Impact of institutional environment on entrepreneurial intention: The moderating role of entrepreneurship education

Entrepreneurship has been seen as a tool to boost economic growth, innovation, and job creation. While recent studies have investigated the indirect impact of the institutional environment on entrepreneurial intention (EI), few focused on the mediating role of opportunity recognition (OR). Moreover, the moderating role of entrepreneurship education (EE) on institutional environment and OR has remained unclear. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of the institutional environment on EI with a moderated mediation model. Based on the data of 601 youths aged 18 to 40, we adopted PLS-SEM analysis and found that the regulatory environment (RE) and cognitive environment (CE) can indirectly influence EI through OR. However, we do not find the moderating effects of EE on the relationships between the institutional environment, OR, and EI. This study contributes theoretically to the entrepreneurship literature about institutional theory by providing evidence on the mediating role of OR in Hong Kong and expanding previous studies by testing the moderating role of EE. In addition, this study provides practical recommendations for educators and government.