INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY;

According to Bowen and De Clercq (2008) entrepreneurship is important for the economic development of any country as it lays the groundwork for perpetual prosperity and growth. As such, the more entrepreneurs an economy can muster, the more likely it is to develop as compared to others (Fuller, 2018; Krueger, 2007). The same view is echoed by Eid and El-Gohary (2013) who described entrepreneurs as the lifeblood of the global economy owing to their immense contribution to economic empowerment, employment creation, and wealth redistribution across the whole world. However, as Fatoki (2014) observes, compared to developed economies, the contribution of entrepreneurs to economic development in emerging economies like South Africa is grossly understated as a result of, among other factors, the minimal contribution of women to the entrepreneurship discourse. Ward, Hernández-Sánchez and Sánchez-García (2019) note, economic development cannot be fully achieved without the active contribution of women in entrepreneurship. As a result, Arora and Jain (2019) report that entrepreneurship orientation remains skewed considering the fact that on average globally, only a paltry 25 percent of all businesses are women-owned. Instead, as Lackéus (2015) observes, women generally prefer the comfort and predicatability in careers as evidenced by the fact that in the most entrepreneural country in the world, the USA, women account for 47 percent of the workforce and a paltry 25 percent of entrepreneurs. The same pattern is replicated in South Africa where Herrington, Kew and Kew (2010) report that South African men are almost twice more likely than women to be engaged in early entrepreneurial activities. Meanwhile, despite the fact that in South Africa entrepreneurship intention is gender skewed, Amra, Hlatshwayo and McMillan (2013) report that policy makers in South Africa now consider entrepreneurship as one of the most potent poverty eradication tools that university graduates male and female alike may latch onto to escape the unemployment plague currently gripping the country (Musetsho & Lethoko, 2017).

The current study draws inspiration from this observation as well as from Fatoki (2010), who notes that most graduates in South Africa prefer pursuing professional careers instead of self-employment ventures. In addition, Robledo, Arán, Martin-Sanchez, Molina (2015) report that the entrepreneurial intentions of university students are likely to reflect the most accurate entrepreneurial directions due to the fact that at such an early stage, their declared entrepreneurial intentions are not influenced by any previous but are based on their perceptions and attitudes in identifying business opportunities. In other words, since entrepreneurship remains the most vibrant option for graduates facing a static labour market as is the case in South Africa (Wang, Prieto & Hinrichs, 2010), one would therefore, expect graduates in South African universities to exhibit strong entrepreneurial intentions across the gender divide. Meanwhile extant literature confirms that entrepreneurship intention is often clouded in the cloak of gender with male and female entrepreneurs facing a nudge from a different set of factors. It is against this background that this study sought to understand the relationship between gender specific factors that affect entrepreneurship orientation amongst University of Venda graduates.

According to Kautonen, van Gelderen, Fink., 2015; Obschonka, Silbereisen, Schmitt-Rodermund (2010) having the entrepreneurial intentions is a strong antecedent of actual entrepreneurial behaviour. This indicates that entrepreneurial intention is an accurate predictor of actual entrepreneurial behaviour. This is the same view expressed by Ajzen (1991) who in the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) suggests that an individual’s desire and motivation to perform a certain act is a precedent for the performance of the behaviour. In other words, since TPB argues that there is a link between one’s beliefs and eventual behaviour, it can be surmised that there is a relationship between entrepreneurial intention and the act of becoming one in the future. Therefore, in the current study, basing on extant literature, it is proposed that entrepreneurial intentions are preceded by four gender specific attributes; lack of support, fear of failure, lack of competency and risk-taking propensity as postulated by (Heilman & Chen (2003); Langowitz & Minniti (2007); Thébaud (2010); Hoogendoorn, Van der Zwan & Thurik (2019)). This study therefore, sought to test whether male and female university entrepreneurs differ in the importance they give to four gender-specific barriers to entrepreneurship. In a nutshell, after merging TPB attributes and the gender specific makers as postulated by scholars (Heilman & Chen, 2003; Langowitz & Minniti, 2007; Thébaud, 2010; Hoogendoorn, et al., 2019), entrepreneurial intentions in this study are taken to depend on the personal desires of the entrepreneur (fear of failure), the perceived acceptability of entrepreneurship by the society (lack of support), the perceived feasibility of becoming a successful entrepreneur (perceived lack of competency) and the risk-taking propensity of the potential entrepreneur.

