This article aimed to present a comprehensive framework for equipping agricultural university students for the complex today and tomorrow’s labor market and for a successful entrepreneurship. This study employed a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews to collect data from 17 agricultural faculty members and entrepreneurs. The interviews continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis, based on the six-step framework of Braun and Clarke, which involved systematic coding, theme development, and refinement. To ensure the trustworthiness of the findings, credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability were established through member checking, peer review, and transparent documentation of the research process. The findings revealed that agricultural students’ professional skills were categorized into 51 distinct codes, which categorized into three general themes: specialized knowledge and skills, career and entrepreneurial navigation skills, and essential workplace skills. Additionally, skilling opportunities were identified across academic, national, and international categories. Based on the findings, a comprehensive matrix-based framework was developed that maps the intersections between key skills and opportunities for agricultural students. The framework highlights the need for universities to move beyond theoretical education by integrating field-based learning, soft skills training, and entrepreneurial mentorship into curricula, while also strengthening national and international collaborations. A key recommendation is the establishment of structured partnerships between agricultural universities, industries, and governmental bodies to utilize the identified intersections and design targeted programs that respond to both labor market and workforce demands.
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is changing how university students explore venture ideas, yet little is known about how technological, educational, and family exposures jointly shape their digital entrepreneurship intention (DEI). Drawing on the entrepreneurial event model and an imprinting-informed perspective, this study examines whether GenAI infusion, engagement in entrepreneurial activities, artificial intelligence (AI)-based entrepreneurship education, and perceived family support are associated with DEI through perceived entrepreneurial desirability, perceived entrepreneurial feasibility, and opportunity recognition. Survey data from 389 students at two public universities in China and 286 students at one public university in Malaysia were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling, multi-group analysis, and an artificial neural network. Perceived feasibility and desirability were positively associated with DEI in both samples and were its strongest predictors in the neural network analysis. Engagement in entrepreneurial activities and family support were indirectly associated with DEI through both evaluations in both samples, whereas AI-based entrepreneurship education was indirectly associated with DEI only through feasibility in the Malaysian sample. Opportunity recognition was associated with DEI only in the Chinese sample, although this path did not differ significantly between samples; the only significant cross-sample difference concerned GenAI infusion and desirability. Heterogeneous environmental exposures thus appear to converge on a shared evaluative core, whereas their links to that core are source-specific and context-sensitive. Because the data are cross-sectional and drawn from selected institutions, the associations should not be interpreted causally or generalized to national populations.
This study investigates the effect of circular economy practices, operationalised across Waste Reduction and Resource Efficiency (WRRE), Eco-Innovation (EI), Recycling Practices (RP), and Circular Business Model Adoption CBMA), on entrepreneurial performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Mavoko Sub-County, Machakos County, Kenya, and examines the moderating role of government policy support in this relationship. Drawing on various theories, the study employs a cross-sectional survey design with a stratified random sample of 320 small and medium enterprise in Mavoko Sub- County. Data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling, and Process Macro (Hayes, 2022) was used for moderation analysis. All the four dimensions of circular economy practices showed statistically significant positive effects on entrepreneurial performance (WRRE: β = 0.412; EI: β = 0.367; RP: β = 0.311; CBMA: β = 0.261; all p < 0.001). Government policy support significantly moderated CE practices and entrepreneurial performance relationship (β = 0.193, p < 0.001), with the relationship strengthening from β = 0.281 at low GPS to β = 0.443 at high GPS. The model explained 67.3
The economic advancement of a country necessitates the promotion and support of the entrepreneurial spirit, especially for young female entrepreneurs. The objectives of this study are to explore the key factors shaping the entrepreneurial spirit of young female entrepreneurs, to develop a model that reflects the relationships among the antecedents of entrepreneurial spirit, and to test the mediating role of social media. Based on the ‘positivism’ research philosophy, this study has used a quantitative methodology. It has utilized convenient sampling with a cross-sectional design to collect data from 212 women entrepreneurs. This research has developed a conceptual model based on social cognitive theory (SCT) and tested the hypothesized relationships using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). This study reveals the impact of entrepreneurs’ personal traits, environmental factors and digital competence on entrepreneurial spirit. This study also finds that social media mediates the relationship between digital competence and the entrepreneurial spirit of young female entrepreneurs. The empirical data have supported all the hypotheses of this research. The study has provided theoretical and practical implications that will serve as a guide for academics, researchers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers, based on the suggested framework for entrepreneurship development. This study has suggested future research directions for comparative studies and for research on the impact of advanced digital tools on entrepreneurial spirit.
Extant literature on female entrepreneurship frequently overlooks the nuanced cognitive and structural mechanisms driving entrepreneurial intentions among structurally marginalized cohorts, such as housewives within informal economies. Grounded in the push-pull theory of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial cognition perspective, this study establishes a comprehensive framework to examine how technological competence, economic necessity, and opportunity recognition concurrently shape the entrepreneurial intentions of Malaysian housewives. Employing a cross-sectional research design, empirical data were gathered from 410 housewives via a purposive sampling technique and subjected to partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The structural model assessment reveals that technological competence exerts a significant direct influence on both economic necessity and opportunity recognition, while also maintaining a direct pathway to entrepreneurial intention. Crucially, the bootstrapping results confirm that both economic necessity and opportunity recognition act as significant parallel mediating mechanisms bridging capabilities and intent. Notably, the indirect path via opportunity recognition displays a profoundly stronger effect magnitude compared to the necessity-driven pathway. These findings advance the theoretical discourse on informal entrepreneurship by demonstrating that digital capability subtly reshapes socio-economic push factors while unlocking cognitive pull dynamics. Consequently, this study offers critical empirical insights for policymakers designing digital inclusion strategies and inclusive micro-entrepreneurship frameworks aimed at empowering vulnerable domestic cohorts.
