The impact of the components of planned behavior on entrepreneurial intentions among university students in Puebla, Mexico

1.1 Factors explaining entrepreneurial intention

Table 1 shows eleven studies carried out between 1961 and 2007 about the different determinants of entrepreneurial intentions, focusing on psychological traits and socio demographic characteristics.

Among the studies on psychological traits, eight of those studies highlight the need for achievement as one of the main characteristics of entrepreneurs, defining it as the continuous need that the person experiences to achieve a goal that has been set and for whose results, they feel responsible. On the contrary, Box et al. (1993)[6] Box, T. M., White, M.A. and Barr, S. H. (1993). A contingency model of new manufacturing firm performance. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 18(2), 31-45.
determine that there is no relevant relationship between the need for achievement and the creation and results of the company. Likewise, six of those studies mention the internal locus of control or the perception of an individual about the causes of events in his life, which in this case it means that his business performance is controlled by his own action, as an important predictor of entrepreneurial intention. Six of those studies consider the propensity to take risks, which means adopting risky tasks or assignments and having a greater tendency to take risks, as a fundamental characteristic of entrepreneurs. Three of the studies point to tolerance, to ambiguity and uncertainty, which refer to the ability and comfort to make decisions with ambiguous and incomplete information regarding among others, markets, cash flows, competitors, as another important characteristic of entrepreneurs. Three of those studies signal out the preference for innovation, which refers to the ability to innovate or introduce new products or production methods, to open new markets, or new sources of supply, or to reorganize industries, as a variable of crucial importance in entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the desire for independence, which refers to the love for autonomy or the desire to be the boss of oneself, is mentioned by three studies as a key attraction that offers self-employment, which in some ways help to explain why individuals remain to be self-employed despite earning less than salaried employees.

Fernández and Junquera (2001)[16] Fernández, E. and Junquera, B. (2001). Factores determinantes en la creación de empresas: una revisión de la literatura. Papeles de Economía Española. 89-90, 322-342.
highlight opportunity orientation, commitment, and personal security⁴ Opportunity orientation implies that the entrepreneur actively seeks new opportunities through his perceptions about the market, and not by pre-established rules. Commitment implies total dedication to work, both on weekdays and holidays. Personal security refers to the fact that unemployment for a long period of time, or the threat of it, can stimulate many people to start their own business, considering it safer than the situation prior to its creation (Fernández and Junquera, 2001)., while Rauch and Frese (2007)[39] Rauch, A. and Frese, M. (2007). Let´s put the person back into entrepreneurship research: A meta-analysis on the relationship between business owners’ personality traits, business creation, and success. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 16(4), 353-385.
point out the proactive personality, general self-efficacy and stress tolerance, as important predictors of entrepreneurship.

Among the studies on socio demographic characteristics, Fernández and Junquera (2001)[16] Fernández, E. and Junquera, B. (2001). Factores determinantes en la creación de empresas: una revisión de la literatura. Papeles de Economía Española. 89-90, 322-342.
indicate age, education, family and social environment, social blockage, and social position⁵ The family and social environment implies that many company founders come from families in which one of its members is already an entrepreneur or businessman/woman, who in turn provides them with social encouragement and support. The social blockade is related to the dissatisfaction of managers and workers in their previous jobs, so they create their own companies, as a second chance. Social position means that some people need to show others that they mean something, that they cannot be ignored, that they have a compelling need to be heard and recognized, and even to be considered heroes (Fernández and Junquera, 2001). as the more important determinants of entrepreneurship intentions. Peterman and Kennedy (2003)[38] Peterman, N.E. and Kennedy, J. (2003). Enterprise education: influencing students’ perceptions of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 28, 129-144.
study the influence of entrepreneurial education on the intention to undertake and found using experimental design that after completing the entrepreneurship program, participants report significantly high perceptions of desirability and feasibility of entrepreneurship and that the degree of change in their perceptions is related to the success in the business education program. Majid et al. (2011)[32] Majid, I. A., Ismail, K. and Cooper, S. (2011). Prevalence of entrepreneurial management practices in technology-based firms in Malaysia. African Journal of Business Management, 5(6), 2075-2082.
found that in Malaysia´s case, the influence of a previous technological experience in the creation of technology-based companies and that the impact on entrepreneurial intention can also come from the following: a better recognition of business opportunities, knowledge of the market and the productive activities achieved in professional activities, rather than just human resources that the company has.

