THE IMPACT OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE ON ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION AMONG ACCOUNTANCY STUDENTS: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL ALERTNESS

Abstract

Entrepreneurship focuses on value creation involving commitment for time, effort, money, and expectation of financial gain. The ability to recognize valuable business prospects can be best measured through entrepreneurial alertness. The scholarly knowledge is limited on how entrepreneurial alertness to business opportunities triggers entrepreneurial intention, specifically for Charted Accountancy (CA) students. Thus, the study addresses this gap and investigates the mediating effect of entrepreneurial alertness on the causal relationship of prior knowledge & experience on entrepreneurial intention. The study relied on the primary data of 408 students enrolled in the final level of the CA course from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. The data were collected through a structured questionnaire from the Delhi- National Capital Region (NCR) region of India, which was divided into five clusters; therefore, a cluster sampling method was used to collect the data. The structural equation modelling (SEM) method was applied to analyze the causal relationship. The results empirically contributed to the literature by studying the entrepreneurial intention of CA students as it is found that students’ knowledge and experience strongly promote entrepreneurial intention even when entrepreneurial alertness is added as a mediator. Moreover, entrepreneurial alertness partially mediates the relationship of prior knowledge & experience and entrepreneurial intention, ensuring that experienced professionals stand a better chance to have an entrepreneurial career. The findings enhance the understanding of early-stage entrepreneurship among specific discipline students.