By adopting the TPB as the theoretical framework guiding this study, the study made an important contribution to the body of literature that explains the effect of gender differences on entrepreneurial intentions in a South African University. In addition, by integrating gender-related issues in the TPB, the study provided a better understanding on how different factors contribute to differences in entrepreneurial intentions (Jennings & Brush, 2013). By doing so, the study addressed a gap in current knowledge regarding the way in which gender differences shape entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions across genders. The study also fills the gap in research granted the fact that majority of the studies investigating the entrepreneurial intentions of graduates have taken place in developed countries whose contextual environment differs with what is prevailing in South Africa. Extant literature generally indicates that entrepreneurial intentions vary according to gender orientation (Lackéus, 2015; Díaz-García & Jiménez-Moreno, 2010; Ward, et al., 2019). However, this literature fails to zero in on the specific gender-related attributes that affects entrepreneurship orientation amongst prospective entrepreneurs. It is in this regard that the study investigated whether the entrepreneurial intentions are influenced by gender orientation or not.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Theoretical Framework

This study uses the TPB as postulated by Ajzen (1991) to explain entrepreneurial behaviour of graduating students in the Department of Business Management at the University of Venda. The underlying assumptions of TPB are that:

Human behaviour is planned beforehand and therefore, is preceded by intention towards the desired behaviour;
Human beings are rational and make reasoned use of information available to them when making decisions; and that,
Intention predicts planned behaviour.

In short, TPB reasons that human beings make well-reasoned decisions based on factors at their disposal. In other words, according to the TPB, entrepreneurial intentions are the first step in the eventual entrepreneurial behaviour (Kolvereid, 1996). Therefore, the TPB aims to explain intended behaviour through three factors: the personal appraisal of the behaviour in question (personal attitude), the perceived social pressure to perform or not perform that behaviour (social norms) and the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behaviour (perceived behavioural control). Kautonen et al., (2015) and Obschonka et al., (2010) state that having the entrepreneurial intentions is a strong antecedent of actual entrepreneurial behaviour. This is the same view expressed by Ajzen (1991) who in the Theory of Planned Behaviour suggests that an individual’s desire, volitions, beliefs and motivation to perform a behaviour generally precede the action or the performance of such behaviour. In other words, since TPB argues that there is a link between beliefs and eventual behaviour, we may as well surmise that there is a relationship between entrepreneurial intention and the act of becoming one in the future.

Granted that the TPB specifies the determinants of intentions to perform a certain behaviour, in this study on entrepreneurial intentions, the TPB assumes that the strength of entrepreneurial intention depends on four gender specific attributes as postulated by (Heilman & Chen, 2003; Langowitz & Minniti, 2007; Thébaud, 2010; Hoogendoorn, et al., 2019).

Fear of failure (personal attitude),
Lack of support (subjective or social norms)
Perceived lack of competence (perceived behavioural control)
Risk-taking propensity

In short, after merging TPB attributes and the gender-specific makers as postulated by scholars (Heilman & Chen, 2003; Langowitz & Minniti, 2007;Thébaud, 2010; Hoogendoorn, et al., 2019), entrepreneurial intentions in this study is taken to be a factor of the personal desirability towards entrepreneurship (fear of failure), the perceived social acceptability of entrepreneurship by the society (lack of support), the perceived feasibility of becoming a successful entrepreneur (perceived lack of competency) and the risk-taking propensity of the potential entrepreneur.

By adopting the TPB as the theoretical framework guiding this study, the study provided a better understanding on how the interplay between gender and the proposed factors shape differences in entrepreneurial intentions of male and female potential entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurial intentions and gender

Even though Kristiansen and Indarti (2004) claim that demographic variables such as age, gender and individual background are the strongest predictors of entrepreneurial intentions, Ward et al., (2019) argues that the most prominent demographic variable variables that influence entrepreneurship is gender. Therefore, whilst gender is socially constructed, Jennings and Brush (2013) argue that the disparity in entrepreneurial intentions between men and women can be reduced to factors such as the entrepreneurs’ self-confidence. The same view is expressed by Kickul, Wilson and Marlino (2004) who in a study in the United States concluded that entrepreneurial self-confidence had a stronger effect on the entrepreneurial intentions of teenage girls than for boys. These findings are consistent with the seminal work by Bandura (1992) who proposed that women are more likely to shun entrepreneurial endeavours because of their lack of confidence in their abilities.

