joint model was statistically significant, explaining approximately 26.9 percent of the variance in graduate global readiness (R = 0.518, F = 8.447, p < 0.001). This combined effect underscores the value of interdisciplinary experiential learning in business education, suggesting that graduates exposed to practical elements across multiple domains are more adaptable, versatile, and competitive than those trained within a single specialisation. The authors interpret this as empirical support for curriculum designs that deliberately integrate practical training across accounting, entrepreneurship, office management, and marketing rather than treating each area in isolation.

The statistical diagnostics also surfaced a cautionary detail. Correlation analysis showed that the four practical components are largely distinct from one another, but the strongest interrelationship was a moderate negative correlation between Accounting Education and Entrepreneurship Education (r = -0.586). Collinearity diagnostics revealed condition indices exceeding the threshold of 30 in several dimensions, with variance proportions suggesting significant collinearity between the accounting and entrepreneurship predictors. The authors note that while the joint model remains valid and significant, interpretations of the individual contributions of these two components should be made carefully, as their effects may overlap. They suggest that refining the distinctiveness and complementarity of training content, especially between accounting and entrepreneurship, could strengthen the clarity of outcomes in future programme designs.

The weak performance of Office Management Education stands out as the study’s most striking anomaly. The authors contrast their finding with earlier research reporting positive impacts from well-resourced office management programmes and structured internships, and align it with studies highlighting low provision and utilisation of resources in Nigerian institutions. The likely cause, they argue, is inadequate facilities and limited exposure to industry-standard tools. Without investment in modern equipment, cloud-based office systems, virtual communication tools, project management software, and supervised internships, the potential benefits of office management training cannot be realised, leaving graduates of that strand less prepared for contemporary global workplaces.

The implications extend well beyond Cross River State. The study recommends that universities enhance accounting training through real-life simulations, modern professional software, and collaboration with financial institutions; restructure entrepreneurship education around hands-on ventures, mentorship from successful entrepreneurs, and access to startup capital; upgrade office management provision with modern technologies and structured internships; and intensify marketing training through live digital marketing projects, logistics management, and customer relationship systems. More broadly, the findings argue for an integrated approach in which interdisciplinary projects, industry-aligned curricula, and seminars led by industry experts produce versatile, globally competitive graduates.

The authors also acknowledge the limitations of their work. The research covered only public universities in Cross River State, which may limit generalisability to other regions or private institutions, and the reliance on survey data introduces the possibility of self-reporting bias. Only four core areas of business education were examined, leaving other related disciplines unexplored. They call for future studies to expand the scope to private universities and other Nigerian states, to conduct longitudinal research tracking how practical business education affects graduate performance over time, and to complement surveys with qualitative approaches such as interviews and case studies. For now, the message for policymakers and university administrators is unambiguous: theoretical knowledge alone is insufficient in a rapidly evolving economic environment, and a business education system that neglects practical components fails to equip students for the complexities of global employment.

Subject of Research: The influence of practical business education components on the global workforce readiness of graduates in Nigerian public universities

Article Title: Practical business education components and production of graduates for the global workforce in public universities in Cross River State

Article References: Okon, E. E., Okpo, A. A., Ushie, P. U., Bishie-Unung, S. S., Olom, P. A., Eleng, S. N., Oche, P. E., Michael, O., Ingwe, M. O., Agbor, G. E., Udida, F. U., Ushie, G. B., Odey, A. M., Ateb, T. A., Ashi, L. A., Nyiam, P. A., Elogbo, E. E., Egbe, J. E., & Kolo, I. (2026). Practical business education components and production of graduates for the global workforce in public universities in Cross River State. Discover Education, 5(1), Article 1150. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-026-01935-7

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44217-026-01935-7

Keywords: business education, entrepreneurship education, accounting education, office management education, marketing education, graduate employability, global workforce, Nigeria, higher education, curriculum development, skill complementarity, experiential learning

The programme was aimed squarely at high-performing students in Years 10 through 13, the final stretch of secondary education when many young people are still deciding what to study and where their careers might lead. Forty participants were selected from ten countries and regions, spanning Mainland China, Southeast and South Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania. That geographic spread is notable in itself: rather than drawing only from Hong Kong or Singapore, the organisers assembled a genuinely international cohort, reflecting a growing recognition that the challenges posed by AI-driven digital transformation are global and that the students who will address them need to learn how to collaborate across borders from an early age.

