Determinant factors of entrepreneurial ideation among university students: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Entrepreneurial ideation has gained robust prominence in the educational context, being a prominent variable in predicting the entrepreneurial intention of students. Thus, this systematic review seeks out and identifies the determinant factors of entrepreneurial ideation and understands the link between entrepreneurial ideation and intention. This paper adopted a systematic review of the literature in Scopus and Web of Science databases during 2016 and 2022, using preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA). Based on predefined inclusion criteria, a total of 14 articles published within the last decade were analyzed in detail. The findings of this review indicate that entrepreneurship ideation is determined by several factors, including entrepreneurship education, motivation, market, entrepreneurial imaginativeness, and information technology. The results also confirm that there is a link between entrepreneurial ideation and entrepreneurial intention among university students. This paper also highlights the trends in entrepreneurship ideation for university students’ education and the primary role of entrepreneurial learning. The findings of this paper are to allocate avenues for future research on the theme of entrepreneurial ideations.

1. Introduction

Entrepreneurship is important to discuss among academicians and policy researchers, considering its massive role in triggering economic growth, alleviating poverty, and increasing income revenue through new job opportunities [1,2]. In some cases, entrepreneurship promoted to economic welfare and social change through innovative products and services [2,3]. Therefore, inclining the interest of students in entrepreneurship will potentially enhance their intention to entrepreneurship, which in turn raises the number of entrepreneurs from university or school graduates [3]. However, it has been a challenge to enlarge the intention for entrepreneurship among students due to the mindset to be civil servants or government employees [4]. This is a crucial task for universities to shape the mindset, attitude, knowledge and increase the entrepreneurial intention among university graduates [5].

To support the growth of entrepreneurs from the university, entrepreneurial ideation can be considered prominent as the foundation for the emergence of unique business ideas [6]. Entrepreneurial ideation enables students or individuals to search for new market opportunities and provide novel business ideas that are required for new entrepreneurs [7,8]. Some scholars reported that entrepreneurial ideation can be promoted through the learning and teaching process of entrepreneurship in schools or universities [9,10]. The role of education is essential in the early phase of stimulating innovative processes, in particular, new ideas are derived from problem-solving identifications and project-based learning activities [11,12]. Additionally, a study noted that entrepreneurial ideation is associated with creativity and covers three main domains of knowledge, creativity, and motivation [13,15].

Entrepreneurial ideation is the starting point of all entrepreneurial intention and activities. An earlier study remarked that there is a link between entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurial ideation [13]. The creative and innovative learning implemented during the teaching and learning process can promote idea enlargement among students [14]. The rise of entrepreneurial ideation can promote to initiate of business and is an essential factor in business achievement [5]. An entrepreneurial ideation is applicable when the idea is sustainable as the underpinning for business context and activity [15,16]. In general, the process of new entrepreneurship creation refers to how individuals obtain entrepreneurial ideas, create the shadow of an established business, and seek initial investment aimed at realizing the business ideas.

The presence of entrepreneurial ideation will promote the entrepreneurial intention [17]. Some recent papers remarked that entrepreneurship ideation is created by someone, while an opportunity is created by the environment, and entrepreneurship ideation will have benefits for raising business opportunities [13,18]. The vision of a business idea is to present and explain the entrepreneurial process from the moment the idea is formed until the business is introduced to the market [19]. The focus of a business idea is to establish a new business opportunity, potential market, and feasible concept, which in turn can promote a new business creation [20]. In this regard, well-formulated entrepreneurship ideation will be essential in supporting the sustainability of a newly established business in the future.

In recent years, the literature and study of the entrepreneurship have been raised attention among scholars in both emerging and developed countries [17]. The majority of studies take a point on the role of entrepreneurship education in stimulating the intention of students for business [13,14], while other scholars are concerned with psychological factors, such as motivation, personal traits, and self-efficacy [9,10]. At the same time, many scholars raised their attention to the role of family or parents as the prominent factor in incorporating entrepreneurial activities [11,12]. Existing studies often linked entrepreneurial ideation with entrepreneurial imaginativeness as the important predictor for the level of ideation among individuals [13,18]. A prior study also noted the role of technology and information in escalating business idea [30].