Glick (2006) echoed this view and identified a positive relationship between entrepreneurial intention and gender inequality thereby, concluding that in societies where women are likely to be at the bottom ends of the social hierarchy, the women are less likely to be entrepreneurs. In fact, as Saridakis, Marlow and Storey (2014) observed that in such societies, fear of failure is a more significant consideration to entrepreneurship for women compared with women in moderate societies like the USA. Commonly shared cultural gender roles can shape the opportunities and incentives that entrepreneurs experience in pursuing entrepreneurial ventures. Researchers, (Langowitz & Minnitti, 2007; Wilson et al., 2007) agree that several factors impact on the participation of male and female entrepreneurs, including financial support, fear of failure, lack of competency and risk-taking propensity. Hence, in this study taking guidance from Heilman and Chen (2003), Langowitz and Minniti (2007), Thébaud (2010), three gender attached barriers to entrepreneurship intention i.e. lack of support, fear of failure, lack of competency have been isolated for a closer examination of how they can illuminate the effect of gender on the entrepreneurial intentions of graduating students at the University of Venda.

Lack of Support and entrepreneurial intention

Institutional support refers the support given to entrepreneurs by the government and other institutions in the form of finance, tax breaks and market intelligence to incentivise potential entrepreneurs to consider venturing into business (Doh & Kim, 2014). In fact, a common thread running across all countries globally is that there is a strong relationship between entrepreneurship and the availability of institutional support (ILO, 2016). The OECD (2017) reports that global economic policy recommends the provision of institutional support in the form of finance, credit guarantee schemes, tax breaks and market intelligence to entrepreneurs as a means of incentivising current and potential entrepreneurs. For example, Visser and Chiloane-Tsoka (2014) report that in South Africa the government has successfully used institutional support to develop entrepreneurship in the SME sector. As a result, institutions such as the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) and the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA) were formed to facilitate the provision of institutional support to facilitate entrepreneurship development (Abor & Quartey, 2010). Considering these observations, it can be surmised that the perceived absence of such support could therefore, act as a barrier to entrepreneurship. In addition, as Heilman, Martell and Simons (2008) report, the situation is often dire for female entrepreneurs as compared to their male counterparts granted that the influence of gender stereotypes which tend to manifest themselves naturally as most entrepreneurs are men. Chen (2014) also reiterates this view and report that women entrepreneurs often have less access to bank credit compared with men. One can, therefore, conclude that potential female entrepreneurs face the environment for starting a business to be hostile and difficult, which may result in them perceiving the environment to be less supportive of female entrepreneurs and anticipating significant barriers in finding support.

Therefore, on the basis of these literature findings, the following hypothesis was proposed in this study;

H^1: Male entrepreneurs are likely to perceive Lack of Support as a barrier
to entrepreneurship intentions than female entrepreneurs.

Fear of Failure and entrepreneurial intention

According to Gupta et al., (2008), given the gendered nature of entrepreneurship, potential female entrepreneurs may face an additional tamper to their entrepreneurial intentions in terms of fear of failure. As Guerrero and Urbano, (2016) concur, potential female entrepreneurs have a tendency of exhibiting a heightened fear of failure when starting a business venture because doing so constitutes the abandonment of a professional career which (Hoogendoorn, et al., 2019) observes is a socially encouraged attribute for women. Furthermore, extant literature indicates that female entrepreneurs are more risk averse as compared to their male counterparts such that this has a negative influence on their entrepreneurial intentions.

Fear of failure has also been associated with high levels of what Winkler and Case (2014) terms entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Murnieks, Mosakowski and Cardon, (2014) reiterate that men are more likely to have high degrees of entrepreneurial efficiency which gives them an advantageous view of the business environment, enabling them to visualize entrepreneurship positively and thus, increase their belief that they can successfully launch a new venture as compared to women (Luthans & Ibrayeva, 2006). As a result, Langowitz and Minniti (2007) concluded that fear of failure is the major reason women stay away from entrepreneurship. The idea that women have lower risk tolerance maybe the basis of explaining the impact of gender on entrepreneurial intentions and on that basis the following hypothesis was proposed;

H²: Female entrepreneurs are likely to perceive Fear of Failureasbarrier to entrepreneurship intentions than male entrepreneurs.

