My intentions, my choice! How does lecturers’ competency influence entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate university students in Tanzania?

Abstract The study is among a few attempts to understand how higher education institutions (HEIs) fulfil the expectations of students. It therefore contributes through analysing the mediating role of psychological contract fulfilment on the relationship between the lecturer’s competency and entrepreneurial intention (EI) among undergraduate students. The study involved a cross-sectional design in which the structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 321 third-year students. During the process, the stratified and systematic sampling techniques were adopted by allocating students in strata per their respective degree programs, and after that, they were selected systematically from each degree program. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyse all relationships that were tested to be positive and significant. Hence, the study confirms the important competencies among lecturers as key predictors of psychological contract fulfilment in the Tanzanian context. Furthermore, it confirms the importance of psychological contract fulfilment on entrepreneurial intention (EI). Finally, it confirms the mediating effects of psychological contract fulfilment on the relationship between a lecturer’s competency and EI. The findings of this study imply that HEIs should emphasise identifying and developing competencies among lecturers by conducting short- and long-term training to fulfil the promise given to university students during promotion campaigns. Also, universities are recommended to improve their means of fulfilling students’ expectations to build beneficial relationships between HEIs and students. Therefore, HEIs must strive to understand specific students’ expectations to use them as the basis for building successful relationships.


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
Higher education institutions (HEIs) are regarded as engines of economic development in any country. This is due to their role in developing professionals with the necessary abilities to provide a greater depth of knowledge and problemsolving skills. However, HEIs are currently being challenged in their ability to develop entrepreneurs for self-employment. In this regard, it is critical to consider how HEIs can meet students' expectations by fulfilling the promises of developing entrepreneurial intentions (EI) among students. Because lecturers' competencies are perceived as a critical factor in developing entrepreneurial mindsets among students, this study sought to investigate the mediating role of psychological contract fulfilment in the relationship between lecturer competency and EI. build beneficial relationships between HEIs and students. Therefore, HEIs must strive to understand specific students' expectations to use them as the basis for building successful relationships.

