Financial and social factors as determinants of entreprenuerial propensity and interests of undergraduates in selected Universities in Osun State, Nigeria.

Abstract

A disconnect has been observed between entrepreneurship educational curriculum and the interests of university undergraduates which makes it hard for most of them to turn out to be self-employed through entrepreneurship trainings after school and also, personal attitude of the undergraduates towards entrepreneurial activities is very poor and the government and other stakeholders support services to entrepreneurship education are insufficient.

This study adopted cross-sectional survey method. Data was primarily sourced through the administration of a structured questionnaire. 396 copies of questionnaire were administered to the respondents and 350 were retrieved suitable for the research. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were employed for the data analysis.

The study revealed that 55.9% of the undergraduates were interested in starting their own businesses after school due to their levels of entrepreneurial propensity and interest. It was also revealed that 34.80% do not like the approach and method used in teaching entrepreneurship in their universities. The correlation result showed that personal attitude has a positive relationship with entrepreneurial propensity and interest of the undergraduates. Likewise, the unstandardized Beta coefficient showed that personal attitude has positive effect on entrepreneurial propensity. Also, the study showed that university, family and friends, government agencies and other stakeholders support services have a positive relationship with entrepreneurial intention of University undergraduates.

The study concludes that personal attitude is positively related to entrepreneurial propensity and interest of undergraduates and has a statistically significant effect on it. Government and other stakeholders support services are positively related to entrepreneurial intention of University undergraduates. The study recommended that the students in the Universities should engage more in entrepreneurship activities and the Universities and other stakeholders should encourage entrepreneurship activities among the students as much as possible.