Entrepreneurial Intention among Female Industrial Product Designers in Saudi Arabia: A Theory of Planned Behavior Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24191/ijad.v10i2/3mg4z488Keywords:
Entrepreneurship, Industrial Design, Female Designers, Saudi Arabia, Entrepreneurial IntentionAbstract
Entrepreneurship has gained significant attention across innovation, community development, and economic growth, particularly among creative and innovative organisations. However, its specific implications for industrial design, particularly regarding intention and behaviour, remain underexplored. This study focuses on understanding the attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control as outlined in the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and their impact on entrepreneurship among young female designers in Saudi Arabia. To conduct this research, a cross-sectional survey design was utilised, targeting 311 young female designers and students. Participants were selected through convenience sampling, including both graduates and current students in the field. The survey was administered online, and a paper-based version was distributed to respondents in January and February 2025, enabling wider participation, increasing the response rate, broadening the survey's reach, and enhancing the generalizability of the results. The findings highlighted a significant influence of attitude and perceived behavioural control on the intention to engage in entrepreneurship. Interestingly, while participants showed strong entrepreneurial intentions, subjective norms did not appear to have a supportive role in this context. The results underline the psychological drivers that encourage young female designers to consider entrepreneurship but also point out how social support systems can be a barrier to realising these ambitions. Overall, this study sheds light on the entrepreneurial landscape for young female designers in Saudi Arabia, emphasising the importance of fostering a supportive environment that aligns with their entrepreneurial aspirations.
References
Ahmed, T., Chandran, V. G. R., Klobas, J. E., Liñán, F., & Kokkalis, P. (2020). Entrepreneurship education programmes: How learning, inspiration and resources affect intentions for new venture creation in a developing economy. The International Journal of Management Education, 18(1), Article 100327.
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (2000). Attitudes and the Attitude-Behavior Relation: Reasoned and Automatic Processes. European Review of Social Psychology, 11(1), 1–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/14792779943000116
Al-Jubari, I. (2019). College students’ entrepreneurial intention: Testing an integrated model of SDT and TPB. SAGE Open, 9(2), Article 2158244019853467.
Al-Jubari, I., Mosbah, A., & Anor Salim, F. A. B. (2023). Motivational and attitudinal determinants of entrepreneurial intention: Hospitality and tourism students’ perspectives. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, 35(2), 97–107.
Al-Mamary, Y. H. S., & Alraja, M. M. (2022). Understanding entrepreneurship intention and behavior in the light of TPB model from the digital entrepreneurship perspective. International Journal of Information Management Data Insights, 2(2), Article 100106.
Aloulou, W. J. (2022). The influence of institutional context on entrepreneurial intention: Evidence from the Saudi young community. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, 16(5), 677–698.
Alzamer, S. (2021). The moderating role of resource accessibility to the theory of planned behaviour components: A study of e-entrepreneurship intention among Saudi women. Polish Journal of Management Studies, 24(1), 30–44.
Almadani (2023), https://www.arabnews.com/tag/intellectual-property
Ambad, S. N. A., & Damit, D. H. D. A. (2016). Determinants of entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate students in Malaysia. Procedia Economics and Finance, 37, 108–114.
Amentie, C., Negash, E., & Ayenew, Z. (2023). Effect of network ties and marketing strategy on sustainable performance of agribusiness firms: Network ties and marketing strategy on sustainable performance of agribusiness firms. Horn of African Journal of Business and Economics, 6(1), 198–214.
Amofah, K., Saladrigues, R., & Akwaa-Sekyi, E. K. (2020). Entrepreneurial intentions among MBA students. Cogent Business & Management, 7(1), Article 1832401.
Anjum, T., Heidler, P., Amoozegar, A., & Anees, R. T. (2021). The impact of entrepreneurial passion on the entrepreneurial intention: Moderating impact of perception of university support. Administrative Sciences, 11(2), Article 45.
Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411–423.
Basaffar, A. A. (2024). The entrepreneurial intention measurement of Saudi University female students in light of the theory of planned behavior. International Journal of Academic Research in Economics and Management Sciences, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarems/v13-i1/20956
Becker, S. D., & Endenich, C. (2023). Entrepreneurial ecosystems as amplifiers of the lean startup philosophy: Management control practices in earliest-stage startups. Contemporary Accounting Research, 40(1), 624–667.
