Greening ambitions: exploring factors influencing university students' intentions for sustainable entrepreneurship

Promoting sustainable entrepreneurship among ambitious entrepreneurs may be a successful means of lowering ecological footprints and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in developing countries. Global environmental concerns are increasingly motivating young entrepreneurs toward sustainable start-up ventures, which serve as a primary predictor of entrepreneurial activity. Such an understanding has led to an increase in interest in investigating youth entrepreneurial intentions across various entrepreneurial tiers and kinds, particularly from the standpoint of sustainability. The purpose of this research was to look at the factors that influence university students' intentions to establish sustainable enterprises that promote the protection of natural and ecological resources. The data collected from 1932 Chinese university students were analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results disclosed that environmental values (β = 0.664, t-value = 8.973), green self-efficacy (β = 0.604, t-value = 6.565), environmental concerns (β = 0.547, t-value = 8.164), green citizenship behavior (β = 0.485, t-value = 9.151), and climate change knowledge (β = 0.345, t-value = 12.778) have a significantly strong positive effect on the students’ sustainable entrepreneurial intentions. Moreover, findings also confirmed that green attitude partially mediates the relationships between environmental value, green self-efficacy, environmental concerns, green citizenship behavior and sustainable entrepreneurial intentions. The findings also revealed that environmental education moderates the positive effect of green attitude on sustainable entrepreneurial intentions and this effect is stronger for the students who have education with environment regarding courses. Therefore, it is suggested that environment and entrepreneurship-related courses be included in the syllabus of each discipline as compulsory subjects for promoting sustainable entrepreneurial intentions and addressing ecological concerns.