ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: THE ROLE OF CREATIVITY, FINANCIAL SUCCESS, SELF-DOUBT, AND SOCIAL RECOGNITION

Abstract

Entrepreneurial intention is broadly viewed as an essential forerunner to launching new businesses, and an essential mechanism for addressing youth unemployment in developing countries. Despite Pakistan’s large youth population and ongoing entrepreneurial policy initiatives, still the entrepreneurial engagement among university graduates is low, particularly in regions like Balochistan. This study examines the role of creativity, financial success, self-doubt, and social recognition in shaping entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate business students in Balochistan, Pakistan. Adopting a positivist paradigm and quantitative cross-sectional design, the study collected data via structured surveys from undergraduate students who had taken entrepreneurship courses. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to test the measurement and structure of models. The results indicate creativity as the strongest predictor of entrepreneurial intention, followed by social recognition and perceived financial success, each demonstrating significant positive impacts. Self-doubt, although negatively associated with entrepreneurial intention, does not demonstrate a statistically significant impact.  The proposed model captures a moderate level of variance in entrepreneurial intention; highlights how psychological capabilities and social embedded motivation jointly shape intention within collectivist cultures. This study extends entrepreneurial intention research by empirically integrating self-doubt as a psychological barrier and social recognition as a socio-cultural driver in an underdeveloped regional context. Practically, these findings provide policymakers and universities with strategies to enhance entrepreneurship curricula and support systems that prioritize creativity and social validation, thereby strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems in economically underdeveloped regions.