Entrepreneurial enablers, risk perception, motivational factors and behavioral intention: evidence from Vietnam

Nguyen Huu Khoi et al | 119 Entrepreneurial enablers, risk perception, motivational factors and behavioral intention: Evidence from Vietnam NGUYEN HUU KHOI University of Economics HCMC, Nha Trang University – khoinh@ntu.edu.vn LE NHAT HANH School of Management, University of Economics HCMC – hanhln@ueh.edu.vn NGUYEN THI HONG University of Economics HCMC, HCMC University of Technology and Education – hongnguyen.ute@gmail.com NGUYEN THI DUY QUYEN International School of Business, University of Economics HCMC – duyquyen.nguyen90@gmail.com Abstract This study discusses and tests the role of the entrepreneurial enablers (i.e., subjective norms and social supports), risk perception, and motivational factors (i.e., perceived desirability and feasibility of entrepreneurship) toward the forming of entrepreneurial intention in the context of Vietnam, based on Shapero’s (1982) entrepreneurial event (SEE) model Also, this study explores the moderation effects of demographic variables (i.e., gender, income, job position, and experience) on causal relationships in the proposed research model Based on the selfadministered survey of 201 Vietnamese MBA students, a structural equation modeling approach with latent constructs is used to test the hypotheses The results show that subjective norms are found to have a stronger effect on enhancing perceived desirability than on increasing perceived feasibility of entrepreneurship In contrast, social supports induce the perception of feasibility more than the one of desirability Perceived risks have a stronger negative influence on perceived feasibility In addition, entrepreneurial intention is strongly determined by perceived desirability, the perception of feasibility also drives the intention to run a business, but at a weaker degree 120 | ICUEH2017 Further, the moderating results of the demographic factors indicate that some causal relationships such as between perceived risks/subjective norms and motivational factors vary across different levels of income and types of job position Hence, this study has contributions in both academic and practical ways Keywords: Perceived desirability, perceived feasibility, entrepreneurial intention, subjective norms, social support, risk perception Introduction Entrepreneurship refers to the discovery of a potential opportunity, and then establishes a new business to provide a novel good or service in response to such an opportunity (Shane, 2000; Reynolds, 2005) Entrepreneurial activities have become an important economic area and attracted attentions from both researchers and practitioners in both developed and developing countries (Acs, 2006; Wong et al., 2005) Substantial efforts and government-supported programs have been devoted to promote entrepreneurial activities, such as Young Enterprise Company Program in the United Kingdom, NYC Business Solutions in America, Global Entrepreneurship Program in America, the Entrepreneurship Support Program for Refugee Empowerment in Japan (Krueger, 2000; Souitaris, 2007; Ahmad & Hoffman, 2007; Nabi & Liñán, F, 2011) to name just a few Some supportive programs have had a positive impact, while others have reached limited success only The mixed results of such efforts may reflect inadequate understandings on the part of policy makers regarding essential drivers of entrepreneurial intention and behavior The literature review indicates that there is a positive and close connection between behavioral intentions and actual behaviors (Armitage & Conner, 2001; Zeffane, 2013; Shirokova et al., 2016), thus it is important to study entrepreneurial intention which is defined as an individual’s commitment to start a venture (Krueger, 1993) Many prior researches show that perceived feasibility and perceived desirability are two key antecedents with impact on the entrepreneurial intention (Shapero, 1982; Krueger et al., 2000) However, there is less research into the relationship among perceived desirability and perceived feasibility and the factors which nurture those early entrepreneurial intentions, such as subjective norms, risk perception, and social support Understanding why and how people start their businesses may facilitate the development of appropriate policies and foster entrepreneurial activities more efficiently Vietnam has recognized the importance of small and medium enterprises since 1986, the government has formulated and changed Enterprise Law many times to Nguyen Huu Khoi et al | 121 encourage and support entrepreneurs In 2016, the government approved the Proposal 844 on “Development of National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Toward 2020” to improve the ecosystem/environment for entrepreneurs The number of small and medium sized enterprises