Assessing the role of socio-economic values on entrepreneurial intentions among university students in Cape Town

Background: This article presents the findings of an empirical fieldwork study conducted in Cape Town, South Africa. Aim: The aim of the study was to establish how socio-economic values (income, economic development, employment or unemployment in the university students’ direct environment) shape their entrepreneurial intentions. Setting and method: The study was built on Ajzen’ psychological model on entrepreneurial intentions, and used a semi-structured questionnaire to collect data from 274 entrepreneurship university students. Cronbach’s alpha was used to measure the reliability of the questionnaire, where six variables out of nine, had a coefficient alpha of more than 0.7, while the remaining three had a coefficient alpha of between 0.5 and 0.7. This instrument was assessed by both statisticians and academics who are experts in their fields to ensure its validity. Multivariate tests of statistical significance were conducted, where correlation and regression statistics were used to analyse the data. Results: Findings suggest that socio-economic factors have an impact in shaping entrepreneurial intentions of the university students. Conclusion: The study formulates the recommendations to the government, businesses, civil society organisations as well as the community within which students live.