Lack of Competency and entrepreneurial intention

Maes, Leroy and Sels (2014) propose that in some instances, overarching social gender roles and stereotypes also shape the perceptions of potential entrepreneurs have of themselves. For example, Thébaud (2010) argues that male and female entrepreneurs draw on socially generated gender status beliefs in order to assess their own abilities as businesspersons which in turn influences their entrepreneurial intentions. For example, in a study carried out in the USA, Thébaud (2011) concluded that despite having approximately equal exposure to human, social, and financial capital, women are about half as likely as men to think they have the ability to be successful entrepreneurs. In light of these observations, the following hypothesis was proposed in this study;

H³_:Female entrepreneurs are likely to perceive Lack of Competency as a barrier
to entrepreneurship intentions than male entrepreneurs.

Risk-taking propensity and entrepreneurial intentions

An entrepreneur can be characterised as a person who holds an uncanny innovativeness that compels him/her to bring together rare and expensive resources to produce goods and services in an unpredictable environment. Therefore, it is a well-known principle in business management that successful entrepreneurs are rewarded for the risk associated in making the decision to invest in an entrepreneurial venture (Van Aardt et al., 2019). Therefore, as Parker (2018) reasons, risk is a central component in any entrepreneurship discourse and the implicit assumption running through the discourse is that all entrepreneurs, are generally risk averse and try to always avoid risks (Arthur, Hisrich & Cabrera, 2012). These risks according to Antoncic, et al., (2018) stem from the ever-changing uncertainty regarding changing consumer tastes, competitor behaviours, and the economic landscape. Meanwhile, as noted previously, the personality of an entrepreneur is a significant determinant of the entrepreneurial ventures that an individual may pursue. More recent literature Antoncic, (2018; Antoncic et al., 2015; Dinis et al., 2013) has identified one enduring personality attribute that has a significant impact on the risk-taking and entrepreneurial intentions of entrepreneurs, gender. All the same, as Dinis et al., (2013) observes, the role of gender on the risk propensity of entrepreneurs remain unsolved as researchers have failed to strike a common code on the role of gender in influencing risk-taking and entrepreneurship intentions.

Whilst some researchers (Johnson & Powell, 1994; Giunipero et al., 2008; Miner & Raju, 2004) argue that entrepreneurial risk propensity is not gender sensitive as human beings naturally all avoid risks, Giacomin et al., (2011) boldly make the assertion that female entrepreneurs tend to be more risk avoidant as compared to male entrepreneurs. The same view is expressed by Carter (2002) who discovered that potential female entrepreneurs tend to be more risk averse and are less likely to expect debt financing to capitalize their business ventures as compared to their male colleagues. The initial diagnosis was made by Johnson and Powell (1994) who proffered the argument that gender plays a significant role in entrepreneurial risk-taking behaviours with female entrepreneurs emerging as moderate risk-takers as compared to their male counterparts. Later, Wagner (2007) supported this reasoning after conducting an extensive study in Germany and found gender-specific differences in risk aversion between male and female entrepreneurs with 56 percent of all women in his sample considering risk aversion as a reason to avoid entrepreneurship. Likewise, Antoncic, et al., (2018) validates this state of affairs and reiterates that in general, female entrepreneurs are more risk averse as compared to the male ones and this has a negative effect on their desire to step into entrepreneurial ventures.

The emerging picture from this literature shows that gender is a factor in shaping entrepreneurial intentions and as such the following hypothesis was proposed to test this assumed relationship;

H⁴: Female entrepreneurs possess a higher Risk-Taking Propensity as compared to male entrepreneurs.

METHODOLOGY

This study was guided by the positivist paradigm. This paradigm was most suitable given that the researcher tested a number of gender-specific variables that affects entrepreneurship orientation amongst the University of Venda graduates. Consistent with the positivism paradigm, quantitative approach was also adopted in this study. The choice of a quantitative approach was informed by the fact that it is deductive and was therefore, most appropriate in this study, which attempted to test, using quantifiable set of statistics, the variables identified in the research hypotheses. For this study, in sync with the positivist paradigm and the quantitative research approach, the study adopted the ex-post facto research design.

The study focused on the graduating students of 2020 in Department of Business Management at the University of Venda as the primary units of analysis. They were 50 graduating students in the department, whom were the targeted population for the study. Out of the 50 students, the study used convenience sampling to gather data from 39 respondents. The choice of convenience sampling in this study was motivated by the need to overcome challenges imposed by the Covid-19 induced restrictions. In addition, given the quantitative study of this nature, convenient sampling was the most appropriate tool to gather the threshold needed to make statistical inferences. As such data in this study was gathered by accessing respondents who were conveniently available for data gathering using the Survey Monkey tool. This study took effort to carefully design a self-administered structured questionnaire as the study’s the measurement tool. In line with the ex-post-facto research design the choice of Chi Square analysis as a data analysis method, a self-administered structured questionnaire emerged as the appropriate data gathering tool. Given the nature of this study which is attempting to explore relationships between gender related variables affecting entrepreneurial intention, the regression analysis method on SPSS was used to test the veracity of the proposed hypotheses.