Despite the growth studies on this theme, there is a shortage of study that involves entrepreneurial ideation in predicting the intention and entrepreneurship behavior. The scattered knowledge of this expanding theme requires unification and investigation. Therefore, through a systematic literature review, this paper aims to scrutiny and analyze the determinant factors affecting entrepreneurship ideation and its link with entrepreneurial intention. To this end, this paper is guided by the following research questions: (1) how are the trend of the articles related to entrepreneurial ideations? (2) what are the existing entrepreneurial ideations? (3) what factors determining entrepreneurial ideations? (3) how are entrepreneurial ideation linked with entrepreneurial intention? The output of this paper will contribute and provide insights into the entrepreneurship literature, especially on the determinants of entrepreneurship ideation among students. Also, it will assist policy researchers and universities in enlarging the number of entrepreneurs from university graduates.

Based on this systematic review, this paper identifies gaps and provides future study direction for enhancing entrepreneurial ideations as a new matter paradigm for educational institutions. Lastly, the output of this paper enlarges our knowledge of entrepreneurial ideations and presents opportunities to both academicians and policy researchers to escalate the number of entrepreneurs from university graduates. The subsequent part of this paper includes section 2, which deals with the method used to conduct a systematic literature review; section 3 concerns the findings of the literature search; section 4 presents the discussion of this study, followed by the conclusion, limitations, and suggestions in Section 5.

2. Literature review

2.1. Entrepreneurial ideation: a brief introduction

Being an entrepreneur is not an easy task. Several empirical studies have expressed concerns regarding the function of educational institutions in stimulating new entrepreneurs [8,11,15]. Even though it can be learned through entrepreneurship education, becoming a formidable entrepreneur has followed a long process [17,19]. The initial challenge of an entrepreneur is providing a novel business idea [20]. The idea not only meets the needs of potential customers but must be able to offer solutions to their problems [13]. This stage is an important process for making a planned and targeted product and services. The ideation stage is essential for the development value of the business proposition [19]. When a business does not start with a creative and novel idea, then the business sustainability will be more challenging.

The body of knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship reported that entrepreneurial ideation can be promoted through entrepreneurship education in schools or universities [4,6]. Entrepreneurial ideation is defined as the unique and innovative process of generating, enhancing, and presenting creative ideas [13]. Some studies also pointed out that entrepreneurial ideation relates to how individuals propose a decision-making process and opportunity creation [13,19]. Entrepreneurship ideation is associated with the opportunities that can be started by observing the surrounding conditions, pursuing something that becomes a hobby or imitating an existing business, or creating something entirely new [21]. In this case, through entrepreneurship education, students are asked to present their original business idea [22].

The search and discovery of business ideas are important because this will lead to the formation of a business concept to be worked on and the source of funds needed to start and develop a business [20]. This justifies the assertive need to identify the trend, supporting factors, and recommendations towards the area of study for entrepreneurial ideations. A prospective entrepreneur confronts uncertainty in determining and running a business [4]. Stipulating innovative ideas and considering the existing environment can address uncertainty. Some scholars remarked that the process of entrepreneurial ideation is linked with the trial-and-error process of imagining new market opportunities and a novel idea [13,19]. While other studies reported the significant role of entrepreneurship education in promoting entrepreneurial ideation [14,15].

2.2. Entrepreneurial ideation process

The entrepreneurial ideation process refers to the process of generating and developing new business ideas [14,19]. It involves identifying opportunities and creating innovative solutions that can be turned into a viable business venture [15]. It also helps to think creatively and develop unique solutions to problems or unmet needs in the marketplace [13]. By following a systematic approach to ideation and innovation, entrepreneurs or potential entrepreneurs can increase their opportunities for success and create sustainable businesses that meet the needs of their customers and the marketplace [15,16]. Later, a prior study found that entrepreneurial ideation can be formed from several processes, including problem engagement, incubation, trial idea, social conceptual experiment, and active experiment [17].

