Entrepreneurial Intentions Among Generation Z in Uttar Pradesh: Examining the Role of Digital Exposure, Family Business Legacy and Risk Perception

Vollständiger Abstract

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Generation Z, India's first fully digitally native cohort, is entering the labour market at a moment when the country's entrepreneurship ecosystem is being reshaped by government schemes, digital platforms and shifting family structures. Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, spans a wide range of urban and semi-urban economies, from Central UP cities such as Kanpur and Lucknow to the historically agrarian and out-migration-prone districts of Purvanchal in the east, and has been characterised more broadly by a strong preference for salaried government employment alongside an emerging but under-studied Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) base. It therefore offers a distinctive setting in which to examine what shapes young people's willingness to start a business. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), this paper develops a conceptual model linking three under-examined antecedents, namely digital exposure, family business legacy and risk perception, to entrepreneurial intention among Gen Z respondents, mediated by entrepreneurial attitude and perceived behavioural control. The model is tested using a small quantitative pilot study (n = 23), analysed through a composite-score, regression-based structural path approach used as an indicative proxy for Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling. Digital exposure emerged as the only statistically significant direct and attitude-mediated predictor of entrepreneurial intention (β = 0.455, p = 0.038), while family business legacy and risk perception showed directionally consistent but non-significant associations. The achieved pilot sample was drawn predominantly from Kanpur and other Uttar Pradesh cities through the researchers' own digital and academic networks, and the paper is explicit that these findings are preliminary and require replication with a larger, more geographically representative sample. The paper synthesises recent international and Indian literature on Gen Z entrepreneurial intention, positions its contribution against the closest existing studies, discusses implications for entrepreneurship education and regional MSME policy under Uttar Pradesh's One District One Product (ODOP) and MSME promotion schemes, and sets out the pilot's limitations and the design of the recommended full-scale follow-up study.