Implementation Intentions of Potential High-Impact Entrepreneurs Among University Students: An Applied Analysis to the Case of Panama

Entrepreneurship constitutes a crucial factor for social and economic growth. Since the 1980s, many researchers have therefore studied the various stages that make up the business creation process, ranging from the potential to the consolidated phase. Recently, certain so-called high-growth ventures have attracted attention due to their greater impact on the creation of employment and wealth. The university community, thanks to their high level of human capital, presents an ideal group for their study as possible generators of high-impact entrepreneurship. On the other hand, potential entrepreneurs are the source that nurtures future business creation, hence the need to ascertain the factors that drive the entrepreneurial intentions of these students. The models for the predictive power of intention applied to entrepreneurship are limited and not all intentions are converted into actions. Hence, the specialised literature has sought other indicators closer to the final behaviour, such as the intention of implementation. In this way, the present study takes elements from the analysis framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50(2): 179–211, 1991) when explaining the possible antecedents of the intention to implement (Gollwitzer European Review of Social Psychology 4(1): 141–185, 1993; Gollwitzer American Psychologist 54(7): 493–503, 1999). A system of structural equations is applied to a sample of university students from GUESSS (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey) Panama 2018. The results indicate not only a high causality between the attitude and the perceived control over the intention to implement, but also the indirect effect that the subjective norm exerts on these results.