“Effect of digital opportunity recognition on students’ digital entrepreneurial intentions and behavior”

This study aims to examine the effect of digital opportunity recognition on students’ intentions and behavior related to digital entrepreneurship. The study measures the influence of digital opportunity recognition on antecedents of the theory of planned behavior and indirect influence on digital entrepreneurial intentions and behavior. This study employed a cross-sectional design. Data were collected from 2,840 students enrolled in professional management and entrepreneurship directions at universities in Saudi Arabia. The target sample consisted of individuals who have plans to become entrepreneurs. The findings indicated that digital opportunity recognition has a direct and significant effect on attitude, subjective norms, perceived self-efficacy, and an indirect effect on intentions and behavior toward digital entrepreneurship. Furthermore, this study checked multigroup differences between male and female samples: males show more favorable behavior toward digital entrepreneurship compared to females in Saudi Arabia. Collectively, the antecedents of the theory of planned behavior and digital opportunity recognition explained 65.1% of the variance in digital entrepreneurial behavior, with males at 68.2% and females at 63.2%. The research implication is that policymakers should prioritize integrating digital entrepreneurship into education curricula and providing support mechanisms to nurture the potential of digital-native students.


INTRODUCTION
Digitization has fundamentally reshaped the world, ushering in the digital economy, which is considered the second most significant economic advancement after the Industrial Revolution (Kraus et al., 2019;Tandon et al., 2020).The adoption of digital technology serves as a crucial driver of entrepreneurship (Hejazinia, 2015), offering entrepreneurs abundant opportunities for business growth and expansion (R. Tajvidi & M. Tajvidi, 2021).The internet and technology have revolutionized business startup processes, giving rise to a new entrepreneurial paradigm termed "digital entrepreneurship" (Nambisan et al., 2019;Alkhalaileh, 2021;Al-Ayed, 2024).This connection between entrepreneurship and the internet is expressed through various terms, such as electronic entrepreneurship, digital entrepreneurship, and internet entrepreneurship (Wang et al., 2016).There are relatively few studies on digital entrepreneurship and its intentions and behavior influenced by digital opportunity recognition.The limited literature on the subject of emerging digital entrepreneurship, especially digital opportunity recognition, made it evident that further research and knowledge are needed (Badaruddin & Abdullah, 2018; Al-Ayed & Al-Tit, 2024).
According to Hull et al. (2007), digital entrepreneurship falls under the umbrella of traditional entrepreneurship, involving the digitization of physical aspects of a typical business.The field of digital entrepreneurship is gaining recognition as a prospective career path.In the specific context of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, structural reforms have been implemented to foster economic growth, stability, and long-term sustainability.This is seen in Saudi Arabia's improving business climate and continued efforts to empower the business sectors to support the economy and remove obstacles to make it more desirable to engage in previously underutilized industries (Saudi Arabia Vision 2030).To encourage young investors and entrepreneurs, Saudi Arabian leadership is acting fast to change laws and regulations, remove obstacles, and expand access to finance resources (Al-Mamary & Alshallaqi, 2022).In this regard, the Saudi Arabian government established the "Monsha'at" as a single entity to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship and support small and medium-sized ventures.However, the nascent entrepreneur skills toward digital opportunity recognition are in their infancy.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT
Digital entrepreneurship encompasses seizing emerging business opportunities facilitated by advancements in technology (Davidson & Vaast, 2010 The recognition of opportunities has long been considered a vital step in terms of business setup (Ozgen & Baron, 2007).Many scholars viewed it as a critical step that often leads to subsequent stages in establishing new ventures.Previous research has explored opportunity recognition from various perspectives.For example, several studies have emphasized the importance of actively searching for opportunities and the factors that influence such efforts (Kirzner, 1979(Kirzner, , 1997;;Gaglio & Katz, 2001).However, other studies have focused on the opportunities that arise from dynamic interactions between technical, political, and economic factors (Shane, 2003).Consequently, the recognition of opportunities may vary depending on the entrepreneur's characteristics.These details are crucial for both the initial identification of opportunities and the subsequent feasibility assessments that entrepreneurs undertake to determine whether they have identified a viable opportunity to launch a successful new business (Ardichvili et al., 2003) This study argues that the intentions of university graduates to establish a business will be influenced by subjective norms.In Saudi Arabian culture, individuals are expected to comply and fulfill the needs of their families, extended families, and broader social ties due to the collectivist nature of the country (Hofstede, 1984).
Perceived self-efficacy in entrepreneurship relates to an individual's belief in his/her capability to successfully perform entrepreneurial tasks and overcome challenges within the entrepreneurial context.Self-efficacy denotes one's confidence in one's ability to effectively accomplish a task (Wood & Bandura, 1989).This motivating factor significantly influences both intention and behavior.Consequently, it affects how individuals initiate behavior, including the level of effort they exert and their persistence in the face of challenging circumstances (Bandura, 1977).Extensive evidence has demonstrated that entrepreneurial self-efficacy serves as a crucial precursor to entrepreneurial intention and behavior (Morton et al., 2014;Lee et al., 2011).The level of time, financial resources, and effort a student invests in starting a business is influenced by perceived capacity.
The ambition to launch a business at some point in the future is referred to as entrepreneurial intention (Thompson, 2009).Entrepreneurial intention and behavior have a substantial association (Nasar et al., 2019;Sharahiley, 2020).Accordingly, university graduates' effort, preparation, and resolve to become prosperous digital entrepreneurs in the future influence their effort, time commitment, and dedication to setting up businesses.
The study aims to investigate the effect of digital opportunity recognition on intention and behavior related to digital entrepreneurship.The paper measured the direct impact of digital opportunity recognition on the antecedents of TPB (attitude, subjective norms, and perceived self-efficacy) and the indirect impact on digital entrepreneurial intention and behavior.The hypotheses are as follows (Figure 1).

