1. Introduction
Entrepreneurship and sustainable entrepreneurship begin with recognizing possibilities [
1,
2]. Therefore, sustainable development may be considered the greatest vital difficulty of our time. Depletion of the ozone layer, climate change, and devastation of biodiversity is showing the negative effects and results of those processes on species [
3,
4]. However, scholars have argued that doing business can maintain ecosystems, respond to weather trade, reduce environmental degradation and deforestation, enhance agricultural practices and freshwater materials, and maintain biodiversity [
5,
6]. In current years, sustainable entrepreneurship has grown in recognition and become one of the most dynamic areas, which has led to the upward thrust of entrepreneurial answers to environmental, social, and monetary troubles, as demonstrated by means of improvement of for-income establishments [
7]. Most of the prescriptive outlines and models given so far are primarily based on related areas of knowledge consisting of environmental economics and social entrepreneurship [
8,
9]. Hence, balancing the triple bottom line may imply additional loss by potential sustainable entrepreneurs among non-public and economic blessings and environmental and/or social costs, which are generally prevalent on a bigger social scale. Indeed, sustainable entrepreneurs and their choices must take into account the current development requirements without compromising the needs of future generations [
10]. In this context, sustainable entrepreneurs are defined by scientists as individual/economic actors who integrate the objectives of social, economic, and environmental entrepreneurship into sustainable enterprises/organizations in terms of asset creation and business goals [
11,
12].
Social, environmental, and sustainable entrepreneurships are major kinds of entrepreneurship that have emerged over the years to deal with and clear up essential social complexities [
9,
13,
14]. In this way, these types have been able to speed up the entrepreneurial process; therefore, they are interested in knowing their intentions and underlying motives to become such entrepreneurs among educated young people in the future. Thus, at the social level, entrepreneurship makes an important contribution to job creation and economic growth [
15]. However, sustainable entrepreneurship plays an essential role in achieving important sustainable development goals. Change in living status, health, work, innovation, organization, sustainable cities and communities, responsible production, and climate trade requires the participation of public interest groups [
16]. These issues can affect an individual’s goal of starting a new sustainable business, which is generally considered the major and most impartial predictor of entrepreneurial behavior [
17]. To date, our understanding of the role of these issues in the individual’s goal to be a sustainable entrepreneur is limited; in particular, these intentions are especially important to understand and consider business decisions, such as owning a business or establishing or modifying an existing business in accordance with sustainability norms under the sustainable development goals [
18,
19,
20,
21]. Nevertheless, although entrepreneurship has been growing as a hobby, in various entrepreneurial types there may be a lack of proof that the current younger generation—and specifically university graduates—could have enough entrepreneurship, social awareness, and extensive potential for a challenging movement that does not seek to profit from the cost of a deteriorating future [
22]. Through previous research, we have understood that the first step to achieve this is to modify the current purpose model with sustainable entrepreneurial intention measures consisting of value and sustainability orientation [
23].
However, preceding studies mainly targeted work values and trendy altruism to explain the goal shaping of sustainable entrepreneurship. Therefore, this study suggested the use of social (intrinsic and extrinsic rewards) value as well as environmental values, showing that those who take part in sustainable development should foresee the future results of their actions to consider intergenerational equity. To date, research on sustainable entrepreneurship has largely ignored the role of predicting future consequences [
15,
24]. Although sustainable entrepreneurship is context-specific, conventional definitions have expanded to encompass a wide range of phrases (e.g., social environmental values) [
25]. Financial cost introduction has historically been a vital part of conventional entrepreneurship, and it is used by entrepreneurs to take numerous steps to combine or give up one-of-a-kind financial value [
26]. Basically, sustainable entrepreneurship aims to preserve these values in the long term and also combine social, monetary, and ecological benefits. [
27]. The literature has widely shown that social entrepreneurs are associated with environmental values, empathy, and intrinsic reward [
28,
29]. Consequently, in this field of social entrepreneurship, the already existing literature provides limited insight into the startup of intention [
16,
28] and even less insight into the field of sustainable entrepreneurship [
30]. Therefore, this study aims to explain the formation of sustainable entrepreneurship intention by incorporating the theory of planned behavior (TPB) [
31]. One study completely based on the mediating role of the TPB’s antecedents takes into account the role of work values in sustainable intention [
32]. However, social and environmental values and consideration of the future have not yet been considered for the development of sustainable entrepreneurial intention. To fill this void, this study uses an integrative framework. It examines the task of social (intrinsic and extrinsic) environmental values and, in particular, that of modifying entrepreneurial intention and converting its types into type-specific sustainable entrepreneurship, in order to take into account the future consequences on sustainable entrepreneurial intention mediated by two dimensions of TPB: attitude toward sustainability and perceived behavior control.
