Analysis of Environmental Determinants of Entrepreneurial Intention among Agricultural Students (Case Study of Ilam University)

 Entrepreneurship is a vital approach to accelerating innovation, developing economic growth, reducing unemployment, maintaining social stability and, indeed, value creation; in such a way that entrepreneurial activity or entrepreneurial behavior has attracted a lot of attention in educational and political systems. Over the past decades, many developing countries, including Iran, have turned to entrepreneurship as a potential underlying solution to various problems facing the country, including; Lack of efficiency in the economy, rising unemployment rate, over-graduation and the inability of the private and public sectors to create jobs for them have received serious attention. In this regard, the present study was conducted with the main purpose of investigating the impact of environmental factors on the entrepreneurial intention among agricultural students at Ilam University.

 In terms of paradigm, this research was quantitative, according to the applied purpose and in data collection and analysis was descriptive-correlation, which was done using structural equation modeling technique. The statistical population of this study included all fourth year undergraduate students of Ilam University (N=160), which using Cochran's formula, 100 of them by stratified random sampling with appropriate assignment (Based on field of study) were selected for the study. The main research tool was questionnaire که, the validity of which was confirmed by a panel of experts and convergent validity and its reliability by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient and combined reliability. Data analysis was performed in two sections of descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS21 and LISREL 8.80 software.

 The results showed that the status of entrepreneurial intention among agricultural students of Ilam University was moderate to high. The results showed that the variables of perceived desirability of entrepreneurship, social support, social norms and the entrepreneurship role model had a positive and significant relationship with the entrepreneurial intention of agricultural students. In addition, the results of structural equation modeling showed that the perceived desirability variable had the greatest effect (β= 0.82) directly and the social norms variable had the least effect (β = 0.06) indirectly. He had the entrepreneurial intention of the students.

 Based on the research findings, it can be said that environmental factors such as social support, social norms and entrepreneurial patterns have an important role in developing the entrepreneurial intention of agricultural students due to the perceived variability of entrepreneurial desirability; Therefore, according to these factors, it is possible to develop the intention and entrepreneurial behavior of students in the agricultural higher education system of the country.