THE IMPACT OF ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION ON ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTIONS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

ABSTRACT

The general objective of this study is to determine the impact of entrepreneurial education, personal attitude, social norm and perceived behavioural control on entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurial intention is concerned with the inclination of a person to start an entrepreneurial activity in the future. It is a key determinant of the action of new venture creation determined by exogenous variables such as: Social Norm, Perceive Behavioural Control, and entrepreneurial education among others. Survey design was adopted, and the statistical tool employed comprises of frequency, as well as regression analysis. The study made use of a sample of 210 undergraduate students of Delta State University. The findings show that Personal Attitude, Social Norm, Perceive Behavioural Control and entrepreneurial education have proved to be a primary predictor of future entrepreneurial behaviour, that perceive behavioural control influences positively on entrepreneurial intentions and that personal attitude is positively related to entrepreneurial intentions. It was concluded that entrepreneurship education programs significantly raised student's intentions toward entrepreneurship by inspiring them to choose entrepreneurial career. The study further suggest that further research could test the actual behaviour of students after intention to ascertain levels of correspondences between intentions and impact using longitudinal survey research design.

1.2     RESEARCH PROBLEM

Despite the importance of entrepreneurship to economic development, the role of students in promoting entrepreneurship remains largely unstudied. Thus a better understanding of the factors that affect students' and their entrepreneurial intentions could have theoretical and practical implications to policy makers (both the government and university). Lack of empirical evidence on entrepreneurial tendencies and intentions in Nigeria largely informed us in undertaking this unique study. The rising unemployment level is one of the most challenging problems faced by our leaders today, hence the youths are littered everywhere not having jobs to do.

1.3     RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

The general objective of this study is to determine the impact of entrepreneurial education, personal attitude, social norm and perceived behavioural control on entrepreneurial intentions (EI).

The specific objectives are to:

1       Determine the impact of personal attitude and EIs among undergraduate students

2       Ascertain the relationship between Social Norm and EI among undergraduate students