increased considerably; 50,534 new enterprises were established/were founded in the first months of 2017, which represents a growth rate of 12.9% per year (General Statistics Office, 2017) Some recent studies concentrate on Vietnam’s entrepreneurial performance as well as entrepreneurs’ interests, on the aspect of motivation such as King-Kauanui et al.’s (2006) research into human resources and entrepreneur performance while Baughn et al (2006) compare entrepreneurs’ motivation between China, Vietnam and Philippine However, most of the previous researchers just focus on demographic characteristics and problems/particularities, and not concentrate on Vietnamese entrepreneurs’ motivation for starting a business or on the factors necessary for success (Benzing et al., 2005) With the characteristics of an emerging economy and collective culture, the application of the SEE model in the context of Vietnam may provide a different result Therefore, this research aims to understand the precursors of Vietnamese entrepreneurial intention Particularly, this research investigates: (1) the relationship between perceived feasibility, perceived desirability and entrepreneurial intention, (2) the impacts of entrepreneurial enablers (i.e., subjective norms and social support) and risk perceptions on perceived desirability and feasibility The results can contribute to the development of supporting programs to further promote entrepreneurial activities effectively Literature review and proposed hypotheses Entrepreneurship is defined as an activity that involves discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities to introduce new goods and services, ways of organizing markets, processes, and procurement through organizing efforts that previously have not existed (Sirec & Mocnik, 2010) According to Alfonso & Cuevas (2012), McClelland (1978) is one of the pioneer entrepreneurship studies which identifies the entrepreneur’s attributes throughout typical psychological characteristics and personality traits of a successful entrepreneur Up to the 1980s and early 1990s, other researchers have focused on the importance of the entrepreneurial intention as an antecedent to entrepreneurial behavior Numerous studies about entrepreneurship base on two main entrepreneurial intention models which are the SEE model (Shapero, 1982; Dissanayake, 2013; Fitzsimmons & Douglas, 2011) and the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991) Both of them are widely adopted by entrepreneurial intention research to analyze new venture 122 | ICUEH2017 creation and have emerged in the literature as the main theory-driver models (Alfonso & Cuevas, 2012) Many studies have extended to some new factors that are known as perceived desirability which involves the attitude of someone and perceived feasibility that relates to the self-efficacy or perceived behavioral control (Krueger & Bazeal, 1994; Guerrero et al., 2006; Devonish et al., 2010; Byabashaija et al., 2010) Furthermore, previous researchers concern about antecedents of two primary factors (i.e., perceived feasibility and perceived desirability) These antecedents are considered as subjective norm, empathy, moral, social support as well as environment/ environmental factors (Kennedy et al., 2003; Mair & Noboa, 2003) As a result, this study is established on the model of Krueger & Bazeal’s (1994) However, it also focuses on antecedents of primary factors The conceptual model represents an alternative explanation of entrepreneurial intentions using similar variables of previous models (Krueger, 1993; Shapero, 1982) The model is based on a social-cognitive approach to the study of entrepreneurial intentions This model presents the relationship between perceived feasibility and perceived desirability and entrepreneurial intention Furthermore, it also predicts the impact of subjective norms on perceived desirability and social support on perceived feasibility Finally, this model explores the role of risk perception as a threat to the two motivational factors of entrepreneurial intention Subjective norms H2a H2b H3a Social support Perceived Feasibility of entrepreneurship H3b H4a Risk as threat H4b Hypotheses development H1a H1b Perceived Desirability of entrepreneurship Figure Conceptual model Entrepreneuria l Intention Nguyen Huu Khoi et al | 123 Motivational factors and entrepreneurial intention According to Drost (2010), entrepreneurial intention refers to one's intention to engage in entrepreneurship and one`s intention to start one`s own business or become self-employed, driven by the desire for autonomy and the expectation of sustainable economic gain/growth Motivational factors include perceived desirability and feasibility Perceived desirability is understood as the attractiveness of an idea to a start-up business In previous studies, perceived desirability