Introduction
Higher education is critical for economic and social development as well as for meeting the knowledge-based society's demands (Harry et al., 2018). Moreover, it assists in developing professionals who possess the necessary abilities to provide a greater depth of knowledge and problem-solving skills (Heo & Xiaohui, 2019). Aside from that, the likelihood of university graduates finding ready-made employment has decreased dramatically as a result of years of inability to keep up with rapid population growth and the government's inability to create enough new jobs. Consequently, unemployment has become a pressing issue for many university graduates in both developing and developed economies. Only a few university graduates who demonstrate employability skills commensurate with employer expectations have a strong chance of securing one of the few available jobs (Harry et al., 2018).
In addition, most developing countries are not able to create jobs to match the demand, and many studies, especially in Tanzania, have found several reasons why university graduates do not manage to start their own businesses after they graduate. These factors include a lack of relevant experience, a lack of proper teaching methods, a lack of capital to initiate business ideas, the mismatch between market demand and skills provided by universities, and the poor quality of education received by graduates (Kessy, 2020;Mgaiwa, 2021). Also, the problem is further linked to the fact that the majority of undergraduate programs at universities are overly theoretical and do not expose students to hands-on learning opportunities. Furthermore, the curriculum and syllabi for most universities in Tanzania are designed according to the established examination system. A student is required to complete a question paper at the end of each semester (Kessy, 2020;Mwita, 2019). This system fails to assess a student's ability to apply practical or theoretical knowledge in real-world situations. Accordingly, there is widespread concern among stakeholders in Tanzania's educational system that university education does not adequately prepare students to compete in the country's fiercely competitive labour market and to start their own businesses. Most students who graduate from HEIs have only one choice: to get a job. This makes them job seekers instead of job creators.
In light of these challenges and the employment opportunities that could be created through self-employment, the country has started to implement measures to capitalise on the latter (Shimba, 2018). Therefore, the government and HEIs are increasingly planning to equip university students with self-employment skills (Mwita, 2019). Among these plans is the improvement of entrepreneurial education resources at HEIs and encouraging the development of business ideas by instilling in them an EI mindset. This is being done by making business incubators and training programmes for entrepreneurs that teach relevant business knowledge, make it easier for students to share practical business skills, and use general business principles.
Despite the fact that HEIs use entrepreneurial education resources and the potential for entrepreneurship development as critical factors to attract students, choosing a university is still a difficult and risky decision because it can have long-term repercussions after graduation (Amani, 2022). Thus, parents are currently searching for the best universities that have competent lecturers and can properly transform their children into entrepreneurs. This is due to the fact that the competency of lecturers is linked with the development of entrepreneurial skills in HEIs. The competencies of a lecturer can be characterized in a number of different ways. According to Risopoulos-Pichler et al. (2020), competencies are defined as the combination of knowledge, skills, behaviours, and attitudes that enable a person to create sustainable solutions such as entrepreneurship development. A study done by Hakim (2015), suggests that competencies also cover a person's personality as well as their professional and social abilities, which are the most important educational issues that are linked to a student's EI to start their own business.
Along the same lines, EI at HEIs is considered the first step in establishing one's business (Park, 2017). EI is defined as a conscious state of mind that prioritises entrepreneurial behaviours such as starting a business after graduation. This indicates that HEIs have the ability to develop EI by properly setting the competencies required of their lecturers. The link between the competencies of instructors and the EI has also been suggested by Mamo (2017) who contended that the quality and behaviour of instructors have an impact on students' achievement. Therefore, in accordance with the competencies of lecturers, entrepreneurship training can be interpreted as a means of developing an EI in students through an increase in motivation and awareness, creating entrepreneurial self-efficacy among students, which is important in identifying and exploiting business opportunities, and offering the knowledge required to start a business and manage its growth (Arranz et al., 2017).
Apart from that, the ability to teach and encourage students towards entrepreneurship is also suggested as a factor in the likelihood of EI development among students, as evidenced by the fact that entrepreneurship education can be an effective predictor of EI among new graduates (Ezeh et al., 2020). Given that mentoring is an endeavour to transfer experience and expertise from more experienced people to those who are less experienced, lecturers' competencies are expected to provide a fundamental mentoring means of transforming entrepreneurial knowledge from lecturers to students through an entrepreneurship mentoring programme and, as a result, improve EI among students As noted earlier, HEIs are now using lecturers' competencies as a means to attract students. The availability of lecturers' competencies at HEIs is used as the promise to help students achieve their EI. This promise is considered a form of psychological contract between HEIs and students. Psychological contracts are made up of a series of reciprocal obligations which both the promisor and the promisee believe they have fulfilled somehow. The promisee feels that an agreement has occurred since promises have been made, and considerations have been delivered in exchange for those commitments (Tekleab & Susan Taylor, 2003). Hence, students are made to believe that a lecturer's competence can help to build relationships, instructional excellence, educational support services, course assessment methods, and other technical services that are important for EI. Most of the time, appropriate learning environments will increase students' emotional engagement in the learning process, which is also a constituent of students' expectations (Gretzky & Lerner, 2020).
In addition to that, the fact that most students have developed a psychological belief that HEIs can shape their EI as a result of the promises made through market-driven forces to influence students' enrollment has become a major source of concern in recent years, and students are now assigning values or weight to each promise and selecting an HEI after conducting comparisons with other HEIs. This is regarded as a psychological contract between HEIs and their students. This means, providing promises to students is a university obligation to students that a competent lecturer will shape their intention to become entrepreneurs. However, a breach of psychological contracts involves a student's perception that one or more obligations psychologically signed by the HEIs are unfulfilled (Itzkovich, 2021). Perceptions of unmet obligations are always negative. They might occur merely because of unmet promises, especially when students find that most lecturers are not competent enough to transform them into entrepreneurs and hence meet their intentions.
Further, unfulfilling the psychological contracts among university students often results in negative class attendance, practical attitudes, and behavior, which can entirely affect their EI. The opposite is always true: if the obligations are met and students find that lecturers are competent, they always create positive attitudes toward the university and increase chances for EI. In this way, no matter what facilities are available, where the HEI is located, or what kind of students the HEIs have, the importance and crucial function of the lecturer competencies cannot be overstated in fulfilling a psychological contract for EI. This was also noted by Itzkovich (2021), who proposed that skills, resilience, and flexibility can be improved with a good set of core competencies and a variety of ways to teach.
To this end, this study has several contributions to the body of literature. First, the knowledge of psychological contracts between HEIs and students is still not receiving more attention. Thus, scholars have claimed that psychological contract research in educational contexts is still in its early phases. In particular, there is a scarcity of empirical studies conducted in educational settings that examine students' expectations (Bordia et al., 2010;Koskina, 2013;Pietersen, 2014). This is also supported by Itzkovich (2021) who noted that research of psychological contract fulfilment in HEIs and their related constructs has remained overlooked. Thus, studying psychological contract fulfilment in HEIs is important because the cost of unfulfilled expectations among students is a critical element for theoretical and practical implications. As a result, the findings of this study add to the body of literature, especially in studying the mediation role of psychological contract fulfilment in the relationship between lecturers' competency and EI.
Secondly, a thorough study of the psychological contract fulfilment in various educational contexts and settings could be the most effective way for understanding how HEIs can use lecturers' competencies to attract students while also developing EI capabilities. Although the concept of psychological contract originated in human resource management (HRM), the concept can be used in an educational setting to increase the evaluation of the readiness of HEIs to meet student expectations after graduation. This is supported by Sewpersad et al. (2019) who suggested that psychological contract concepts could be evolved into a key analytical tool for proliferating and elucidating other disciplines.

