AGRIBUSINESS ENTREPRENEURS’ POTENTIAL OF NEW GRADUATES IN THE SITUATION DUE TO THE OUTBREAK OF COVID-19, RAJAMANGALA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY TAWAN-OK

Abstract

This research article aims to study the potential for entrepreneurship in agricultural businesses across five aspects which includes, 1) Characteristics of agricultural business entrepreneurs, 2) Intentions to become an agricultural business entrepreneur. 3) Attitudes toward agricultural entrepreneurship 4) Social norms. 5) Perceived feasibility of becoming an agricultural business entrepreneur. Additionally, the study compares the entrepreneurial potential of graduates based on their faculty of graduation and family business background. The study focuses on graduates from Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-ok during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a quantitative research study, collecting data from a sample of 313 undergraduate students who graduated in the 2020 academic year from 11 faculties. The sample was selected through multi-stage sampling from a total population of 1,632 individuals. A questionnaire was used as the research instrument, and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, F-test, and one-way ANOVA. The findings reveal that graduates demonstrate a high level of potential for agricultural entrepreneurship, with an overall average score of 3.49 across the five aspects. Notably, the aspect of entrepreneurial intention scored 3.52, indicating a strong entrepreneurial intent among graduates. This suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced graduates' entrepreneurial intentions. When comparing entrepreneurial potential based on faculty of graduation and family business background, the results show that faculty of graduation significantly affects entrepreneurial potential at the 0.05 statistical level, while family business background has an even greater statistical significance at the 0.01 level.