Understanding the Consumers of Entrepreneurial Education: Self-Efficacy and Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation among Youths

Abstract

Sustaining youths interest in entrepreneurial education is important to cultivating future entrepreneurs. This study examines factors influencing entrepreneurial attitudes among youth using 334 respondents within the context of Indonesian institutes of higher learning. The findings show that in entrepreneurial education, both perceived educator competency and perceived social support are important drivers for the creation of self-efficacy in youth. However, only perceived social support is directly related to increased entrepreneurial attitude orientation. On the other hand, when self-efficacy is introduced as a mediating variable, both perceived educator competency and perceived social support show influence on youths entrepreneurial attitude orientation. From these findings, the research proposed both its theoretical and managerial implications.

1. Introduction

As consumers of the education business, the perceptions of youths is crucial in measuring the quality of education products and services offered. In this paper, the terms youth and students are used interchangeably since the study focuses on entrepreneurship education, which is one product that has gained enhanced popularity and investment in many countries [1]. This is especially true in Indonesia, where the number of Indonesian educational institutions focusing on entrepreneurial education has increased [2] due to its potential as an economic development tool [3]. Entrepreneurship education encourages colleges to build entrepreneurial abilities, skills, and intentions [4]. Past studies have emphasized that an effective entrepreneurship education program can help youth to increase entrepreneurial attitude, entrepreneurial mindset [5], entrepreneurial intentions [6], entrepreneurial activity [1], entrepreneurial skill and motivation [7], and even to improve business performance built by youth [2]. Therefore, universities are expected to be able to offer well-prepared entrepreneurship modules [8].

Entrepreneurial attitude orientation (EAO), which is a way to predict entrepreneurship based on attitude or the tendency to respond in a way that is generally liked or disliked [9], has been important in the development of entrepreneurship on campus. Curriculum requirements, convenience factors, practical considerations, experience, academic factors [10], and achievement [11] are important factors in increasing entrepreneurial attitude. Entrepreneurial attitude orientation encourages creativity [12], innovation [13], entrepreneurial behavior [14], individual entrepreneurial movement in the future, and entrepreneurial intention [15]. Previous studies have shown that entrepreneurs have a higher EAO scale than non-entrepreneurs [16].

Bandura [17], however, emphasized that entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) also plays an important part in the field of entrepreneurship, especially in entrepreneurial activities [18], because starting a business comes with a lot of ambiguities and uncertainties, including rejections, fluctuations in market conditions, and changes in business policies. Someone with high self-efficacy will be able to overcome all uncertainties and problems that can negatively affect the performance of his/her business [19] because self-efficacy is strongly linked with creative behavior, creative ideas and novel activities [20] that are important to overcoming uncertain and diverse conditions of the market. In short, entrepreneurial self-efficacy gives strength and perseverance to someone to make the effort to overcome ambiguous conditions [21]. In past studies, entrepreneurial self-efficacy has been found to influence entrepreneurial attitudes [5], entrepreneurial intention [22,23], entrepreneurial emotion, career choices, and entrepreneurial performance [24]. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy is developed through learning, experience [24], instrumental readiness, risk propensity, and entrepreneurial knowledge [25]. High intrinsic motivation in entrepreneurial activity depends on entrepreneurial self-efficacy [26].

What motivated this study is the existing lack of literature on the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in understanding entrepreneurial attitude orientation. Although several previous studies explained the important role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediating variable [for example research conducted by van Caloen de Basseghem [27], Naushad and Malik [28], Ciuchta and Finch [29], Cho, Choi [30], most of them did so to understand entrepreneurial intention rather than entrepreneurial attitude orientation. van Caloen de Basseghem [27] for instance, examined the effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy mediation on academic grade and entrepreneurial intention. Naushad and Malik [28], showed the important role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy as mediator for propensity to risk, self-confidence, internal locus of control and entrepreneurial intention, while Cho, Choi [30] looked at the mediating effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial mentoring and entrepreneurial intention. There is scarce literature, if any, that focuses on using entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediating variable between perceived social support and perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency on entrepreneurial attitude orientation. This is the research gap that we found. Hence this study may help reduce the gap by providing empirical findings on the important role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial attitude orientation.

This study focused on entrepreneurial attitude orientation as the dependent variable because the attitude scale allows for the prediction of entrepreneurial activity [31], it makes it easier for us to understand what entrepreneurial activities are preferred by students so that recommendations on how universities could develop suitable entrepreneurship programs may be possible. In addition, attitudes have a tendency to change over time according to situations or the environment [32]. If universities could map the entrepreneurial attitude orientation of their students, they could follow the changing trends in student attitudes and predict students’ future actions. Moreover, entrepreneurial attitude orientation is a combination of affect, cognitive, and conative. Understanding entrepreneurial attitude orientation allows researchers to understand the students’ beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and desires. Hence, this study aims to understand entrepreneurial attitude orientation by examining antecedents such as entrepreneurial competency and perceived social support as well as by looking at entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediator. In the section below, the paper reviews the relevant literature before proceeding with explaining its hypothesis development. This is followed by a description of the methodology it used to test all eight hypotheses, and the presentation of the analysis and findings. A discussion of the findings is then provided before concluding with the study implications and suggestions for future research.