What does exist are the framework from Wallas’ stages of creativity—a framework of the creative process that was first proposed by Graham Wallas in 1926 [46]. The framework consists of four stages that an individual goes through when engaging in a creative process, including preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification [46]. In more detail, the preparation stage enables individuals to gather information, knowledge, and experiences relevant to the problem or task at hand. Furthermore, the incubation stage allows their subconscious mind to work on the problem or task, without actively thinking about it. Later, the illumination stage can be a breakthrough moment where the individual gains a new perspective or idea that can help solve the problem or create something new. Lastly, the verification stage enables individuals to test and verify the idea or solution to the problem to determine its effectiveness and feasibility [46,47].

In addition, the Kolb learning styles framework suggests that individuals have different preferred learning styles and that learning occurs through a four-stage cycle, including concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation [48]. In the context of entrepreneurship education, the learning process can involve the student engaging in activities such as observing the marketplace, talking to potential customers, and identifying gaps or opportunities in the market [17,18]. In the reflective observation, the individual reflects on the experience and considers what happened, why it happened, and how it could be improved [15,48]. However, the framework does not cover the external roles, such as technology, culture, and environment to promote entrepreneurial ideation. Such frameworks are challenging because it must involve a more comprehensive entrepreneurship education in theory and practice.

2.3. Entrepreneurial ideation and intention

Entrepreneurial intention is a fundamental element that can explain individual behavior for certain activities [9]. A prior study reported that entrepreneurial intention is a cognitive representation of individuals who will either build a new business or create new value in the existing business [10]. Entrepreneurial intention is often linked with the strength of the motivation of individuals in entrepreneurship, which in turn affects behavior. Innovative and creative involvement is essential to promote new business by generating new ideas or technologies [8,10]. To enhance innovativeness, apart from knowing that there are opportunities, the ability to build new ways to take advantage of these opportunities is also important [21]. Idea generation refers to creating ideas for improvement purposes [13]. The ideas generated can relate to new products, services, or processes, entry into new markets, improvements in current work processes, or in general, solutions to problems that have been identified [19].

The conception of entrepreneurial ideation is acquaintance with creativity. Creativity possessed by individuals can be applied to produce various ideas, including business ideas [8,13]. Individuals who want to become entrepreneurs will find it relatively easier to think creatively in business than those who have links to other fields. Individuals with high creativity in the learning process tend to have innovative ideas that can identify various aspects of social problems [7]. Later, they obtain positive perceptions and the ability to control their behavior which will be applied to entrepreneurial behavior to increase their intention further [[9], [10], [11]]. This indicates that the entrepreneurial intention of individuals will be higher when they have to produce something new and valuable ideas to survive in competition and produce something new. However, such existing studies do not provide a clear understanding of how this relationship can be shaped.

3. Materials and methods

This paper used a systematic literature review (SLR) to address the research questions. To conduct a systematic review, this study adopted Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) that largely used by scholars for systematic review and followed the PRISMA procedures from Page et al. [23]. In addition, the adopted of this method to provide systematic reviews and a flow diagram to raise the transparency and accuracy of literature reviews. Indeed, the advantage of PRISMA is that it can present elements of transparency, consistency, and high standards to produce research reports through detailed processes [24]. In this study, the protocol was provided in advance to present the search criteria, analysis method, and exclusion-inclusion criteria.

3.1. Search criteria and databases

The search criteria adopted cover possible terms for entrepreneurship ideation, including business ideation and entrepreneurial ideas. The search terms involved in this paper use the string of (“entrepreneurial ideation” OR “entrepreneurship ideation” OR “business ideas” OR “business ideation”) AND (“entrepreneurial intention” OR “entrepreneurial activities”). The string search was conducted in two reputable databases: Web of Science and Scopus.

3.2. Selection process

The selection process protocol has been proposed in this study to ensure a transparent and high-quality output. Therefore, the criteria of inclusion and exclusion have been provided. In detail, the inclusion criteria were: (a) scientific papers concerned with entrepreneurship ideation or business ideation published in academic journals, (b) scientific papers with empirical findings (c) scientific papers written in English, (d) academic papers with students and/or youth as participants, and (e) research paper covered literature from 2016 to July 2022. On the other hand, the exclusion criteria were: (a) papers do not deal with entrepreneurial ideations, (b) proceeding, review papers, and books, (c) papers that are not written in English, and (d) articles published before 2016 and after 2022. Some elimination stages had to be provided manually following the PRISMA-Based flowchart. From a total number of 974 papers from two main databases, 14 papers were selected as meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria (see Fig. 1). Titles and abstracts were reviewed by four researchers independently to avoid any bias, and scientific papers that fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria were retrieved for full-text evaluation.

