DIGITALIZATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARENESS AMONG THE HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS IN SAUDI ARABIA

Digitalization and the expansion of information and communication technology (ICT) are reshaping marketing and commerce, but the extent to which Saudi higher-education students understand digital entrepreneurship, digital marketing, and e-commerce remains underdocumented. This study examines digitalization and entrepreneurship awareness among students in Saudi Arabia. A mixed-method design was used, combining an online questionnaire survey of 122 undergraduate and postgraduate students from disciplines with focus-group discussions (focus-group size, procedures, and timing unspecified); the survey sample was 53.3% male and 46.7% female, and ages were <20 (47.5%), 20–22 (33.6%), 23–25 (6.6%), and >25 (12.3%). Quantitative analyses included summaries, independent-samples t tests, one-way ANOVA, correlations, and hierarchical regression (study period unspecified). The results show that 64% of students reported moderate awareness of digital marketing tools and e-commerce platforms, 23% high awareness, and 13% low awareness. General awareness scores were similar by gender (male M=16.68, SD=7.20; female M=15.61, SD=6.61; t(120)=0.845, p=0.400) and age (F(3,118)=1.311, p=0.274) but differed by field of study (F(4,117)=3.340, p=0.013), with higher means in management (M=18.86, SD=6.57) and science (M=17.81, SD=7.08) than in arts (M=13.20, SD=8.50). Field differences were also observed for channel awareness (F(4,117)=2.452, p=0.050) and operational awareness (F(4,117)=2.620, p=0.038). Awareness dimensions were strongly interrelated (r=0.825–0.851, all p<0.01). In regression, demographic/academic variables explained R²=0.097 (F=1.750, p=0.104), with a management effect in Model 1 (B=5.088, p=0.012) that became nonsignificant in Model 2 (p=0.462), while adding general awareness (β=0.453, p<0.001) and channel awareness (β=0.471, p<0.001) increased explained variance to R²=0.796 (F=48.441, p<0.001); confidence intervals and standardized effect sizes beyond β were unspecified.