Theoretical review
Three theories govern this study. A planned behaviour theory (TPB), an entrepreneurial event theory (EET), and a social exchange theory (SET). The individual's intention to engage in a particular action is critical to the TPB. The intention is believed to include the motivational factors that drive it; it presents signs of how individuals are willing to try and include efforts to be put forth to carry out the behaviour in question. A general rule in this theory is that the stronger the desire to engage in a behaviour is activated, the more likely it will be that the activity will be carried out (Ajzen, 1991). This theory suggests that individuals make logical and reasoned judgments about whether or not to engage in certain activities based on the knowledge available to them.
In this study, the intention to start a business after university studies is believed to be driven by the competencies of university lecturers. That means the decision of the students on which university to attend is based on the same principle. So, the conduct fostered by the promises of HEIs impacts a student's decision to enrol in a university to become an entrepreneur. Most of the time, HEIs make these promises based on marketing endeavors, such as the availability of highly qualified and competent lecturers. This kind of promise is like a psychological contract, and if it is kept, it can be a powerful way to get students interested in starting their own businesses.
Aside from that, EET is founded on the premise that actions taken in response to a given opportunity result in a propensity to take action. The deflection alters the behaviour of the individual, and it is from this point that a sense of legitimacy is gained (Shapero & Sokol, 1982). A person's intention is formed by three factors: displacement, perceived desirability, and perceived feasibility. These three components come together to form the EI. Displacement is the event that sets off a chain of events that results in behavioural change. Students' decisions to attend university are regarded as motivated by their desire to become entrepreneurs, based on their reactions to the lecturer's competencies and their psychological contracts. Under normal circumstances, displacement can take on a negative form, such as the breaching of psychological contracts, especially when students discover that the lecturers do not possess the promised competencies, or it can take on a positive form, such as when students discover that the lecturers possess sufficient competencies to shape their EI.
Aside from that, perceived desirability, which is defined as how individuals perceive the desirability of opening an entrepreneurial venture, is influenced by one's personal attitude and feelings, and social environment, such as one's family and community development. Past behaviour is thought to be one of the most important sources of information and knowledge about intention (Sabah, 2016). Therefore, the students choose the university after looking at their fellow graduates who have greater potential after having gone through entrepreneurship training at the universities. Also, the perceived desirability of starting entrepreneurial activities is based on attitudinal judgment, in which students utilise this judgment to decide whether or not to pursue a career as an entrepreneur. As a result, one of the goals of entrepreneurship education delivered by highly competent lecturers would be to instil in students a favourable attitude toward pursuing EI. A person's perception of their capacity to start an entrepreneurial venture, on the other hand, depends on how confident they are in their abilities. One's opinion of accessible resources also determines perceived feasibility among university students at the institution, such as the competencies of lecturers. So, it is possible that the skills of their lecturers will make students more open to self-employment, which will in turn shape their desire to start their own business.
Furthermore, SET stated that in a social exchange relationship, two parts are involved: exchanging social and material resources (Blau, 1964). They both address how basic resources are shared and what types of resources are transferred, and they are both addressed by the same principle (Guo et al., 2015). Psychological contracts are formed via trust, relationships, reciprocal exchange, and reliance on one another. The fulfilment of promises and responsibilities also forms them. As a result, social exchange is predicated on the concept of reciprocity, which implies that there must be some mutual exchange between two parties in the form of giving and taking (Rousseau, 2001). Therefore, social exchange can exhibit itself in intense mutual commitment, emotional involvement, and loyalty if constructive reciprocity is maintained.

The concept of lecturer's competency
The concept of competency is applied to explain the ability of individuals to apply a set of related skills, knowledge, and abilities which are required to successfully initiate and perform different tasks for positive outcomes. According to Wang et al. (2021) there are different insights that can be used to explain competencies, but all of the insights support that competency are directed toward achieving broader outcomes, especially learning outcomes. In this study, competencies are referred to as lecturers' competence, described as a process of transmitting skills, knowledge, and attitudes attained by students while interacting with lecturers at HEIs.
Studies by Pennbrant (2016) and Salminen et al., 2021) observed that the pedagogical competencies of instructors in a positive learning environment and atmosphere can have several benefits to students conducting teaching and learning. This is because having a proper set of pedagogical competencies can increase the ability of educators to encourage students to adopt new knowledge through a critical thinking process that can help them to achieve the intended goals. Lecturers' competencies, such as professional, personal, and social competencies, have been documented to be critical competencies for achieving student expectations. While professional competencies are concerned mostly with classroom activities, social and personal competencies are more than delivering the classroom contents; they are based on the ability of lecturers to handle student emotions and interact with students.
According to Puhy et al. (2021), personal experiences in or out of the classroom can increase students' confidence, which is a key strategy for achieving student goals. Also, a study by Manwa et al. (2020) noted that a lecturer's competency is inextricably linked to student learning outcomes, of which lecturer self-efficacy, attitudes, qualifications, experience, knowledge, discipline, creativity, communication, and planning are all kept up to as the most perceived competencies, which can increase chances for the students to opt for a certain HEI over the others. Furthermore, Manwa et al. (2020) emphasised that the competencies of lecturers are intimately tied to student learning outcomes. The study insisted that lecturer self-efficacy, discipline, creativity, and communication are all strong enough to fulfil psychological contracts that have recently been linked to student decisions to go to college and academic success.

The concept of psychological contract fulfilment
A study by Dabos and Rousseau (2004) suggested that psychological contract fulfilment occurs when promises made are kept or expectations are met. Similarly, if a promisor fails to meet the expectations of a promisee, the psychological contracts are said to be violated, or breached. Although many studies have been done in human resources management to connect psychological contract fulfilment with employees such as Batra and Kaur (2021), Collins (2010), and Subramaniam and Sha (2019), the concept of psychological contract fulfilment can also be applied to the situation between universities and students. Ahmad & Zafar, (2018), Noble-Nkrumah et al. (2022) observed that this type of contract increases organisational commitment among organisations and hence results in positive outcomes such as job satisfaction and employee well-being. In this study, it is assumed that a psychological contract has been signed when HEIs promise to offer students' entrepreneurial knowledge and skills that can help them to successfully initiate businesses after graduation. Therefore, fulfilment of the psychological contract occurs when students perceive that HEIs have provided enough entrepreneurial knowledge that has developed and sharpened their EI. In most cases, the detrimental behavior is frequently the result of a psychological breach, which has a negative impact on the image of the HEIs as well as on the future of the student. Bird (1988) conceptualized EI as the individual states of mind that direct experience, attention, and actions toward the idea of starting a new venture. For individuals to become entrepreneurs, they need to have a certain way of thinking before they start acting in an entrepreneurial way. According to Park (2017), EI is the first step in establishing a successful business. This is due to the fact that intention before investing provides a positive experience and attitude that can help to establish "dos and dont's" prior to actually making a decision to start a business. EI can be categorized into two groups: traditional EI and social EI.