Fig. 1.

PRISMA flow diagram for identification of studies.

4. Results

A total of 974 articles were screened through a data search from Scopus and Web of Science conducted between 2016 and 2022. The PRISMA strategy was adopted to identify relevant papers in addressing the previous research problems. In total, 71 articles were potentially eligible for data analysis related to entrepreneurial ideation. However, articles that did not fulfill the criteria were removed, and 29 papers were removed after reading the title and abstract. As noted previously, this study involved four investigators in selecting and determining the eligible papers for analysis. After diminishing the duplications, 38 papers were initially meet the inclusion. However, after discussions with investigators, it was agreed that 24 articles did not highly related to entrepreneurial ideation in the context of education. Therefore, 14 papers were relevant to address the research questions and purposes of the study.

4.1. Data distribution

The distribution of the papers that have been filtered is presented in Table 1. The majority of articles involved in this review were papers from the United States (n = 6; 42%). The highest number of publications on this theme was seen as equal in 2020 and 2022 (n = 21%), with several levels of variation over the studied years. In addition, studies were provided in seven countries with a focus on entrepreneurial ideation (see Table 2). From Tables 2 and it is identified that entrepreneurial ideation has been an emerging theme that is often overlooked among scholars in the sphere of predicting intention or entrepreneurial behavior.

Table 1.

The resume of eligible papers included in this study.

Year	Author(s)	Purposes
2016	Secundo et al.	Investigating the nexus between entrepreneurial learning and entrepreneurial ideas of Italian university students
2017	McMullen & Kier	Analyzing of entrepreneurial imaginativeness indicator in predicting entrepreneurial ideation
2018	Siemon & Robra-Bissantz	Exploring the role of information technology in promoting entrepreneurial ideas of university students
2018	Kier & McMullen	Investigating the impact of entrepreneurial imaginativeness and venture ideation among university students in the United States
2018	Cui et al.	Analyzing the causality between entrepreneurship education, information technology, and business ideation of university students
2019	Olokundun et al.	Investigating the role of business idea incubation in affecting university students' entrepreneurship ideation in Nigeria
2020	Hutasuhut et al.	Examining the business canvas learning as promoting ideas and intention of entrepreneurship
2020	Kier et al.	Examining how entrepreneurial imaginativeness and disparity affect entrepreneurial ideation of new venture teams
2020	Toscher et al.	Understanding factors affecting motivation and business ideation of youth
2021	Secundo et al.	Discovering the role of university engagement and entrepreneurship education toward entrepreneurial ideation
2021	Mathews et al.	Examining the nexus between business ideation and entrepreneurial intention
2022	Baldacchino et al.	Investigating the relationship of experience, cognitive and entrepreneurial ideation in the United Kingdom
2022	Warnick et al.	Identifying the connectivity of motivation, knowledge and entrepreneurial passion in determining venture ideation.
2022	Ahmad et al.	Identifying determinant factors of entrepreneurial ideas among Malaysian students

Table 2.

Countries and number of performed studies.

Country	No. of performed research
United States	6
Italy	2
Indonesia	1
Malaysia	1
United Kingdom	1
Nigeria	1
Taiwan	1

Entrepreneurial ideation has been identified as prominent for many researchers in the last decade. Entrepreneurial ideation plays a major role in stimulating opportunities that can increase new business creation [16]. Understanding factors affecting entrepreneurial ideation will benefit for many parties to raise the number of entrepreneurs. Some dimensions that exist in the paper have accomplished the criteria that have been set priorly. Table 3 informs factors linked with entrepreneurial ideation. These dimensions include entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial imaginativeness, entrepreneurial culture, information, and communications technology (ICT), prior knowledge, and motivation. In detail, the explanation of each factor that appeared in this paper is presented in Table 3.

Table 3.

Factors of entrepreneurial ideation.