The rest of the article is organized into the following sections.
Section 2 contains insights from the sustainability literature, based on how social and environmental issues are addressed and how future outcomes can affect the formation of sustainable entrepreneurship goals to varying degrees.
Section 3 and
Section 4 describe our method, examining its design and outcomes.
Section 5 illustrates our findings and has implications for government and school professionals. We will conclude by presenting limitations and opportunities for future studies.
5. Discussion
This work provides many relevant theoretical and practical applications, describing the role of work values and the consideration of future consequences when incorporating the TPB as a determinant of SEI to develop sustainable entrepreneurship.
First, this research tests the given hypothesis for the dimensions of TPBs (H1a, H1b, and H1c) to contribute to the discussion on the relative importance of various factors (behavioral and social) in the selection-making technique for the development of sustainable entrepreneurs. Some researchers emphasized considering social factors, which include perceived help and approval inside non-public networks [
30,
111]. The findings of our observation emphasized the significance of elements at the individual level and checked the feasibility of aim formation. Current studies provide sturdy evidence for attitude perceived behavioral control and subjective norms. These results seem to suggest that, although the will to start a new venture depends on given consent within social networks [
48], greater emphasis is being placed on actors [
62]. This means that sustainable entrepreneurs can move beyond the traditional way of making enterprise and modify the general conventions for the role of entrepreneurship in society; therefore, social norms are necessary for the advancement of SEI. This search is consistent with the description of a sustainable entrepreneur as an individual questioning the status quo [
112], and it seems to contradict actual sustainable entrepreneurship, wherein the assets and other aid supplied through social networks play a key function in the improvement of sustainable entrepreneurship [
30].
Second, we analyze the ATS-mediated hypothesis (H2, H3, H4, H5, H6) to determine the relationship between (1) environmental value, (2) extrinsic reward, (3) intrinsic reward, and (4) CFC-F, (5) CFC-I, and (6) SEI. With regard to ATS’ mediator role, the results support the hypothesis about environmental values and intrinsic reward as well as CFC-F. According to bootstrap analysis, ATS significantly mediates the relationship between environmental value and intrinsic reward, CFC-F, and SEI. Hence, extrinsic reward and CFC-I do not meet the mediation requirements as they have no significant relationship with ATS [
113]; moreover, environmental values and CFC-F have a higher indirect impact on SEI. These findings are in accordance with Fayolle and co-workers [
110], who have investigated the importance of work, strength, and objectives on SEI in Spain, as well as with the analysis of Koe et al., [
47] who showed that, in Malaysia, intrinsic reward and ATS influence the completion of a sustainable task. Therefore, the current piece of work invites future researchers to consider whether a particular perspective or similar mechanism, such as empathy, plays a role [
74,
114], contributing to the development of environmentally friendly attitudes and, consequently, of SEI. This study found that considering onward results has a high-quality and significant impact on behaviors in sustainable entrepreneurship. According to the cognitive psychology literature, the authors hypothesize that strong-minded people who focus on sustainable entrepreneurship will find it easier to mitigate and cushion incentives and benefits, resulting in unsustainable behavior in the short term [
115]. This is in accordance with the work of Patzelt and Shepherd [
64] and Schlaegel et al., [
42] on the link between environmental values and sustainable aims. From these results, it can be seen that besides high scores for environmental scores and intrinsic rewards, the CFC-F is closely related to a more positive attitude towards the implementation of SEI.