2. Literature Review and Hypothesis Development

2.1. Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy

The theory of self-efficacy was originally introduced by Bandura [33]. Self-efficacy can be seen as a person’s ability to manage the actions needed [17] and the personal competencies that can control certain situations [34]. Self-efficacy affects what is thought, felt and done by a person [35]. Self-efficacy is closely related to work-related performance [36]. It can also serve as a driving force to face obstacles and limitations [23]. Self-efficacy will increase if someone manages to achieve what they want, and will decrease if there is a failure [37]. It will also increase with exposure to entrepreneurial education.

The construct of entrepreneurial self-efficacy was proposed by De Noble, Jung [38]. This construct refers to an individual’s belief in his/her own abilities to perform various skills that are needed for starting up a new business [35]. According to De Noble, Jung [38], ESE is related to a "can do" attitude in starting up a business venture. ESE focuses on a person’s belief that he/she is able to produce an entrepreneurial outcome [39], such as with building new businesses, first-time venture creators and completing entrepreneurial tasks.

2.2. Perceived Social Support

Perceived social support is defined as an exchange of resources between two individuals that is perceived by either the provider or the recipient as improving the well-being of the recipient [40]. Perceived social support brings positive emotions that can enhance physiological and affective states, and it is a source of self-efficacy. Social support can also help individuals gain mastery and experience. In the context of an institute of higher learning, students or consumers of entrepreneurial education require support from their social surroundings, because a supportive social environment can help self-efficacy to flourish [17]. Perceived social support, which refers to social support that an individual receives when s/he is carrying out entrepreneurial/business activities [41], may play an important role in developing entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Social support is a person’s support and motivation for others to become an entrepreneur [42] because it gives them a sense of security and comfort to make good decisions [43] and it helps them to deal with stress [44] and failure during entrepreneurial activities [45]. Social support comes in the form of suggestions, advice [46], care and help given by someone to another party [47]. That "someone" can be partners, community organizations, friends or family [48]. However, in the context of a university, the "someone" that students need for social support includes their family, friends, and university entrepreneurship lecturers.

There were inconsistent results about the role of perceived social support in entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Lu, Song [49] found that university entrepreneurship support positively affects students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Another study found a relationship between family factors and youth’s entrepreneurial self-efficacy [50]. The family provides support in the form of moral and financial assistance to help their children in conducting entrepreneurial activities. Family support motivates and gives confidence for youth to carry out entrepreneurial activities. Perceived social support from parents can also help youth to become proud as entrepreneurs. A study by Cho, Choi [30] also confirmed that social support has a significant effect on entrepreneurial self-efficacy. However, Kazumi and Kawai [51] found that formal institutional support has no correlation with entrepreneurial self-efficacy. These inconsistent results led the researchers to further study whether perceived social support from family, lecturers, and significant others will lead to students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Hence, the hypothesis regarding the relationship between perceived social support and entrepreneurial self-efficacy is formulated as follows:

Hypothesis 1 (H1).

Perceived social supportis positively related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

Langford, Bowsher [43] described several attributes of social support, including emotional support, instrument support, informational support, and appraisal support. In the context of social support in the development of entrepreneurship on campus, social support can be in the form of emotional support (love, caring, trust and empathy provided by lecturers and mentors), instrumental support (facilities provided by the campus to support entrepreneurship activities), informational support (from lecturers and mentors in the form of providing various solutions when students experience difficulties in developing their business), and appraisal support (when lecturers and mentors give appreciation to students). Perceived social support can have an impact on entrepreneurial success [52,53] because regardless of the form, perceived social support can improve one’s attitude in entrepreneurship [54], improve one’s performance in entrepreneurial tasks, pursuing business innovation and controlling business results [2]. Jadmiko [54] stated that perceived social support can influence the attitude of becoming social entrepreneurs. Perceived social support in the form of university entrepreneurship support can increase entrepreneurial attitude [49]. Based on this, the hypothesis regarding the relationship between perceived social support and entrepreneurial attitude orientation is formulated as follows:

Hypothesis 2 (H2).

Perceived social support is positively related to entrepreneurial attitude orientation.

