Entrepreneurship Awareness as a Mediating Mechanism: Understanding How Entrepreneurship Education Influences Students’ Entrepreneurial Intentions at South African Universities

This study examines entrepreneurial awareness as a mediating mechanism in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and students’ entrepreneurial intentions. It further investigates whether this mediation pathway differs across contrasting university environments in South Africa. A quantitative cross-sectional design was adopted. Data were collected from 263 undergraduate students enrolled in entrepreneurship courses at two public universities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, the University of KwaZulu-Natal (urban context) and the University of Zululand (rural context). The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling, with multigroup analysis (MGA) employed to examine contextual differences across institutional environments. Entrepreneurship education significantly and positively predicted both entrepreneurial awareness ( β = 0.530, p < .001) and entrepreneurial intentions ( β = 0.488, p < .001). However, entrepreneurial awareness did not significantly predict entrepreneurial intentions ( β = 0.030, p = .708) and did not mediate the education–intention relationship. This pattern, whereby education successfully develops awareness without that awareness translating into stronger intentions, is discussed as the awareness paradox. MGA revealed suggestive contextual differences, with urban contexts showing stronger direct educational pathways, though these differences did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance. To the authors’ knowledge, this study provides one of the first empirical examinations of entrepreneurial awareness mediation across contrasting urban and rural university contexts in South Africa. The findings suggest that awareness development and intention formation may represent parallel rather than sequential outcomes of entrepreneurship education, a pattern termed the awareness paradox. This provisional finding invites further theoretical investigation and replication in other contexts. Findings are limited to undergraduate students at two universities within a single South African province and rely on cross-sectional, self-reported data. Educators and curriculum designers should not rely on awareness-raising activities alone to develop entrepreneurial intentions. Experiential learning, practical skill development and confidence-building interventions appear more directly effective.