Digital Entrepreneurial Intentions: The Role of IT Knowledge and Entrepreneurial Program Learning

Digital entrepreneurship tends to become the norm of modern entrepreneurial activity in the last decade. Information Technology (IT) and related studies offer technical expertise and competitive advantage to prospective entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial activity in digital space depends on students’ digital entrepreneurial intention (EI) which serves as the basis for later entrepreneurial activity and digital innovativeness. Entrepreneurship courses traditionally hold a significant role in the development of these intentions, through the cultivation of entrepreneurial competencies. Nowadays, entrepreneurship courses offered in engineering and IT disciplines, supplement technical knowledge with the required entrepreneurial knowledge and skills. As a result, course design continuously adapts to the requirements of digital business, whereas theorists rush to understand the impact of emerging digital technologies in business processes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of IT knowledge and skills, on digital entrepreneurial intentions of students, compared to the impact of entrepreneurial knowledge obtained from entrepreneurship courses, using a human capital approach. A cross sectional survey is used for data acquisition from a sample of university IT and business students. A conceptual model is proposed showing the relations between constructs under study, which are examined using statistical analysis. The results indicate significant correlations between Digital constructs, while, significant differences are observed between different demographic groups. The theoretical contribution is that IT knowledge is connected to DE intention of students providing a link between human capital theory and intentionality theories. The practical contribution is that it is essential to combine IT knowledge with entrepreneurial knowledge in order to promote DE. Future research, beyond the core IT knowledge, should also examine the effect of emerging digital technologies on students’ DE intentions.