Effect of social media on entrepreneurial intention: Mediating role of entrepreneurial outcome expectation and attitude towards entrepreneurship

BACKGROUND: Entrepreneurial Intention is essential for discovering the underlying determinants behind one’s motivation to invent a new business. OBJECTIVE: The study investigates the relationship between social media, entrepreneurial outcome expectation, attitude towards entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intention. METHODS: The study conducts a cross-sectional survey on 360 tertiary education students based on systematic sampling technique. The hypothesis was tested using Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). RESULTS: The findings reported that social media was significantly related to entrepreneurial intention. Similarly, attitude towards entrepreneurship was found to be a mediator between social media and entrepreneurial intention. In contrast, entrepreneurial outcome expectation was not found to mediate social media and entrepreneurial intention. CONCLUSIONS: The study adds to the existing literature by including less studied factors i.e., social media to one step ahead understand entrepreneurial intention by clarifying mediation mechanism through entrepreneurial outcome expectation, attitude towards entrepreneurship.