2.3. Perceived Lecturers’ Entrepreneurial Competency

How youths perceive the competency of their lecturers is also important to understand because one of the determinants of the quality of university graduates is the quality of the lecturers [55]. In this study, perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency refers to the youths’ perception of lecturers’ collective abilities (attitude, skills, and knowledge) to do entrepreneurial activities and complete entrepreneurial tasks. Since lecturers, who provide mentoring for students’ businesses, are often viewed as role models for students, perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competencies can enhance youths’ confidence in their learning experience, which then lead to better self-efficacy among students [17]. Newman, Obschonka [24] found that the exposure to entrepreneurial role models and mentors is one of the key antecedents of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. In addition, a study conducted by BarNir, Watson [56] found that undergraduate students’ exposure to entrepreneurial role models affects their belief in the ability to successfully carry out entrepreneurial tasks. In other words, youths will feel more confident and capable of completing entrepreneurial tasks when led by their role model. On the contrary, when students view their lecturers as having low entrepreneurial competency, their self-confidence may also decline, leading to lower self-efficacy and more failures.

Previous studies showed that successful role models, meaning role models that are also successful in completing entrepreneurial tasks, generate entrepreneurial self-efficacy in students [57]. However, a study by Malebana [58] found that entrepreneurial role models only have a very small impact on entrepreneurial self-efficacy. From four kinds of entrepreneurial role models that the author studied, only one of them was significantly related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy, but with p < 0.10. These inconsistent results led the researchers to further examine whether perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competencies will predict students‘ entrepreneurial self-efficacy. It is proposed that students who perceive their lecturers as having entrepreneurial competencies are more likely to experience that the guidance from their lecturers are useful for their entrepreneurial projects, which will lead them to be more confident in conducting their entrepreneurial work. Therefore, the hypothesis regarding the relationship between lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency and entrepreneurial self-efficacy is formulated as follows:

Hypothesis 3 (H3).

Perceived Lecturers’ entrepreneurial competencyis positively related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

The quality of learning and teaching is greatly influenced by the lecturer’s entrepreneurial competency [59]. Lecturers will not be able to teach various competencies to students if the lecturers do not have entrepreneurial competencies. Entrepreneurial competencies needed include identifying opportunities, resource acquisition, championing competencies [60,61], relationship, organizing, commitment [62], human relation [63], innovating, sponsoring [64], etc. Lecturers with entrepreneurial competency will be role models for their students. Lecturers who become role models will influence entrepreneurial attitudes and interests [65,66,67]. However, there are also research results that explained that role models are not able to increase entrepreneurial attitude [68] because role models are only seen as one more factor in choosing an entrepreneur’s career path. Therefore, we propose that perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency could influence students entrepreneurial attitudes, which could help them focus more on improving entrepreneurial attitude orientation. The hypothesis regarding the relationship between perceived lecturer entrepreneurial competency and entrepreneurial attitude orientation is formulated as follows:

Hypothesis 4 (H4).

Perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competencyis positively related to entrepreneurial attitude orientation.

Ardyan and Wijaya [2] proposed that entrepreneurial competency is the attitude, knowledge and skills possessed by a person related to entrepreneurial activity. The term entrepreneurial competency describes the trainee teacher’s behavior [63], particularly those of lecturers who teach entrepreneurship. The competencies can be in terms of oral presentation skills, interpersonal skills, the ability to prepare and present a business plan [69], openness, accommodate new ideas, and critical thinking [70]. There were inconsistent results about the effect of perceived lecturers’ competency on perceived social support. A study from St-Jean and Audet [71] found that the expertise and experience of mentors did not increase mentees’ satisfaction. This result suggests that perceived lecturers’ competency does not always lead to the feeling of being supported by the lecturers. However, on the other hand, Dolan and Brady [72] suggest that the expertise of a mentor is very important for helping students, as this will make students feel supported by the mentors. These inconsistent results show that further studies are needed to ensure whether perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency will have an effect on perceived social support. It can be argued that lecturers who are not competent cannot optimally help students in coping with their entrepreneurial tasks. This makes students feel unsupported. Lecturers who have expertise in the subject areas are more likely to be able to guide and help students in their entrepreneurial tasks, and to provide better mentoring, so that students can feel supported [72]. Hence, the hypothesis regarding the relationship between perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency and perceived social support is formulated as follows:

Hypothesis 5 (H5).

Perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competencyis positively related to perceived social support.

2.4. Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation

Attitude theory and entrepreneurship theory are the basis of an entrepreneurial attitude orientation. Attitude is a response towards the object attitude, whether the object attitude is considered beneficial or not [73], and is a driving factor of interest in behavior [74]. In the context of entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurial attitude orientation (EAO) approach was first proposed by Robinson [75]. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, [75] proposed a measurement scale related to entrepreneurial attitude orientation called the EAO Scale, which measures the characteristics of entrepreneurial attitude and to distinguish between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs [76]. Previous research found that male students have more positive entrepreneurial attitudes compared to female students [77]. Harris and Gibson [78] argued that men have innovation, personal control, and experience; thus, their entrepreneurial attitude is also high.

The relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial attitude orientation cannot be concluded yet because there are still inconsistencies in research results. Several studies explained that entrepreneurial self-efficacy is able to significantly increase entrepreneurial attitude orientation [79,80,81,82], while other studies did not find a significant relationship [83]. In this research, we propose that entrepreneurial self-efficacy has a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial attitude orientation. Bandura [84] posited that an individual’s behavior is influenced by the belief that an individual holds about his or her abilities to complete the tasks. Bandura [17] even argued that self-efficacy influences the way people think, feel, and act. Furthermore, Bandura [17] also mentioned that self-efficacy will influence the choice of goal challenge, the effort to achieve the goal, and also the duration of perseverance in facing difficulties. Therefore, it can be argued that an individual with strong confidence in business can influence his/her attitude in business achievement, business innovation, and personal control. Students who have confidence in business, both in terms of knowledge and skills, can be reflected in their entrepreneurial attitude. They can pour their creative ideas into the products they produce, so that they can be useful. [79]. Hence, the hypothesis regarding the relationship between perceived social support and entrepreneurial self-efficacy is formulated as follows:

Hypothesis 6 (H6).

Entrepreneurial self-efficacyis positively related to entrepreneurial attitude orientation.

2.5. Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy as Mediating Variable

Kickul and D’Intino [85] explained that entrepreneurial self-efficacy has an important role in the entrepreneurial life cycle, because entrepreneurial self-efficacy can identify each task and role in the entrepreneurial lifecycle. Some studies are likely to use entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediating variable [28] due to its ability to bridge various factors that influence entrepreneurial intention. There has never been a previous researcher that has examined entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediator between perceived social support and entrepreneurial attitude orientation; and entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediator between perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency and entrepreneurial attitude orientation. In this research, we try to relate these variables.

In entrepreneurial research, self-efficacy plays an important role as a mediator between perceived social support and entrepreneurial attitude orientation. Based on socio-cognitive theory, self-efficacy shows that individual behavior is designed by several activities, such as intrapersonal interactions [86]. One form of interaction is the existence of social support. The interaction between these can form individual beliefs in including the ability to perform certain behaviors [87]. Some research explained that social support can have a positive effect on self-confidence [88]. In the socio-cognitive approach, the impact of knowledge and social interaction (social support) in the form of attitudes towards entrepreneurship can be explained [5]. The higher the social support, the more it will have an impact on increasing self-confidence and will also have an impact on increasing the orientation of entrepreneurial attitudes. Based on the discussions, the hypotheses regarding the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy is formulated as follows:

Hypothesis 7 (H7).

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy has a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived social support and entrepreneurial attitude orientation.

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy also plays an important role as a mediator between perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency and entrepreneurial attitude orientation. Some literature related to person-environment fit theory shows that an individual’s evaluation of the surrounding environment will greatly affect the attitudinal outcome [89,90,91]. In this study, the evaluation conducted by students related to the entrepreneurial ability of the lecturer group will have an impact on the attitudinal outcome (in this research it is entrepreneurial attitude orientation). The quality of lecturers can be seen from their competence. Competence is the ability of a person (lecturer) to carry out their duties well [92], such as being able to develop new products and market opportunities, building an innovative environment, initiating investor relationships, defining core purpose, coping with unexpected challenges, and developing critical human resources. We argue that entrepreneurial self-efficacy is central to mediating the effect of perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency on entrepreneurial attitude orientation. One of the reasons why people pursue entrepreneurship lies in the entrepreneurial self-efficacy or belief in a person (student) in his or her ability to become an entrepreneur [39]. Students have high self-confidence for entrepreneurship because they feel congruence with their lecturers. Lecturers can motivate students to be confident. This will have an impact on students’ entrepreneurial attitude orientation. Based on the discussions, the hypothesis regarding the mediating role of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy is formulated as follows:

Hypothesis 8 (H8).

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy has a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency and entrepreneurial attitude orientation.

The research model that includes all hypotheses of this study is shown in Figure 1 as follows.

3. Research Method

3.1. Instrument and Analysis

This study adopted a quantitative method to address the research questions. A self-administered questionnaire is chosen as the data collection tool. Each respondent received a set of questionnaires to be completed. The questionnaire consisted of several sections which were designed to collect information regarding the demographic profile of respondents, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, perceived social support, entrepreneurial attitude orientation, and perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency.

