Mentoring Nascent Entrepreneurs: What Leads to Intention?

The identification of the entrepreneurs’ capacity and the obstacles of university/graduate school students have been assuming a growing importance in the development of mentoring directed towards the entrepreneurship and start-up processes. This study aims to identify the factors that most contribute for the intention to start up a business. The research also tries to identify the profile of a potential entrepreneur student concerning several characteristics: entrepreneurial capacity, obstacles and mentoring. We used the modeling testing of the data collected from 139 university/graduate school students. Research findings include the idea that entrepreneurial mentoring is moderating effect on entrepreneurial intention. On the other side, personal entrepreneurial capacity has an important role in shaping motivation to start-up a business and entrepreneurial obstacle have a negative impact in the intention to start-up. Contribution and suggestions are provided for the further research.