Universities are assuming an increasingly active and key role in promoting entrepreneurship and qualified entrepreneurial human capital. From the lens of the Entrepreneurial University, the institution integrates an entrepreneurial mindset into the management and commits to Entrepreneurial Education (EE) to foster potential entrepreneurship. Studying this reality from a competency-based approach is particularly interesting and useful from an applied angle. Entrepreneurial competences are understood to be highly relevant for entrepreneurship. However, the research has been more oriented to study their effect on entrepreneurial activity and success, lacking studies that analyze their impact on the first stage, the formation of entrepreneurial intentions (EI). This research is novel extending the broadly validated Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) by integrating specific entrepreneurial competences as antecedents of EI. With a sample of 732 university students, this research presents a SEM model that permits to jointly analyze the effect of six different entrepreneurial competences (creativity, opportunity recognition, networking, resilience, consistency of interest, and perseverance of effort) on EI, considering the three TPB dimensions: personal attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. The results show that not all competences are significant for EI and their influence differs markedly. Creativity proves to be a key competence for the potential entrepreneurship stage while the two competences that comprise the psychological Grit concept have no influence on EI. The findings are linked to pedagogical recommendations, presenting valuable insights for EE. Entrepreneurial training based on competences must be designed more consciously, targeting particular competences and considering the specific phase of the entrepreneurial process. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd
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