The influence of innovation and self-employment on entrepreneurial inclination: The moderating effect of the role of Universities in Thailand

Abstract

Entrepreneurship has become one of the most important areas in business around the world for the establishment of graduates. It is important for any country to encourage entrepreneurship among graduates in terms of being competitive, innovative and competent. The purpose of the current study is to examine the entrepreneurial inclinations influenced by independent variables, including innovation and self-employment. The second prime objective of this study is to examine the moderating effect of the role of universities in developing entrepreneurial inclinations towards the establishment of graduates' own businesses. The data was collected from online registered entrepreneurs in Thailand, from the department of business development, using SMART-PLS. The findings of the study showed that innovation positively and significantly influences entrepreneurial inclinations, and that the influence of a desire for self-employment towards entrepreneurial inclination was significantly positive. The moderating effect of the role of the university was also examined on the basis of collected data and found that the role of the university moderated the relationship between innovation and entrepreneurial inclination, but the relationship between self-employment and entrepreneurial inclination was not moderated by the role of the university. Therefore, all direct hypotheses H1, H2 and H3 were accepted statistically, and the moderating effect was observed in hypothesis H4 and accepted statistically; on the other hand, the hypothesis H6 was observed as insignificant and rejected on statistical grounds. This study contributes towards the understanding of entrepreneurial inclination and the influence of important factors, including innovation and desire for self-employment with a moderating effect of the role of the university.