Entrepreneurship or Employment? A Survey of College Students’ Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intentions
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors,
Thank you very much for submitting this paper. here are my comments:
- Line 13: "Internet digital city" - is this the official term? if not, then just a "digital city" would be sufficient.
- Lines 30-37: Please include also sources such as SCHRÖDER, Lisa-Marie, BOBEK, Vito, HORVAT, Tatjana. Determinants of success of businesses of female entrepreneurs in Taiwan. Sustainability. 2021, vol. 13, issue 9, str. 1-23, ilustr. ISSN 2071-1050. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/4842, DOI: 10.3390/su13094842 and MORITZ, Jellenz, BOBEK, Vito, HORVAT, Tatjana. Impact of education on sustainable economic development in emerging markets - the case of Namibiaʹs tertiary education system and its economy. Sustainability. 2020, vol. 12, issue 21, str. 1-25, ilustr. ISSN 2071-1050. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/21/8814, DOI: 10.3390/su12218814.
- After line 37, please define the research gap you cover with your paper.
- Line 39: "Internet economy city" - please unify the use of this term in the paper. In line 13, an "Internet digital city" is used.
- Please check lines 54-66. There is some repetition of the text.
- Lines 103-104: Please replace "(Fayolle, Gailly, & 103 Lassas-Clerc, 2006, p. 702)" with "(Fayolle et al., 2006, p. 702).
- Some sources are quite old. E.g. lines 121 (1985) and 126 (1993). Please consider using more recent ones.
- After Figure 1, please explain why you have adopted such a conceptual model. There is a linkage missing between the literature review and the construction of your model.
- Line 201: Are there 47 universities in Hangzhou?
- Lines 213-214: Please explain why "binary logistic regression models to analyze and predict students' entrepreneurial intentions can effectively avoid these problems".
- You could erase the title "8. Limitations of the study" and have the existing text as another paragraph in 7. Conclusion
- Please add another paragraph after limitations on future research needed.
Best regards,
The Reviewer
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 1 Comments
Point 1: Line 13: "Internet digital city" - is this the official term? if not, then just a "digital city" would be sufficient.
Response：Based on your comments, we have reviewed the relevant information. Strongly agree with your suggestion to change it to digital city.
Point 2: Lines 30-37: Please include also sources such as
SCHRÖDER, Lisa-Marie, BOBEK, Vito, HORVAT, Tatjana. Determinants of success of businesses of female entrepreneurs in Taiwan. Sustainability. 2021, vol. 13, issue 9, str. 1-23, ilustr. ISSN 2071-1050. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/4842, DOI: 10.3390/su13094842 and
MORITZ, Jellenz, BOBEK, Vito, HORVAT, Tatjana. Impact of education on sustainable economic development in emerging markets - the case of Namibiaʹs tertiary education system and its economy. Sustainability. 2020, vol. 12, issue 21, str. 1-25, ilustr. ISSN 2071-1050. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/21/8814, DOI: 10.3390/su12218814.
Response：The literature you provided was very important for the us to revise the manuscript and again enriched the article. Thank you very much!
Point 3: After line 37, please define the research gap you cover with your paper.
Response：Thank you for your comments. We have added to the research gaps in the corresponding paragraphs. Our study focuses on the link between the basic elements of entrepreneurship education and sustainable entrepreneurial intention among college students in higher education. This effectively fills a gap in the current research on sustainable entrepreneurial intentions among college students especially in higher education. (after line 41)
Point 4: Line 39: "Internet economy city" - please unify the use of this term in the paper. In line 13, an "Internet digital city" is used.
Response：Since the meaning of the term digital economy city varies in different contexts, your suggestion is so significant that we have revised the term to digital city in the new manuscript.
Point 5: Please check lines 54-66. There is some repetition of the text.
Response：We accept your proposal and we have modified this section by removing some of the duplicate statements.
Point 6: Lines 103-104: Please replace "(Fayolle, Gailly, & 103 Lassas-Clerc, 2006, p. 702)" with "(Fayolle et al., 2006, p. 702).
Response：Thank you for your comments. We have followed the citation format specified by the journal for proper citation.
Point 7: Some sources are quite old. E.g. lines 121 (1985) and 126 (1993). Please consider using more recent ones.
Response：Thank you for your questions about the literature here. Our aim is to echo current research on sustainable entrepreneurial intentions by tracing the classic literature on entrepreneurial intentions in this part. We have added some newer ones to the original literature.
Point 8: After Figure 1, please explain why you have adopted such a conceptual model. There is a linkage missing between the literature review and the construction of your model.
