Unfolding the determinants of university students’ intentions toward digital social entrepreneurship

Digital social entrepreneurship is increasingly receiving recognition in emerging economies to maximize societal benefit. The objective of this study is to examine the factors determining students’ intentions toward digital social entrepreneurial ventures. The targeted population was students of various programs, namely business, humanities, science, tourism, and pharmacy, of private and public universities in Bangladesh. This study is quantitative and exploratory in nature, whereas online self-administered questionnaires were prepared to collect data from 433 students in Bangladesh between January and June 2023. The model was tested and the hypotheses were confirmed at the 5% significance level using SPSS v26.0; a Cronbach’s alpha (α) value of 0.70 or higher was considered adequate for measuring reliability. The results show that students’ innovativeness, social pro-activeness, and risk-taking motive positively affect their intention toward digital social entrepreneurial intention. These results may aid in developing successful plans and regulations to support the expansion of digital social entrepreneurial intention in Bangladesh by the government, non-governmental organizations, the neighborhood, civil society, and researchers.