The concept of entrepreneurial intention
A study by Krueger (2009) has suggested that traditional EI involves the intention to start a business whereas according to Bacq and Alt (2018), social entrepreneurship refers to the social mission an entrepreneur has for social venturing. Regardless of the categories of the EI, in order to have a successful enterprise, individuals must be oriented through different entrepreneurial practices, which must be aimed at developing and sharpening their EI. A study by Santos et al. (2021) has underlying that for the university students, the likelihood of engaging in actual entrepreneurial behaviors depend on the entrepreneurship education. This suggest that educators must recognize that students' EIs depend on the educational pedagogies such as lecturers' competencies and these competences must be directed to transform EIs among HEIs students. Therefore, any pedagogical approaches to promote EI must be aimed at increasing entrepreneurship learning at HEIs.

Lecturer's professional competency and psychological contracts fulfillment
Although there is substantial literature directly linking several lecturers' competency and psychological contract fulfilment among HEIs students, it is widely acknowledged that the exchange relationship between students and lecturers plays a significantly positive role in sustaining the psychological contract (Iasonos, 2017). Among the noted lecturer's competencies that relate to the student psychological contract is professional competency. Not only may a lecturer's professional competencies be defined by their ability to deliver lectures, but also by their willingness and capacity to apply their potential functions and accept responsibility for their actions during the educational process (Žeravíková et al., 2015).
There are several ways in which professional competencies can increase the chances of meeting student expectations. First, professional competencies provide cognitive and motivational factors among teachers, allowing them to manage classes in the planned manner (Lauermann & König, 2016). Secondly, fulfilling students' psychological contracts is associated with the lecturer's professional competencies, because these competencies are associated with the ability of lecturers to create appropriate learning situations for students and foster the development of the competencies necessary to bring about EI. Third, they help lecturers prepare for lectures, run classes, and keep an eye on students to help them learn in the real world.
Fourth, professional competency also enables lecturers to recognise and update both subjectspecific and curricular knowledge to assist students in making meaningful connections between the two. Also, these competencies allow lecturers to show a critical understanding of how ideas change in the real world and prepare students to think about these ideas in real-world situations. This is supported by Prasetio et al. (2017), who pointed out that professional competencies include knowledge, creativity, and discipline, all of which are favourably associated with the desires of the students they teach. These competencies give lecturers critical thinking skills for finding, interpreting, and applying knowledge, facts, and data, as well as the ability to be original and creative, which are both important for meeting student expectations at HEIs.
In this way, one can argue that, professional competencies can assist HEIs to provide reasonable entrepreneurial education, which can help them to meet the expectations of the students. Studies by Croney (2016) and Pietersen (2014) revealed that there is a positive relationship between promises made by HEIs and the abilities of lecturers. Pietersen (2014) insisted that psychological contracts are based on students' fundamental expectations of their lecturers when they first enrol at university. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that Hypothesis; H 1 : There is a significant positive relationship between a lecturer's professional competency and psychological contract fulfillment.

Lecturer's personal competency and psychological contracts fulfillment
According to Tian et al. (2022), The student-teacher relationship is a critical factor for interpersonal relationships in schools. In most cases, this type of relationship is strengthened by the personal competencies of both parties. Generally, a personal competency is defined by the personal characteristics that influence the outcome of a particular behaviour. In the educational context, personal competencies are used to foster good student-lecturer interaction. This relationship can increase the chances of meeting the expectations of students. A good personal relationship between lecturers and students can increase confidence among students. This can fuel creativity, which is a core factor for success among students. Puhy et al. (2021), posted that, personal experiences among instructors, either within the class or outside, can foster students' confidence toward the behaviour. Additionally, these competencies increase the ability to use skills and knowledge (Brauer, 2021), for managing self-awareness, motivation, and relational skills which are important attributes for fulfilling the promise of transforming students into entrepreneurs.
Apart from that, fulfilling students' expectations of becoming entrepreneurs depends much on the way lecturers can handle challenges from students. Depending on the cultural background of the students, some of them are slow learners. They need more than a proper syllabus. In this way, extra attributes from lecturers are required. For instance, a lecturer's personal traits such as insight, complacency, resilience, inventiveness, composure, and humour can assist students in appreciating the methods and substance presented. In the same way, the personality traits of the lecturer, such as patience, enthusiasm, a sense of energy and selfsatisfaction, open-mindedness, and self-disclosure, help students and lecturers get along better. Yunus et al. (2010) insisted that lecturers' attitudes and motivation toward students are inextricably linked, and they contribute to creating a favourable environment for both students and lecturers.
Additionally, past studies have noted that HEIs must enhance personal competency among lecturers because it is a vital component of the overall learning process, including emotional intelligence, to meet students' expectations toward HEI promises. For example, Latip et al. (2020), Prasetio et al. (2017) pointed out that a competent lecturer approaches learning and teaching holistically while demonstrating strong characteristics of personal characteristics such as self-management and self-awareness, which lead to responsible decision-making. Hence, it is hypothesised that Hypothesis; H 2 : There is a significant positive relationship between a lecturer's personal competency and psychological contract fulfillment.