is considered as an attitude toward entrepreneurship or a personal attitude to have one’s own business (Devonish et al., 2010) Whereas, perceived feasibility means the individual’s assessment of the chances that entrepreneurial activities will succeed given the balance of supporting and constraining contextual influences (Byabashaija et al., 2010) Perceived feasibility is equivalent to perceived self-efficacy (Devonish et al., 2010) According to Ajzen (1991), the intention to something is affected by a person’s attitude toward behavior, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control In terms of attitude toward entrepreneurship, Robinson et al (1991) recognize the importance of domain-specific attitudes in explaining entrepreneurial intention and behavior In that research, attitude toward entrepreneurship also acts as a primary determinant of students’ willingness to be self-employed that refers to the individual’s perception of the personal desirability of performing the behavior, i.e creation of a new venture, and corresponds to the attitude toward the act in the Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior Obviously, the stronger people are interested in a self-employed business, the more they intent to choose the entrepreneurial career path Furthermore, previous literature argues that people will develop an intention to become an entrepreneur based on their entrepreneurial attitudes, and that the attitudes held toward the greater decision-making autonomy, firm ownership, risk management, hard work, and other perquisites/benefits tend to be associated with entrepreneurship According to Douglas & Shepherd (2000), individuals desiring more income, more independence, and more net perquisites are more likely to want to engage in entrepreneurial behavior Likewise, an individual with a higher tolerance for risk and positive attitude toward work effort should be expected to be more likely to want to engage in entrepreneurial behavior Fitzsimmons & Douglas (2005) find that attitude toward ownership is a better predictor of entrepreneurial intentions than is independence They also find out that the stronger individuals have the desire to establish their own business, the more intention they have to become entrepreneurs 124 | ICUEH2017 With regard to perceived behavioral control, entrepreneurial intentions have been shown to depend on perceived self-efficacy (Fitzsimmons & Douglas, 2005) Self-efficacy refers to the strength of an individual’s belief that he/she can accomplish a specific task or series of related tasks It is related to self-confidence and individual capabilities, and these are dependent on prior experience, vicarious learning, social encouragement, and physiological issues (Boyd & Vozikis, 1994) Moreover, several researchers also test the impact of perceived feasibility and desirability on self-employment intentions Fitzsimmons & Douglas (2011) and Segal et al (2002) find that entrepreneurial intentions are positively related to both perceived feasibility and perceived desirability Base on the aforementioned arguments, the following two hypotheses are formulated Hypothesis 1: (a) Perceived feasibility and (b) Perceived desirability of entrepreneurship are positively associated with entrepreneurial intentions Subjective norms, perceived feasibility and desirability Subjective norms refers to an impact that the society or important people have on the thinking and behavior of a person (Ajzen, 1991; Kennedy et al., 2003) Previous entrepreneurial intention research has proven subjective norms to be important (Krueger, 1993) One reason for this might be that generally students are still in the stage of finding out their career choice preferences The opinions of parents, partners, friends and important others might be influential in this process In the current research, subjective norms are considered as a degree to which the individual perceive the university environment to encourage entrepreneurship, and the degree to which entrepreneurship is perceived as an acceptable career alternative after graduation It is argued that when individuals recognize the success of others coming from entrepreneurial activities or university encouragement about start–ups, they feel more attracted by entrepreneurship All of these effects from university can influence their attitude towards having their own business Previous studies reveal that subjective norms affect the perceived desirability (Byabashaija et al., 2010) However, some studies concentrate on the influence of perceived desirability and feasibility on entrepreneurial intentions but neglect the role of subjective norms as emphasized by Azjen (as cited in Audet, 2001), thus we suggest the next hypothesis: Hypothesis 2: Subjective norms are positively associated with (a) perceived feasibility and (b) perceived