Third, we analyzed the hypotheses (H7, H8, and H9) through which PBC mediates the relationship between intrinsic reward, CFC-F and CFC-I, or SEI. These results only support the linkage of CFC-F and SEI, whereas intrinsic reward and CFC-I are not related to PBC and therefore do not meet the prerequisites of the mediation analysis proposed by Zhao and Lynch [
108]. Bootstrap analysis shows the importance of the mediating effect of PBC, CFC-F, and SEI. Considering the function of CFC-F, this research is comprehensively supported by previous literature on sustainability intentions [
8,
114]. Nevertheless, PBC is the combined effect of self-efficacy and controllability on sustainable entrepreneurship, and encouraging an individual’s future enterprise can be a beneficial way to promote positive PBC and action on sustainable entrepreneurship as well as values that should be incorporated in the behavioral research on the subject [
8]. Therefore, the findings show that the higher the entrepreneurs’ ambition with significant future consequences, the more sustainable their intention. Likewise, the previous literature has established that concern for future results is a decisive driver of sustainability [
8]. Thus, the results of this work confirm the claim that CFC-F and PBC are the most important factors for explaining sustainable entrepreneurial intentions.
Finally, the results confirm these views and suggest that this process should be implemented before choosing a career path. We have shown that taking certain sustainable entrepreneurship courses has a beneficial impact on sustainable entrepreneur intentions; our results confirm those of previous studies, which have called for the inclusion of a sustainable entrepreneurship curriculum [
46]. Technical knowledge and practical work is then critical to this field and may be the choice of many graduate programs [
116]. Therefore, we recommend the value activation strategy introduced above. This can help educators acquire a more targeted approach toward students, with the aim to better develop future relationships between generations.
6. Conclusions
Despite the significant advances in entrepreneurship and the most important transition from old school ventures to fashionable ones, evidence on the ways in which purpose and attention to different norms as well as the consideration of future consequences manifests in all forms of commercial enterprise. To this end, this study examined the work value of university graduates and their consideration of future SEI consequences through challenging subjects that develop intention for sustainable entrepreneurship development. The results show insightful findings, along with several future opportunities that could promote sustainable entrepreneurship among favorable entrepreneurs. This research demonstrates the widespread and advantageous mediating consequences of attitudes toward sustainable entrepreneurship and of controlling them, providing essential pragmatic and political implications. These results suggest that the higher the intentions and consideration of future consequences for an individual’s work value, the greater the advancement of the SEI will be. Hence, a feasible and reliable option for encouraging sustainable entrepreneurship and fostering sustainable freshers is to nurture talent and abilities.
6.1. Theoretical and Practical Implication
From a theoretical point of view, this study can provide a better understanding and emphasis on the applicability of TPB in the SEI model, which can also be extended to other sustainable social projects [
7]. This study supplements the existing literature on entrepreneurship with important guidance on how to apply different business models in your chosen context [
8]. The sustainable entrepreneurship results of this study support the view that the TPB should be adopted when researching sustainable entrepreneurship.
Second, the results of this study show that the use of intention models depends on understanding the different business opportunities and adopting different business models. Further research explores the factors driving SEI by developing an understanding of adopting different models of intent as models for sustainable entrepreneurship and by expanding the range of sustainable opportunities and options among younger generations.
The practical results of research that have changed people’s attitudes towards sustainable behavior have long been considered a task of government [
115]. In our observation, we found that subjective norms directly impact one’s decision to emerge as a sustainable entrepreneur. Therefore, the role of the government is to create awareness and promote the justification of sustainable entrepreneurship. If the majority of the people are aware of sustainable entrepreneurship, it may motivate others to promote it; this may be another way of raising social norms and encouraging sustainable entrepreneurship. Therefore, it is important to get the attention of politicians and promote the legitimacy of sustainable entrepreneurship through government packages.
6.2. Limitations and Future Research
This observation presents numerous limitations, which represent additional opportunities for future research. First, the hyperlinks proposed are contextual, namely sustainable values and future concerns for developing a sustainable entrepreneurship. To provide extra guidance on the proposed connections, further research must check their relationships with diverse entrepreneurial possibilities, which usually include social as well as environmental entrepreneurship.
Second, this study involves students getting entrepreneurial education. This will give a solid foundation for research involving people who have not had entrepreneurial education, people from different age groups, and existing entrepreneurs, enhancing the model that has already been proposed as well as providing a comparison between people from different groups.
Third, the current study presents the mediation relationships of two dimensions of TPB, namely work value and future consideration, but it does not conduct any mediation analysis with social norms for sustainable intention. Therefore, as the current study employs a cross-sectional design, future studies should investigate and make a complete analysis of the three paths of TPB with work values and future orientation for the formation of sustainable intention in a longitudinal way.