Puja Agarwal, Paramjit S. Lamba and Neera Jain
Purpose: This study, aligning with the future research suggestions of Paray and Kumar (2020) and Ramadani et al. (2022), aims to examine the impact of gender on the development of entrepreneurial orientation and its further translation into entrepreneurial activity among students in higher education institutions, particularly those pursuing management degrees. Design/methodology/approach: Data from 312 respondents studying in higher education institutes was analyzed. After establishing discriminant validity, Smart PLS4 was used to conduct slope analysis to understand the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between the individual constructs of the 5 dimensional individual entrepreneurial orientation. Findings: Higher education institutions have a significant influence on developing entrepreneurial orientation and individual entrepreneurial orientation has a significant impact on entrepreneurial activity (EA). Gender has a significant moderating influence on risk-taking, perseverance, and innovativeness, while it remains positive for passion and proactiveness irrespective of gender. In male students, the risk taking and perseverance constructs have a significantly positive influence on EA, while in the case of female students, the positive influence of Innovativeness is amplified. Gender has no impact on the relationship between passion or proactiveness and entrepreneurial activity. Originality/value: This study sheds new light on risk taking, innovativeness, proactiveness, perseverance, and passion, which are individual constructs of the revised entrepreneurial orientation scale within the context of higher education institutions, and the moderating effect of gender on these constructs. This study can help HEI administrators in allocating resources, and formulating effective policies for fostering entrepreneurial orientation among students.