Entrepreneurial intentions are made, not born: the active role of institutional, educational and economic support

Purpose This study investigates how institutional, educational and economic pillars of university-based entrepreneurial ecosystems forge, rather than merely moderate, cognitive drivers of entrepreneurial intention. It advances that these contextual levers form a configurational antecedent, entrepreneurial ecosystem support (EES), that forges core personal motivators of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Design/methodology/approach EES is a second-order formative construct combining institutional support, training infrastructure and regional economic conditions. Two-stage PLS-SEM analyzes survey data from 492 students, faculty and staff in the Ingenium WP8 programme at an Italian university. MICOM-based multi-group analysis tests measurement invariance and compares structural paths across stakeholder groups. Findings EES strengthens self-efficacy (ß = 0.317), entrepreneurial attitude (ß = 0.303) and risk-taking (ß = 0.372). These predict entrepreneurial intention, with attitude showing the largest influence (ß = 0.632), followed by risk-taking (ß = 0.147) and self-efficacy (ß = 0.115). Mediation tests show EES reaches intention mainly through entrepreneurial attitude (ß = 0.191), with smaller paths via risk-taking and self-efficacy. The model explains 68.2% of variance in entrepreneurial intention, showing strong predictive power. MICOM and multi-group PLS analyses show no statistically significant differences in structural path between students and lecturers/staff (all two-tailed p-values = 0.144), indicating that the model operates similarly across both campus groups. Originality/value By operationalising ecosystem quality as a formative higher-order antecedent positioned upstream of TPB variables and documenting its equalising effects across stakeholder groups, the study re-centres context in intention-formation research and offers a diagnostic framework for universities aiming to engineer entrepreneurial capacity.