Enhancing entrepreneurial growth through digital literacy and financial resilience: Evidence from Indian higher education

This study examines how Digital Literacy (DL) fosters Entrepreneurial Growth (EG) among higher education students in India, investigating the mediating roles of Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy (ESE), Financial Resilience (FR), and Risk-Taking Propensity (RTP). Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory, the Resource-Based View, and the Financial Capability frameworks, the study positions DL as a foundational capability that builds psychological confidence and financial adaptability, both of which are essential for entrepreneurial success. Data were collected from 412 final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students across 15 universities in North India using multi-stage sampling and analyzed through PLS-SEM with 5,000 bootstrap resamples. The results confirm that DL strongly predicts EG, ESE, FR, and RTP. FR emerges as the dominant proximal predictor and mediator of EG, whereas RTP does not independently predict growth. The model demonstrates substantial explanatory power (R 2 = 0.625 for EG), affirming the theoretical framework. The findings highlight the urgent need to embed digital literacy, self-efficacy pedagogy, and financial resilience training into entrepreneurship curricula in emerging economies.