Influence of Entrepreneurship Education on the Entreprneurial Intentions of Business Education Undergraduates in Universities in Anambra State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study determined the influence of entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurial intentions of business education undergraduates in universities in Anambra State. Two research questions were answered in the study and two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Population of the study was made up of 619 (226 male and 393 female) business education undergraduates within the three universities in Anambra State offering the programme.Stratified random sampling and the simple random sampling techniques were used to select a sample size of 243 (male and female) students.An entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire (EIQ) developed by Linan and Chen (2009) was adapted and used to collect data for the study. The questionnaire was a 5-point scale containing 37 items in two clusters which was validated by experts in the field of Business Education and Measurement and Evaluation. The reliability of the instrument was determined using the Cronbach Alpha co-efficient which yielded values of 0.85 and 0.77 respectively for the two clusters and overall value of 0.81. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze data to answer the research questions and determine the cohesiveness or otherwise of respondents' mean ratingsrespectively.z-Test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that entrepreneurship education influenced subjective norms and personality traits of business education undergraduates towards becoming entrepreneurs. Gender failed to significantly influence the respondents' mean ratings in all the contents covered. The researchers concluded that business education undergraduates in universities in Anambra State would derive a great benefit from an effectively delivered entrepreneurship education programme because it would improve their entrepreneurial intentions. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that university authorities ought to assist business education undergraduates that indicate intention to become entrepreneurs while in school and after graduation through incubator programme.