ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION, INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT, AND OBSTACLES: DETERMINANTS OF RESOURCE-ORIENTED ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Abstract
Pakistan continues to face critical natural resource challenges, including water scarcity, inefficient waste management, and unsustainable energy use, posing serious risks to economic resilience and environmental stability. Addressing these issues requires strategic integration of higher education into national frameworks for resource planning, utilisation, and management. This study examines how entrepreneurial education and institutional support influence the formation of entrepreneurial intentions, prioritising resource efficiency among final-year undergraduate business students at private universities in Punjab, Pakistan. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory and the Natural Resource-Based View, the study employed a quantitative design using survey data from 755 respondents. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), using SmartPLS 4, was used to test the hypothesised relationships. Results indicate that both entrepreneurial education and institutional support significantly enhance students’ intentions to establish ventures designed to optimise natural resource use, reduce waste, and adopt sustainable production practices. However, these effects are diminished by entrepreneurial obstacles such as restricted access to green technologies, inadequate sustainability-focused mentorship, and limited exposure to resource-efficient business models. The findings underscore the need for curriculum reform and institutional frameworks that embed entrepreneurship education into national resource management policies, strengthen innovation ecosystems, and promote circular-economy practices. This alignment can enable higher education institutions to contribute directly to Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12) on responsible consumption and production, while advancing Pakistan’s long-term objectives for natural resource conservation and sustainable economic development.