Ishfaq Hussain Bhat, Soumya Singh
In the past years, the entrepreneurial undertaking has witnessed fabulous growth across the Indian economy. To further fuel this entrepreneurship wave, many researchers advocate the potential of mass awareness and entrepreneurial education programs among the youth. Past studies done in the context have primarily focused on the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention and behaviour as their primary research objectives. Notably, in many empirical researches, subjective norms were observed to be affecting the attitude towards entrepreneurial conduct and the perceived control over that behaviour. However, few studies have attempted to recognise the position of entrepreneurial training in boosting the entrepreneurial conduct from a cognitive perspective. Within the domain of a cognitive framework, i.e., the theory of planned behaviour, the paper examines how the interaction between entrepreneurship education and subjective norm shapes the perception and attitude towards entrepreneurship. Thus, based on a cognitive approach to explaining behaviour, this study aims to test the moderating role of entrepreneurship education on the relationship between subjective norm and antecedents of entrepreneurial intention mainly entrepreneurial attitude and perceived control behaviour to explain the entrepreneurial behaviour. Also, to explain the existing gap in entrepreneurial growth, gender's influence on subjective norms has been studied with the moderating effect of entrepreneurial education. For analysis, data from a sample of 350 final year MBA graduates is extracted using multi-sample analysis, which is then subjected to structural equation modelling. Results exhibit that entrepreneurship education plays a significant moderating role, by weakening the linkage between subjective norms and perceived behaviour control and reinforcement the connection between subjective norms and entrepreneurial attitude. Results also have necessary implication for the women entrepreneurship.