Factors that influence entrepreneurial intentions among undergraduates of South-south and Southeast Nigeria
This paper examined the factors that influence entrepreneurial intentions among undergraduates of South-south and Southeast Nigeria. Surveying 1,129 final year undergraduates from 15 universities in 68 departments plus four focus groups of 42 participants, the quantitative study found personal attitude, perceived behavioural control and perceived barrier as most significant factors. The qualitative study found new factors such as transformational, affective, push and personal fulfilment motives. The focus group interview results indicated that undergraduates will embrace entrepreneurship if: courses were more practical-oriented than theory-oriented, internship was introduced in their courses, lecturers were retrained to embrace some level of entrepreneurship themselves, and have a healthy collaboration with relevant industry practice too. The partial least squares multi-group analysis detected no significant differences in perception of the influencing factors among participants from the two groups, based on the model paths. But participants in the focus group interviews consistently demonstrated that people of Southeast Nigeria exhibited a peculiar flair for entrepreneurial activities. The participants offered various explanations including apprenticeship and serial mentorship, preference for independence, early childhood introduction to business by family, survivalist mentality and profit motives as distinguishing the Southeast people from their South-south counterpart. The graduates from the two regions may follow the same observed pattern toward entrepreneurial activities. This research therefore demonstrates that using only one method to examine the phenomenon might lead to false claims to knowledge; examining the concept deeper through the vantage position of the affected (participants) will offer better solutions for policy on what students perceive can attract them to entrepreneurship.