Investigating the Predictors of Entrepreneurial Intention among Students of Bushehr Agricultural Education Center Using Cognitive-Social Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior

Entrepreneurship should be considered one of the necessities of the new millennium, an age known as the information society and the age of globalization. And it has important consequences such as the acquisition of emerging technologies and rapid changes in the field of human exchanges and fierce and brutal competition in the business world. This study examines two models of planned behavioral theory and cognitive-social theory to predict entrepreneurial intent among agricultural students. The statistical population of the present study included incoming undergraduate students in 2016-17, Bushehr Persian Gulf Fisheries Science and Technology Training Center. The number of people in the study population was 192. Using Krejcie and Morganchr('39')s table, the sample size was 124 people using a simple random sampling method. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed based on the opinion of the faculty members of the university and the reliability of the questionnaire was measured and confirmed using a pre-test design of 30 people using theta test (0.76-0.89). The results of structural equations showed that in social cognitive theory, perceived expectations and perception of behavior have a significant, positive, and direct effect on studentschr('39') entrepreneurial intentions. In addition, in the theory of planned behavior, it was shown that the structures of self-efficacy, moral norm, and identity have a significant and positive effect on entrepreneurial intention. While the structures of control, attitude, and mental norm do not have a direct impact on entrepreneurial intention. Attitude has a positive and direct effect on the moral norm and an indirect effect on intention. Social cognitive theory can predict 76% of changes in intentions and planned behavioral theory predicts 77% of changes in agricultural entrepreneurial intentions.