Abstract:
Entrepreneurship is becoming a very relevant instrument to promote economic growth and
development in different regional and national economies. The aim of the research was to investigate
empirically the relationship of entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial intention .The
conceptual model was formulated for the relationship of Desirability for Self-Employment (DSE),
Feasibility of Self-Employment (FSE), Tolerance for Risk (TR), and Perceived Government Support
(PGS) with Self Employment Intention (SEI). Hence, the study focused four variables related to selfemployment
intention. The selected sample for the study contained 316 final year Management
undergraduates selected from six Universities in Sri Lanka based on simple random sampling method.
The level of measurement of the variable was interval and the relevant statistical techniques for these
measures under Uni-variate, bivariate analysis and multiple regression models were used. Four
hypotheses were tested to assess the empirical relationships among variables. The study revealed that,
there were strong positive relationships between Desirability of Self-Employment, Feasibility of Self-
Employment, and Tolerance for Risk, and Perceived Government Support with Self-Employment
Intention. Thus, 57.5% of the variance in Self-Employment Intention was significantly explained by
the four independent variables considered in this study, still leaves 42.5 % unexplained. So, future
research might be necessary to explain more of the variance in Self-Employment Intention. These
findings have to be considered when creating an atmosphere for motivating undergraduates* selfemployment
intention. If the educators and policy makers highlight the advantage of finding selfemployment
and change their attitude by means of giving more emphasis in their curriculum, it also
would be beneficial to the country as well.