Boahemaah, L., Xin, L., Dogbe, C. S. K., & Pomegbe, W. W. K. (2020). The impact of entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurial intention of students in tertiary institutions. International Journal of Management, Accounting and Economics, 7(4), 180-212.
Cain, M. K., Zhang, Z., & Yuan, K.-H. (2017). Univariate and multivariate skewness and kurtosis for measuring nonnormality: Prevalence, influence and estimation. Behavior Research Methods, 49(5), 1716–1735. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-016-0814-1
Chin, J. W., Mustafa, M. J., & Nungsari, M. (2024). Subjective norms towards entrepreneurship and Malaysian students’ entrepreneurial intentions: Does gender matter? Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 18(2), 195–208.
Franke, G., & Marko, S. (2019). Heuristics versus statistics in discriminant validity testing: A comparison of four procedures. Internet Research, 29(3), 430–447. https://doi.org/10.1108/IntR-12-2017-0515
Muhammad Fadhli. (2022). Study of entrepreneurship orientation and self-efficacy on entrepreneurship success and moderation of environmental instability in covid 19 pandemic conditions. Journal of Management and Islamic Finance, 2(2), 222–239. https://doi.org/10.22515/jmif.v2i2.5275
Fayolle, A., Gailly, B., & Lassas‐Clerc, N. (2006). Assessing the impact of entrepreneurship education programmes: A new methodology. Journal of European Industrial Training, 30(9), 701–720. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590610715022
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Contemporary Sociology, 6(2).
General Authority for Statistics. (2022). https://www.stats.gov.sa/en/home?saveLastPath=false
Guo, Y., & Wang, L. (2022). Environmental entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance: The role of environmental innovation and stakeholder pressure. SAGE Open, 12(1), Article 21582440211061354.
Hair, J. F., Jr., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., Sarstedt, M., Danks, N. P., & Ray, S. (2021). An introduction to structural equation modeling. In Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using R: A workbook (pp. 1–29). Springer International Publishing.
Hahn, E. D., & Ang, S. H. (2017). From the editors: New directions in the reporting of statistical results in the journal of world business. Journal of World Business, 52(2), 125–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2016.12.003
Hasan, M., Tiara Hutamy, E., Supatminingsih, T., Ahmad, M. I. S., Aeni, N., & Dzhelilov, A. A. (2024). The role of entrepreneurship education in the entrepreneurial readiness of Generation Z students: Why do digital business literacy and financial literacy matter? Cogent Education, 11(1), Article 2371178.
Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), 115–135. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8
Ibrahim, G., Afifi, M. F., Arous, S. A. H., & Abdelaal, E. (2022). The relationship between perceived innovation support and its outputs in Egyptian five-star hotels: The mediation role of employee innovative work behavior. Journal of the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels–University of Sadat City, 6(1/2).
Ismail, Z. H., Kian, L. Y., Bahrudin, F. I., & Daud, N. (2022). Sustainable materials in Malaysia: A systematic review on academic research and application in product design industry. In DESIGN-DECODED 2021: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Design Industries & Creative Culture, DESIGN DECODED 2021, 24–25 August 2021, Kedah, Malaysia (p. 300). European Alliance for Innovation.
Jiatong, W., Murad, M., Bajun, F., Tufail, M. S., Mirza, F., & Rafiq, M. (2021). Impact of entrepreneurial education, mindset, and creativity on entrepreneurial intention: Mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 724440.
Karimi, S. (2020). The role of entrepreneurial passion in the formation of students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Applied Economics, 52(3), 331–344.
Karimi, S., & Reisi, S. (2022). Exploring the antecedents and outcomes of entrepreneurial well-being: Empirical evidence from Iranian rural entrepreneurs. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 858230.
Kock, N. (2015). Common method bias in PLS-SEM: A full collinearity assessment approach. International Journal of E-Collaboration, 11(4), 1–10.
Krueger, N., Boissin, J. P., & Maâlaoui, A. (2022). Special edition of the Review of Entrepreneurship. The nascent entrepreneur: From entrepreneurial intention to action among students—“The youngest and most highly qualified entrepreneurs as measures of national impact.” Revue de l’Entrepreneuriat/Review of Entrepreneurship, 21(3), 11–23.