Authors	Year	Factors
		Entrepreneurship Education	Entrepreneurial imaginativeness	ICT	Motivation	Entrepreneurial culture	Prior knowledge	Market
Secundo et al.	2016	•				•	•	•
McMullen & Kier	2017		•
Siemon & Robra-Bissantz	2018		•	•
Kier & McMullen	2018		•
Cui et al.	2018	•		•
Olokundun et al.	2019	•
Hutasuhut et al.	2020	•
Kier et al.	2020		•
Toscher et al.	2020	•		•	•
Secundo et al.	2021	•				•
Mathews et al.	2021	•					•
Baldacchino et al.	2022						•

4.2. Entrepreneurship education

A total of 14 papers were identified, and the majority of studies (e.g., 15, 25–28]. Some studies remarked that entrepreneurship education takes a great role in determining entrepreneurial ideation among students [15,16]. Entrepreneurship education can promote knowledge to enhance opportunities and creative thinking ability. Entrepreneurship education is associated with learning activities in entrepreneurship at university [15]. Furthermore, Secundo et al. [16] believe that entrepreneurship education can also be linked with entrepreneurial incubation in stimulating students' mindset and ideation in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship education can also promote students’ creativity, exploring opportunities and combining with experience to provide business ideation [5].

This selected paper found that entrepreneurship education universities can be combined with business incubation to enhance students’ recognition of the initiation of a new business creation [16,26]. Another study identified by Mathews et al. [5] pointed out that entrepreneurship education should be provided meaningful so that enlarging their experiential learning, which further affects their intention. A recent paper by Cui et al. [25] proposed the elaboration between information and communication technology in providing entrepreneurship education in meeting the immersion of digital business. This is because an entrepreneur is a person who makes creative and innovative efforts by developing ideas and mixing resources to find opportunities and improve life. Thus, investigating how the model of entrepreneurship education or digital entrepreneurship education can provide a promising result in affecting entrepreneurial ideation and business creation.

4.3. Entrepreneurial imaginativeness

The identified paper showed that the second determinant of entrepreneurial ideation is entrepreneurial imaginativeness. From the critical analysis, the theme of entrepreneurial imaginativeness has concerned some researchers in the United States [13,18,25,29]. The results of the identification study indicated that the previous studies defined entrepreneurial imaginativeness in terms of cognitive skills: creative, social, and practical. These skills elaborate the capability of imagination with the prior knowledge from education can promote several task-related scenarios in encouraging and providing ideas for entrepreneurship. The involved papers are in agreement that entrepreneurial imaginativeness is vital in generating new ideas for the individual to start a new business. Those studies also confirm a robust link between these two variables: entrepreneurial imaginativeness and entrepreneurial ideation. In the paper of Siemon and Robra-Bissantz [30], it is mentioned that divergent thinkers are people who can provide some unique ideas from a single starting point, and it is also noted that creativity is essential for enhancing creative thinking skills that further can raise their business ideas. An earlier study documented that entrepreneurial imaginativeness is essential to promote a high-quality idea [13].

4.4. Entrepreneurial culture

Among the articles identified, the role of entrepreneurial culture has been acknowledged in driving students' entrepreneurial ideation. A total of two papers confirmed this significant connectivity [15,16]. It is mentioned that the favorable circumstances and close interactions between students, academicians, and practitioners enable students to have more open knowledge and ideas. Also, those studies remarked that integration of local wisdom should include the characteristics of local culture, skills, and social and environmental issues that are ultimately capable of equipping students with basic skills and ideations for business. In addition, from paper identified entrepreneurial culture in university can be influenced by peers, motivation, parents’ background, and learning in the classroom, as well as business incubation. We conclude that while many studies have been performed to investigate entrepreneurial culture, the findings do not perform a uniform configuration of entrepreneurial ideation. Thus, it raises an opportunity to explore the form of entrepreneurial culture which affects entrepreneurial ideation among students.

