Exploring The Impact Factors Of Chinese Engineering Undergraduates’ Entrepreneurial Intention In The Context Of Technological Innovation And Entrepreneurship Competitions

With the continuous progress of high-tech industry and the new industrial restructuring,the upsurge of technology entrepreneurship has set off worldwide.The technological advantages of engineering undergraduates make them the potential technology entrepreneurs.Subsequently,various entrepreneurship education activities have been organized in colleges to cultivate innovative and entrepreneurial engineering talents,including technological innovation and entrepreneurial competitions(TIECs).Aimed at senior students from the School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering in a leading university,a mixed-method study based on the Planned Behavior Theory has been used to explore the outcomes of TIECs,in particular,the impact factors of engineering students’ entrepreneurial intention and the specific learning experiences in TIECs that affect engineering students’ entrepreneurial intention.Quantitative results suggested that in the context of TIECs,engineering students’ attitudes toward entrepreneurship and perceived behavior control positively affect their entrepreneurial intention.Although participating in TIECs has no direct influence on students’ entrepreneurial intention,it has significantly positive influence on their attitudes toward entrepreneurship,subjective norm and perceived behavior control.Qualitative results further indicated that,in the attitude toward entrepreneurship dimension,TIECs have effectively stimulated most of the participants’ interests in entrepreneurship and guide them to rationally understand entrepreneurship.Some participants also change their stereotypes of entrepreneurship to a certain degree after TIECs.In the subjective norm dimension,entrepreneurial support provided by school and entrepreneurial role models have inspired most of our participants’ entrepreneurial interests,but the negative attitudes towards entrepreneurship of people around them have discouraged some participants’ entrepreneurial intention.In the dimension of perceived behavior control,TIECs have helped sample students’ development of engineering professional ability,business ability,skills to persuade others and generic abilities such as teamwork skills and leadership skills.In addition,from the qualitative results,this study also summarized eight effective learning experiences in TIECs that can indirectly promote students’ entrepreneurial intentions.In general,this study provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of talent training in TIECs,and provides reference suggestions for optimizing the organization of TIECs,so as to drive the continuous promotion of entrepreneurship education and cultivation of technological entrepreneurial engineering talents.