Social Media Use and Entrepreneurial Intention Among Vocational Students in China: The Role of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Gender

This study explores the impact of social media use (SMU) on vocational students’ entrepreneurial intention (EI) in China, examining entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) as a mediating factor and gender as a moderating variable. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted using Amos 26 to analyze the hypothesized relationships. The study surveyed a sample of 1,250 vocational students from nine higher education institutions across China. SEM analysis tested the relationships between social media use, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial intention, while multi-group analysis examined gender differences. The results indicate that (1) both content-based and social-based social media use significantly enhance students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy, which positively influences entrepreneurial intention; (2) content-based social media use has a distinct positive impact on entrepreneurial self-efficacy; (3) gender moderates the relationship between social media use and entrepreneurial self-efficacy, with the effect being more pronounced among male students; and (4) social media use is a significant predictor of entrepreneurial intention among vocational students. These findings suggest that targeted social media strategies in entrepreneurship education could enhance students’ entrepreneurial potential, with attention to gender-specific approaches.