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy was measured using the entrepreneurial self-efficacy scale developed by De Noble, Jung [38]. The scale consisted of 23 items measuring six dimensions. The dimensions are: developing new products and market opportunities, building an innovative environment, initiating investor relationship, defining core purpose, coping with unexpected challenges, and developing critical human resources. Respondents were asked to rate from 1 (=strongly disagree) to 10 (=strongly agree) based on their agreement to the statement of the item. The Cronbach’s alpha for this construct is 0.931.

Items measuring perceived social support are modified from the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) [93,94]. The MSPSS was originally designed to measure the social support among undergraduates from three major sources, including family, friends and significant others [95]. In this study, the items are modified to measure the supports received by respondents when they are doing entrepreneurial/business activities. The total of items in this section is 16. The sources of support measured were family, friends, significant others, and entrepreneurship lecturers. Students were also asked to rate from 1 (=strongly disagree) to 10 (=strongly agree) based on their agreement to the statement of the item. The Cronbach’s alpha for this scale is 0.797.

To measure entrepreneurial attitude orientation, this study modified the instrument developed by [30]. The instrument consisted of 75 items evaluating four subscales, including achieving attitude, innovative attitude, personal control, and business self-esteem. However, as the concept of business self-esteem overlaps with entrepreneurial self-efficacy, data analysis only included achieving attitude, innovative attitude, personal control, and excluded business self-esteem. The Cronbach’s alpha for this scale is 0.901.

The final section was measuring perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency. In this section, students were asked to rate the entrepreneurial competency of their entrepreneurship course lecturers in general. The entrepreneurial competency includes the six dimensions used in the entrepreneurial self-efficacy instruments developed by De Noble, Jung [38]. The total number of items in this section is 23. The appraisal is conducted by reflecting back on lectures, interaction, and mentoring processes that had been delivered during six semesters. Respondents were asked to rate them on a scale of 1 to 10 to show the degree of entrepreneurial competency they perceived. The higher the score indicates a higher level of competency perceived. On the contrary, a lower score suggests lower level of competency perceived. Respondents were given opportunities to choose the box of ‘no idea’ if they were unsure about the competence of their entrepreneurship lecturers. The Cronbach’s alpha for this scale is 0.949.

To avoid the possibility of the emergence of central tendency bias and social desirability bias [96], we used a 10-point scale, eliminating the middle point. The decision to use a scale of 1–10, which did not use the midpoint, was made by considering the cultural characteristics of the sample. According to Hofstede [96] research, Indonesia is characterized by a highly collectivist society. People in collectivist societies develop their identities within the social networks to which they belong, incorporate themselves as part of the ‘us’ rather than the ‘me’, and strive for the maintenance of harmony and avoidance of confrontation [97]. This cultural characteristic raises concern for the researchers that respondents in this study might avoid extreme positions in giving their opinion and tend to choose the middle category if such a category is given. In addition, the decision to eliminate the middle category was also made to prevent respondents from the risk of a non-committed response [97]. The use of a scale of 1–10 was also carried out in the previous studies such as in [82,98,99,100].

3.2. Respondents

This study was conducted among students in a private university in Indonesia that emphasized entrepreneurship education in the curriculum in its branches located in two main cities of Indonesia—Surabaya and Makassar. College students were the focus because they are more ready to manage business ventures or run a cohesive business project [3] and do so due to intrinsic factors as opposed to extrinsic factors such as the influence of family and friends.

The total number of respondents is 334 students. The total number of samples taken in this study followed the recommendation of the Krejcie and Morgan Sample Size Table [98]. The respondents were sixth semester students that were taking the sixth entrepreneurship course. The reason for including only the sixth semester students in this study is because at this stage, they have completed all six semesters of entrepreneurship courses in the university and can be considered as having adequate entrepreneurship education. The participation was voluntary and was not associated with an evaluation. To test for heterogeneity of the sample, we used the Glejser test. The results showed that there is no heteroscedasticity in the regression model. Based on the scatterplot, the data did not show a patterned distribution, but was spread out. The regression coefficient using Abs-RES as a dependent variable showed that the value of sig X1 = 0.903; X2 = 0.048; X3 = 0.587. Two of the three independent variables have a coefficient value of ≥0.05. So, the data from this research is homogeneous, there is no heterogeneity of the sample.

The final sample consists of 50.3% males and 49.7% females. Their ages range from 19 to 25 years old, with the average age of 21.14. In reference to ethnic background, most of the respondents (88.5%) are Chinese Indonesian, while the rest are native Indonesians (7.9%), Arabic Indonesians (1.5%), and others (2.1%). With regards to the mode of living, more than half of the respondents live with their parents (58.3%) and the rest live in a boarding house, or are renting a house with friends or relatives.

4. Results

Table 1. Descriptive statistics and inter-correlations of the total sample.

