Risk-Taking and Innovativeness Link University Ecosystems to Entrepreneurial Intentions

The university ecosystem is considered key to students’ entrepreneurial intentions, yet the evidence on entrepreneurship education is contradictory and the mechanisms that transmit institutional influences remain under-specified. Drawing on social cognitive career theory, this study examines which dimensions of individual entrepreneurial orientation (Ind.EO) transmit the association between three facets of the internal university ecosystem (perceived entrepreneurial environment, program learning, and entrepreneurship course attendance) and entrepreneurial intention. Data come from the Colombian edition of the 2025 GUESSS survey: 5,516 students without current entrepreneurial activity from 66 campuses of 40 higher education institutions. Structural equation models specified the five Ind.EO dimensions ( Clark et al., 2025 ) as parallel latent mediators, with percentile bootstrap confidence intervals and cluster-bootstrap, common-method, and multiple-imputation robustness checks. Only five of fifteen transmission routes were significant, all mediated by innovativeness and risk-taking, unlike autonomy, competitive aggressiveness, and proactiveness. Program learning showed the largest total association and retained a direct path. The negative association of course attendance was confined to compulsory exposure and operated through risk-taking, whereas self-selected exposure was null or positive, an asymmetry consistent with a sorting account. Universities therefore appear to relate to intentions through specific dispositions rather than through generalized entrepreneurial enthusiasm.