Influence of Entrepreneurial Support on Students’ Entrepreneurial Intention at a Rural South African University

Abstract

Entrepreneurial support is recognized as a driver of university students' entrepreneurial intentions. Most research has focused on entrepreneurship education; hence, there is a need to investigate broader entrepreneurial support and public awareness of available systems. This study, drawing on Social Capital Theory and Institutional Theory, explores how relational support, university support, and knowledge of public support affect the intention to become an entrepreneur. The study surveyed 180 final-year undergraduate students at a rural comprehensive university in South Africa. Final-year students were selected as they face immediate career choice dilemmas. Using a 23-item Likert-scale instrument, data were collected on students' demographic characteristics, relational support (RS), university support (US), knowledge of public support (KPS), and entrepreneurial intention (EI). To empirically assess structural associations among the proposed constructs, this study used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The PLS-SEM output that showed relational support had a positive and statistically significant impact, while university support had a marginally significant impact on entrepreneurial intentions. Countering to expectations, knowledge of public support did not show a significant association with entrepreneurial intention. These outcomes are important because they compel consideration of how stakeholders redirect and communicate support-related information to rural-based university students. This implies that policymakers and higher education institutions must develop deliberate and contextually responsive strategies that enhance the visibility and accessibility of entrepreneurial support systems within rural university environments. The necessity for such visibility underlines the study's primary theoretical contribution: that in resource-constrained rural contexts, informal social capital plays an influential role relative to formal institutional support structures. Formal entrepreneurial support mechanisms can be made more effective and accessible to rural university students through context-sensitive stakeholder engagement.