From entrepreneurship education and AI literacy to AI-enabled entrepreneurial action: the role of technology readiness under resource constraints

Purpose This study aims to examine how entrepreneurship education, AI literacy, Technology Readiness and perceived resource scarcity are associated with university students’ AI-enabled micro-entrepreneurial opportunity enactment in a resource-constrained emerging-economy setting. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on Entrepreneurial Action Theory and Technology Readiness research, the study analysed survey data from 450 university students in Nigeria. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to assess the proposed relationships and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis examined alternative configurations associated with high and low levels of AI-enabled micro-entrepreneurial opportunity enactment. Findings Entrepreneurship education and AI literacy were positively associated with Technology Readiness. Technology Readiness was positively associated with AI-enabled micro-entrepreneurial opportunity enactment and mediated the associations of entrepreneurship education and AI literacy with that outcome. Perceived resource scarcity was negatively associated with opportunity enactment but strengthened the positive association between Technology Readiness and opportunity enactment. The configurational analysis further indicated that high opportunity enactment can emerge through multiple combinations of educational, technological and contextual conditions, whereas configurations associated with low opportunity enactment were not simple inverses of high-outcome pathways. Originality/value The study extends Entrepreneurial Action Theory by identifying Technology Readiness as a digitally mediated mechanism that enables entrepreneurial and AI-related capabilities to become practically consequential. It also shows that AI-enabled entrepreneurial participation depends on more than access to intelligent tools: students require entrepreneurial capability, AI literacy, practical readiness to engage with technology and conditions that reduce resource-related barriers to action.