Direct Effects:
H1: Digital opportunity recognition affects attitude.
H2: Digital opportunity recognition affects subjective norms.

H8: Digital entrepreneurial intention affects digital entrepreneurial behavior.
H9: There is a difference between males and females in terms of their attitude, subjective norms, perceived self-efficacy and intention when intermediate between digital opportunity recognition and digital entrepreneurship behavior.
The hypotheses for indirect effects (mediation) for males are: The initial section of the survey outlined the objectives of the study and provided guidelines for completing the surveys.In the subsequent section, participants were requested to provide personal information.The third section employed a Likert scale ranging from one to five (one shows "strongly disagree" and five shows "strongly agree") to assess the main research questions.To measure digital entrepreneurship intention, three questions were adapted from Sobaih and Elshaer (2022), with slight modifications to suit the research context.The scale items demonstrated strong internal consistency reliability (α = 0.775).Attitude toward establishing a digital business was assessed using four items from Ajzen's TPB and administered to university students (Ajzen, 2011).The attitude items exhibited satisfactory Cronbach's alpha reliability (α = 0.733).Subjective norms were evaluated using three items adapted from Liñán

RESULTS
The study utilized a variety of statistical measures, as advocated by Hair et al. (2019), to evaluate the validity and reliability of the outer models.These measures comprised factor loadings surpassing 0.7, composite reliability exceeding 0.7, internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha) greater than 0.7, and convergent validity demonstrated by an average variance extracted surpassing 0.5.The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling with SmartPLS 4. Once the measurement model was validated, PLS-SEM was employed to examine the hypothetical model within the structural model.The main objective was to evaluate the model's ability to explain and predict variations in the endogenous variables caused by the exogenous variable (Hult et al., 2018).The relationship was examined using T-statistics and bootstrapping with 5,000 sub-samples.The structural model provided detailed explanations of path coefficients and coefficients of determination (R2) separately for males and females (Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4, and Table 3).To ensure a good model fit, an R2 value of at least 0.10, as recommended by Chin (1998), was considered (Table 6).Mediation analysis was conducted to identify indirect effects (Tables 4 and 5).Multigroup analysis (MGA) was also performed to assess statistically significant paths between male and female models and to examine variations in the factors between genders (Henseler & Chin, 2010), as presented in Table 7.
The research paper proposed twenty-nine hypotheses, including eight direct relationships, ten indirect relationships for males, ten for females, and one for multigroup differences between males and females.Based on the findings from SmartPLS (Table 3), the direct effects of digital opportunity recognition on attitude, subjective norms, and perceived self-efficacy were found to be positive and significant, supporting H1, H2, and H3.Furthermore, the antecedents of TPB (attitude, subjective norms, and perceived self-efficacy) exhibited a direct positive and significant influence on digital entrepreneurial intention, confirming H4, H5, and H6.Additionally, perceived self-efficacy and digital entrepreneurial intention positively and significantly influenced digital entrepreneurial behavior, validating H7 and H8.The multigroup analysis revealed significant differences between males and females in attitude toward digital entrepreneurial intention and perceived self-efficacy toward digital entrepreneurial behavior, partially supporting H9 (Table 7).The indirect mediation effects of attitude, subjective norms, perceived self-efficacy, and digital entrepreneurial intention between digital opportunity recognition and digital entrepreneurial behavior were found to be positive and significant, accepting H10 to H19 for males (Table 4) and H20 to H29 for females (Table 5).For the entire sample, digital opportunity recognition accounted for 43.5%, 23.2%, and 43% of the variance in attitude, subjective norms, and perceived self-efficacy, respectively (Table 6).
Collectively, the antecedents of TPB and digital opportunity recognition explained 65.1% of the variance in digital entrepreneurial behavior, with males at 68.2% and females at 63.2%.