What distinguished the programme from a conventional summer school was its insistence on hands-on, project-based work rather than lectures alone. Over five days, students explored business strategy, design thinking and AI-powered digital transformation through a combination of workshops and a real-world business case project. By the end of the week, participants had used AI coding tools to build comprehensive business models, an achievement the organisers described as a highlight of the immersive learning approach. In an era when agentic AI systems can draft code, analyse markets and generate presentations in seconds, the ability to direct such tools toward a coherent business goal is rapidly becoming a core competency, and the programme treated it as such rather than as an optional add-on.

The collaboration gave students direct exposure to industry-grade technology. Through the partnership with Tencent WeTech Academy, participants gained hands-on experience with WorkBuddy, Tencent’s agentic AI workspace, and applied AI tools to tackle real-world business challenges. Representatives from Tencent also delivered interactive career sharing sessions, offering insights into what working at the frontier of consumer technology actually looks like. This kind of access matters. For most secondary school students, enterprise AI platforms are abstractions encountered only in headlines; using one to structure a business case, under the guidance of the people who build and deploy such systems, converts abstract hype into concrete, testable skill.

Professor Bennett Yim, Director of Undergraduate Admissions and International Student Exchange at HKU and Chairman of the HKU Academy, framed the partnership as proof of concept for a particular style of education. As the first collaboration among the HKU Academy, NTU Singapore and Tencent Singapore, he said, the partnership demonstrates how immersive, collaborative learning can equip students with practical AI skills and the confidence to tackle real business challenges. By combining university expertise with Tencent’s applied digital tools and industry insights, he added, the programme delivered an experience that was both intellectually rigorous and inspiring for a diverse group of talented students, and he expressed gratitude to the partners alongside a commitment to expanding opportunities for emerging talent across the region.

Tencent’s perspective echoed that emphasis on applied learning. Murphy Zhao, Country Manager of Tencent Singapore, described it as a privilege to take part, noting that giving students hands-on experience with applied AI tools against real business challenges is exactly the kind of learning that will prepare them for the future. He signalled that Tencent hopes to continue working with both universities to support emerging talent across the region, drawing on platforms and resources such as WeTech Academy to foster curiosity, creativity and an innovative mindset among young people. For a company whose products reach hundreds of millions of users, investing in the earliest stages of the talent pipeline is both a social contribution and a strategic bet on the workforce of the 2030s.

The academic content drew on the complementary strengths of two of Asia’s leading universities. Professor Joseph Chan of HKU, Associate Director of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, led sessions on innovation, entrepreneurship, design thinking and career planning, grounding students in the frameworks entrepreneurs use to identify problems and iterate toward solutions. Mr. Francis Tay Kwang Yong of NTU Singapore, an expert in digital transformation and business intelligence, delivered sessions on enterprise challenges, future-readiness, business strategy under uncertainty and sustainable transformation. Together, the two strands addressed a persistent gap in technology education: students often learn to build things without learning to decide what is worth building, or to strategise without the technical fluency to execute. Pairing the two disciplines in a single intensive week is an attempt to close that gap early.

Learning extended well beyond the seminar room. Participants toured the NTU Singapore campus, immersing themselves in the environment of one of Asia’s top universities, and attended an HKU admissions talk outlining higher education pathways at the University of Hong Kong. The programme also featured an alumni conversation with Tiffany Ng, a graduate of HKU Business School now based in Singapore, who traced her journey from consumer hardware to software and on to AI products, offering insights into how AI is expected to reshape the future of media. Her advice to the students was blunt and memorable: do not just say it, build it, because the best time to build was yesterday and the next best time is now. For teenagers weighing whether to wait for permission or credentials before starting, the message landed as a call to action.

The participants themselves reported tangible gains. In feedback shared by the organisers, students said the programme gave them greater clarity about their academic and career pathways, strengthened their confidence in presenting, and sparked a deeper interest in entrepreneurship. They particularly valued the hands-on use of AI tools to analyse business challenges, synthesise information and apply AI effectively, and they appreciated the diverse, supportive community formed through dormitory life and shared activities, which helped them build meaningful connections and translate their ideas into concrete next steps. Those outcomes, though self-reported, align with a substantial body of education research suggesting that project-based, residential programmes can have outsized effects on adolescent motivation and identity formation.

