Digital entrepreneurship education and digital entrepreneurial intention: The role of digital skills and entrepreneurial self-efficacy

Abstract

Digital entrepreneurship education aims at preparing the students to identify business opportunities and set up technology-based enterprises. The study seeks to know the relationship between digital entrepreneurship education and digital entrepreneurial intention with the role of digital skills and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. A survey design that is quantitative and cross-sectional is planned among the 300 university students which are selected through convenience sampling. Information was gathered through a structured questionnaire that uses a Likert scale of five points and analysed using descriptive statistics, cronbach alpha, correlation, multiple regression and mediation analysis with 5000 bootstraps. The findings showed that the mean score of digital skills obtained the highest (M = 3.84, SD = 0.66); followed by digital entrepreneurship education (M = 3.72, SD = 0.71); digital entrepreneurial intention (M = 3.68, SD = 0.76); and entrepreneurial self-efficacy (M = 3.61, SD = 0.74). The education of digital entrepreneurship (β = 0.31 p < .001) showed a positive relationship with the digital entrepreneurial intention. Also, the digital skills (β = 0.21 p < .001) and the entrepreneurial self-efficacy (β = 0.36 p < .001) showed a positive relationship as well.  In the mediation model, the indirect effects through digital skills (0.11) and entrepreneurial self-efficacy (0.14) were significant.  The findings suggested that entrepreneurial confidence and digital competencies may contribute to explaining DEI. The research emphasized the possible value of practical digital entrepreneurship education in higher education.