desirability of entrepreneurship Social support and perceived feasibility and desirability Nguyen Huu Khoi et al | 125 Social support is conceived as trust and cooperation derived from social networks/networking (Mair & Noboa, 2003) Baron and Markman (2000) also suppose that social supports are actual and potential resources from others as being a part of their social network In the entrepreneurial field, social support can come from family, friends and it can be financial or spiritual support Since perceived feasibility of entrepreneurship is a strong confidence or belief in success when they start and control a new venture, it is clear that individuals’ perceived behavioral control is stronger when they have good social support The important factor affecting an entrepreneur’s success is efficient networking that is defined as all kind of relationships pertaining to venture capitalists, suppliers and facilitators (Mair & Noboa, 2003) Some authors have discovered a close link between social support and entrepreneurship They consider entrepreneurship as rooted in networks of recurrent social relations, which can act as a facilitator not a constraint Therefore, the next proposed hypothesis could be as follows: Hypothesis 3: Social supports are positively associated with (a) perceived feasibility and (b) perceived desirability of entrepreneurship Risk as threat in relation to perceived desirability and feasibility Risk perception has been conceptualized as a multidimensional psychological construct comprising two elements: risk as opportunity (focusing on the upside of risk) and risk as threat (focusing on the downside of risk) (Nabi & Linan, 2013) Risk perception as threat means that people perceive risk as failure, difficulties as well as challenges that they could face when conducting a new venture while risk perception as opportunities is considered as a chance to bring new and better things/services When someone intents to establish a new business, they usually consider many different factors, one of them is risk that they can take Some people perceive risk as a chance to challenge their ability, but others recognize it as threat of failure they can face if they start their own company It means that there is a contrast between someone who perceives risk as a threat and others who perceive risk/it as an opportunity to entrepreneurial intention However, risk perception also affects the level of perceived self-efficacy and attitude to start a new business directly (Macko & Tyszka, 2009) It can be understood that when risk is considered as threat, individual’s confidence to success can be lower Likewise, interest to something can also be less However, it contrasts the situation when risk is perceived as an opportunity This current research just focuses on risk as a threat only, so the corresponding hypothesis is formulated as below: 126 | ICUEH2017 Hypothesis 4: Risk as threat (i.e fear of failure) is negatively associated with (a) perceived feasibility and (b) perceived desirability of entrepreneurship Research methodology Measurement scales The measurement scales of all the studied constructs were adapted from previous studies and the seven-point Likert-type scales were applied Entrepreneurial intentions were measure by three items, adopted from Kennedy et al (2003) Perceived desirability and feasibility of entrepreneur of entrepreneurship were measured by four and five items adapted from Krueger et al (2000) and Kennedy et al (2003) respectively Subjective norm which refers to the expectation or pressure exerted by family, friends, and society at large on people to pursue certain employment careers and not others was measured by using four items in accordance to Autio et al (1997) The seven items scale for social support was adapted from Zimet et al (1990) Finally, risk perception as threat was measured by six items adapted from Nabi & Linan (2013) Data collection Respondents were MBA students in Ho Chi Minh City, the questionnaires were distributed and sent via the internet using Google docs By this way, the survey link was sent to respondents via Gmail and Facebook The respondents could answer the survey by clicking on the link and keying in their answers and submitting the link to the researcher Data collection was conducted within a period of weeks There were about 400 questionnaires sent over that online channel, respondents returned 209 questionnaires After checking and removing the invalid sample elements, defined as where answers were incomplete or where the same answer was given for all the questions, the usable datasets for this study were 201 observations Data analysis results First of all, the characteristics of the dataset are presented Cronbach‘s alpha and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were applied to ensure that all items in one scale were valid and