A serial parallel mediation analysis of pathways to green entrepreneurial intention via educational interventions, teaching methods and personality traits

The complex interplay linking educational interventions with personality development in fostering green entrepreneurial intention (GEI) remains insufficiently explored within African higher education contexts. In addressing this gap, we examine the mediation effect of teaching methods (TM) and personality traits (PT) in the relationship among entrepreneurship curriculum (EC), university entrepreneurship support (UES), and students’ GEI in Ghana’s technical university ecosystem. Combining the Theory of Planned Behaviour with Social Cognitive Career Theory, we employed an explanatory cross-sectional design to investigate these relationships. Data collected from 1329 students across four Ghanaian technical universities were analysed using PLS-SEM to test a novel serial-parallel mediation framework. Our findings showed a significant effect of EC (β = 0.74, p < 0.001, f 2 = 1.261) and UES (β = 0.20, p < 0.001, f 2 = 0.095) on TM, which in turn showed significant positive effects on all six PTs ( p < 0.001), with uniformly large effect sizes (f 2 range: 1.596–2.876). These traits significantly influenced GEI, with Self Efficacy (SE) (β = 0.30, p < 0.001, f 2 = 0.022) and Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC) (β = 0.22, p = 0.002, f 2 = 0.016) emerging as the strongest predictors, while risk-taking propensity and subjective social norms were non-significant. The mediating role of TM between EC, UES, and PTs was significant (all p < 0.001), and the strongest serial mediation pathway was observed through EC → TM → SE → GEI (β = 0.184, p < 0.001, f 2 = 0.022). Although several PT → GEI paths attained statistical significance, their effect sizes were small, indicating that GEI is jointly determined by multiple incremental influences rather than any single dominant trait. The study demonstrates that self-efficacy and perceived behavioural control were the strongest serial mediators, while risk-taking propensity and subjective norms were non-significant. Gender moderated effect of personal attitude and self-efficacy; notably, males had stronger self-efficacy, while personal attitude had a stronger effect for females. To advance Green entrepreneurial intention, there is the need to align the entrepreneurship curriculum with institutional support and effective teaching methods that targets personality development within higher education contexts.