DATA PRESENTATION AND DUSCUSSION OF RESULTS

Respondent’s gender

The study results indicate that male (62%) participated more than female (38%). This finding may be reflective of observations made by Farrington, et al., (2012) who reports that traditionally, the higher education sector is male dominated.

Validity assessment

This study tested the convergent validity of the research instrument to test the extent to which the items on the measurement instrument converged to measure the variables they were designed to measure. In other words, all the questions on the questionnaire would be expected to converge in measuring gender-specific factors that influence entrepreneurial intentions of university students. The results of the measurement model’s convergent validity test carried out using Factor Loadings (standardised estimates) are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Convergent validity test - Factor loading

Construct	Questions	Factor loadings	P-value
Lack of Support	Lac1	.821	***
	Lac2	.901
	Lac3	.947
	Lac4	.793
	Lac5	.791
	Lac6	.838
	Lac7	.791
Fear of Failure	Fea1	.741	***
	Fea2	.835
	Fea3	.725
	Fea5	.769
	Fea6	.785
	Fear7	.790
	Fear8	.760
Lack of competency	Com1	.873	***
	Com2	.868
	Com3	.839
	Com4	.746
	Com5	.842
	Com6	.777
Risk Propensity	Ris1	.726	***
	Ris2	.801
	Ris3	.755
	Ris4	.903
	Ris5	.721
	Ris6	.765
	Ris7	.821
Entrepreneurial Intentions	Ent1	.806	***
	Ent2	.821
	Ent 3	.750

***: significance at 0.01 level.

Source: Compiled from fieldwork data

As the table indicates, the Factor loadings of all constructs in the measurement instruments are all above the recommended threshold of 0.5 as recommended by Field (2013). This indicates that all the questions on the measurement instrument were valid to gather data in this study.

Reliability assessment

Having established the validity of the measurement model, the study also sought to establish the reliability of the measurement instrument to ensure consistence of the findings. The reliability was assessed using the Cronbach alpha coefficient and the results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Reliability assessment test

Construct	Questions	P-value	Cronbach alpha
Lack of Support	Lac1	***	.932
	Lac2	***
	Lac3	***
	Lac4	***
	Lac5	***
	Lac6	***
	Lac7	***
Fear of Failure	Fea1	***	.844
	Fea2	***
	Fea3	***
	Fea5	***
	Fea6	***
	Fear7	***
	Fear8	***
Lack of competency	Com1	***	.768
	Com2	***
	Com3	***
	Com4	***
	Com5	***
	Com6	***
Risk-taking Propensity	Ris1	***	.765
	Ris2	***
	Ris3	***
	Ris4	***
	Ris5	***
	Ris6	***
	Ris7	***
Entrepreneurial Intentions	Ent1	***	.833
	Ent2	***
	Ent3	***
***: significance at 0.01 level.

Source: Compiled from fieldwork data

The regression analysis to explore the 4^th hypothesis in this study showed that Risk-Taking Propensity is positively related to the Entrepreneurial Intentions of both female entrepreneurs (estimate, 0.605; p value, 0.01) and male entrepreneurs (estimate, .174; p value, 0.01). However, a closer comparative analysis of reveals a different picture as indicated in Table 6, the effect of Risk-Taking Propensity on Entrepreneurial Intentions is positive (0.605) and significant (0.01) amongst female entrepreneurs, but it is not significant (p value =.174 amongst male entrepreneurs. This means that though both male and female entrepreneurs consider risk as a barrier to their entrepreneurial intentions, female entrepreneurs possess a higher risk-taking propensity as compared to male counterparts and as such the alternate hypothesis is adopted and the null hypothesis rejected. The effect of risk-taking propensity on entrepreneurial intention is more significant amongst female entrepreneurs as compared to female entrepreneurs.

