Chapter 3: Academic Support to Promote an Entrepreneurial Mind-set Among Gen Z Students Available to Purchase

Entrepreneurship has proven to be an effective tool for improving countries’ economies. Young people, in particular, possess attributes to facilitate their entry into this economy, and empowering them requires adequate support in academic settings. To evaluate university students’ entrepreneurial intentions and to demonstrate the importance of academic support and strengthening an entrepreneurial attitude as triggers for this action, a study was conducted among students at the Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila (UAdeC) to assess their entrepreneurial mind-set and their intention to start a business. The results of a partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis show that academic support is significant for entrepreneurial attitude development, but especially for entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurial attitude is also a strong direct intention predictor, reinforcing the planned action theory, which identifies intention as a precursor to action. Based on these results, academic authorities should update their university curricula to promote entrepreneurship among Gen Z students.