4.5. Information and communications technology (ICT)

In addition to an entrepreneurial culture, the findings of the analysis of the paper included in the review noted that information and communication technology (ICT) takes part in stimulating entrepreneurial ideation [25,28,30]. For instance, Siemon and Robra-Bissantz [30] revealed that the implementation of ICT in entrepreneurship allows individuals to have more inspiration and ideas for business. In their study, Siemon and Robra-Bissantz [30] discussed the adoption of a creativity support tool (CST) – a computer-based tool to organize, manage and process data and information that is beneficial for individuals to have new ideas by looking for opportunities. At the same time, prior research noted that the use of ICT in learning can help students and teachers illustrate business ideas [25]. In detail, the paper involved ICT in entrepreneurship to provide more attractive and creative learning that can raise students' attention so that they are expected to propose their ideas. However, there are little scholars that put technological advancement in promoting entrepreneurial ideation of students. Therefore, a lack of research on how technology-linked education may influence students’ business ideation.

4.6. Prior knowledge

A total of three papers were identified as mentioning that prior knowledge can have a relationship with students' entrepreneurial ideations [5,15,31]. Prior knowledge is a matter for the individual for entrepreneurial activities and promoting entrepreneurial ideation from past experience and family education [15]. Prior knowledge can stifle creativity through robust biases toward current ideas and properties of familiar exemplars. Secundo et al. [15] added that the cognitive process of knowledge acquisition can be promoted by the educational process and studying how entrepreneurs provide creative ideas. Similarly, a prior study remarked that the adoption of a more interactive and creative learning process can stimulate students to have meaningful knowledge that can promote entrepreneurial ideations [16]. Lastly, it is acknowledged that there is a connectivity between students’ creativity, knowledge, and entrepreneurial ideations [15,16]. However, despite the empirical findings reported a positive link between prior knowledge and entrepreneurial ideation, no conclusion can be drawn related the form of prior knowledge.

4.7. Motivation

Motivation was additionally reported as determining factor of students’ entrepreneurial ideation. Motivation in the reviewed paper includes internal and external motivation. A prior identified paper pointed out why individuals seek opportunities and business ideations [28]. It is mentioned that the decision to look for new opportunities and business ideation is based on a rational economic decision. This question is related to “why” people seek a business opportunity is interested, and it can be a motivation to reach financial success. In this case, the motivation related to entrepreneurial ideation is personal and economic motivation. The study of Toscher et al. [28] also revealed that there is a robust link between individual motivation, entrepreneurial ideation, and entrepreneurial intention. Lastly, the role of technology did not prove the motivation for proposing business ideation. This finding raises future scholars to explore both internal and external motivation in predicting entrepreneurial ideation among students.

4.8. Market

From the analysis of included paper, this systematic review evidenced that market search and information also take part in promoting ideation in entrepreneurship [15,16]. It is mentioned that market search and its potential to provide more opportunities, new ideas, and business activities. Furthermore, Secundo et al. [16] noted that market analysis is also a technical requirement to create an innovative entrepreneurship project. Those studies pointed out that market search and analysis require knowledge from previous experience or education. The identified paper also reported that understanding the market can be enhanced by business incubation in universities that are more focused on development and growth. Due to the small number of papers to link market as predictor for entrepreneurial ideation, this is difficult to draw conclusions.

5. Discussions

The purpose of this systematic review is to identify and synthesize the determinant factors of entrepreneurial ideation among students over the past decade, describe the trend of this theme, and discuss the connectivity between entrepreneurial ideation, education, and intention. The majority of identified papers concerned with entrepreneurial ideation linked with small and medium enterprises had to be included in this review, and the final screening found 14 eligible articles. From the analysis, the distribution of papers was dominated by authors from the region of the United States, and it has shown an upward trend between 2016 and 2022. Hence, it remarked that there is a limited paper related to this theme, and it can be a new topic linked with entrepreneurial intention or business activities. However, this study confirmed that there is an increasing trend during the study period.

The prior analysis noted that entrepreneurial ideation is a precursor for entrepreneurial activities. The majority of papers in agreement that entrepreneurial ideation is defined as generating novel ideas and creative and innovative thinking for initiating a business or entrepreneurship model [15,16,[25], [26], [27], [28]]. The basic rationale to support this finding is that entrepreneurs can be innovative and creative in digesting entrepreneurial ideas, including creating a better service, marketing products, and adding value to existing products or services [13,18,29]. These findings remarked that entrepreneurial ideation is essential because it will have benefits for business sustainability. For example, considering the idea of environmental concern or a green lifestyle may invite more unique business concepts.

