The role of social networks on entrepreneurial orientation of students: A case study of Razi University

Introduction: Entrepreneurship serves as the engine of economic growth and the most important source of innovation and job creation. It is one of the factors considered along with labor and capital (Kiajouri et al., 2012). Entrepreneurs, by properly using economic opportunities and creating new business opportunities, improve the performance of production and service activities, play an important role in the development of the global economy and increase employment rates (Farrokh et al., 2014). Entrepreneurship is a set of activities that contribute to the sustainability and stimulation of economic and social progress, lead to the creation of new values, and provide new employment opportunities through the effective use of resources and facilities. Nowadays, entrepreneurial orientation is known as the most widespread predictor of entrepreneurial behavior and performance and a widely used constructs of behavior recognition. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of social networks in the entrepreneurial orientation of students. A glance at the global state of our economy leads us to believe that the growth of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial culture is a way to improve the disease of the country's economy and prevent its deterioration, which has received little attention from the government and researchers. In this regard, due to the small number of studies in this field and through the study experience of developed countries, the present research shows the high power of information and communication technology in creating fundamental changes in industry and trade and the transformation of production and trade foundations in the present time.
Methodology: The present study is a quantitative in terms of purpose and applied in terms of data collection. It is conducted with a descriptive-survey method to examine the relationships among the variables based on the purpose of the research. The statistical population of the study included the students at the faculties of economics and entrepreneurship (625 people) and engineering (2156) of Razi University. According to the published statistics of the employment monitoring plan of universities and also the employment status registered in the Ministry of Alumni Cooperation, due to training and acquisition of job skills, it is possible to achieve more employment opportunities in technical and applied fields than in other fields. To have the desired sample size, the Cochran's formula was used with a maximum variance and the confidence level of 0.05. Finally, as many as 386 were selected by the proportional stratified random sampling method. In order to collect the data, the standard questionnaire of entrepreneurial orientation of Lampkin and Des (1996) and the structured questionnaire of social networks derived from the Jahanbani social networks (1397) were used. To assess the validity of the questionnaires, as they had previously been repeatedly validated by various researchers, the Committee of Researchers and Experts in the field of entrepreneurship was asked to comment on their validity. Their points of view on modifying and adjusting the final form of the questionnaire were implemented. Also, to determine the reliability, 30 questionnaires were completed by respondents outside the study sample, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated for them.
Results and Discussion: In the study of a sample of 368 students at the Faculty of Economics, Entrepreneurship and Engineering of Razi University, it was observed that there is a proper and significant relationship between the studied variables. Through structural equation modeling, a general model was provided to predict entrepreneurial orientation. As it was observed, social networks have the greatest effect on risk-taking (r = 0.21) among the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation. In general, social networks have an effect on entrepreneurial orientation (r = 0.33) and explain 39 percent of the variance of the entrepreneurial orientation variable.
Conclusion: The results indicate that the social network variable has a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial orientation and is able to explain 39% of the variance of entrepreneurial orientation. Given that entrepreneurial orientation is a process of adopting a strategy and a style of engaging in entrepreneurial activities and evaluates the desire to create opportunities and take advantage of it, it is influenced by social networks. In addition, virtual social networking services over the past few years has been able to attract a significant audience in various areas such as business, entrepreneurship, enterprise competitiveness to provide valuable potentials to individuals and to create opportunities and create business. In this case, new networks are suggested to the authorities, considering the important fact that the effective use of these networks can affect the formation of businesses by students and educated people through training, culture and continuous expert monitoring of the space. Virtual communities and planners can use this capacity for the future.