Search

Despite the effective role of entrepreneurial ventures in development, entrepreneurship failure around the world (20% survival rate among businesses with over three years of establishment) in one hand and an overwhelming reduction new ventures have created a challenge among potential entrepreneurs. Moreover, entrepreneurship barriers have always created a challenge for entrepreneurs. In other words, potential entrepreneurs with weak coping capacity have experienced failure during the start-up phase. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the influence of perceived barriers of entrepreneurship orientation on student's attitude and intentions in starting a new business. The population of the study consisted of agricultural students in Islamic Azad University in Ilam Province (N =320). Using simple random sampling, 169 students were selected through Bartlet table of sample size. A structured questionnaire was used as a research instrument to collect data. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test validity of research instrument and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to test reliability of the questionnaire yielding 0.95 indicating a valid instrument. Results revealed that students hold medium intention to start a new venture. Moreover, perceived barriers had direct and negative influence on students' attitude, self-efficacy, and intention towards entrepreneurial behavior. Interestingly, perceived risk was considered as a main barrier in students' entrepreneurial orientation. Lack of capital and financial support, entrepreneurial skill and training were among other perceived barriers. The findings of this study have implications for agricultural higher education. For example, risk management, optimism, entrepreneurial internship, role models, and demonstration projects may be used to overcome perceived entrepreneurial barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]