Exploring the Determinants of Entrepreneurship Among Graduates in Nigeria
Chapter One
Objective of the study
The general objective of this study was to establish the determinants of entrepreneurial intentions among university students in Nigeria focusing on the University of Uyo. The specific objectives of the study were as follows:
- To establish the effect of entrepreneurship education/information on entrepreneurial intentions among university students in Nigeria
- To examine the effects of demographic characteristics on the university students’ inclination towards entrepreneurship.
- To determine the effect of personal attitudes on entrepreneurial intentions among university students.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
PREAMBLE
In Nigeria both state and federal government are now placing much emphasis on the promotion of indigenous small scale enterprises with a view to encouraging entrepreneurship.
This study address critical issues like life aspirations, likely source of financial capital, entrepreneurial orientation, attitude towards work, intention towards becoming an entrepreneur, subjective norms underlying this intention, perceive behavioural control, behavioural beliefs, nor mature belief and control beliefs others.
Johannisson (1991) and Auto et al. (1997) scored the positive impacts of students perception of entrepreneurship as a career choice, along with the role played by the research has source the importance of the social status of entrepreneurial activities and situation.
Entrepreneurship education and influence both currents behaviour and future intentions. Kolverldmoen (1997) look at the significant differences between students who have taken entrepreneurship courses and those who have not.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Entrepreneurship has been described as a creative and innovative response to the environment. Meredith et al (1991) looks at and entrepreneur as an individual who has ability to see and evaluate business opportunities, gather the necessary resource to take advantage of them, and initiate appropriate action to ensure success.
This turn of events has been mirrored by a rising academic interest in entrepreneurship, understood as the creation and establishment of new independent firms in the early empirical research this interest was very much focused on the psychological characteristics of business founders, although the research was not closely to contemporary development in psychology. A trait approach was often employed, and almost endless loots of entrepreneurial trait were suggested (Hornaday 1982) it eventually turned out that this line of research was unable to give more than a small fraction of the answer to the question “what make people found new firm?”
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
In this chapter, we would describe how the study was carried out.
Research design
A research design is “a blueprint for conducting a study with maximum control over factors that may interfere with the validity of the findings” (Burns & Grove, 2003, p.195). In this study, the research design employed was descriptive in nature. Descriptive research “is designed to provide a picture of a situation as it naturally happens” (Burns & Grove, 2003, p. 201). This was used to obtain data that concerns the existing status of the phenomena so as to describe what exists in respect to the study variables. The descriptive study was critical in drawing conclusions while at the same time describing the characteristics of the population and justification of current practice and judgment making on the developed theories. Also the study took on quantitative Research method; with Quantitative research method the study attempted to maximize objectivity, replicability, and generalizability of findings, which easily led to prediction. This design was appropriate in identifying the factors that determines the entrepreneurial intentions among university students.
Sources of Data
The data for this study were generated from two main sources; Primary sources and secondary sources. The primary sources include questionnaire, interviews and observation. The secondary sources include journals, bulletins, textbooks and the internet.
Population of the study
A study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description (Prince Udoyen: 2019). In this study the study population constitute of all the students in University of Uyo town campus.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Introduction
This chapter presents the results of the study and their interpretations. The chapter has findings on the demographic information of the respondents such as age, gender, religion, program being pursued by the respondents, duration in their current occupation for those who were working and types of occupation of the students. Further, the chapter presents perceptions of the respondents on their entrepreneurial intentions. Findings on the relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and factors such as entrepreneurial education, demographic factors and personal attributes will be outlined. Lastly there is a section containing chapter summary.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
This chapter presents a discussion on the findings of the study. The discussion is made such that it links the study findings with the previous studies and the theoretical concepts on the same. The chapter has several sections namely the summary of the findings, the discussion of the findings, conclusions of the study and recommendations of the study.
Summary of the findings
The study was motivated by the need to determine the factors which affect the entrepreneurial intentions of the university students using UniUyo as a typical university example. The study focused on only three factors namely, entrepreneurial education, demographic factors and personal attributes.
The data was collected from university students. The data was colleted through questionnaires and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study shows that graduate students and undergraduate students have different factors which affect their entrepreneurial intentions. It was found that entrepreneurial knowledge of the undergraduate students significantly affected their entrepreneurial intentions although for graduate students, it was not a significant factor affecting their intentions.