This study also reported that entrepreneurial ideation among university students can be stimulated by several factors: entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial imaginativeness, entrepreneurial culture, information and communication technology, motivation, and prior knowledge [25,28,30]. The results of this study noted that entrepreneurship education provides the highest portion in driving entrepreneurial ideation among students. Some studies are in agreement that the enhancement of entrepreneurial or business ideation does not suddenly exist, but it happens through knowledge and experience, primarily from education in entrepreneurship [16,26]. For this matter, entrepreneurship education can be designed not only to provide theories on entrepreneurship but also stimulates to propose ideations.

It is also suggested that entrepreneurship education can be provided in both theoretical and practical activities. In this regard, experience is a matter for students to promote business ideas and entrepreneurial action [5] In more detail, the implementation of entrepreneurship education can be elaborated with technology so that the learning process can be presented more attractively [25,30]. In doing so, universities or schools need to design practical and appropriate entrepreneurial education combined with the use of technology in the teaching and learning process. Also, it needs to be accompanied by activities that enhance students’ experiences, i.e., the internship program. From there, students can construct ideas from real practical experiences as well as from interesting learning. Thus, the independent learning program implemented in Indonesia is suitable because there is the involvement of practitioners in the classroom and structured internship activities.

The findings of this study confirm the Kolb learning styles framework, which remarked that individuals have different preferred learning styles and that learning occurs through concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation [47,48]. In the context of entrepreneurship education, the learning process can involve the student engaging in activities such as observing the marketplace, talking to potential customers, and identifying gaps or opportunities in the market [11,15]. Also, the finding reinforces a prior study which pointed out that entrepreneurial ideation can be formed from several processes, including problem engagement, incubation, trial idea, social conceptual experiment, and active experiment [17].

The following factor affecting entrepreneurial ideation is culture. Some studies revealed that entrepreneurial culture in a university plays a pivotal role in stimulating ideas [15,16]. Entrepreneurial culture can be performed through the involvement of students and educators and between students in dealing with a business plan [33]. The study noted that a great culture in an organization can lead to a number of business creations [16]. Culture, in this case, can also include local culture to initiate a novel idea [34]. Some preliminary papers in the field of entrepreneurship documented that entrepreneurial culture can be enlarged by the university ecosystem and supports [35,36]. Therefore, many parties should be involved in enhancing the business creation of university graduates.

The systematic review showed that information and communication technology (ICT) also plays a great role in supporting entrepreneurial ideation. The identified papers remarked that the use of ICT can be used for searching the new market, inspiration, and ideation from various open-access sources [25,28,30]. The finding supports a prior study which mentioned that individuals or students need to have open knowledge in creating new business ideas [37,38]. The matter of ICT is also represented by educational scholars who mentioned that the use of ICT in learning can enhance the critical and creative thinking skills of students [37]. Recent studies also revealed that ICT has been considered to be used since the shift from conventional to online business [38]. Therefore, digital literacy is suitable to be possessed by students to prepare for business during and after their graduation.

To support the enhancement of business ideas, prior knowledge is prominent for individuals, and this will make a different result. As mentioned previously, entrepreneurial ideation can arise from the prior knowledge and experience of the individual, such as prior knowledge obtained from education, family background, and peers [39]. The finding is in line with a preliminary study, which noted that knowledge is essential to provide entrepreneurial actions, such as understanding opportunities and recognizing asymmetric information [40]. Therefore, this analysis showed that there is different business ideation considering previous knowledge that individuals possessed. For instance, students from family entrepreneurs engagement have different ideas from students from other backgrounds. This finding supports a recent study by Suratno [11], which mentioned that family economic education and background increase the intention of an individual in business activities.

At the same time, motivation also determines the ideation of a business. The basic explanation is that motivation underlies a person to start a business and be ready to face risks [32]. The greater motivation in a person will promote tremendous success that can be achieved [41,42]. Most successful entrepreneurs in the world of entrepreneurship have a very robust motivation from themselves to take the necessary actions to achieve entrepreneurial goals [43]. A prior study on entrepreneurship study recognized the relevance of incentives theory, motivation, and entrepreneurial ideation among students [28]. No less importantly, there is commitment and regulation from campus stakeholders in supporting and raising motivation so that it is not only temporal but also sustainable business creations.

