II.

Theoretical framework and Conceptual framework

The approach of this study is to know the potential of senior students in PUP to be

a successful entrepreneur. The study concentrated specifically on the role of some personality

characteristics such as risk-taking propensity, tolerance for ambiguity, internal locus of control,

innovativeness and independence and motivational factors such as love for money, desire for

security and desire for status rather than the differences in the contextual factors. The study

reveals that gender, family business experience and education level are significant factors in

explaining entrepreneurial interest.

The study shows that the respondents perceived entrepreneurs mostly with their

innate characteristics. However, most of them thought that entrepreneurial traits should be

nurtured by external factors. The literature provides some useful insights into the impact of

contextual factors. In an early work, Scott and Tworney (1988) analyzed the ambitions of

university students and the results of the study identified parental influence and work experience

as significant factors. Lee et al. (2005) investigated the differences in the attitudes of university

students towards venture creation, the study revealed that each country should provide a

customized entrepreneurship education to entrepreneurship considering their unique cultural

contexts. More students are pursuing part-time education, and a growing number of institutions

are offering distance courses and programs. As the number of distance-delivered programs

increase, for-profit and not-for-profit educational institutions are competing for students who

choose to pursue their educational goals via distance (Meyen, Aust, Gauch, Hinton, Isaacson,

Smith, & Tee, 2002). Further, the pressure to recruit and retain learners also increases.

Institutions that provide learners with the goods and services they want and need in order to be
successful may have a competitive advantage. Therefore, it is important for institutions,

especially administrators, to realize the wants and needs of distance learners.

We proposed a structural model to analyze the entrepreneurial intention of university

students. Theory of Planned Behavior provides a general frame work to analyzed the

entrepreneurial intention of a person.( Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). According to Bird (1988),

intentionally can be define as a state of mind directing a person’s attention, experience and action

towards a specific goal or a path to achieve something. Need for achievement appears to be an

important characteristic of both the entrepreneurial personality and a trait distance students need

in order to be successful.

Therefore determining the potential of university students specifically the senior

students in PUP depends on said factors which affects their potential to become successful

entrepreneurs someday. People with inner desires and will to become entrepreneur for

sustainability.