1.2 Entrepreneurial intention and the TPB

For authors like Gartner (1988)[19] Gartner, W. B. (1989). Who is an Entrepreneur? Is the Wrong Question, American Journal of Small Business, 13 (spring), 11-32.
, research on the entrepreneur should focus not on who the entrepreneur is, that is, on personality traits and characteristics, but on what the entrepreneur does, that is, on the behaviors or activities involved in the creation of organizations, the latter being the behavioral approach, which in his opinion is the most appropriate to explain the phenomenon of entrepreneurship; although they recognize that the analysis of personality and demographic traits is not opposite to, but complementary to the study of attitudinal characteristics based on intentions.

For its part, according to Ajzen (1991)[1] Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 50,179-211.
, intentions are the best predictor of planned behavior, especially when that behavior is rare or difficult to observe. In this line, according to Sánchez et al. (2005)[41] Sánchez, J. C., Llanero, A. and Yurreboso, A. (2005). Variables determinantes de la intención emprendedora en el contexto universitario. Revista de Psicología Social Aplicada, 15(1), 37-60.
, the entrepreneurial intention is the key to understanding the entrepreneurial phenomenon and can be seen as the first step or behavior in the entrepreneurial process, while it is difficult to imagine the creation of a business simply as a response to a stimulus and not as a planned decision, the study of the antecedents and determinants of these intentions is especially relevant to understand the process of business creation.

The TPB was designed to explain human behavior, when it is rare or difficult to observe, through the analysis of a person's intention to carry out that specific behavior, such as the recognition of a business opportunity, and has been extended to very diverse sectors such as sports, health, road safety and university education, although it seems particularly suitable for studying factors that influence students' decisions (Davis et al. 2002[12] Davis, L.E., Ajzen, I., Saunders, J. and Williams, T. (2002). The decision of African American students to complete high school: An application of the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Education Psychology, 94, 810-819.
), by emphasizing beliefs and personal attitudes.

This theory identifies three main attitudinal antecedents of intention, of which two reflect the desirability of perceived behavior performance: personal attitudes toward behavioral outcomes and perceived social norms; while the third, control of perceived behavior, reflects the perception that behavior is personally controllable. Control of perceived behavior reflects the perceived feasibility of performing the behavior and is thus related to perceptions of situational competencies or self-efficacy (Krueger et al. 2000[30] Krueger, N.F., Reilly, M.D. and Carsrud, A.L. (2000). Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing, 15(5/6), 411-432.
).

Applied to entrepreneurial intention, the TPB suggests that university students' entrepreneurial intentions, together with control of perceived behavior, predict the probability that a student will start a business and that entrepreneurial intentions, in turn, are determined by attitudes towards starting a business, by perceived social pressure to start a business or subjective norm, and by perceptions of control over this behavior. These determinants are briefly explained below.

Attitude towards behavior. It refers to the subject's attitude towards a given behavior (Audet, 2004[4] Audet, J. (2004). A longitudinal study of the entrepreneurial intentions of University students. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, Volume 10, Number 1, pp. 3-15.
); that is, to the degree to which an individual has a favorable or unfavorable assessment of the behavior in question, in this case of carrying out an entrepreneurial action, and which reflects the beliefs and opinions that the individual has about such behavior (Osorio and Londoño, 2015[36] Osorio, F. F. and J.C. Londoño (2015). Intención emprendedora de estudiantes de educación media: extendiendo la teoría de comportamiento planificado mediante el efecto exposición. Cuadernos de Administración, 28 (51), 103-131.
; Krueger et al. 2000[30] Krueger, N.F., Reilly, M.D. and Carsrud, A.L. (2000). Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing, 15(5/6), 411-432.
).

