Rural Entrepreneurial Intentions in Uttarakhand, India: A TPB-Based Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is the recombination of capital to generate value; nevertheless, the main focus is on an entrepreneur's ability to create value in every manner. Rural entrepreneurship emphasises the creation of autonomous, endogenous, sustainable, and robust economies in rural areas. Entrepreneurial intention has received considerable attention from researchers, mainly because of its contribution to economic growth and increased employability. Questionnaires were used to collect responses from 385 respondents. The technique of PLS SEM was applied using the software Smart PLS 4. All three hypotheses are supported with significant positive paths—**ATE→EI (β = 0.363) ** being the strongest, followed by **SN→EI (β = 0.273) ** and **PF→EI (β = 0.147) **—indicating that enhancing entrepreneurial attitudes, leveraging social approval, and improving perceived feasibility can strategically inform rural entrepreneurship promotion initiatives. However, despite the interest and relevance of studying entrepreneurial intentions, inconclusive empirical findings have been reported regarding the relationships between entrepreneurial intention and its independent variables. The present study aims to empirically evaluate the determinants of the entrepreneurial intention of the rural residents of Uttarakhand by adapting the theory of planned behavior. Furthermore, the results obtained are useful for understanding and comparing the effects of the variables across countries and business intentions.