Students’ motivations towards entrepreneurship: The strategic role of entrepreneurial education

The paper explores students’ entrepreneurial developments and motivations in Egypt. The study is cross-sectional, where random sampling is applied to get the response from students of different universities in Egypt. The base of the study is on the studies of Adekiya and Ibrahim (2016) and Bhatta et al. (2024). The study utilized a 340-sample size where the results of structural equation modeling (SEM) demonstrate a positive and significant effect of entrepreneurial capability (EC), entrepreneurial competencies (ECs), and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on students’ motivation towards entrepreneurship (MTE). On the other hand, entrepreneurial education (EE) has a negative effect on MTE. Moreover, the investigation confirms EE’s mediating effect in developing the relationship between EC and ECs, except for EO and MTE among university students. The findings assist university management, policymakers, and planners in designing policies that may further motivate university students towards entrepreneurship. The university authorities may develop practical EE courses as these significantly divert students’ minds towards self-employment and starting their business enterprises to ensure their future. Finally, the study would assist in tackling the unemployment issues and make their bright future MTE. This study fills the gaps in confirming the role of EE as a mediator between ECs, EO, and MTE, which has yet to be considered generally and specifically in Egypt’s university context.