Resumo

It has been a while since educational institutions went into lockdown around the same time, but in December 2019 this scenario changed (Luthra & Mackenzie, 2020). The novel Coronavirus 2019 rapidly spread around the globe, leading millions of people to quarantine and lockdowns. This lockdown forced educational institutions into reinventing themselves, through distance and online solutions, which might have affected educational spheres, especially considering disciplines which require hands-on activities, like entrepreneurial education (Rönkkö & Lepistö, 2015).

Education wise, the adaptation process is expected to have affected students’ routine and study rhythm, as well as how students perceive the university support for entrepreneurship. Thus, the goal of this research is to identify whether the Coronavirus pandemic has influenced students’ entrepreneurial behavior and perceived university support in a public university in the state of São Paulo.

Perceived university support and entrepreneurial education are considered means that foster entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial education provides students with knowledge and additional practices that might contribute to self-efficacy and intention development (Vodă & Florea, 2019). Intentions have acquired attention in entrepreneurship field due to its ability of foreseeing behavior and to understand how intentions are shaped within entrepreneurship. On the other hand, self-efficacy plays a motivation role towards entrepreneurship, besides being widely studied along entrepreneurial intentions.

This study used Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to assess the survey answered by 144 university students.

Results reassured the positive relationship amongst Perceived University Support, Entrepreneurial Intention and Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy. Considering students’ perceptions of such elements, prior and during the confinement, the relationship amongst perceived university support, entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial self-efficacy did not present significant changes.

Uncertainty is a constant factor within entrepreneurship field. Despite having a pandemic in course and a series of adaptation processes imposed by confinements, it is possible to acknowledge university’s contributions to the development of students’ intention and self-efficacy. Data collection from an esteemed public university in Brazil complements and offers progress towards perceived university support, intentions and self-efficacy studies, while adding to the body of research of possible influences of COVID-19 on constructs hereby evaluated.

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