reliable Finally, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to check the hypotheses and the concept model Nguyen Huu Khoi et al | 127 Sample characteristics: The sample of 201 respondents included 104 female (occupied 51.7 percent) and 97 male (48.3 percent) master students In terms of age, the majority were master students aged from 25 to 30 (102 students, 50 percent), the younger master students from 22 to under 25 made up about 28.4 percent (57 students) that was higher than the students group aged over 30 years (42 students, accounted for 20.9 percent) Regarding income per month, 93 (46.3 percent) of the master students range within to 10 million VND The second group of higher income was from 10 to 20 million VND with approximately 27 percent (54 students) of total sample There were just 11.9 percent of the students who had an income of under million VND per month Besides, there were 30 master students (14.9 percent) with a monthly income over 20 million VND Most of the interviewed master students were staff (128 respondents, 63.7 percent), over a quarter of the sample were manager (52 respondents) There were only percent of master students in a supervisory position The rest of sample included full-time master students and freelancers (9 students or 4.5 percent) 96 students (nearly 48 percent) report Business Administration as their primary postgraduate major, followed by Finance stated by 54 students or about 27% Table Sample Characteristics Description Gender Age Income Position Postgraduate major Frequency Percentage (%) Male 97 48.3 Female 104 51.7 22 – under 25 57 28.4 25 – under 30 102 50.7 Over 30 million VND 42 20.9 Under million VND 24 11.9 From to 10 million VND 93 46.3 From 10 to 20 million VND 54 26.9 Over 20 million VND 30 14.9 Staff 128 63.7 Supervisor 12 6.0 Manager 52 25.9 Difference 4.5 Business Administration 96 47.8 Marketing 12 6.0 128 | ICUEH2017 Description Frequency Percentage (%) Finance 54 26.9 Economics 2.0 IT 4.5 Architect 12 6.0 Electric 1.5 Commercial 2.5 Difference 3.0 Scale accuracy test As presented in Table 2, the remained item loadings on the corresponding constructs were all significant (p < 0.001; t-value > 1.96) with values ranging from 0.64 to 0.92, after the removal of some loadings that were lower than the threshold of 0.5 The values of Cronbach’s alpha were higher than the stipulated benchmark of 0.70 and the composite reliability (CR) measures exceeded the minimum value of 0.60 In addition, all of the average variances extracted (AVE) surpassed the recommended threshold of 0.50 These results were showing that the reliability and convergent validity of the constructs were acceptable Moreover, all the correlations were less than 0.80 and the squared correlations between each of the constructs were less than the average variance extracted (AVE) from each pair of constructs, thus demonstrating discriminant validity Table Constructs and indicators Factor loadings t - value I know many people in my university who have successfully started up their own firm 0.83 13.21 In my university, people are actively encouraged to pursue their own ideas 0.81 12.92 In my university, you get to meet lots of people with good ideas for a new firm 0.64 9.30 There is a well-functioning support infrastructure in place to support the start-up of new firms 0.75 11.50 0.90 15.89 Constructs and indicators Subjective norms (Cronbach’s α: 0.84; CR: 0.84; AVE: 0.58) Social Support (Cronbach’s α: 0.90; CR: 0.85; AVE: 0.65) There is always a person who is around when I am in need There is always a person with whom I can share my joys and sorrows 0.79 12.87 My family or/and friends really try to help me 0.92 16.39 Nguyen Huu Khoi et al | 129 Factor loadings t - value 0.71 11.05 Starting a new business is very risky 0.89 15.02 The probability of a new venture doing poorly is very high 0.72 11.04 There is great uncertainty when predicting how well a new venture will 0.80 12.85 The overall riskiness of a new venture is high 0.79 12.64 It is practical for me to start my own business 0.82 13.67 I think it would be hard to start my own business 0.86 14.59 If I started my own business, I think my workload would be high 0.82 13.69 If I started my own business, I would have a certain success 0.83 13.80 I know enough to start my own business Perceived Desirability (Cronbach’s α: 0.91; CR: 0.91; AVE: 0.72) I would love doing it 0.90 15.78 I would be tense on it 0.84 14.14 I would be enthusiastic doing it 0.86 14.84 I would be overworked to it 0.80 13.19 I have ever thought about starting my own business 0.84 14.00 I Estimate that I’ll start my own business in the next years 0.84 13.87 I Estimate that I ‘ll start my own business in the next 10 years 0.87 14.78 Constructs and indicators I get the emotional help and support that I need from my family or/and friends Risk as