	M	SD	1	2	3	4
Perceived social support	7.02	1.34	(0.797)
2. Perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency	7.17	1.29	0.483 **	(0.949)
3. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy	7.24	1.01	0.497 **	0.373 **	(0.931)
4. Entrepreneurial attitude orientation	7.44	0.94	0.563 **	0.392 **	0.685 **	(0.901)

** p < 0.01; internal reliabilities are in parentheses

shows the descriptive results, containing means, standard deviations for each variable, and inter-correlations.

The interrelationship model testing result using path analyses is shown in Figure 2 as follows.

The regression equation is:

• X1 = 0.483 X2 (significant)
• X3 = 0.413 X1 (significant) + 0.173 X2 (significant)
• Y = 0.270 X1 (significant) + 0.065 X2 (non-significant) + 0.527 X3
• X1= Perceived Social Support
• X2 = Perceived Lecturers’ Entrepreneurial Competency
• X3 = Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy
• Y = Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation

To investigate the interrelationships among perceived social support, perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial attitude orientation, path analyses were performed. As stated in Hypothesis 1 (H1), perceived social support is positively related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Figure 2 shows that perceived social support is positively related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The direct effect of perceived social support on entrepreneurial self-efficacy is 0.413 (p < 0.001). This result supports Hypothesis 1 (H1). Meanwhile, Hypothesis 2 (H2) proposed that perceived social support is positively related to entrepreneurial attitude orientation. The results indicate that perceived social support has a significant direct effect on entrepreneurial attitude orientation. The direct effect of perceived social support on entrepreneurial attitude orientation is 0.270 (p < 0.001). This result supports Hypothesis 2 (H2).

H3 postulated that perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency is positively related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Figure 2 shows that lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency is positively related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy. This result supports Hypothesis 3 (H3). However, the direct effect of perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency on entrepreneurial self-efficacy is only 0.173 (p < 0.001). Perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency also has an indirect effect on entrepreneurial self-efficacy through perceived social support, but the effect is also very weak. Meanwhile, H4 put forward that perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency is positively related to entrepreneurial attitude orientation. The results show that the direct effect of perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency on entrepreneurial attitude orientation is not statistically significant (0.065; p > 0.05). This result does not support Hypothesis 4 (H4). Further analysis shows that there is indirect effect of perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency on entrepreneurial attitude orientation, but it is very weak or negligible.

According to Hypothesis 5 (H5), perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency is positively related to perceived social support. The direct effect of perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency on perceived social support is 0.483 (p < 0.001). This result supports Hypothesis 5 (H5). Similarly, Hypothesis 6 (H6) assumed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy is positively related to entrepreneurial attitude orientation. The results show that entrepreneurial self-efficacy has a significant effect on entrepreneurial attitude orientation. The direct effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial attitude orientation is 0.527 (p < 0,001).

Hypothesis 7 (H7) assumed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy has a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived social support and entrepreneurial attitude orientation. The results of this study indicate that self-efficacy can be a partial mediator between the influence of perceived social support on entrepreneurial attitude orientation. Meanwhile, Hypothesis 8 (H8) assumed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy has a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency and entrepreneurial attitude orientation. The results of this study indicate that self-efficacy can be a full mediator between the influence of lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency on entrepreneurial attitude orientation.

Table 2. Standardized direct and indirect effects.

Outcome
	Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation		Perceived Social Support		Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy
Predictor	Direct	Indirect	Direct	Indirect	Direct	Indirect
Perceived social support (ESS)	0.270 ***	0.218 **	-	-	0.413 ***	-
Perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency (LEC)	0.065 ns	0.09 **	0.483 ***	-	0.173 ***	0.199 ***
Entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE)	0.527 ***

^ns non-significant, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.

shows the direct and indirect effects of variables. It is worth noting that perceived social support has a positive effect on entrepreneurial attitude orientation, both directly and indirectly via entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Perceived lecturers’ competency has no direct effect on entrepreneurial attitude orientation, but still has an indirect effect via entrepreneurial self-efficacy. However, perceived lectures’ entrepreneurial competency has a positive effect on perceived social support.

• The total effect of perceived social support on entrepreneurial attitude orientation:
• 0.270 + (0.413 × 0.527) = 0.487651
• The total effect of perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency on entrepreneurial attitude orientation:
• (0.173 × 0.527) + (0.483 × 0.270) = 0.221581
• The total effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial attitude orientation: 0.527

To summarize, the proportion of variance in perceived social support that is explained by lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency is 23.1%. The proportion of variance in entrepreneurial self-efficacy that is explained by perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency and perceived social support is 26.6%. Finally, the proportion of variance in entrepreneurial attitude orientation that is explained by perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency, perceived social support, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy is 53.4%. The remaining 46.6% proportion of variance in entrepreneurial attitude orientation was explained by other variables not included in the current study.

