Fostering an entrepreneurial mindset among university students: Evidence from the University-based entrepreneurial ecosystem in Vietnam

This study investigates how personal traits (PT), family background (FB), and the university ecosystem (UE) shape the entrepreneurial mindset (EM) and, in turn, entrepreneurial intention (EI) among university students in Vietnam. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the study integrates individual, familial, institutional, attitudinal, normative, and control factors into a unified framework. By conceptualizing EI as a behavioral decision under uncertainty, the study positions EM as a cognitive mechanism that mediates how students form and enact entrepreneurial decisions. Using PLS-SEM on survey data from 412 students, the results confirm that PT and UE are the strongest drivers of EM. At the same time, EM, attitude (AT), subjective norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) exert significant direct effects on EI. The model explains 49.0% of the variance in EM and 56.0% of the variance in EI, demonstrating robust explanatory power. These findings contribute to the decision sciences by demonstrating how cognitive readiness (EM) and TPB constructs influence entrepreneurial decision-making, thereby offering implications for universities and policymakers to design decision-making environments that foster entrepreneurship among students.