Authors: Assistant Professor Ashoka K. G, Shilpa Bhat N. H, Research Scholar Mahendra H. R, Assistant Professor Karthik Naik
Abstract: Sustainable entrepreneurship education often measures intention, but intention does not show whether students can first identify a workable venture opportunity within a social or environmental problem. This study examines sustainable entrepreneurial opportunity recognition among college students in Karnataka, India. It tests sustainability problem awareness, future consequence orientation, sustainable entrepreneurial role-model exposure and university experiential learning support. The analysis covers 342 responses and uses descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, an independent-samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation and multiple regression. Sustainability problem awareness recorded the highest mean (M = 3.90), while role-model exposure recorded the lowest (M = 3.50). Students with prior entrepreneurship education reported stronger opportunity recognition than those without it, t(340) = 4.42, p < .001, d = .48. Opportunity recognition also differed across academic streams, F(3, 338) = 6.00, p < .001, eta squared = .051. The four predictors were positive and significant. The model explained 58.1 per cent of the variance. Future consequence orientation was the strongest predictor, followed by sustainability problem awareness, university experiential learning support and role-model exposure. The findings show that students recognise stronger opportunities when they understand sustainability problems, consider future effects, receive practical learning support and observe entrepreneurs who have turned similar problems into ventures. The study moves attention from general intention to the earlier task of finding and judging a sustainable venture opportunity.