5. Discussion

Self-efficacy is an important construct in the development of entrepreneurship in universities in Indonesia. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy is a form of self-confidence [99] and reflects a person’s strong belief in successfully performing entrepreneurial tasks and roles [100]. This study found that entrepreneurial self-efficacy has a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial attitude orientation. The results of this research are supported by the results of previous research [79]. Individuals with high entrepreneurial self-efficacy have a strong belief that they could complete entrepreneurial tasks. Belief in one’s self is closely related to one’s self-awareness to behave according to their abilities [82].

Perceived social support can increase entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Albrecht and Adelman [101] state that social supports can reduce uncertainty. Often students are still confused about choosing whether to become an entrepreneur or not. There was distrust of students. Social supports will make students more confident about their choice. Individuals who receive higher support in carrying out their entrepreneurial/business activities show higher confidence in completing entrepreneurial tasks. Support will help someone to cope with stress. Pihie and Bagheri [102] mentioned that teachers play critical roles to develop interactive social environments to develop students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy through mastery experience, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and social support. It can be argued that this interactive social environment can only be developed by building positive interpersonal relationships with students. Social support will decrease anxiety and develop positive affect and enhance the self-worth of the receiving parties. The positive effect on self-worth is very influential in developing self-efficacy. In parallel with this, Bratkovič, Antončič [103] posited that entrepreneurs whose social ties provide various support necessary for starting up a business will have higher confidence to start up their business.

Having stressed the importance of building interpersonal relationships with students, does it mean that lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency is not important in the entrepreneurship education system? Boyd and Vozikis [99] argued that “a trusted and successful role model” is important to influence the development of entrepreneurial self-efficacy, as these characteristics will influence the impact of their verbal persuasion to students. Lecturers who are not competent can be perceived negatively by students. This situation may also lead to lack of trust among students. Moreover, competency is also necessary to enable them to provide the specific support needed by students. The competency will also be required for lecturers to structure activities and guidance for students that will lead to success.

The results of this study indicate that perceived social support has a positive effect on entrepreneurial attitude orientation. The results of this study are the same as the results of previous studies [54]. The higher the level of social support received, the more someone will participate in solving problems by establishing a business that is business oriented. The higher the perceived level of social support, the more it shows their concern for business creation. Perceived social support also plays a role in fostering a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship.

Perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency has a positive effect on entrepreneurial self-efficacy. This shows that the positive perception of students about entrepreneurial competency from lecturers will make students more confident. Lecturers have an important impact in the teaching and learning process. Competent lecturers have the following abilities: developing new products and market opportunities, building an innovative environment, initiating investor relationships, defining core purposes, coping with unexpected challenges, and developing critical human resources. Students are more confident when their lecturers have entrepreneurial abilities. Lecturers must use their competence to provide inspirational messages and provide appropriate guidance. Lecturers are expected not only to give empty and unconstructive criticism. This negative persuasion has strong debilitating effects on students and students will lose their confidence and give up [21].

The results of this research show that the perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency is not able to directly influence the entrepreneurial attitude orientation. Perceived lecturers’ new entrepreneurial competency can affect entrepreneurial attitude orientation if there is entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediator. So entrepreneurial self-efficacy plays an important role in mediating the influence of perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency and entrepreneurial attitude orientation. This is where entrepreneurial self-efficacy plays a central role. Therefore, the selection of competent lecturers and systematic efforts to develop lecturer competencies are very important. In addition, educational institutions must also equip lecturers to be able to develop good interpersonal relationships with students and use their competencies to build students’ self-confidence, not to put students down. This self-confidence ultimately forms an entrepreneurial attitude orientation.

The results of this study showed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy was only a partial mediator between the influence of perceived entrepreneurial social support on entrepreneurial attitude orientation. The direct effect of perceived entrepreneurial social support on entrepreneurial attitude orientation was stronger than the indirect effect of perceived entrepreneurial social support on entrepreneurial attitude orientation via entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy did not enhance the impact of perceived social support on entrepreneurial attitude orientation. This showed that perceived social support itself can influence entrepreneurial attitude orientation without the presence of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. These results supported the results of H2. This study supports the study from Lu, Song [49] that social support can increase entrepreneurial attitudes.