Lecturer's social competency and psychological contracts fulfillment
Social competency describes the ability of individuals to recognise and manage emotions developed in complex situations. This ability increases the chances for the individuals to cope with a variety of challenges arising in learning environments, enabling individuals to establish effective interpersonal relationships that eventually assist in achieving good goals (Tian et al., 2022). In this study, social competency is explained by the ability of the lecturers to meet the expectations of students by properly planning and coordinating various activities at HEIs.
There are several ways in which lecturers' social competence can help to meet student expectations of becoming entrepreneurs. Firstly, socially competent lecturers can capitalise on possibilities in their immediate environment and use them to benefit their students. This can be done through increasing students' social awareness and connecting skills offered in the classroom with practical experience outside the classroom. This is supported by Dubovicki and Nemet (2015) who noted that social competence is one of the most crucial talents required for successful performance in the teaching profession.
Under normal circumstances, if HEIs have lecturers who possess appropriate social competencies, it becomes easier for them to meet students' expectations through offering proper advice and support to enable them to start and operate their enterprises successfully. Thus, lecturers with social competencies can help students better understand business challenges arising from their environments and the social instabilities associated with them. They can also help students learn more about innovation, which will help them successfully combine information and communication technologies.
According to Hanapi and Nordin (2014), a competent lecturer approaches learning and teaching holistically, which aids in developing social relationships and facilitates effective communication and participation both within and outside the academic settings. Therefore, it assists a student in understanding how to interact with their environment to succeed in entrepreneurial endeavors. Additionally, a socially adept lecturer can teach how entrepreneurs can engage and interact effectively with consumers, competitors, and other business stakeholders in business contexts. Also, these competencies, which encompass the ability to communicate orally, in writing, and through gestures, are very important in building social and business networks in a dynamic business environment. If students notice their lecturers' social competencies, they always feel that their psychological contracts are fulfilled, and they can act as ambassadors for the university in spreading positive word of mouth to other students who are facing difficulties in selecting HEI to join (Amani, 2022). Based on the recommendations from past studies on the importance of social competencies, it can be hypothesized that Hypothesis; H 3 : There is a significant positive relationship between a lecturer's social competency and psychological contract fulfillment.

Psychological contracts fulfillment and entrepreneurial intentions
Past studies have associated several factors with EI among university students (Boldureanu et al., 2013;Ertuna & Gurel, 2011;Maheshwari, 2021). These factors range from environmental factors, structural support, entrepreneurial education, and personality traits to attitudes. However, university education support through entrepreneurial education has been a central focus, connecting several university factors and students' EI. According to Maheshwari (2021), education support is the most important component in determining EI. It refers to the assistance provided by HEIs to students to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for EI.
Most of the studies have confirmed a positive relationship between university education support and EI among students (Boldureanu et al., 2013;Cheng et al., 2009;Packham et al., 2010). In this regard, entrepreneurial education supports such as developing entrepreneurial resources, hiring and developing competent lecturers, and establishing entrepreneurship clubs and incubators are regarded as necessary to fulfil the promises made to develop the EI.
One of the central factors within entrepreneurial education is the lecturer's competency. Nevertheless, past studies have not directly related lecturers to competing with the development of EI. Given the fact that little is known about how psychological contracts can be fulfilled through lecturers' competencies as well as the importance of using lecturers' competencies for trying to meet student expectations, which might result in the EI, it is hypothesised that Hypothesis; H 4 : There is a significant positive relationship between psychological contract fulfilment and EI.

Mediating effect of psychological contracts fulfilment on lecturer's competency and entrepreneurship intention
EI, which is defined as a cognizant state of awareness that directs attention to entrepreneurial behaviours such as becoming an entrepreneur or starting a new business, is regarded as an individual orientation that has the potential to result in highly valued entrepreneurial outcomes (Esfandiar et al., 2019). Consequently, EI would be a key factor that determines whether or not an individual engages in entrepreneurial behavior (Liñán et al., 2011).
When it comes to motivational factors, attitudes toward the outcomes of behavior, perceived behavioural control, and subjective norms, among other things, can have a direct impact on whether or not someone intends to engage in a behavior. As a result, HEIs can serve as a middle link in guiding university students toward entrepreneurship outcomes. Among the major factors for backward progress in EI is fulfilling the psychological contracts signed between students and HEIs.
In particular, the current emphasis on the importance of entrepreneurship education has resulted in improved lecturers' competencies. This is because it is believed that providing lecturers with enough competencies will help to transform students into entrepreneurial mindsets, which is an important factor for EI. A study by Chen et al. (2015) noted that a satisfied student is in a better position to be satisfied and develop EI, especially through developing better learning efficacy.
Based on the presented importance of a lecturer's competency in influencing psychological contract fulfilment as well as the importance of fulfilling psychological contracts in influencing EI, it can be suggested that fulfilling psychological contracts can be a potential mediator of the relationship between lecturers' competencies and EI. Therefore, it can be hypothesised that

Study area, research design and sampling
The study was conducted in Tanzania at a public university in Dodoma Region. The design used in this study is the cross-sectional survey research design, which is appropriate for providing a snapshot of the subject matter at a point in time (Rindfleisch et al., 2008). During the process, a structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 321 students. This sample size is adequate to meet the requirements of multivariate data analysis (J. J.F. Hair et al., 2010), such as structural equation modelling (SEM), which was used in this study. The major objective of the study was to analyse the mediating role of psychological contract fulfilment in the relationship between a lecturer's competency and entrepreneurial intention. Therefore, it was important to consider students who could understand the lecturer's competency and experience the fulfilment of the psychological contract based on the promises made

