Investigating the moderating role of work experience on students` entrepreneurial intentions: evidence from Romania

The purpose of this study is to explore the moderating role of work experience on the relationships between entrepreneurial education, self-efficacy and students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Quantitative data were collected via a questionnaire based by investigating whether engineering students have sufficient entrepreneurial skills to evaluate opportunity, developing new products, and recognizing potential market applications. Engineering students need to be able to exploit opportunities that rely on scientific and technical knowledge to create and capture value by launch new venture. Our important findings have a series of important practical implications for managers, engineering students, engineers, and academic staff interested in encouraging economic growth. The results show that entrepreneurial education and self-efficacy have a positive impact on students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Work experience only has a partial influence on students’ entrepreneurial intentions, it exerts a significant indirect effect does not have a significant moderating effect. The findings of the study also provide practical implications suggest that increasing engineering students understanding and awareness of entrepreneurship lead to greater levels of interest in entrepreneurship careers. To the knowledge of the authors, this study is the first to investigate the mediating effect of work experience on students’ entrepreneurial intentions.