How Green Entrepreneurial Intention Promotes Sustainable Entrepreneurial Behavior among Students of Higher Education Institutions in Pakistan?

Abstract

The aim of this research is to explain the role of financial literacy (FL), attitude toward sustainable entrepreneurship (ATSE), social norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) on green entrepreneurial intentions (GEIs), as well as to investigate the mediating role of green entrepreneurial intentions (GEIs) and the moderating role of green entrepreneurial education (GEE). This study uses the lens of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explain sustainable entrepreneurial behavior (SEB) among students of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Pakistan. The data set consists of 250 business and engineering students of HEIs who have enrolled in at least one course on green entrepreneurship by using a structured questionnaire. PLS-SEM is employed to test the hypothesis, mediation, and moderation among the modeled variables. The results show that ATSE, PBC, and FL significantly promote entrepreneurial intentions while SN have insignificant effect on entrepreneurial intentions. Moreover, GEIs significantly mediate between ATSE, PBC, financial literacy, and SEB. The findings further reveal that GEE significantly strengthens the positive relationship between GEIs and SEB. Aligning with the results, it is suggested that HEIs introduce a module to promote GEE and FL across different academic disciplines to foster sustainable entrepreneurial practices to ensure social, economic, and environmental sustainability.