Muhammad Qasim, Umar Safdar, Majid Riaz, Sayyed Sadaqat Hussain Shah, Naeem Akhtar
Entrepreneurship is the engine of the growth and development of every economy. Furthermore, the Total Entrepreneurship Activity Rate is also very low in the different economies. So, the current scenario leads the policymakers to look for the factor that can augment the intention to new start-ups. Hence, this study aims to investigate which factor matters the most to enhance the entrepreneurial intention is entrepreneurial personality (entrepreneurial self-efficacy, risk-taking propensity, locus of control, and innovativeness) or entrepreneurial skills (technical skills, management abilities, entrepreneurial abilities, and personal maturity capabilities). Furthermore, the moderating role of entrepreneurial skills on the relationship between entrepreneurial personality and intention to new start-ups is also analyzed to fully explore the intensity of the factors. The Ajzen theory of planned behavior (TPB) supports this scenario as entrepreneurial skills (Factors) impact the entrepreneurial personalities (Attitudes) and it will lead to the entrepreneurial intention (Intention) and ultimate result in a start-up (Behavior). Online cross-sectional surveys were utilized to gather data from students in the business and IT fields enrolled in 16 years of education considering convenience sampling. Statistical results based on the 494 responses; show that entrepreneurial personalities are better predictors of entrepreneurial intention due to their high explanatory power as compared to entrepreneurial skills. On the other hand, a little moderation effect of entrepreneurial skills is found and again clears the intensity of the entrepreneurial skills towards explaining the intention to new start-ups. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to the educationist that they must identify the students who possess the entrepreneurial personality first and then consider the students' potential entrepreneurial skills and nurture them and enable them to be entrepreneurs.