6. Conclusions

This study aimed to narrow the gap of knowledge on the mediating effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial attitude orientation by examining the antecedent and outcomes of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and the role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediator. These findings show that perceived social support and perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency are effective driving factors to increase entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and that entrepreneurial self-efficacy can increase student entrepreneurial attitude orientation. Our findings add to knowledge, especially self-efficacy theory in two ways. First, entrepreneurial self-efficacy can improve entrepreneurial attitude orientation. Youths’ confidence will increase their positive assessment of their entrepreneurial activities, which may greatly affect their future choices in entrepreneurship. As [10] postulated, entrepreneurial attitude orientation consists of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral intentions and predispositions to behave in a certain way towards achievement in business, innovation in business, perceived personal control of business outcomes, and perceived self-esteem in business. In this study, entrepreneurial self-efficacy has been proven to support the flourish of positive beliefs, feelings, and intentions to entrepreneurial actions.

The impact of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial attitude orientation in this study has confirmed previous studies on the impact of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial behavior [104,105,106]. This means that entrepreneurial self-efficacy is important not only in the individualist culture (western countries), but also in the collectivist culture such as Indonesia. Hence, the concept of entrepreneurial self-efficacy should get more emphasis and attention in entrepreneurship research and entrepreneurship education [106].

Second, this research shows the important role of self-efficacy as a variable that can mediate the influence of perceived lecturers’ competencies and perceived social support on entrepreneurial attitude orientation. Specifically, self-efficacy fully mediates the relationship between perceived lecturers’ competency and entrepreneurial attitude orientation. However, it only partially mediates the relationship between perceived social support and entrepreneurial attitude orientation. These results are consistent with the study by Lu, Song [49], which showed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy plays a mediating role in the relationship between university entrepreneurship support and entrepreneurial intention. The importance of entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediating variable has also been shown in previous studies [107,108].

The study has also showed that perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency has no direct effect on entrepreneurial attitude orientation. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy became an important variable that turned perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency into a more positive entrepreneurial attitude orientation, including entrepreneurial intention. This result is similar to the study by St-Jean and Mathieu [108], which showed that mentoring only does not positively affect entrepreneurial intention without entrepreneurial self-efficacy as a mediating variable. The current study also supports the study from Kisubi and Korir [107], which showed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy is an important mediating variable for the relationship between entrepreneurial training and entrepreneurial intention, and for the association between entrepreneurial training and entrepreneurial attitude.

The findings of this study confirm the importance of entrepreneurial self-efficacy in entrepreneurship education. Perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency helps students to be more confident of their ability to conduct entrepreneurial activities, as their lecturers are their role models. Similarly, social support from family, friends, significant others, and entrepreneurship lecturers when students are doing entrepreneurial/business activities will lead to students having a higher level of confidence in their entrepreneurial tasks. As a result, they have a higher entrepreneurial self-efficacy, leading to the development of entrepreneurial attitude orientation. When students perceive that their lecturers have entrepreneurial competency, they will perceive entrepreneurship more positively and have a better feeling towards entrepreneurship. Consequently, they have a more positive and favorable attitude towards entrepreneurship, and higher intentions and predisposition to conduct entrepreneurial efforts.

The findings of this study may have two managerial implications. Firstly, they highlight the fact that universities must pay attention to the competencies of lecturers. Competent lecturers will have many resources, such as information, extensive networks, good capabilities, and experience, so that they can provide advice and guidance for students. Resources can come from previous entrepreneurial experience, such as running their own business. Having direct experience related to entrepreneurship enables lecturers to extract best practices and learning lessons for students who, in turn, gradually develop their self-efficacy. This is supported by Abaho, Olomi [109], who found that lecturer business experience is positively related to student entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Not only that, lecturers with experience in entrepreneurship are able to more effectively inspire students than non-entrepreneurial lecturers, because students feel that they can believe in what the lecturer teaches [110].

Secondly, an institute of higher learning should build an ecosystem in the form of a community that supports the implementation of entrepreneurial activities on campus. Community can consist of parents, entrepreneurial experts, entrepreneurs, and others. The aim is to encourage the creation of self-efficacy among students. In running a business, students face many unexpected challenges, which include stress, pressure, and conflict. The community will help by supporting, providing solutions, and helping solve various problems faced by students.

This study is limited in that the respondents are not evenly distributed. This occurs due to the difficulty of obtaining respondents in the central and eastern parts of Indonesia. Therefore, the possibility of bias due to the origin or location of the respondents participating in this study must be acknowledged. For future research, we recommend that a bigger number of universities that offer entrepreneurship across the country is included, so that the results can be generalized. In addition, our study did not segment lecturers into groups of the competent and not competent, which can limit the meanings of our findings. Future researchers are advised to provide a more robust analysis by segmenting the lecturers based on competencies. Finally, this research used a cross-sectional study, which cannot provide strong evidence about a causal relationship. Future studies are urged to use the longitudinal study approach to provide empirical evidence about perceived social support and perceived lecturers’ entrepreneurial competency as an independent variable.