Equity was built into the design rather than treated as an afterthought. A key highlight of the programme was a scholarship opportunity offered jointly by the HKU Academy and Tencent WeTech Academy: selected students with financial need received full scholarships covering all programme expenses. The organisers presented this as a demonstration of both institutions’ commitment to giving young talents equitable access to AI education, an acknowledgment that the benefits of the AI economy risk accruing disproportionately to those who can already afford elite enrichment programmes. Looking ahead, HKU, NTU Singapore and Tencent have said they intend to deepen their collaboration and explore future opportunities to offer more transformative learning experiences for talented students across the region. The HKU Academy for the Talented, established in 2011 and directly managed by the HKU Admissions Office, has long offered exclusive academic programmes for exceptional secondary students worldwide, while Tencent WeTech Academy operates as a talent development platform integrating education, research and competition. If the inaugural edition is any indication, the intersection of those two missions, university selection expertise and industrial-scale AI resources, may become an increasingly common template for how the next generation learns to work with intelligent machines.

Subject of Research: AI and digital transformation education for gifted secondary school students through a HKU, NTU Singapore and Tencent partnership

Article Title: HKU and Tencent partner to develop global youth talent in AI through the “Business and Innovation with Digitalisation” summer program

Article References: HKU and Tencent partner to develop global youth talent in AI through the “Business and Innovation with Digitalisation” summer program. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: artificial intelligence, HKU Academy for the Talented, Nanyang Technological University, Tencent WeTech Academy, digital transformation, youth talent development, design thinking, entrepreneurship education, agentic AI, summer programme, STEM education, Singapore

The award places Fischer-Kreer among a select group of university researchers who, according to the organizers, have made important contributions to the transfer of innovations into business alongside their core duties in research and teaching. The initiative describes the honorees as outstanding researchers at their respective universities who represent the highest standards of research excellence in their fields. Collectively, the professors recognized by UNIPRENEURS have supported around 600 startups as mentors, advisory board members, or investors, and 90 percent of them have founded companies themselves. These figures underline the initiative’s central premise: that the most effective champions of university entrepreneurship are academics who combine scholarly credibility with direct, practical experience of the startup world.

For Fischer-Kreer, the recognition carries significance beyond personal achievement. “I am absolutely delighted about the UNIPRENEURS award. This will bring greater attention to the topics of spin-offs and entrepreneurship at our university, as well as to our commitment to promoting them. The award is a great honor,” she said following the ceremony. Her remarks point to a broader argument that she and the initiative share: that knowledge transfer deserves the same institutional weight as the two traditional pillars of academic life. “Transfer is another key task of a university, alongside research and teaching,” she emphasized, adding that she looks forward to further strengthening the entrepreneurial culture at the University of Bonn in the coming years together with her team and colleagues working in the field of transfer.

Fischer-Kreer’s path to the professorship reflects an unusual combination of academic training and industry experience. She studied industrial engineering before earning her doctorate at RWTH Aachen University, one of Germany’s leading technical institutions. She then spent two years in the strategy department of LANXESS, a specialty chemicals company headquartered in Cologne, gaining firsthand exposure to corporate strategy and innovation management. Rather than remaining in industry, she returned to the university environment with what the University of Bonn describes as great enthusiasm, determined to develop innovative and practical teaching formats that would bring entrepreneurial thinking to a much wider student audience than traditional business education typically reaches.

At the University of Bonn, Fischer-Kreer holds the professorship for Entrepreneurial Behaviour, a position focused on understanding and cultivating the psychological and behavioral foundations of entrepreneurship. A central aim of her teaching is to establish entrepreneurship education across faculties, extending it beyond business and economics students to the natural sciences, agriculture, medicine, and other disciplines where research-based spin-offs often originate. Her stated key goal is to empower students to believe in themselves and their abilities, and to view entrepreneurial thinking as a key future skill, whether they ultimately pursue self-employment or drive change within existing organizations. This framing treats entrepreneurship not merely as a career path but as a transferable mindset applicable across the modern economy.

Her pedagogical approach is notably experimental. Among the interdisciplinary formats she has introduced is the use of improvisational theatre in the lecture hall, a technique designed to build the spontaneity, communication skills, and tolerance for uncertainty that entrepreneurs need in practice. Such methods reflect a growing international consensus in entrepreneurship education that entrepreneurial competencies are best developed through experiential learning rather than purely theoretical instruction. By embedding these formats in a full university setting, Fischer-Kreer is working to normalize entrepreneurial learning as part of the standard academic experience at Bonn rather than an optional add-on for a small cohort of already-motivated students.