Response：A sustainable entrepreneurship education field is constructed based on educational field theory. We have combined the theory of planned behavior and the theory of educational fields to construct a conceptual model based on entrepreneurship education and sustainable entrepreneurial intentions as well as internal and external factors of university students in the educational environment.
Point 9: Line 201: Are there 47 universities in Hangzhou?
Response：Yes, there are 47 universities in Hangzhou. Including 28 undergraduate colleges and 19 vocational colleges. Data were collected from entrepreneurship education students from all universities in Hangzhou, totaling 47 universities via a paid questionnaire. Universities and colleges in Hangzhou - Summarized by Plex.page | Content | Summarization I hope this website may help you.
Point 10: Lines 213-214: Please explain why "binary logistic regression models to analyze and predict students' entrepreneurial intentions can effectively avoid these problems".
Response：Thank you for your proposal. We saw how Fisher's linear discriminant projects data points from higher dimensions to smaller dimensions. The prediction of binary logistic regression follows two principles “It maximizes the between-class variance” and“It minimizes the within-class variance”. It is for this reason that we have chosen to use this method for analyzing the data.
Point 11: You could erase the title "8. Limitations of the study" and have the existing text as another paragraph in 7. Conclusion
Response：Thank you for your proposal, In the new manuscript, the limitations of the study have been included as part of the conclusions.
Point 12: Please add another paragraph after limitations on future research needed.
Response：Following your proposal, we have added at the end of the article the need for future research need.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The first impression is, that this paper has been written for another journal and later somehow adapted to fit the Sustainability. There is numerous evidence for such judgment to be found. Firstly, there is not one source in the resource list to discuss sustainable entrepreneurial intentions or education. Chapter 3.1 has the title "sustainable Entrepreneurial intention and individual characteristics", clearly visible that the word sustainable has been added later. In lines 409-410 is written: "impact sustainable on entrepreneurial intention." So it is clear that "sustainable" has been added later wherever the phrase "entrepreneurial intention" is written.
Not to mention that reference citations in the text should be identified by numbers in square brackets. List of references is also not prepared as guidelines suggest: it should be used the standard abbreviation of a journal’s name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations; there shouldn't be & in front of the last author; no punctuation after the initials of the author's name; no parenthesis for the year of publishing, it comes after the name of the journal etc. The cited sources are not very up-to-date, only 10 out of 72 are from the last three years.
So it is logical to think that paper was written upon the study of entrepreneurial intentions and education, which is a very common study, lots of articles are to be found on this theme.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 2 Comments
Point 1: The first impression is, that this paper has been written for another journal and later somehow adapted to fit the Sustainability. There is numerous evidence for such judgment to be found. Firstly, there is not one source in the resource list to discuss sustainable entrepreneurial intentions or education. Chapter 3.1 has the title "sustainable Entrepreneurial intention and individual characteristics", clearly visible that the word sustainable has been added later. In lines 409-410 is written: "impact sustainable on entrepreneurial intention." So it is clear that "sustainable" has been added later wherever the phrase "entrepreneurial intention" is written.
Not to mention that reference citations in the text should be identified by numbers in square brackets. List of references is also not prepared as guidelines suggest: it should be used the standard abbreviation of a journal’s name according to the ISSN List of Title Word Abbreviations; there shouldn't be & in front of the last author; no punctuation after the initials of the author's name; no parenthesis for the year of publishing, it comes after the name of the journal etc. The cited sources are not very up-to-date, only 10 out of 72 are from the last three years.
So it is logical to think that paper was written upon the study of entrepreneurial intentions and education, which is a very common study, lots of articles are to be found on this theme.
Response: Thanks to the reviewers' comments. In the current study, we have found that there are relatively few case studies on the sustainable aspects of entrepreneurship education in the research on intention. Therefore, our study first extracts the factors influencing entrepreneurial intentions from the lack of existing research, secondly analyzes how to construct sustainable entrepreneurial intentions and the current progress based on the theory of planned behavior and the theory of educational field, and finally on top with these factors and theories we need to analyze not only the specific relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions, but more significantly, how to continue promoting the sustainability of entrepreneurial intentions ( This section is discussed in the section on theoretical and practical implications). Therefore, our empirical study is a fundamental study for the cultivation and development of sustainable entrepreneurial intentions, i.e., the analysis of the factors influencing sustainable entrepreneurial intentions, and also summarizes the possible research limitations of our study and the contribution to future research. This study will, to some extent, fill the gaps in the current research on sustainable entrepreneurial intentions, and the conceptual model constructed by combining theories from different disciplines will be a reference for research in this area.