On demographic factors, age affects the intentions of the young people to venture into businesses activities according to the undergraduate students. For the graduate students, age did not affect their intentions significantly and thus it was not considered as a strong factor affecting their entrepreneurial decisions. Gender was a significant factor affecting the intentions of the graduate students to invest although insignificant at undergraduate level. This shows that gender and age affects students entrepreneurial intentions based on their outside campus experience of the students.
The personal attributes of a person determines a lot about the actions and the decisions of a person. For the graduate students, the risk taking was a very significant factor which influenced their intentions to engage in entrepreneurship. For the undergraduate students, their entrepreneurial intention was affected by their need to achieve, their locus of control and ability to take risks.
The study shows that different factors affect different class of students differently based on their exposure outside the school and experience. It thus recommended that different approaches should be adopted when addressing entrepreneurial courses.
Conclusions
Relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions
The study concludes entrepreneurial education is a good complement to professional background prerequisite for starting a business. The course is important since it equips students with skills and necessary confidence to engage in entrepreneurial activities.
The study also concludes that entrepreneurial education and training influences the intentions of the undergraduate students to engage in entrepreneurial related activities. This is associated with the increased human capacity and ability to engage in business related activities. For the graduate students, entrepreneurial education has no significant effect intentions to do business.
Relationship between demographic characteristics and entrepreneurial intentions
The study concludes that age influences the intentions to start and run a business. Students perceive young people as more entrepreneurial than old people. The young are perceived to have more opportunities and capable of sustaining business operations. They are however perceived to suffer from fear of failure which limits their entrepreneurial success.
Gender was also found to influence the intentions of the graduate students to engage in entrepreneurial activities. Although the students disagreed with the notion that men were efficient and oriented than women and that women lacked connections and contacts, the inferential statistics confirmed that men were likely to engage in more entrepreneurial related activities than women.
Relationship between personal attributes and entrepreneurial intentions
The study concludes some personal attributes influenced the entrepreneurial intentions of the students. Firstly, the need for achievement was found to have significant influence to undergraduate student’s intentions to do entrepreneurial activities. The students were motivated by the desire to achieve their goals such as starting their own business, making success in their careers, exploiting opportunities among other achievement goals.
The study notes that locus of control influences the entrepreneurial intentions of undergraduate students. This was evident by the students expressed to have their own business to exercise control over, desire to control your plans and activities, ability to exploit opportunities among others.
Tolerance to ambiguity was found to have no significant influence on entrepreneurial intentions for both graduate students and undergraduate students. This shows that the decisions and ideas to become entrepreneurial were not affected by the ability of the people to tolerate ambiguity probably because today’s environment is very turbulent and competitive.
The ability to take risks affects the entrepreneurial intentions of both graduate and undergraduate students. This could easily be explained by the fact that making any entrepreneurial move is very risky and thus risk taking plays a big role in making of entrepreneurs.
Recommendations
Recommendations on practice
Relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions
The study indicated that education and training on entrepreneurship influences the entrepreneurial intentions of the students. Further, the study shows that such trainings increase knowledge, skills and confidence of the students to become entrepreneurs. It is thus important to provide such education in schools to equip the growing young ones with necessary entrepreneurial skills. It is thus recommended that entrepreneurship course be incorporated in primary education, secondary and colleges to improve the awareness of entrepreneurial skills among the children
Relationship between demographic characteristics and entrepreneurial intentions
The study has found that there exists a perception that young people are more entrepreneurial than old people, women are less probable to make success in businesses, men have dominated the entrepreneurial field among other things. This shows lack of knowledge and a negative stereotype which may negatively affect the ability of young people to do entrepreneurship. It is recommended that awareness be created to enhance true knowledge and neutralize the negative stereotype.
The study found that men were more likely to engage in entrepreneurship than women due to the beliefs and false knowledge that men were more entrepreneurial than women. This lowers the dignity and confidence of women to invest in business activities. It is recommended that more entrepreneurial women programs, workshops and women affirmative actions be supported to ensure equitable distribution of knowledge.
Relationship between personal attributes and entrepreneurial intentions
The study found that need for achievement highly affected the entrepreneurial intentions of the undergraduate students. This reflects the need to achieve personal goals. It is thus advised that there be put an incubation center to help students make very good entrepreneurial goals. This will help them achieve profitable goals.
The study found that risk taking significantly affects the entrepreneurial intentions of both graduate and undergraduate students. It is advisable that students be taken through risk assessment and mitigation and the concept of risks especially to help students accept the concept of risk taking in entrepreneurship. This will help them take calculated risks and also have some risk assessment and mitigation strategies incase their entrepreneurial ventures fail to materialize as expected.
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