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Title
PREDICTION OF UAE YOUTH ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION (EI); EXPLORING THE FACTORS
THAT IMPACT ON THE CHOICE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP (SELF-EMPLOYMENT) AS A CAREER
OPTION BASED ON THE THEORY OF PLANNED BEHAVIOR (TPB)
Faculty Advisor
Dr. James C. Ryan
Defense Date
17 April 2017
Abstract
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is considered a youthful country where national youth prefer to work in
the already saturated government sector and avoid the private sector. In recent times, growing levels of
young unemployed people have been observed. This study investigates UAE national youth intentions to
become entrepreneurs by examining the factors that affect entrepreneurial career choice. This quantitative
research employs the theoretical model of Ajzen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The most
recent version of the standardized measure of “Entrepreneurial intention Questionnaire (EIQ)” has been
used in the UAE context for the first time. UAE national senior Business and Engineering undergraduate
students inside and outside the country were sampled. The survey methodology yielded 544 usable
responses. Analysis using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) confirmed the applicability of TPB in the
UAE context. The study results show that attitude and perceived behavioral control positively and directly
affect entrepreneurship intention. Subjective norms also indirectly affect the entrepreneurship intention
through their direct effect on attitude and perceived behavioral control. The results suggest that more
young UAE males than females have the intention to start a new business. In addition, entrepreneurship
intention appears to be higher among UAE national youth who are studying outside the country. The
relatively small sample of UAE students in other countries (44 cases) may affect the generalizability of
some research results. Moreover, the effect of risk on young people’s entrepreneurship intention could
not be tested due to measurement issues. Other limitations are described in detail in the discussion and
conclusion chapter. This study fills the literature gap regarding the UAE found by this research. Second,
it tests and validates the most recent version of the EIQ measure for the first time in the present context
and compares its results with other previously validated measurement approaches, thus enhancing the
methodological rigor and advancing the knowledge of ways to measure entrepreneurship intention and
its antecedents. Moreover, this study tries to compare the entrepreneurship intention of the UAE national
youth students both inside and outside the country. To our best knowledge, this is a novel approach in
conductingthiskindof research.
Dissertation
NOORA YOUSIF MOHAMED ALI AL
SAIQAL
Department of Business Administration
College of Business and Economics