Linking occupational prestige to entrepreneurial intention: The roles of perceived desirability and entrepreneurship education

This study examines the relationship between occupational prestige and university students’ entrepreneurial intention by drawing on the Entrepreneurial Event Model (EEM) and complementing it with Organismic Integration Theory (OIT). A moderated mediation model is proposed in which perceived desirability mediates the relationship between occupational prestige and entrepreneurial intention, while entrepreneurship education moderates the relationship between perceived desirability and entrepreneurial intention. Using survey data collected from undergraduate Business Administration students at a public university in Istanbul, Türkiye, the study adopts a quantitative research design and employs regression-based analyses. The findings indicate that occupational prestige is positively associated with entrepreneurial intention through perceived desirability. Furthermore, the relationship between perceived desirability and entrepreneurial intention is stronger among students who have taken an entrepreneurship course. The study extends EEM by conceptualizing occupational prestige as a career-related external antecedent of perceived desirability and offers a complementary motivational perspective through OIT.