Figure 1. Conceptual framework
Solid lines denote direct effects and a dotted line denotes the mediation effect before joining the university. Thus, third-year students were used as respondents in this study. In addition, the sample size of 321 resulted from stratified sampling and systematic sampling techniques. This is because third-year students were allocated in strata as per their respective degree programs, and after that, they were selected systematically from each degree program. Further, the respondents' characteristics indicate that 210 (65.4%) were males and 111 (34.6%) were female students. This shows there is an indication that the number of male students is higher at the university level compared to the female students. Apart from that, the sample's age categories show that all students involved in the study (321) had an age category of 21-30. Therefore, the plausible explanation is that in Tanzania, most university students, particularly undergraduate students have an age size between 21 and 35.

Data analysis
IBM SPSS Amos Version 21 was used to analyse data in this study. However, given the nature of the variables used, SEM was used in the analysis of the relationships. This is a recommended multivariate statistical analytical model which gives the best means of analysing the indirect effects of independent variables on dependent variables (Joseph F Joseph F Hair et al., 2006). It is a suitable model for analysing multiple constructs measured by multiple measurement items. Also, process mediation was used to analyse the mediation effect of psychological contract fulfillment.

Measurement items
This study used items adopted from previous studies on a lecturer's competency, psychological contract fulfillment, and EI. All constructs used were found to have acceptable internal consistency with > 0.7 Cronbach alfa. Consequently, the items defining professional competency (PRC) were four (prc1-prc4). These items were adopted from (Kagaari & Munene, 2007). However, they were modified to fit with the Tanzanian context and entrepreneurship discipline. Also, to measure personal competency (PEC), three items (pec1-pec3) were adopted from Kagaari and Munene (2007) and modified to fit the Tanzanian context as well as the entrepreneurship discipline.
Similarly, four items (soc1-soc4) of social competency (SOC) were adopted from (Kagaari & Munene, 2007) and modified to fit the Tanzanian context as well as entrepreneurship discipline. Likewise, the study used three items (psc1-psc3) to measure psychological contract fulfilment (PSC). These items were adopted from (Guo et al., 2015). However, these items were also customised to match the theoretical perspective of student psychological contract fulfillment, as suggested by (Bordia et al., 2010;Koskina, 2013) Apart from that, entrepreneurial intention (ENI) was measured using three items (eni1-eni3). These items were adopted and modified from (Liñán & Chen, 2009). All these items are presented in Table 1. Additionally, rating item responses were obtained from the five-point Likert scale, ranging from (1) strongly disagree to (5) strongly agree.

Common method bias
The approaches employed in this study may raise concerns about the possibility of common method bias (CMB). As a result, in order to check for CMB, the study used Harman's one-factor test. As stated by Podsakoff et al. (2003), all scales should be exposed to exploratory factor analysis (EFA), with the rule of thumb that none of the scales should explain more than half of the variance explained by other factors. The findings showed that the un-rotated factors accounted for 39.959%. Hence, there is no evidence of common method bias in the data.

Measurement of central tendencies and multivariate normality test
The measures of central tendency used were the mean (M) and standard deviation (SD). The results are shown in Table 1, where M and SD have high values of 4.563 and 1.237, with low values of 3.203 and 1.129, respectively (Table 2). This implies that students are largely in agreement on items of competence of the lecturer, the fulfilment of psychological contracts, and entrepreneurial intention. Also, the results in Table 2 indicate that Skewness indices are within ± 3 (− 1.765 to 1.865), while kurtosis indices are within ± 10 (−0.964 to 1.926); hence they are tolerable (Kline, 1998).

Confirmatory factor analysis
The degree to which the model accurately describes the data determines how well the suggested model describes the sample data. The findings in Figure 1 and Figure 2 indicate that all factor loadings of the items loaded above 0.5. Therefore, they can be accepted for the final path model. Similarly, the results during the confirmatory analysis revealed that the fit statistics were within the acceptable ranges (J.F. Hair et al., 2010;Kline, 2011), Table 3. Our lecturers manage and organize resources effectively and efficiently to meet the needs of the curriculum

Prc3
Our lecturers identify and select appropriate teaching and learning resources/materials Prc4 Our lecturers encourage and facilitate student learning of modern entrepreneurshipconcepts and practices

Pec1
Our lecturer show confidence in the subject area

Pec2
Our lecturer is committed to the work

Pec3
Our lecturers spend a great deal of time in personal conversations

Soc1
Our lecturers create and maintain an environment and code of behavior thatpromotes and secures good teaching, effective learning and high standards of achievement

Soc2
Our lecturers are innovative in terms of market-driven environments to keep and attract students

Soc3
Our lecturers communicate effectively with students by talking to students who exhibit peculiar behavior

Soc4
Our lecturers attend to students' vocational needs by providing career guidance and counseling

Psc1
I feel this University reciprocates the effort put in by the students

Psc2
What this University and I expect from each other is clearly specified

Psc3
The tuition fees I pay for the service are comparable to the level of service I get.

