Abstract:
Huge numbers of young graduates have flooded into the job market every year. They prefer secured jobs
either in multinational corporations or government sectors, but the existing sectors are inadequate to absorb
all fresh graduates. Entrepreneurship has been recognized as one of the tools that generate employment
and drives economic growth of a country. Hence motivating entrepreneurial activity among this generation
paves way for employment generation and may become as a solution for unemployment dilemma. An
individual’s behaviour towards government job or self-employment depends on intention. This paper sets
out to present a detailed empirical investigation of the entrepreneurial intentions of youth in Tamilnadu,
India. The study employs the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), in which intentions are regarded as resulting
from attitudes, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norms. Data were gathered through questionnaire
survey from 188 post-graduate students from science and non-science degree from a recognized
university in Tamilnadu, India. 2x2 ANOVA analyses performed to examine the differences between male
and female from science and non-science on entrepreneurial intention and the antecedents of entrepreneurial
intention. The result indicated that there is a difference in the level entrepreneurial intention, attitude
towards behaviour, and perceived behaviour control between male and female. Female students are less
interested in entrepreneurship compared to their male counterpart due to the influence of the traditional
social role. Both male and female have the same perception regarding the pressure place by the society to
perform certain actions. Further the study reveals domain of specialty does not have a significant effect on
students’ entrepreneurial intention