DISCUSSION
This study investigated the direct effects of digital opportunity recognition on TPB dimensions among Saudi Arabian higher education students and the indirect effects on intentions and behaviors related to digital entrepreneurship.hypothesized, both direct and indirect paths and impacts of the digital opportunity recognition on the antecedents of TPB were supported by the structural equation modeling findings using SmartPLS4 analysis since all of the paths were significant and positive, which confirmed hypotheses H1 to H29.These results coincide with Ozgen and Baron (2007) and Nasar et al. (2019).Furthermore, this study checked multigroup differences between male and female samples, indicating stronger behavior of males toward digital entrepreneurship than females in Saudi Arabia.
The findings offer several implications for academics, particularly concerning the recognition of digital opportunities and their associations with attitude, subjective norms, perceived self-efficacy, and digital entrepreneurial intentions and behavior.

CONCLUSION
This study examines how digital opportunity recognition among digital natives influences their intentions and behaviors concerning digital entrepreneurship.It assesses how recognizing digital opportunities affects key factors outlined in the theory of planned behavior -attitude, subjective norms, and perceived self-efficacy -and subsequently influences their intentions and behaviors in digital entrepreneurship.This study offers a fresh perspective on quantifying digital entrepreneurial intention and behavior influenced by digital opportunity recognition, thereby providing support for identifying nascent entrepreneurs in terms of thoughts and actions.The findings indicate that recognizing digital opportunities has a positive and significant impact on the antecedents of the theory of planned behavior.In Saudi Arabia, digital entrepreneurial intention and behavior are higher among males compared to females, suggesting that higher education students require a specific amount of time to develop their entrepreneurial goals, form intentions, secure resources, and shape their business ideas in the near future.This study suggests examining temporal entrepreneurial intention and behavior to define goals and targets for digital entrepreneurial activity and predict both immediate and distant future outcomes.

Note:
The study utilized relative values to emphasize the paths.Path coefficients are represented by arrow lines, with significant values indicated in brackets.R-squares are denoted by blue circles, and t-values are displayed for items associated with constructs.The results were obtained using SmartPLS 4.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Structural equation model for the full sample (n = 2,840)

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Structural equation model for the male sample (n = 1,134) Attitude mediates the relation between digital opportunity recognition and digital entrepreneurial intention for males.

Table 1 .
Measurement model

Table 6 .
(Alateeg & Alhammadi, 2024;Alateeg et al., 2024)versity students' intentions to pursue digital entrepreneurship.Therefore, investments should also be made in today's students, who are digital natives, and their attitudes toward the practical use of the internet and technology in the context of digital entrepreneurship (Al-Ayed et al., 2023).The design of thinking programs requires urgent attention.Working on the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem will let policymakers focus on interventions and the effec-tive use of already available resources(Alateeg & Alhammadi, 2024;Alateeg et al., 2024).In order for potential new entrepreneurs to successfully operate their digital enterprises, institutions should provide students with loans, tax breaks, and reasonably priced leased workspaces.Furthermore, conducting longitudinal research to assess the influence of various factors on the model for entrepreneurial temporal intention and behavior is recommended.