Subjective norms. It refers to the subject's perception of the opinions of others concerning the proposed behavior (Audet, 2004[4] Audet, J. (2004). A longitudinal study of the entrepreneurial intentions of University students. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, Volume 10, Number 1, pp. 3-15.
); that is, the perceived social pressure to carry out or not a certain behavior and refers to the degree to which the behavior to be carried out complies with the wishes of those important individuals in the individual's life, for example, the expectations of family, with regards to becoming an entrepreneur or not. (Osorio and Londoño, 2015[36] Osorio, F. F. and J.C. Londoño (2015). Intención emprendedora de estudiantes de educación media: extendiendo la teoría de comportamiento planificado mediante el efecto exposición. Cuadernos de Administración, 28 (51), 103-131.
; Krueger et al. 2000[30] Krueger, N.F., Reilly, M.D. and Carsrud, A.L. (2000). Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing, 15(5/6), 411-432.
).

Perception of behavior control. This refers to the subject's perception of his own control over behavior (Audet, 2004[4] Audet, J. (2004). A longitudinal study of the entrepreneurial intentions of University students. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, Volume 10, Number 1, pp. 3-15.
); that is, to the perceived ease or difficulty of performing a certain behavior, and it is the perception that the individual has of their ability to carry out a specific behavior (Osorio and Londoño, 2015[36] Osorio, F. F. and J.C. Londoño (2015). Intención emprendedora de estudiantes de educación media: extendiendo la teoría de comportamiento planificado mediante el efecto exposición. Cuadernos de Administración, 28 (51), 103-131.
), which is closely related to the concept of self-efficacy, since both refer to the specific perceptual factors for the achievement of a certain behavior or behavioral objective. The questions related to this regularly refer to their perceived ability to carry out any type of entrepreneurial action and are limited to activities that involve work, reward, risk, new ways of doing and other aspects aligned with the project/company concept (Osorio and Londoño, 2015[36] Osorio, F. F. and J.C. Londoño (2015). Intención emprendedora de estudiantes de educación media: extendiendo la teoría de comportamiento planificado mediante el efecto exposición. Cuadernos de Administración, 28 (51), 103-131.
).

There are many studies that have been carried out to look at the relation between the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and entrepreneurial intentions or activities. In this paper, we explore eighteen studies. Three studies show that the elements of the TPB are linked positively with the choice of self-employment. Fifteen studies found a positive relation between TPB and entrepreneurial intentions. Seven studies have investigated the components of TPB or the relation between those components and other theories. Nine studies have concluded that Perceived Behavioral Control is the most important component explaining entrepreneurial intentions.

In total, twelve of the studies were done with university students from different careers like business, communications, and other careers; one study was done with adults; another study was done with alumni from business school, another study was done with university academics, another study was done with high school students, while one was a meta study done using 123 samples.

From the point of view of empirical methods, linear correlation was used in two studies, linear probability and regression models have been used in three studies, probit models have been used in two analysis, structural equation modelling has been used in ten studies, while one controlled experiment was used in one of the studies. In all the cases the questionnaire on TPB was applied on students, regardless of their exposition to entrepreneurial education, which was only provided in the study of Fayolle and Gailly (2015)[15] Fayolle, A. and Gailly, B. (2015). The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Attitudes and Intention: Hysteresis and Persistence. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), pp. 75-93.
.

Seven of the studies were done in European samples, three studies were done in Asian samples, two studies have been done in North America, five studies have been done in Latin American countries. Two studies have been done in Mexico, for the states of Sinaloa and Yucatan.

3.1 Principal components analysis

A Kaiser, Mayer-Olikin (KMO) analysis was estimated with the 21 questions that measure the TPB, and a value of .875 was obtained, which indicates the adequacy of the 21 questions to perform PCA. The PCA uses an orthogonal rotation to extract three or four components, since the first three factors explain 42% of the variation, while the first four factors explain 52% of the variation.¹¹ The results from the PCA are available from the authors upon request. They are not shown here for lack of space.

