This study aims to empirically examine the influence of students' perceptions of entrepreneurial ecosystem factors on their entrepreneurial intentions directly and indirectly through entrepreneurial self-efficacy and to investigate the moderating role of students' gender. The data used to test the hypotheses were obtained through online questionnaire sent to undergraduate business students enrolled at a public university in Saudi Arabia. The hypothesized relationships are tested with data collected from 259 respondents by using the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique (PLS-SEM). The results show that students' perceptions of the entrepreneurial ecosystem affect entrepreneurial intentions both directly and indirectly through entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The findings of multigroup analysis confirmed the significant differences between male and female students in the influence of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on students’ entrepreneurial intention. The findings provide empirical evidence to policymakers in Saudi Arabia. They should focus on building an entrepreneurial ecosystem with adequate institutional infrastructure, support structures, and culture that supports and enhances students' self-efficacy and intention to become entrepreneurs. Moreover, the moderating effect of gender on self-efficacy and intention relationship suggests that policymakers should pay special attention to gender differences while they are developing their strategies and programs as tools that work with male students may not be suitable for females.

本研究的目的是通过企业家自我效能感，以实证的方式检验学生对企业家生态系统因素的感知对其创业意图的影响，并调查学生性别的调节作用。用于检验假设的数据是通过在线问卷获得的，该问卷被发送给在沙特阿拉伯一所公立大学就读的大学商科学生。通过使用偏最小二乘结构方程建模技术（PLS-SEM），使用从259名受访者收集的数据测试了假设的关系。结果表明，学生对创业生态系统的感知通过创业自我效能感直接或间接地影响创业意图。多组分析的结果证实了男女学生在企业家自我效能感对学生创业意愿的影响上存在显着差异。这些发现为沙特阿拉伯的决策者提供了经验证据。他们应专注于建立具有适当机构基础设施，支持结构和文化的企业家生态系统，以支持和增强学生的自我效能感和成为企业家的意愿。此外，性别对自我效能和意图关系的调节作用表明，政策制定者在制定策略和计划时应特别注意性别差异，因为与男性学生合作的工具可能不适合女性。