Risk Propensity to Entrepreneurial Intention: The Parallel Mediating Roles of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Perceived Financial Literacy in a Sustainability Context

This study investigates how cognitive competence and belief-based mechanisms are associated with the entrepreneurial intentions of university students. A quantitative research method involving a questionnaire survey was used to collect data from 360 university students in Türkiye. A parallel mediation study model, reflecting the research hypotheses, was tested using the PROCESS Macro with bootstrapping. The findings indicate that risk propensity, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and perceived financial literacy are all positively and significantly associated with entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, when tested as parallel mechanisms, both self-efficacy and perceived financial literacy mechanisms were found to partially mediate the relationship between risk propensity and entrepreneurial intention. This study measured general entrepreneurial intention rather than sustainable entrepreneurial intention as a distinct construct. Within this context, the findings align with the view that financial competence serves as an intangible resource supporting venture durability, treating economic viability as a precondition for pursuing socio-ecological objectives rather than a competing goal. As a cross-sectional research design was adopted, the results indicate associations rather than causal effects. Practical implications are discussed for universities and policymakers, who may consider pairing financial training with confidence-oriented pedagogy, including in sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship programs.