The 21 questions about the theoretical constructs of the TPB were evaluated with a Likert scale¹²The response options contemplated in these questions of the questionnaire were: 1, totally disagree, 2 moderately disagree, 3 slightly disagree, 4 neutral, 5 slightly agree, 6 moderately agree and 7 totally agree. , which are described below:

Attitude: Questions about attitudes, which implied the idea of ​​committing to starting your own business in the next 12 months, were evaluated using the following six questions: “Starting my own business seems attractive to me”, “I can detect a good opportunity long before others", "Starting my own company would probably be the best way to take advantage of my education", "I excel at identifying opportunities "," I trust that I will be successful if I start my own business "and " I personally consider that the entrepreneurial spirit is a very desirable career alternative for people with my education ”. In the PCA, all these six items had high scores in the attitude factor (0.60 to 0.73) and much lower numbers in the other three factors (-0.24 to 0.45).

Subjective norms: Respondents were asked to evaluate to what degree they believe that close friends and family or those who are considered important think that they should establish their own business, through eight items, five capturing the attitudes of the university towards to start their own business: “At my university, people are actively encouraged to follow their own ideas”, “At my university, you can meet a lot of people with good ideas for a new business”, “Entrepreneurship courses at my university prepare people well for an entrepreneurial career ”,“At my university there is a supporting infrastructure that works well to support the start-up of new companies” and “ I know many people at my university who have successfully started their own business", another that captured the attitudes of his friends regarding his entrepreneurial intention: "My family and friends support me to start my own business." The following are two more comments to measure the motivation of the survey with regards to the opinion of those important to him: "I like to face and overcome obstacles to my ideas" and "I have the skills and abilities to succeed as an entrepreneur." In the PCA, these eight items had high loads in the subjective norm factor (0.38 to 0.80) and low loads in the remaining factors (-0.08 to 0.43).

Control of perceived behavior. Three items evaluated the perceived control over starting their own business, one of which evaluated the ease of doing business activities "It would be easy for me to start my own business" and two capture the control that the respondent felt they would have over such behavior "Entrepreneurship cannot be taught" and "I love challenging the status quo." In the PCA, these three items had high loads in the perceived behavior control factor (0.51 to 0.74) and low loads in the remaining factors (-0.50 to 0.24).

Additionally, the following four statements were included to evaluate the personal attraction of the entrepreneurial activity: “nothing is more exciting than seeing how my ideas become reality”, “I prefer to start a new company than to be the manager of an existing one”, “it is more beneficial for society to have large companies than small companies”, “in business, it is preferable to be an entrepreneur rather than a great employee of the company”. In the PCA, these four items had high loads in the attraction of the entrepreneurial activity factor (0.44 to 0.67) and low loads in the remaining factors (-0.09 to 0.36).

3.2 Principal components analysis

Table 3 shows the average values for the entire sample, as well as for the first two subsamples, where we split the data set according to the score in the IPB. In terms of the entrepreneurial intention, on average, the sample reveals that it has a 40% expected probability of starting a business. The sample with a high score in IPB, shows a 44.2% expected probability of starting a business, while those scoring a low IPB have a 36.3% expected probability of starting a business.

On average, the sample gets an IPB of 21.4, scoring an average of 6 in attitude, a score of 4.8 in Subjective Social Norms, an average of 5.7 in Control of Perceived Behavior, and an average of 4.9 in the fourth component. As expected, the sample with a high IPB has on average higher scores for each of the IPB components.

Table 3 also shows that the sample age on average is 20 years old, and that the sample that scores the lower IPB is relatively younger, although the difference is not statistically significant.¹³ This finding is not surprising since most of the respondents belong to the same ninth semester. Table 2 reveals that the sample is quite similar on sex, average career and in terms of socioeconomic background, at least with respect to whether their father owned a business. This balance found in the covariates chosen for the empirical analysis, guarantees that the different random matching estimators would work better.

3.3 Linear models

Table 4 presents the results from the linear models. Only the variables linked to the IPB, or its components are statistically significant. The first column shows that a unitary increase in the IPB generates an increase of 1.44 points of expected probability. The second column shows that the component of attitude has a higher correlation with the expected probability of starting a business, since a one-point increase in this component increases 3.19 points the expected probability. The third column reveals that the component subjective social norms, has also a higher correlation, since a one-point increase in this score generates an increase of 6.4 points of expected probability. The fourth column reveals that a one-point increase in the component control of perceived behavior, increases by 4.60 points the expected probability. Column 5 reveals that a one-point increase in the fourth component increases 6.8 points the expected probability. Consequently, the partial correlation of the index and each component of the index increases entrepreneurial intentions.

Column 6 reveals that the partial correlations of each component do not preserve the same sign nor the same magnitude. For example, the first component is not statistically significant, while factor 3 now becomes negative. Factors 2 and 4 continue to be statistically significant but with magnitudes completely different from the ones shown in the other columns. This behavior may show the existence of unobserved components that may bias our estimation, and consequently reveal the need for other estimation techniques, which will be shown in our next section.

3.4 Treatment models

Table 5 presents the results of the treatment models once we use as exogenous or treatment variable the obtention of a high score in the IPB or in any of its four components. Column 1, shows that individuals with high estimated IPB, have between 7.24 points or 8.42 points additional of entrepreneurial intention. Of the four components of the IPB, the component that has the highest impact is that of Control of Perceived Behavior, which increases the expected probability to start a business in 10.1 or 11.42 points. The component that has the lowest impact is that of Attraction for Business, which increases the expected probability to start a business in 7.62 or 9.44 points.

These results imply that once we use a variable that is less subject to unobserved heterogeneity, we obtained a higher coefficient with less variation, which implies that there is evidence that the linear models presented in subsection 3.3 suffer from the existence of unobserved heterogeneity. Moreover, the variations observed between the different estimations carried out in subsection 3.4 to obtain the impact of the IPB, also show that using methods that control for the probability of obtaining a high IPB are needed to completely control for unobserved heterogeneity.

Now, our estimations also have implications for the design of careers at technical universities in the State of Puebla, since the two components more important, attitude and control of perceived behavior, have high loads with questions that are linked to perceptions about behavior and not with questions that link students with their career. Does it mean that education in technical universities should aim to strengthen attitudes and the perceptions of students rather than on providing additional technical skills? Or is it the case that attitudes and perceptions are built thanks to the technical skills acquired? Further research is required to understand how the factors identified in this study could be strengthen using education. In the following section, we present a first step in this direction, analyzing the three questions that have their highest load with the component Control of Perceived Behavior.

3.5 Identifying the relative importance of Control of Perceived Behavior

In this subsection we study the three answered questions that have their highest load with the component CPB. Because a seven-point Likert scale was used to measure those questions, here we define new variables that take the value of one for all the answers that give the Likert values of 5, 6 and 7, and zero otherwise.

The first variable is identified as “it is easy to make business”, the second variable is identified as “entrepreneurship can’t be taught” and the third variable is called “love challenging status quo”.

Table 6 presents the results of applying the five methodologies discussed in subsection 3.4 to these three variables. The variable that generates the highest increase in the entrepreneurial intention is the first one. Individuals that answered in agreement with the statement “it is easy to make business” have between 9.9 and 10.8 more probability points than the rest of individuals. This result implies that individuals that perceive that opening a business is an easy thing to do, declare a higher entrepreneurial intention. However, with the information at hand we do not know why these individuals have such perception. The result, then implies the need to further research why students at this technical university have such perceptions, and if the objective is to stimulate the entrepreneurial intention, then find ways to strengthen this perception.

3.6 Discussion

The general result obtained about the positive effect of TPB on the entrepreneurial intention confirms the results that have been obtained with university students in Norway (Kolvereid, 1996b[28] Kolvereid, L. (1996b). Prediction of employment status choice intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 21(1), 47-58.
), Russia (Tkachev and Kolvereid, 1999[47] Tkachev, A. and Kolvereid, L. (1999). Self-employment intentions among Russian students. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 11(3), 269-280.
), USA (Krueger et al., 2000[30] Krueger, N.F., Reilly, M.D. and Carsrud, A.L. (2000). Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing, 15(5/6), 411-432.
), Canada (Audet, 2004[4] Audet, J. (2004). A longitudinal study of the entrepreneurial intentions of University students. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, Volume 10, Number 1, pp. 3-15.
), China (Wu and Wu, 2008[50] Wu, S. and Wu, L. (2008). The impact of higher education on entrepreneurial intentions of university students in China. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development 15(4): 752-774.
; Lihua, 2022[31] Lihua, D. (2022). An extended model of the Theory of Planned Behavior: An empirical study of entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior in college students. Frontiers in Psychology 25. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.627818
), France (Fayolle and Gailly, 2015[15] Fayolle, A. and Gailly, B. (2015). The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on Entrepreneurial Attitudes and Intention: Hysteresis and Persistence. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), pp. 75-93.
), Spain (Caro-González et al., 2017[7] Caro-González, F., I. Sánchez-Torné and H. Romero-Benavent (2017). El modelo TCP aplicado a la formación en emprendimiento de los estudiantes en comunicación. Revista Espacios, Vol. 39 (No. 02), pág. 7.
), Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland (Gorgievski et al., 2018[20] Gorgievski, M., Stephan, U. and Laguna, M. (2018). Predicting Entrepreneurial Career Intentions: Values and the Theory of Planned Behavior. Journal of Career Assessment, Vol. 26(3), 457-475.
), Malaysia (Al-Jubari, Hassan and Liñan, 2019[2] Al-Jubari, I., Hassan, A. and Liñan, F. (2019). Entrepreneurial intention among university students in Malaysia: integrating self-determination theory and the theory of planned behavior. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal 15 (4): 1322-1342.
), Ecuador (Diez-Farhat and Guevara, 2019[13] Diez-Farhat, S. and Guevara, R. (2019). Incidence of the behavioral attitude in the entrepreneurial intentions of undergraduate students. Contaduría y Administración 65 (2). https://doi.org/10.22201/fca.24488410e.2019.2074
), Mexico (Flores-Novelo et al., 2020[18] Flores-Novelo, A., Bojorquez-Carrillo, A., and Canche-Montiel, C. (2020). El impacto de la educación en la intención emprendedora: efecto del entorno universitario. Revista Espacios 41(39): 250-260.
) and Colombia (Rueda-Barrios et al., 2022[40] Rueda Barrios, G. E., Rodriguez, J. F. R., Plaza, A. V., Vélez Zapata, C. P., & Zuluaga, M. E. G. (2022). Entrepreneurial intentions of university students in Colombia: Exploration based on the theory of planned behavior.Journal of Education for Business,97(3), 176-185.https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2021.1918615
). This result also coincides with results for the adult population of Austria and Finland (Kautonen et al., 2015[24] Kautonen, T., Van Gelderen, M., and Fink, M. (2015). Robustness of the Theory of Planned Behavior in Predicting Entrepreneurial Intentions and Actions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Vol. 39, Issue 3, 655-674.
), students from 10th and 11th grade in Colombia (Osorio and Londoño, 2015[36] Osorio, F. F. and J.C. Londoño (2015). Intención emprendedora de estudiantes de educación media: extendiendo la teoría de comportamiento planificado mediante el efecto exposición. Cuadernos de Administración, 28 (51), 103-131.
), and for academic workers in Mexico (Teran-Perez et al. (2021)[46] Teran-Perez, B., Valdez-Lafarga, C., Miranda-Felix, A., and Flores-Leal, P. (2021). Academic entrepreneurial intention: a study through the Theory of Planned Behavior. Nova Scientia 26(13-2):1-27.
. It also coincides with results found in a meta-analysis carried out by Schlaegel and Koenig (2014)[43] Schlaegel, C. and Koenig, M. (2014). Determinants of Entrepreneurial Intent: A Meta-Analytic Test and Integration of Competing Models. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 38(2), 291-332.
for 123 samples and a population of 114,007 people from different countries.

Our finding that the component of control of perceived behavior is the most important coincides with the work of Kolvereid (1996[27] Kolvereid, L. (1996). Organizational Employment versus Self-Employment: Reasons for Career Choice Intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 20(3), 23-31.
, 1996b)[28] Kolvereid, L. (1996b). Prediction of employment status choice intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 21(1), 47-58.
; Tchakev and Kolvereid (1999)[27] Kolvereid, L. (1996). Organizational Employment versus Self-Employment: Reasons for Career Choice Intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 20(3), 23-31.
; Krueger et al. (2020)[30] Krueger, N.F., Reilly, M.D. and Carsrud, A.L. (2000). Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing, 15(5/6), 411-432.
; Schlaegel and Koening (2014)[43] Schlaegel, C. and Koenig, M. (2014). Determinants of Entrepreneurial Intent: A Meta-Analytic Test and Integration of Competing Models. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 38(2), 291-332.
; Flores-Novelo et al. (2020)[18] Flores-Novelo, A., Bojorquez-Carrillo, A., and Canche-Montiel, C. (2020). El impacto de la educación en la intención emprendedora: efecto del entorno universitario. Revista Espacios 41(39): 250-260.
and Lihua (2022)[31] Lihua, D. (2022). An extended model of the Theory of Planned Behavior: An empirical study of entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior in college students. Frontiers in Psychology 25. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.627818
, which mention the control of perceived behavior as the most important component explaining entrepreneurial intentions.

Our finding about the relative importance of the three answered questions consisting of the control of perceived behavior is a new result, since previous studies only looked at the importance of the component and did not explore the different elements that compose it. One of those questions relates to the perception that being an entrepreneur is an easy task, which we interpret as important evidence of the unobserved ability in determining who can become an entrepreneur. The other two answers express the perception about the ideas that entrepreneurship can’t be taught and that they love to challenge the status quo. We interpret these results as indicators that independence, freedom, and creativity need to be foster in the training of potential entrepreneurs, since they reveal the perception that entrepreneurship involves abilities hard to be learned and that could be new and challenging to the status quo.

Our finding about the importance of social norms coincides with results of Kolvereid (1996b)[28] Kolvereid, L. (1996b). Prediction of employment status choice intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 21(1), 47-58.
; Tchakev and Kolvereid (1999)[47] Tkachev, A. and Kolvereid, L. (1999). Self-employment intentions among Russian students. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 11(3), 269-280.
; Schlaegel and Koening (2014)[43] Schlaegel, C. and Koenig, M. (2014). Determinants of Entrepreneurial Intent: A Meta-Analytic Test and Integration of Competing Models. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 38(2), 291-332.
; Kautonen et al. (2015[24] Kautonen, T., Van Gelderen, M., and Fink, M. (2015). Robustness of the Theory of Planned Behavior in Predicting Entrepreneurial Intentions and Actions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Vol. 39, Issue 3, 655-674.
); Osorio and Londoño (2015)[36] Osorio, F. F. and J.C. Londoño (2015). Intención emprendedora de estudiantes de educación media: extendiendo la teoría de comportamiento planificado mediante el efecto exposición. Cuadernos de Administración, 28 (51), 103-131.
; Gorgievski et al. (2018)[20] Gorgievski, M., Stephan, U. and Laguna, M. (2018). Predicting Entrepreneurial Career Intentions: Values and the Theory of Planned Behavior. Journal of Career Assessment, Vol. 26(3), 457-475.
; Al-Jubari et al. (2019)[2] Al-Jubari, I., Hassan, A. and Liñan, F. (2019). Entrepreneurial intention among university students in Malaysia: integrating self-determination theory and the theory of planned behavior. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal 15 (4): 1322-1342.
; Flores-Novelo et al. (2020)[18] Flores-Novelo, A., Bojorquez-Carrillo, A., and Canche-Montiel, C. (2020). El impacto de la educación en la intención emprendedora: efecto del entorno universitario. Revista Espacios 41(39): 250-260.
; Lihua (2022)[31] Lihua, D. (2022). An extended model of the Theory of Planned Behavior: An empirical study of entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior in college students. Frontiers in Psychology 25. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.627818
; and Rueda Barrios et al. (2022)[40] Rueda Barrios, G. E., Rodriguez, J. F. R., Plaza, A. V., Vélez Zapata, C. P., & Zuluaga, M. E. G. (2022). Entrepreneurial intentions of university students in Colombia: Exploration based on the theory of planned behavior.Journal of Education for Business,97(3), 176-185.https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2021.1918615
.

Our finding about the importance of attitudes coincides with those of Kolvereid (1996[27] Kolvereid, L. (1996). Organizational Employment versus Self-Employment: Reasons for Career Choice Intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 20(3), 23-31.
, 1996b)[28] Kolvereid, L. (1996b). Prediction of employment status choice intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 21(1), 47-58.
; Tchakev and Kolvereid (1999)[47] Tkachev, A. and Kolvereid, L. (1999). Self-employment intentions among Russian students. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 11(3), 269-280.
; Krueger et al. (2000)[30] Krueger, N.F., Reilly, M.D. and Carsrud, A.L. (2000). Competing models of entrepreneurial intentions. Journal of Business Venturing, 15(5/6), 411-432.
; Wu and Wu (2008)[50] Wu, S. and Wu, L. (2008). The impact of higher education on entrepreneurial intentions of university students in China. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development 15(4): 752-774.
; Schlaegel and Koening (2014)[43] Schlaegel, C. and Koenig, M. (2014). Determinants of Entrepreneurial Intent: A Meta-Analytic Test and Integration of Competing Models. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 38(2), 291-332.
; Kautonen et al. (2015)[24] Kautonen, T., Van Gelderen, M., and Fink, M. (2015). Robustness of the Theory of Planned Behavior in Predicting Entrepreneurial Intentions and Actions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Vol. 39, Issue 3, 655-674.
; Osorio and Londoño (2015)[36] Osorio, F. F. and J.C. Londoño (2015). Intención emprendedora de estudiantes de educación media: extendiendo la teoría de comportamiento planificado mediante el efecto exposición. Cuadernos de Administración, 28 (51), 103-131.
; Caro-González et al. (2017)[7] Caro-González, F., I. Sánchez-Torné and H. Romero-Benavent (2017). El modelo TCP aplicado a la formación en emprendimiento de los estudiantes en comunicación. Revista Espacios, Vol. 39 (No. 02), pág. 7.
; Gorgievski et al. (2018)[20] Gorgievski, M., Stephan, U. and Laguna, M. (2018). Predicting Entrepreneurial Career Intentions: Values and the Theory of Planned Behavior. Journal of Career Assessment, Vol. 26(3), 457-475.
; Al-Jubari et al. (2019)[2] Al-Jubari, I., Hassan, A. and Liñan, F. (2019). Entrepreneurial intention among university students in Malaysia: integrating self-determination theory and the theory of planned behavior. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal 15 (4): 1322-1342.
; Flores-Novelo et al. (2020)[18] Flores-Novelo, A., Bojorquez-Carrillo, A., and Canche-Montiel, C. (2020). El impacto de la educación en la intención emprendedora: efecto del entorno universitario. Revista Espacios 41(39): 250-260.
; Teran-Perez et al. (2021)[46] Teran-Perez, B., Valdez-Lafarga, C., Miranda-Felix, A., and Flores-Leal, P. (2021). Academic entrepreneurial intention: a study through the Theory of Planned Behavior. Nova Scientia 26(13-2):1-27.
; Lihua (2022)[31] Lihua, D. (2022). An extended model of the Theory of Planned Behavior: An empirical study of entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior in college students. Frontiers in Psychology 25. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.627818
; and Rueda Barrios et al. (2022)[40] Rueda Barrios, G. E., Rodriguez, J. F. R., Plaza, A. V., Vélez Zapata, C. P., & Zuluaga, M. E. G. (2022). Entrepreneurial intentions of university students in Colombia: Exploration based on the theory of planned behavior.Journal of Education for Business,97(3), 176-185.https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2021.1918615
.

Our finding about the importance of business attraction is new since it has not been previously reported in literature.

Finally, the importance of the different components of the TPB also signals out that education for entrepreneurs needs to be comprehensive, since, according to TPB, should foster the different elements that are important for predicting entrepreneurial intentions.