Li, C., Murad, M., Shahzad, F., Khan, M. A. S., Ashraf, S. F., & Dogbe, C. S. K. (2020). Entrepreneurial passion to entrepreneurial behavior: Role of entrepreneurial alertness, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and proactive personality. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Article 1611.
Liñán, F., & Chen, Y.-W. (2009). Development and cross-cultural application of a specific instrument to measure entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33(3), 593–617. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2009.00318.x
Majeed, A., Ghumman, A. R., Abbas, Q., & Ahmad, Z. (2021). Role of entrepreneurial passion between entrepreneurial attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and entrepreneurial intention: Measuring the entrepreneurial behavior of Pakistani students. Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Sciences, 15(3), 636–662.
Mahmoud, M. A., Garba, A. S., Abdullah, Y. A., & Ali, A. I. (2020). Assessment of entrepreneurship education on the relationship between attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and entrepreneurial intention. International Journal of Business and Technopreneurship, 10(2), 197–210.
Mohd Noor, N. H., & Malek, E. N. (2021). An application of theory of planned behavior in determining student entrepreneurship intention. Jurnal Intelek, 16(1), 207–214. https://doi.org/10.24191/ji.v16i1.382
Margaça, C., Sánchez-García, J. C., Mónico, L. M., & Knörr, H. (2023). Entrepreneurial psychological capital and spirituality: A core distinction among entrepreneurs. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, Article 1125826.
Nguyen, C. Q., Nguyen, A. M. T., & Ba Le, L. (2022). Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to assess the effects of entrepreneurial education on engineering students’ entrepreneurial intention. Cogent Education, 9(1), Article 2122330.
Nooh, M. N. (2022). A review of the entrepreneurial mindset. Voice of Academia, 18(2), 178–198.
Otache, I. (2019). Enhancing the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education: The role of entrepreneurial lecturers. Education + Training, 61(7–8), 918–939.
Otache, I., Edopkolor, J. E., Sani, I. A., & Umar, K. (2024). Entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions: Do entrepreneurial self-efficacy, alertness and opportunity recognition matter? The International Journal of Management Education, 22(1), Article 100917.
Pradhan, R. P., Arvin, M. B., Nair, M., & Bennett, S. E. (2020). The dynamics among entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth in the Eurozone countries. Journal of Policy Modeling, 42(5), 1106–1122.
Ramayah, T., Cheah, J., Chuah, F., Ting, H., & Memon, M. A. (2018). Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS 3.0: An updated and practical guide to statistical analysis (2nd ed.). Pearson.
Ringle, C. M., Wende, S., & Becker, J.-M. (2024). SmartPLS 4. SmartPLS. https://www.smartpls.com/
Reinartz, W. J., Haenlein, M., & Henseler, J. (2009). An empirical comparison of the efficacy of covariance-based and variance-based SEM. SSRN Electronic Journal, 26(4). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1462666
Saudi General Authority for Statistics. (2022). Q3 2022 statistical publication.
Sadat, A. M., & Lin, M. L. (2020). Examining the student entrepreneurship intention using TPB approach with gender as moderation variable.International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 13(6),193-207.
Shi, L., Yao, X., & Wu, W. (2020). Perceived university support, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, heterogeneous entrepreneurial intentions in entrepreneurship education: The moderating role of the Chinese sense of face. Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, 12(2), 205–230.
Shi, Y., Yuan, T., Bell, R., & Wang, J. (2020). Investigating the relationship between creativity and entrepreneurial intention: The moderating role of creativity in the theory of planned behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Article 1209.
Yarimoglu, E., & Gunay, T. (2020). The extended theory of planned behavior in Turkish customers’ intentions to visit green hotels. Business Strategy and the Environment, 29(3), 1097–1108.
Zanabazar, A., & Jigjiddorj, S. (2020). The factors effecting entrepreneurial intention of university students: Case of Mongolia. SHS Web of Conferences, 73, 01034. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20207301034
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Nur Fadhilah Mohd Omar, Wan Noor Faaizah Wan Omar, Hema Zulaika Hashim, Azyyati Anuar

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.



