نشریه پژوهش های کارآفرینی
پیاپی 1 (پاییز 1401)

Researchers have focused on entrepreneurial intention and contextual and individual factors affecting it as a robust theoretical framework for explaining entrepreneurial behavior. This study investigated the effect of creativity, autonomy, and workload with the mediating role of attitude on the entrepreneurial intention of students in a coherent framework. This research is an applied study in terms of goal, a quantitative study in terms of approach, and a descriptive-correlational study in type. The statistical population included all humanities students at Shahed University out of whom 340 people were selected by the simple randomization technique. The data collection instrument was a standard questionnaire. Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS) using the SmartPLS software package. The results showed that attitude and creativity had a significant and positive effect on students' intentions, but autonomy did not have a significant effect on the intention at the 95% confidence level. The workload had a significant and negative effect on intention and attitude. The mediating role of attitude was also confirmed. The findings provided evidence for the importance of creativity and autonomy in the formation of entrepreneurial intention among students. It was argued that attitude could act as a mechanism to transform creativity and autonomy into the intention. Therefore, it is suggested to the policymakers in the education systems to create a supportive environment and appropriate training to overcome the challenges of entrepreneurship and seek to create a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship in creative students.

This research attempts to propose a conceptual framework for developing entrepreneurial learning among blockchain entrepreneurs with an interpretative approach and event-based interviews. Researchers think of blockchain as a new revolutionary technology similar to the Internet. Given the changes that blockchain technology is capable of making, it has gained importance to identify entrepreneurship opportunities and put them into use. Dismissing this matter might lead to a loss of entrepreneurial learning opportunities and improving the methods used for guiding entrepreneurs to identify opportunities, start a business, and keep it. Therefore, it will be vital to identify the resources and learning and educational methods for entrepreneurial development. To do this, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 entrepreneurs or senior managers of the blockchain industry living in Iran. After coding the interviews, a framework was detected for developing entrepreneurial learning. The results show that entrepreneurial learning resources and methods consist of four sections including work-task, education-publication, imitation-modeling, and human-social interactions, each consisting of numerous methods. In this framework, in addition to learning resources and methods, six facilitating factors were identified, including motivation, interest, personal life process, business nature, nature of the business environment, and personal traits. Also, the identification of six limiting factors including economic obstacles, blockchain ecosystem obstacles, technological obstacles, government obstacles, personal obstacles, and finally institutional obstacles were another part of this framework.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is known as one of the most important technologies of the current era which is growing and evolving at an increasing pace and has influenced a wide range of businesses in different fields. One of the fields that have been heavily influenced by AI is the health field. Such industries as healthcare, radiology, and pharmaceuticals are among the industries that fall under the category of health businesses. This research aims to investigate the impact of AI on health-related businesses for which the theoretical and empirical literature is systematically reviewed to formulate the problem and provide a framework for exploring how AI influences health-related businesses. The results show that AI has had different impacts on health-related businesses and has triggered changes in their structure, but these effects have come with opportunities, e.g., innovation and saving in time and costs, and challenges, e.g., insufficient confidence and trust, lack of sufficient security, human resource crisis, and lack of specialized and skilled workforce emerged as a result of the use of AI in health businesses.

The importance of open innovation and its role in increasing the competitive advantage of organizations cannot be over-exaggerated. On the other hand, due to the lack of systematic study of open innovation in universities and the research gaps in this field, it is of great importance to explore the barriers of universities to transit from closed innovation to open innovation. The present study aims to identify barriers to moving toward open innovation at Razi University. The research is a mixed-methods (qualitative/quantitative) study in approach. In the qualitative stage, the theme analysis method was used to identify the obstacles through semi-structured interviews with 15 experts who were selected by the snowball method. The results in this phase were analyzed by coding (open coding, axial coding, and selective coding). In the next stage (the quantitative phase), a researcher-made questionnaire was used to examine and rank the barriers using a descriptive survey. The statistical population in this phase consisted of 110 faculty members who had a background in commercialization, teaching, or doing research in the field of entrepreneurship at Razi University. By stratified random sampling, 86 people were sampled. Data in the quantitative phase were analyzed by descriptive statistics. According to the results, eight main categories were identified as barriers, including supportive barriers, communication barriers, cultural barriers, structural barriers, macro government policies, educational barriers, motivational barriers, and personality barriers. The highest and lowest means were found to be related to supportive barriers (5.14) showing their high importance and personality barriers (3.82) showing their low importance, respectively.

This mixed study was conducted to analyze the agricultural entrepreneurship ecosystem in Kermanshah County. The statistical population consisted of three groups: agricultural entrepreneurs, rural communities, and managers of banks and financial institutions, who were sampled by simple randomization and three-stage cluster sampling methods. Data were collected using a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group. According to the results, in the policy subsystem, many dimensions of the entrepreneurial ecosystem have not been considered in Iran's macro documents. In the financial subsystem, entrepreneurs have faced many problems in accessing the required financial capital. Social capital is good for male entrepreneurs but low for female entrepreneurs. In the subsystem of human capital, the educational status and entrepreneurial experience of entrepreneurs were desirable, but entrepreneurs were weak in some entrepreneurial competencies. Culture is not supportive of entrepreneurial activity and sometimes even acts as a barrier. In the supportive sector, the level of awareness of entrepreneurs and their satisfaction regarding various support organizations (public and private) and the services provided by them was low. Also, in the market dimension, agricultural entrepreneurs faced political, technical, and economical obstacles. In total, the agricultural entrepreneurship ecosystem is not desirable in Kermanshah County. Therefore, for the optimum performance of the agricultural entrepreneurship ecosystem in this county, all subsystems are recommended to grow together in order to improve the capability of the ecosystem through synergy.

Entrepreneurship is a concept that is used for value-creating activities and plays an important role in the development of technology and innovation, job creation, and economic development. Although the entrepreneurship literature has increasingly focused on investigating the factors influencing entrepreneurial intention based on intention-based models, no coherent study has ever been conducted to identify the factors underpinning the formation of entrepreneurial behavior among students, especially agricultural students, in Iran's higher education system. To fill this gap, the present study uses the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to conduct a gender analysis in order to explain the entrepreneurial behavior of students in Iran's agricultural higher education system. The statistical population of the research included all senior undergraduate students of agricultural fields in Iran's higher education system, out of whom 455 were selected by multi-stage sampling from nine universities. The results showed that the variables of attitude toward entrepreneurship, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control had a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial intention and behavior among the studied agricultural students. In addition, the results of multiple comparisons analysis showed that the gender variable moderated the effect of attitude toward entrepreneurship, subjective norms, and behavioral control on entrepreneurial intention. The present findings indicate the applicability and reliability of TPB among Iranian agricultural students, so policymakers and planners of governmental and educational institutions can use the results of this research to formulate strategies and solutions to promote entrepreneurship among agricultural students.