Her research agenda is similarly distinctive in its choice of settings. Fischer-Kreer explores entrepreneurship in unique and understudied environments, ranging from a sustainable municipality in southern India to the Vatican in Rome and the Archdiocese of Cologne, as well as entrepreneurial dynamics in the Global South. These contexts allow her to examine how entrepreneurial behavior emerges outside the familiar ecosystem of venture capital, incubators, and technology clusters that dominates much of the mainstream literature. Studying entrepreneurship in religious institutions and developing-region municipalities can reveal how motivation, community structures, and resource constraints shape the way individuals identify opportunities and mobilize support for new ventures, insights that feed directly back into her teaching.

Her commitment to fostering an entrepreneurial spirit has also been recognized at the industry level. In 2024, DEUTZ AG in Cologne honored her with the Nicolaus August Otto Award for her dedication to fostering entrepreneurship among business startups in the agriculture and food industries. This focus connects naturally with her institutional affiliations at the University of Bonn, where she is a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area “Sustainable Futures” and the Cluster of Excellence “PhenoRob,” a research cluster dedicated to digitalization and robotics in crop production. The intersection of agricultural technology, sustainability, and entrepreneurship represents one of the most promising areas for research-based spin-offs, and her work positions the university to support founders in precisely this space.

Beyond teaching and research, Fischer-Kreer plays an active institutional role in the local startup ecosystem. As a board member of the Universitätsgesellschaft Bonn, the university’s support society, she supports and develops the regional startup landscape and promotes the transfer of knowledge and practical expertise between academia and business. She is also the founder of the UGB Transfer Award, which recognizes transfer achievements at the university. Her practical work extends into unusual formats, including the development of gaming and children’s book formats designed to promote an entrepreneurial mindset from an early age. She additionally acts as a VIP+ mentor for Sweethoven Biotech, a project that has developed a healthy sugar alternative based on fundamental research, demonstrating her hands-on involvement in guiding early-stage science-based ventures toward commercialization.

The UNIPRENEURS initiative itself was created by Matthias Hilpert and Martin Schilling with the explicit task of fostering spin-offs at German universities. The Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, a foundation dedicated to science and higher education, is responsible for organizing and implementing the joint initiatives, while the German Startups Association, Bitkom, and AddedVal.io support the program as partners. The award is presented every three years and is described as Germany’s highest honor for outstanding commitment to promoting entrepreneurship at universities. The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy have jointly assumed the patronage of the initiative, a signal of the strategic importance that German policy attaches to translating academic research into commercial innovation.

Political leaders at the ceremony framed the award in terms of Germany’s broader economic future. “With the UNIPRENEURS initiative, entrepreneurial activity at German universities is being fostered by raising the profile of professors who play a key role,” said Dorothee Bär, Federal Minister of Research, Technology, and Space. “The award recipients make a significant contribution to creating a culture of entrepreneurship at universities and are thus also important drivers of Germany’s capacity for innovation and long-term competitiveness.” Katharina Reiche, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, echoed that assessment: “UNIPRENEURS represents the strong link between academic excellence and entrepreneurial courage at our universities. The professors honored make an important contribution to Germany’s competitiveness as an innovation hub.” For the University of Bonn, the recognition of Fischer-Kreer affirms a strategy of embedding entrepreneurship across the institution, and for the honoree herself, it provides a platform from which she intends to keep building that culture in the years ahead.

Subject of Research: National award for university entrepreneurship education and startup promotion in Germany

Article Title: UNIPRENEURS honors Denise Fischer-Kreer

Article References: UNIPRENEURS honors Denise Fischer-Kreer. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: UNIPRENEURS, Denise Fischer-Kreer, University of Bonn, entrepreneurship education, academic spin-offs, knowledge transfer, startup ecosystem, Germany, Stifterverband, entrepreneurial behaviour, innovation, higher education

The research, conducted by Salem Handhal Al Marri of the Applied College at King Faisal University in Hofuf, Alahsa, examines how perceived entrepreneurial support influences entrepreneurial readiness among university students in Saudi Arabia. The study was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Faisal University and received approval from the university’s ethical committee, with informed consent obtained from all participants. Drawing on institutional theory, the work positions universities and policy frameworks not merely as background conditions but as active institutional forces that shape how students think about their professional futures.

Entrepreneurial readiness is a concept distinct from the entrepreneurial intention that has dominated prior scholarship. While intention captures whether someone wants to start a business, readiness describes whether that person is prepared to translate that desire into potential action. The distinction matters practically: a student may sincerely intend to become an entrepreneur yet lack the confidence, preparedness, and orientation needed to act on that intention. Existing research has focused predominantly on intention, leaving comparatively limited attention to the institutional and psychological mechanisms that shape readiness, a gap that is particularly evident in the Saudi context, where entrepreneurship has taken on heightened importance within the country’s economic transformation agenda.