Threat (Cronbach’s α: 0.87; CR: 0.87; AVE: 0.64) Perceived Feasibility (Cronbach’s α: 0.90; CR: 0.90; AVE: 0.69) Entrepreneurial Intention (Cronbach’s α: 0.89; CR: 0.89; AVE: 0.72) Notes All factor loadings are significant at p < 0.001 Table Means, standardized deviation, correlations Constructs Mean SD Subjective norms 4.41 Social Support Correlations 1.20 1.00 5.03 1.23 0.24 1.00 Risk as Threat 2.78 1.14 -0.18 -0.29 1.00 Perceived Feasibility 4.89 1.16 0.37 0.63 -0.56 1.00 Perceived Desirability 5.28 1.21 0.44 0.48 -0.31 0.56 1.00 Entrepreneurial Intention 4.99 1.32 0.27 0.39 -0.38 0.52 0.69 1.00 130 | ICUEH2017 Measurement model results: The constructs were assessed to ensure internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity by performing confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS The results indicated that the measurement model fitted the data well with χ2 = 273,20, p = 0.004; RMSEA = 0.04; GFI = 0.89; AGFI = 0.86; IFI = 0.98; NFI = 0.91; CFI = 0.98; SRMR = 0.05, PClose = 0.95 Hypotheses testing Structural Equation Modeling with AMOS was used to test the hypotheses The results indicated an acceptable fit for the estimated model (CMIN/df: 1.31; RMSEA: 0.04; GFI: 0.89; CFI: 0.98; NFI: 0.91; IFI: 0.98; PClose: 0.92; SRMR=0.04; R2 EI: 50 %.) As expected, all of the hypotheses were supported (see Table 4) The more perceived desirability and perceived feasibility toward starting self-employment a person had, the more intention to become an entrepreneur he/she had Particularly, entrepreneurial intention was strongly determined by perceived desirability, the perception of feasibility also drove the intention to run a business/enterprise, but at a weaker degree In addition, the results show that subjective norms were found to have a stronger effect on enhancing perceived desirability than on increasing perceived feasibility of entrepreneurship In contrast, social supports induced the perception of feasibility more than the perception of desirability Perceived risks had a strong negative influence on perceived feasibility Further, the additional moderating results of the demographic factors (Table 5) indicated that some causal relationships such as between perceived risks/subjective norms and motivational factors vary across different levels of income and types of job position Table Hypotheses testing results Paths H2a: Subjective Norms→Perceived desirability H2b: Subjective Norms→Perceived feasibility H3a: Social Support→Perceived desirability H3b: Social Support→Perceived feasibility H4a: Risk as threat→Perceived desirability H4b: Risk as threat→Perceived feasibility H1a: Perceived desirability→Entrepreneurial Intention H1b: Perceived feasibility→Entrepreneurial Intention Research model Conclusion Std ß t-value 0.32 4.43 c Support 3.10 b Support 5.15 c Support 7.19 c 0.19 0.37 0.47 -0.16 -0.39 0.59 0.21 Support -2.24 a Support -6.06 c Support 7.64 c Support 2.94 b Support Nguyen Huu Khoi et al | 131 CMIN/df: 1.31; RMSEA: 0.04; GFI: 0.89; CFI: 0.98; NFI: 0.91; IFI: 0.98; PClose: 0.92; SRMR=0.04; R EI: 50% a b c p < 0.05; p < 0.01; p < 0.001 Table Moderating results of demographic factors: P value (Chi-square difference test) Gender (male/female) Working experience as selfemployment (Yes/No) Income (above 10 million/ less than 10 million) Position (managerial/ nonmanagerial) Subjective norms→Perceived desirability 0.45 0.73 0.25 0.09 Subjective norms→Perceived feasibility 0.36 0.13 0.83 0.08 Risk as threat→Perceived desirability 0.73 0.51 0.05 0.12 Risk as threat→Perceived feasibility 0.92 0.33 0.08 0.44 Social support→Perceived desirability 0.20 0.88 0.17 0.51 Social support→Perceived feasibility 0.03 0.08 0.12 0.02 Perceived desirability→Entrepreneurial intention 0.84 0.83 0.31 0.78 Perceived feasibility→Entrepreneurial intention 0.92 0.55 0.30 0.43 Paths Discussion: In this research, the hypothesis about the relationship between motivational factors and entrepreneurial intention are fully supported Individual intention to start a new venture/business/enterprise is positively related to his interest about owning a business In addition, individual entrepreneurial intention is directly affected by the perceived feasibility of entrepreneurship It means that when the more confident people feel about their ability, knowledge and skill to achieve entrepreneurial success, the more intention they have The result also shows that perceived desirability has the higher explanatory power over the variance than perceived feasibility In contrast with some previous researches, it is shown that entrepreneurial intention is impacted by self-efficacy more than by perceived desirability (Dissanayake, 2013; Kruger, 1993) 132 | ICUEH2017 The findings in the relationship between subjective norms and perceived desirability and feasibility analysis also indicate that entrepreneurial