The references have been revised in accordance with the journal's formatting requirements, and some relevant literature from the last three years has been added and cited.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript was written correctly in terms of content, the appropriate selection of research methods was made, which allowed to verify the research hypotheses. The article also has a practical application related to indicating the scope of aspects related to entrepreneurship which could be implemented into school education programs. A broad review of the literature provided a proper theoretical foundation for the manuscript, nevertheless, in the discussion part of the work there are very few references to other studies conducted in this area, which could be improved. The studies performed should be published after taking into account the minor remarks listed below:
- Information contained in the lines 54-59 is a repetition of information from the line 60-66, one paragraph should be omitted.
- In conclusion, abbreviations should not be used, rather full names, possibly abbreviations in parentheses.This will make it easier for the reader, who is not required to remember what each abbreviation means.Abbreviations are justified in diagrams, drawings, charts, and to a lesser extent in the text, unless they are repeated often.
- The citations in the text do not comply with the formal requirements.
Author Response
Point 1: Information contained in the lines 54-59 is a repetition of information from the line 60-66, one paragraph should be omitted.
Response:：Thank you very much for your valuable comments! We have modified this section by removing some of the duplicate statements.
Point 2: In conclusion, abbreviations should not be used, rather full names, possibly abbreviations in parentheses.This will make it easier for the reader, who is not required to remember what each abbreviation means.Abbreviations are justified in diagrams, drawings, charts, and to a lesser extent in the text, unless they are repeated often.
Response: We have carefully considered your comments and combined them with the requirements of the journal. In the manuscript, some of the words are repeated in many places so we have used abbreviations. We have defined the abbreviations of the terms when they first appear.
Point 3: The citations in the text do not comply with the formal requirements.
Response: Your comments are very important for the publication of this manuscript. We have made updates in the new manuscript to address citation issues in order to comply with the requirements for publication of the article.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The impression remains that the research was adapted to sustainability later and only the entrepreneurship intentions of students were studied in reality. It is not true that there is scarce evidence of the topic presented. If you type the keywords in Google Scholar or any other scientific base, a multitude of similar papers can be found, and only a few of them are presented here. The literature remains obsolete, although some newer sources have been added.
Author Response
Dear Reviewers
Thank you very much for your comments. After our consideration and review of the literature, we would like to respond to your queries as follows:
First, through reviewing the literature we understand that sustainable entrepreneurial intention refers to an individual's intention in the process of recognizing, evaluating and utilizing entrepreneurial opportunities. Sustainable entrepreneurial intention differs from general entrepreneurial intention in that it refers to the sustainable development of entrepreneurial intention, including the front-end cultivation and back-end development of entrepreneurial intention. At present, due to the frequent occurrence of social problems and the requirement of sustainable development, the research on entrepreneurial intention concentrates only on one or two aspects of value creation, and the existing research is less concerned with the employment and entrepreneurship of college students after the outbreak of the epidemic, and also includes the cultivation and development of sustainable entrepreneurial intention. Our study is mainly generated for solving social problems and distinguishes from other entrepreneurial intention studies and sustainable entrepreneurship studies, focusing on constructing a mechanism for cultivating and developing sustainable entrepreneurial intention among college students from the perspective of higher education.
Secondly, we used regression analysis in our research method. We saw how Fisher's linear discriminant projects data points from higher dimensions to smaller dimensions. The prediction of binary logistic regression follows two principles "It maximizes the between-class variance" and "It minimizes the within-class variance". In addition, the design of the questionnaire refers to many established scales (line251-258) to finalize the items needed for our study, and the exploratory factor analysis and validation factor analysis show that the scale has high reliability, so it can effectively examine the sustainable entrepreneurial intention of college students.
Our study theoretically broadens the application of the Theory of Planned Behavior, while constructing the first entrepreneurship education field to foster students' sustainable entrepreneurial intentions. Practically, the main goal of this study is to propose strategies to enhance students' sustainable entrepreneurial intentions from within the university influences, while keeping pace with the digital era to build digital sustainable entrepreneurial intentions.
The details have been modified accordingly in the text according to your suggestions. We hope that our explanation can be confirmed by you, and we will humbly accept your better suggestions if you have any. We also sincerely hope that you can provide us with some relevant references for helping us to make a more satisfactory improvement.
Once again, we would like to thank you for your suggestions.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 3
Reviewer 2 Report
Several improvements have been made, paper could be pusblished.