To probe these mechanisms, the study surveyed 200 university students and applied Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling, a statistical technique widely used in management and entrepreneurship research to test relationships among latent constructs and to examine mediating pathways simultaneously. This methodological choice allowed the researcher to evaluate not only whether perceived entrepreneurial support strengthens readiness directly, but also whether two proposed psychological mediators, entrepreneurial career attractiveness and preference for self-employment, carry that influence forward.

The findings are nuanced. On the direct side, perceived entrepreneurial support proved powerful across the board: it strengthened entrepreneurial career attractiveness, strengthened preference for self-employment, and strengthened entrepreneurial readiness. In other words, when students perceive that their environment offers meaningful entrepreneurial support, through university programs, institutional backing, and policy signals, they report feeling more ready to pursue entrepreneurship, view entrepreneurial careers more favorably, and lean more strongly toward working for themselves.

But the mediated pathways revealed an important asymmetry. Preference for self-employment significantly contributed to entrepreneurial readiness and significantly mediated the relationship between perceived support and readiness. Entrepreneurial career attractiveness, by contrast, did not significantly predict readiness and did not provide a significant mediating pathway. Making entrepreneurship look attractive, in other words, is not enough to make students feel ready to pursue it. The translation of institutional support into psychological preparedness appears to depend on something deeper: whether students genuinely prefer self-employment as a mode of working, a preference that entails confidence in one’s own capacity and an orientation toward independence rather than conventional employment.

This asymmetry carries real theoretical weight. The study extends institutional theory by demonstrating that institutional support is translated into entrepreneurial readiness not simply by making entrepreneurship appear attractive, but more importantly by strengthening students’ preference for self-employment. Institutional signals, according to this account, do their deepest work when they reshape what students want for themselves, not merely how appealing a career option looks from the outside. That reframing challenges a common assumption in entrepreneurship education, where promotional campaigns often emphasize the glamour and opportunity of startup life without cultivating the underlying disposition toward self-directed work.

The practical implications follow directly from the findings. Policymakers and universities, the study suggests, should move beyond promoting entrepreneurship as an appealing career and place greater emphasis on institutional mechanisms that develop students’ confidence, preparedness, and orientation toward self-employment. Concretely, that points toward interventions that build self-efficacy, provide hands-on preparation for the realities of running a venture, and normalize self-employment as a legitimate and attainable professional identity. Such interventions, the research argues, can strengthen university-based entrepreneurial ecosystems, which in turn contribute to youth employment, economic diversification, and sustainable development in Saudi Arabia, all priorities embedded in the kingdom’s broader transformation agenda.

The study also sits at the intersection of several research streams, including career counseling, industrial psychology, entrepreneurial finance, and professional and vocational education, and it engages questions of self-efficacy that have long been central to entrepreneurship scholarship. By simultaneously examining entrepreneurial career attractiveness and preference for self-employment as potential pathways, it fills a specific empirical gap: limited prior research had treated these two constructs as parallel mediators, and the results show that doing so yields a more discriminating picture of how support actually operates. A construct that looks superficially similar to self-employment preference, the appeal of an entrepreneurial career, turns out to behave very differently in the statistical model.

For Saudi Arabia, where a young population and an ambitious diversification agenda converge, the findings arrive at a consequential moment. Universities are expanding entrepreneurship offerings, and government initiatives have elevated self-employment as a national priority. This research suggests that the effectiveness of those investments will hinge less on how entrepreneurship is marketed and more on how deeply institutional support reshapes students’ working preferences. If the goal is a generation of students who are genuinely ready to act on entrepreneurial aspirations, the study’s message is clear: build the preference first, and readiness will follow.

Subject of Research: How perceived entrepreneurial support enhances entrepreneurial readiness among Saudi university students through career attractiveness and self-employment preference

Article Title: The roles of perceived support, career attractiveness, and self-employment preference in enhancing entrepreneurial readiness

Article References: Al Marri, S. H. (2026). The roles of perceived support, career attractiveness, and self-employment preference in enhancing entrepreneurial readiness. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04660-1

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04660-1

Keywords: entrepreneurial readiness, perceived entrepreneurial support, self-employment preference, career attractiveness, Saudi Arabia, university students, institutional theory, PLS-SEM, entrepreneurship education, youth employment, economic diversification, King Faisal University