Entrepreneurial intention (ENI)
eni1 I am ready to do anything to be an entrepreneur eni2 I will make every effort to start and run my own firm eni3 I have very seriously thought of starting a firm

Measurement model psychometric analysis
The internal reliability was tested using Cronbach's alpha. The results suggest that all values were higher than the acceptable value of 0.7 (Table 4). The composite reliability for all the constructs was higher than 0.7 (Table 4), the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) was higher than 0.5, and the Average Shared Variance (ASV) was less than AVE's values (Table 4). On the other hand, convergent validity was achieved because the factor loadings in the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were above 0.5 ( Figure 2). Apart from that, the findings in Table 4 and Table 5 indicate that both criteria for testing discriminant validity were achieved because Maximum Shared Variance (MSV) is less than AVE's values (Fornell & Larcker, 1981)

Path analysis for hypothesis testing
The study was designed to analyse the influence of a lecturer's competency on the entrepreneurial intentions of undergraduate students with the mediation of psychological contract fulfillment as presented in Figure Figure 11. The study developed five relationships with five hypotheses based on the constructs developed to achieve this objective. The results are presented in Table 6 and Figure 3. The first relationship captured the influence of the lecturer's professional competencies on the psychological contract fulfillment. The results indicate positive and significant relationships β = 0.630, p < 0.001). Hence, the hypothesis H 1 was supported. Meaning that a unit increase in a lecturer's professional competency increases psychological contract fulfilment by 63.0%.
Secondly, the relationship between the lecturer's personal competencies and psychological contract fulfilment was positive and significant (β = 0.207, p = 0.048). Indicating that hypothesis H 2 was supported. So, if the lecturer gets one more unit of personal competencies, psychological contract fulfilment goes up by 20.7%. Additionally, findings indicate that the relationship between the lecturer's social competencies and psychological contract fulfilment is positive and significant (β = 0.262, p = 0.039). Thus, hypothesis H 3 was supported. This proposes that increasing lecturer's social competencies by one unit increase psychological contract fulfillment by 26.2%. Apart from that, the study findings show that when psychological contract fulfilment was regressed to entrepreneurial intention, the results were positive and significant (β = 0.364, p < 0.001), indicating that when psychological contracts are fulfilled by one unit, they increase students' entrepreneurial intention by 36.4%. Thus, hypothesis H 4 was supported.

Testing of mediation effect
To determine the mediation effect of psychological contract fulfilment on the relationship between a lecturer's competencies and EI, the process mediation test suggested by Andrew Hayes was adopted. The findings revealed that all limits presented by the bootstrap are not negative. As a result, no zero values were observed between the lower and upper limits of the 95 percent confidence interval (CI). The bootstrap lower (BootLLCI) and upper (BootULCI) were 0.0260 and 0.1041, respectively. Hence, it can be concluded that psychological contract fulfilment is a true mediator of the relationship between the lecturer's competencies and EI. Thus, hypothesis H 5 was supported, Table 7.

Discussion
The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of psychological contract fulfilment on the relationship between lecturer's competencies and EI among undergraduate university students. To achieve this purpose, this study was designed to test the direct influence of lecturer competencies; professional competencies, personal competencies, and social competencies on psychological contract fulfilment and the direct influence of psychological contract fulfilment on EI. In general, the results on the direct effect between lecturers' competencies and psychological contract fulfilment show that these competencies are the most important parts of the relationship between students and HEIs.
Consequently, most of the HEIs are able to meet student expectations based on the competencies of their lecturers. Once lecturers' competencies are available as promised, they can act as important factors for students' choices to join the HEIs. Additionally, the positive and significant results of each category of lecturer's competencies indicate that most students believe that the availability of competent lecturers in HEIs can put them in a better position to develop their EI than those who graduate from HEIs with poorly competent lecturers. Meaning that the more lecturers' specialised competencies they have, the more likely it is that lecturers will employ qualitative tools and eventually make them become entrepreneurs after graduation more easily. However, contrary to these findings, a study by Iwu et al. (2021), provide evidence indicating that a significant proportion of participating students are dissatisfied with the competency level of their lecturers, implying that more efforts must be made to improve lecturers' competencies.
Specifically, the results suggest that professional competencies are an important determinant of the fulfilment of psychological contracts. The plausible explanation is that having lecturers who possess proper skills such as organisation and planning as well as classroom management can help to make students feel that the promises made by HEIs prior to joining the university have been fulfilled. In most cases, students can create a positive connection with the lecturers if they feel that they are engaged in classroom activities through coaching, collaboration, and teamwork. Moreover, professionally competent lecturers have ideas that make them responsible for making clear instructions for students' exercises, organizing resources, finding the right learning resources and encouraging students to learn modern entrepreneurship practices. These competencies are connected with the promise's fulfilment.
Apart from that, professional competencies are explained by the tendence of lecturers to show caring and inclusion behaviour towards their students. This is also supported by the fact that fulfilment of promises depends on the way lecturers can professionally organise and manage resources in an effective and efficient way to meet the needs of the curriculum. In other words, a lecturer with professional competencies can guarantee students' achievement by imparting important skills and extending entrepreneurial knowledge. The findings are in line with (Ilanlou & Zand, 2011).
Also, professional competencies among lecturers at HEIs improve the ability of the students to perceive classroom situations adequately and interpret them appropriately under entrepreneurial educational settings. This helps students interpret classroom situations and connect them to the real world, strongly affecting their EI. This concurs with (Kaiser et al., 2017), who noted that competent lecturers are needed to help students gain theoretical and practical knowledge.
Similarly, the positive and significant results in the relationship between the lecturer's personal competencies and psychological contract fulfilment imply that the presence of personal competencies among lecturers at HEIs increases the chances of achieving promises made by HEIs to develop EI. Personal competencies provide lecturers with skills that can help them to understand and manage the positive and negative emotions of students, which are important for increasing  their chances of becoming entrepreneurs after graduation. Specifically, the more the students experience the personal competence of their instructors, the more they develop positive attitudes and self-efficacy and images that can help them to understand how some entrepreneurs perform better after graduation than others.
Furthermore, personal competency among lecturers provides adequate self-knowledge, awareness of behaviour, values and confidence in the subject area, commitment to the work, and time for personal conversations. Additionally, the plausible explanation for the positive and significant relationship is that lecturers with personal competencies are optimistic, collaborative, adaptable, open, and authoritative. Hence, they can be in a good position to fulfil the promises made to students about becoming entrepreneurs. In general, personally competent lecturers have better impulse and self-control. This is in the same league as (Bakhru, 2017).
On the other hand, the study's positive and significant results on the influence of social competencies on psychological contract fulfilment, imply that social competencies reduce incidences of risky behaviour and improve the quality of relationships between lecturers and students. This creates a positive correlation with learning outcomes such as improving EI among students. Social competencies can be developed through friendship, cooperation, empathy, and sharing which in turns allow lecturers and students to have collaborative and partnership relations abilities. This relates with EI development because it creates an environment and individual behavior that promotes operative learning environments and recommended standards of achievement as well as helping lecturers to communicate properly with students. The findings confirm that the availability of these social competencies in the HEIs attracts students to join the HEIs to develop their EI.
The main takeaway from this discussion is that if students have mutual interests with HEIs, they will reciprocate positively. This means that fulfilling psychological contracts by providing competent lecturers who can persuade HEI students to reciprocate their efforts will shape and develop students' EI. In this regard, HEIs should consider student expectations based on what and how HEIs are supposed to offer in terms of lecturers' competencies. In contrast, it will constitute a breach of the signed psychological contract, which will result in negative word of mouth about the university. The findings are in line with Bordia et al. (2010), Koskina (2013), who reported that students normally build a strong relationship with HEIs if lecturers can help them achieve their dreams by guiding them, being friendly, and sharing interests.