encouragement from the society has an impact on the perceived desirability and feasibility of entrepreneurship in a positive way The results also provide evidence of the important role of social support to perceived desirability and feasibility in the context of entrepreneurship This implies that supports from family, friends, and other people can help people to be more confident to begin a new business The result of path analysis indicates that risk perception as a threat negatively impacts on both perceived desirability and perceived feasibility of entrepreneurship This finding is consistent with Nabi & Linan’s (2013) research where there is a negative relationship between risk perception as a threat and the perceive feasibility as well as perceive desirability of entrepreneurship Although the greater the risks are considered as failure or difficulties, the weaker the impact of perceived desirability to entrepreneurship Regarding this comparative finding, in-depth interviews with five respondents were conducted about the reasons why risk perception as threat has a weaker effect on their perceived desirability of entrepreneurship The interviewees declared/stated that they were aware of the fact that they may face failures when they start their own business, but this did not reduce their perceived desirability of entrepreneurship because they wanted to overcome their fear, experience new opportunities as well as they wanted to change their life for the better through creating a new venture This situation might be explained by the youth’s characteristics such as they are willing to take risks and would like to challenge their capability Therefore, although they perceive risk as threat, they also desire to be entrepreneurs Moreover, education is one of the factors affecting individually perceived desirability of entrepreneurship Besides, most of them (over 95 percent) have working experiences They are willing to take the risk and stand again after failures to pursuit entrepreneurship desirability To sum up, the empirical results support all hypotheses Hence, the dimensions perceived desirability and perceived feasibility of the SEE model represent the direct predictors of intention, both theoretically and empirically Moreover, there is an impact of subjective norms, social supports, and risk perception as threat on perceived desirability and feasibility Nguyen Huu Khoi et al | 133 Conclusion This research aims to check whether the two factors perceived desirability and perceived feasibility determine entrepreneurial intentions, and if antecedents of these factors affect them According to the results, we can conclude that the two factors perceived desirability and perceived feasibility of entrepreneurship explain and influence the entrepreneurial intentions Besides, both subjective norms and social supports are the antecedents of perceived desirability and perceived feasibility regarding venture creation in an emerging country like Vietnam, and risk perception as threat is a barrier to both the desirability and feasibility These results provide supports for previous models about entrepreneur’s determinants such as the models of Nabi & Linan (2013) and Mair & Noboa (2003) There are several implications related to education and training, practitioners, governments, and academic researchers It can be recommended that educators in Vietnam should focus not only on developing skills and knowledge of young college students about the field of entrepreneurship but also concentrate on enhancing students’ perceptions of desirability and feasibility in this area This can be achieved by actions that affect and improve these factors as well as their antecedents First of all, in order to generate the subjective norms about entrepreneurship among people, successful entrepreneurs are encouraged to share their experiences and this activity should be widely promoted in the society Besides, providing internship opportunities for people to appreciate the “entrepreneurial experience” in well-established businesses could create effectiveness in establishing good subjective norms Secondly, to the purpose of restricting people about risk perception as threat, it is necessary to dispel people’s fears about the “insurmountable” challenges associated with starting a business as well as any doubts they may have about their personal competencies in this area Finally, the more people receive social support from their environment, the more perceived feasibility of entrepreneurship they have Therefore, families, friends as well as networking people should encourage and support their children, family members and friends to improve their belief in success of start-up opportunities 134 | ICUEH2017 References Acs, Z (2006) How is entrepreneurship good for economic growth? 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