Unpacking the entrepreneurial mindset and intentions of sport students: the role of education, control, and self-efficacy

This study examines how educational, psychological, and personal factors contribute to sport entrepreneurial intentions among university students. Drawing on an extended Theory of Planned Behavior framework, the research integrates attitude toward entrepreneurship, perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, attitude toward entrepreneurship education, and locus of control. A cross-sectional quantitative design was used, with data collected from 461 Romanian sport science students. The findings showed that attitude toward entrepreneurship, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm were the strongest unique predictors of entrepreneurial intention, explaining approximately 38% of its variance. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy was not a significant unique predictor in the full regression model, which may reflect its shared conceptual space with perceived behavioral control. However, mediation analyses indicated that self-efficacy functioned as an indirect psychological mechanism linking perceived educational support and internal locus of control to entrepreneurial intentions. Prior entrepreneurial experience showed only a marginal moderating effect, while gender did not significantly moderate the attitude and intention relationship. The findings offer context-specific implications for sport management education by highlighting the importance of learning environments that strengthen perceived control, confidence, and entrepreneurial agency among sport science students.