This finding like the others confirms two issues of significance in this study; (1) that gender shapes entrepreneurial intentions and (2) that the risk-taking propensity varies between male and female entrepreneurs. The findings indicate that all the two genders consider risk as a barrier to their entrepreneurial intentions. This result resonates with a study by [ CITATION Shi12 \l 12297 ] who reported that in emerging economies like South Africa, the propensity to take risks is always positively associated with entrepreneurship. This finding also gels with a study by Antoncic, et al., (2018) who reports that in countries with a troubled socio-economic context like South Africa, business risk becomes a serious consideration by entrepreneurs. The same view is also echoed by Farrington, et al., (2012) who reports that the risk factor in South Africa is too high to ignore in nascent business. Though the study seems to show neutral reaction to the effect of risk on entrepreneurial intentions, the fact that there are significant differences between its effect on women as compared to men tell a different story. This indicates that there are still gender specific drivers of entrepreneurial orientation from the perspective of risk propensity with male entrepreneurs been more prepared to take risks as compared to the female entrepreneurs. This finding echoes Hoogendoorn, et al., (2019) who report that naturally men are risk takers and would be found willingly taking business risks. The same argument can also be traced to Stuart, et al., (2018) who concluded that female entrepreneurs carry maternal instincts that deter them from taking bold business moves.

The study’s findings showed that Lack of Support has a positive and significant effect on Entrepreneurial Intentions of potential male entrepreneurs as compared to female entrepreneurs. On the basis of these findings, the null hypothesis was rejected, and the alternate hypothesis was accepted. It is in this regard that regarding hypothesis 1 the concludes that: Perceived lack of support is a significant predictor of entrepreneurial intention in female entrepreneurs but not in male entrepreneurs. The empirical findings revealed that the females consider Fear of Failure as an attribute which is worth considering when making their entrepreneurial plans. The male respondents on the other hand do not consider fear of failure as a significant impediment to their entrepreneurial plans. On the basis of these findings, the null hypothesis 2 was rejected, and the alternate hypotheses was accepted leading to the conclusion that: Fear of Failure is a significant predictor of entrepreneurial intention in female entrepreneurs but not in male entrepreneurs. The study’s results revealed that that Lack of Competency is a positively related to the Entrepreneurial Intentions of both female and male. However, the effect of Lack of Competency on Entrepreneurial Intentions is positive and significant amongst females and is not significant amongst males. Likewise, in this study the null hypothesis 3 was rejected, and the alternate hypothesis was accepted thus confirming that gender orientation affects the entrepreneurial plans of male and female university graduates. The study, therefore, concludes that: The influence of perceived Lack of competency on Entrepreneurial Intention is more significant amongst female entrepreneurs than male respondents. The study’s findings revealed that Risk-taking Propensity is a positively related to the Entrepreneurial Intentions of both female respondents and male entrepreneurs. However, the effect of Risk-taking Propensity on Entrepreneurial Intentions is more pronounced amongst female as compared to the male. This indicates that even though both male and female consider risk as a barrier to their entrepreneurial intentions, female possess a higher risk-taking propensity as compared to male counterparts and as such the alternate hypothesis 4 is adopted and the null hypothesis rejected. It is in this regard that the study concludes that: The effect of risk-taking propensity on entrepreneurial intention is more significant amongst female entrepreneurs as compared to female entrepreneurs.

The study recommends that entrepreneurship educators should refocus their lenses to avoid a one-size-fit-all approach to entrepreneurship training. Likewise, policy makers are advised to formulate gender sensitive entrepreneurship policies in line with the different expectations between male and female entrepreneurs. The findings also resonate with the Theory of Planned Behaviour which when applied to this study would suggest that female entrepreneurs make rational decisions is shaping their entrepreneurial intentions. As such the study recommends that policy makers and the government in South Africa should craft policies that favour women in the provision of support facilities for their entrepreneurial ventures. Universities should be encouraged to introduce business counselling modules to allay the psychological fears of engaging in business ventures.

Limitations

The study was limited to a sample frame that only consisted of graduating students from the Business Management Department at the University of Venda. Therefore, generalisation of the findings to the entire student population in South Africa should be approached with caution. In addition, given the cross-sectional design of the study, causality can only be inferred, but not established. By replicating this study among a student population over a period of time, we can potentially gain insights on how the relationship between gender and entrepreneurial intention amongst university students change over time. Lastly, the drivers of entrepreneurship intention examined in this study are not exhaustive. Therefore, future researchers are challenged to bring to the table for examination other factors that may have a bearing on gender and entrepreneurship intentions.

Variables			Female Respondents			Male Respondents
Dependent		Independent		Estimate	P Value		Estimates	P Value
Entrepreneurial Intention	<-	Lack of Support		. -017	.828		.393	0.01

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY;

LITERATURE REVIEW

Limitations

Reference List