?
The influence of learning culture, characteristics and motivation on entreprenurial intention and its impact on student business startups
Understanding the determinants of entrepreneurial intention among university students is essential for designing effective entrepreneurship education and strengthening student-led startup ecosystems. This study investigates the influence of learning culture, individual characteristics, and motivation on entrepreneurial intention and examines the subsequent impact of entrepreneurial intention on student business startups. Despite the growing volume of research on student entrepreneurship, empirical evidence that simultaneously integrates cultural, personal, and motivational factors within a single structural framework remains limited, particularly in the context of vocational higher education. This study adopts a quantitative research design and employs Structural Equation Modeling with Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) to analyze data collected from 200 vocational students at Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Indonesia. Learning culture, individual characteristics, and motivation are modeled as exogenous variables, entrepreneurial intention as a mediating variable, and student business startup as the endogenous outcome variable. The results indicate that motivation has a strong and significant positive effect on entrepreneurial intention, highlighting its central role in encouraging students to engage in entrepreneurial activities. In contrast, learning culture and individual characteristics do not show a significant direct effect on entrepreneurial intention, although they contribute indirectly by supporting students’ motivational and psychological development. Furthermore, entrepreneurial intention demonstrates a significant positive impact on student business startups, confirming its mediating role in translating psychological and educational factors into entrepreneurial action. The model shows moderate explanatory power for entrepreneurial intention and weaker predictive power for startup formation. This study contributes to entrepreneurship literature by offering an integrated model that clarifies the mechanisms linking educational environment, personal attributes, and motivation to student startup outcomes. Practically, the findings emphasize the importance of entrepreneurship education programs that prioritize motivational reinforcement, experiential learning, and supportive academic cultures. The study also provides valuable insights for policymakers and higher education institutions seeking to foster sustainable student entrepreneurship.