The Impact of Human Capital on Entrepreneurial Intention among Undergraduates in Sri Lanka: A Study based on the University of Kelaniya.

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is the driving force of the development of any country and is also essential for the development of Sri Lanka's economy. Small profitable businesses have started to become large-scale businesses due to the unrelenting efforts of talented entrepreneurs. When developing entrepreneurship, it is important to develop the entrepreneurial intention (EI). Among the number of factors that contribute to EI, human capital plays an important role. Thus, the main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of human capital on the entrepreneurial intention of undergraduate students in public universities in Sri Lanka. For that purpose, the fourth-year students at the University of Kelaniya have been used as respondents. The fourth-year students of Kelaniya University are used as the population for the research. This Research considers education, skills, and experience as three components of human capital. Accordingly, education, skills, and experience are the independent variables and EI is the dependent variable. The methodology of this research is quantitative and uses the survey method. The population of the study was drawn from the undergraduates of the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, and 300 undergraduates were selected as the respondents in the sample. The data collected through a structured questionnaire were analyzed using regression analysis. The results revealed that education, skills, and experience positively impact the EI of undergraduates at the University of Kelaniya. It is concluded that the undergraduates should focus more and enhance their education, skills, and experience in order to develop EI. Improving EI through the human capital of undergraduates would create more entrepreneurial initiatives in the future. These findings provide useful insights to the government, higher education institutions, and policymakers.