Sustainable Venture Readiness as a Graduation Stage Outcome of Sustainable Entrepreneurship Education Competence and Intention

Abstract Higher education institutions playing crucial role in training students for sustainable entrepreneurship, yet many studies treat entrepreneurial intention as the final educational outcome. This study examines how Sustainable Entrepreneurship Education shapes Sustainable Venture Readiness among Indian graduates through competence and intention. Drawing on Human Capital Theory, the sustainable entrepreneurship competence framework and the Theory of Planned Behavior, the study tests a competence-readiness model using data from 518 graduating students across twelve higher education institutions. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to assess the measurement model, structural relationships, mediation predictive relevance and gender-based group differences. The findings show that Sustainable Entrepreneurship Education positively influences Sustainable Entrepreneurship Competence, which strengthens Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intention and Sustainable Venture Readiness. Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intention also contributes to Sustainable Venture Readiness and partially mediates the competence-readiness relationship. Complementary Necessary Condition Analysis shows that competence, education and intention have statistically significant and meaningful necessary-condition effects for achieving high Sustainable Venture Readiness, with competence showing the strongest effect. Gender-based multi-group analysis provides limited evidence that the intention-readiness relationship is stronger among female students, while competence-related group comparisons are interpreted cautiously because full measurement invariance was not established. The study contributes to Sustainable Development Goal 4 at the level of educational outcomes by shifting sustainable entrepreneurship education research from intention alone towards competence and readiness as measurable learning outcomes.