Does entrepreneurial education encourage college students’ entrepreneurial intention in tourism and hospitality industry?

According to the modified theory of planned behavior in entrepreneurship, three factors - subjective norms, attitude toward entrepreneurship and perceived behavioral control – are main antecedents of entrepreneurial intention. However, the role of entrepreneurial education in a university level has been yet controversial in tourism entrepreneurship literature. Therefore, this study aims to examine the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention and the moderating effect of entrepreneurial education on the planned behavior of students’ entrepreneurial intention. Specifically, the study revealed the role of tourism entrepreneurial education and the relationship between subjective norms, attitude toward entrepreneurship, perceived behavioral control (PBC), and entrepreneurial intention. Data were collected from university students in the hotel and tourism management department during November and December 2016. The seven hypotheses were tested with a sample of 425 applying PLS path modeling. The results suggest that attitudes toward entrepreneurship and perceived behavioral control positively affect entrepreneurial intention. It is suggested that subjective norms do not influence intention to start a business directly, but through attitudes and perceived behavioral control. The result of PLS multi-group analysis showed the moderating effect of entrepreneurial education on the relationship between perceived control and entrepreneurial intention. The theoretical and practical implications for tourism entrepreneurship were discussed.