Chapter 7: Female STEMpreneurship Intentions: An Institutional and Individual Perspective

This study aims at investigating the relationship between institutional dimensions and self-efficacy (SE) in female entrepreneurial intentions (EIs) to establish Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) enterprises. It also studies the moderating role of the type of education obtained on STEM EIs. The study employs a quantitative survey design collected from a sample of 305 female undergraduate students in both STEM and non-STEM majors from public and private universities in Egypt. Data are analysed using SPSS 24 and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using AMOS 24. Findings confirmed a positive relationship between both the normative dimension (NORM) of institutions and higher education support focused on digital education (DE) and female SE. Results also confirmed the full mediation between the NORM of institutions and higher education support and STEM EIs respectively. However, the relationships between each of the regulative dimensions of institutions and the cognitive dimension (COG) of institutions with SE were found insignificant. Moreover, no significant differences were found regarding female STEM EIs among those who received STEM versus non-STEM education. This study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by bringing STEM ventures and the role of females in technological ventures into the discussion, which are underresearched.