Conclusion
It can be concluded that HEIs are the best places to address the issue of high unemployment rates among HEI graduates. Since EI is the first step in developing entrepreneurs, HEIs can meet the expectations of students by improving the lecturers' competencies. These competencies can then be used to fulfil the psychological contracts that have arisen as a result of the promises made by HEIs to transform students into individuals who have an entrepreneurial mindset. The results of this study, which were based on the theories of planned behavior, entrepreneurial event theory, and social exchange theory, show that improving the skills of lecturers can help HEIs and their students live up to the psychological contracts they have with each other. This, in turn, can make it more likely that EI will develop among students.

Practical implications
The lecturer's competencies were found to have a positive and significant relationship with psychological contract fulfillment. As a result, HEIs should put a high priority on identifying and developing lecturers' skills through short-term and long-term training in order to keep the promises made to college students during marketing campaigns. Secondly, fulfilling students' expectations to build beneficial relationships between universities and students after joining the HEIs is necessary. So, universities should try to figure out what each student wants so they can use that information to build good relationships.

Theoretical implication
The study has successfully used the theory of planned behavior, in which the student's joining the HEIs is a planned behaviour to become an entrepreneur. Furthermore, the entrepreneurial event theory was also used successfully. The results indicate that the lecturer's competencies and fulfilment of psychological contracts are drivers for university students' EI. Similarly, the social exchange theory provides insight that there must be a mutual exchange between students and HEIs; while students intend to become entrepreneurs, hence pay tuition fees and attending classes, they expect HEIs to provide competent lecturers to shape and develop their entrepreneurial intention. Therefore, the results propose that these three theories can link the lecture's competencies, psychological contract fulfillment, and EI. As previous studies have noted, there is a paucity of information regarding the psychological contract that exists between HEIs and their students. Through the combination of these theories, this study adds to the body of literature the role of lecturers' competency in helping to fulfil psychological contracts, which in turn increases the chances of developing EI among students enrolled in HEIs.

Limitations and direction of the future studies
Despite the useful contribution presented by the findings of this study, the study has limitations. This study was conducted at a public university. It is important to increase the knowledge base by involving other universities. Additionally, public and private universities are not operating in similar environments, therefore, future studies can include private universities to have a general picture of the lecturer's competencies and level of psychological contract fulfilment concerning EI among students. Correspondingly, this study used a cross-sectional design in which information was captured once at a time. There is a need for future studies to look at the different information over time. Hence, it is recommended that future studies involve longitudinal design.
Moreover, the study's methodological approach was to test the causal effect of the independent variables on the dependent variables; thus, it involved a quantitative approach. However, this approach does not explore a qualitative means of explaining the problem of the subject under study. Therefore, methodologically, the future study can involve qualitative aspects in studying the lecturer's competencies, psychological contract fulfillment, and EI.

Funding
The author received no direct funding for this research.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Citation information
Cite this article as: My intentions, my choice! How does lecturers' competency influence entrepreneurial intention among undergraduate university students in Tanzania?, Ismail Juma Ismail, Cogent Education (2022), 9: 2151237.