The last determinant of entrepreneurial ideation is market search and analysis. Empowering entrepreneurial intent—one's desire to start a business or be self-employed—is likely the best measure of the impact of entrepreneurship education on students [44]. The findings indicate that the market search can be involved using technology, and it has been confirmed by many scholars [15,16,25]. The creation of innovative ideas by the authors of this business plan is not far from the problems that exist around it [16]. A recent study mentioned that innovation, creativity, and empathy in the era of digital technology and economic disruption have turned out to be the keys to business success [45]. In turn, students are increasingly stimulated to work on new ideas in entrepreneurship so that creativity and entrepreneurship innovation emerge against the background of a conducive climate in working on ideas.

The findings of this literature review also confirmed the relationship between entrepreneurial ideation and entrepreneurial intention [5,27]. The underlying rationale of this finding is that the intention of individuals to initiate a business should be accompanied by novel ideas. Therefore, having great ideation in business will affect their intention for business. Through education, it enables individuals to identify ideas, measure the capabilities and strengths needed to realize the goals to be achieved, and determine priorities to be achieved. This indicates that the role of ideation is essential to initiate a business, while ideation can be stimulated through various determinants such as entrepreneurship education, ecosystem, and information and communication technology.

6. Conclusion

This paper was intended to identify and analyze the determinant factors of entrepreneurship ideation and its link with entrepreneurial intention. The results showed that entrepreneurship ideation is confirmed by several main factors, including entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial alertness, entrepreneurial imaginativeness, technology and information, motivation, entrepreneurial culture, prior knowledge, and market. This paper also revealed an increasing trend in entrepreneurship ideation during the period of 2016 to the present and reached the highest number in 2022. Lastly, the relationship between entrepreneurship ideation and the intention was confirmed by several papers involved in this review. This result will help future scholars to identify and understand factors affecting entrepreneurial ideation and its relationship with entrepreneurial intentions.

6.1. Implications

This study provides both theoretical and practical implications. First, this study provides theorical contribution to entrepreneurship theory by adding insights from entrepreneurial ideation as the prominent of entrepreneurial intentions. Second, this paper also raises the research knowledge gap that can be elaborated among academicians and policy researchers who are focused on this topic since there is a lack of studies concerned with this theme, primarily from Asian dan European Countries. From practical perspectives, entrepreneurial ideation is concerned with the generating, developing, and presenting the ideas to be more concrete. Thus, entrepreneurship education needs elaborate the teaching and learning activities that involves problem-solving skill, creative thinking skills, and critical thinking abilities. This study reinforces the theories linked with the entrepreneurial ideation process (e.g., the Wallas’ stages of creativity or the Kolb learning styles framework), which noted the importance of the learning process to provide unique ideas. This paper raises several predicted factors (e.g., culture, technology, and imaginativeness) that are missing in the existing theories. Later, this study also presents policy recommendations to raise the attention of the campus ecosystem to arrange certain entrepreneurial activities and entrepreneurial education to generate new ideas for entrepreneurial activities.

6.2. Limitations

Like other review papers, the present systematic review is limited by the search string and terms involved, databases, and the time period of papers. Due to the focus on entrepreneurial ideation among students, some related papers in the context of non-students’ subjects were excluded from consideration. The selection of papers included in the review has raised the potential for bias, thus, we suggested to provide more clear criteria for inclusion and exclusion so that the expert can reach a consensus in determining the eligible papers. With the search terms adopted, papers that did not classify entrepreneurial ideations would not have been included in this review of the paper. This paper also provides the tenacity of the entrepreneurial ideation to drive a global entrepreneurial intention of students through education and entrepreneurial program in schools or universities. The ideation will allow raising the change to initiate a business, which in turn helps to overcome poverty issues and increase economic well-being. Lastly, this paper raises attention to scholars in providing a new scale to measure the entrepreneurial idea and the role of ideation in robust entrepreneurial creativity and innovation.

Production notes

Author contribution statement

All authors listed have significantly contributed to the development and the writing of this article.

Data availability statement

Data included in article/supp. material/referenced in article.

Additional information

No additional information is available for this paper.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

The following is the Supplementary data to this article: