Determinants of Student’s Entrepreneurial Intentions Toward Their Career Choice in Algeria

Abstract

The object of this article is to explain the entrepreneurial intention of Master 1 and Master 2 students of the University of Tlemcen based on their entrepreneurial training or their attendance to support awareness campaigns. The whole mechanism is set up by the Algerian authorities through the supporting device called “l’Agence Nationale pour le Soutien à l’Emploi des Jeunes” (ANSEJ), intended to the creation of micro-enterprises for jobless youth aged between 19 and 40 years old. We want to tackle this issue related to the entrepreneurial intention by drawing upon psychosocial models such as intention theory of planned behavior (Ajzen in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50:179–211, 1991). Thus, after a short literature review, we present an empirical study conducted among a sample of 215 representative respondents of the University of Tlemcen (Algeria). We started to apply sequentially two types of analyses, an exploratory followed by a confirmatory to test the reliability and validity of the measurement scale. Most of the results that stem from the use of the structural equation modeling confirmed the hypotheses proposed through the positive impact of the attitudes associated with behavior and the positive influence of the subjective norms on intention to undertake. The only negative impact concerns the variable training for entrepreneurial intention.