Digital competence and sustainability knowledge as drivers of sustainable entrepreneurial intentions: a Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) extension among Generation Z in Albania and Montenegro, two post-transitional Western Balkans economies

This article examines sustainable entrepreneurial intentions (SEI) among Generation Z in Albania and Montenegro, two post-socialist, post-transitional Western Balkans economies, extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) with sustainability knowledge and digital competence as additional predictors. Motivated by the region’s institutional fragility and post-communist legacies, data from 376 respondents were analysed via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). All three core TPB constructs, attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control, significantly predicted SEI. Digital competence showed strong direct and indirect effects, while sustainability knowledge operated exclusively through indirect, fully mediated pathways. Because institutional trust, family-network reliance, and other contextual mechanisms were not directly measured, results should be read as evidence that digital competence and sustainability knowledge are theoretically distinct, differentially mediated predictors of SEI, not as direct evidence of the institutional pathways through which post-transitional conditions operate. Supplementary multi-group analyses in SmartPLS found no significant structural-path differences between Albania and Montenegro, or between male and female respondents, under the recommended nonparametric test, supporting a single pooled model. The article contributes to the entrepreneurial intentions literature by testing a contextually motivated TPB extension in two under-represented, post-transitional economies, while cautioning against generalizing findings to the wider Western Balkans region.