Entrepreneurial Practice and Entrepreneurial Participation

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. Background to the Study

Entrepreneurial practice and entrepreneurial participation is of essential importance to the growth and development of any nation by helping to increase knowledge, enhance growth, reduce unemployment, increase the level of innovation, and enhance productivity among many others. The tendency of university graduates to be job seekers rather than job creators and the limited number of job available result in the unemployment of most educated people and university graduates. Covenant University  with the vision of being a leading world class Christian mission University committed to raising a new generation of leaders in all field of human endeavour upon inception developed a course called the Entrepreneurial Development Studies(EDS) with the sole aim of developing university graduates entrepreneurial capacity, to enable students to be independent and creators of job in order to ignite a societal transformation by helping in identification and recognition of business opportunities which is of interests to the students`, educate the students on how to start up a business, write an effective business plan, undertake a feasibility study, and most importantly to running a business profitably. Entrepreneurial development study is a major part of the university curriculum, as a solution provider in all field of human endeavour. Entrepreneurial participation is referred to as one of the most important factors used in fostering and development of the entrepreneurial spirit, passion and behaviour among the younger generation (Kourilsky and Walstad, 1998).

There is a rising interest in the role that entrepreneurship plays in the achievement of economic and social development such as growth, innovation, employment among others. Entrepreneurial education can be defined as the activity which include teaching and learning about entrepreneurship which comprises the development of knowledge, skills, attitudes and personal qualities. (European Commission, 2003 in  Linan, Moriano and Zarnowska, 2008).

 Entrepreneurship plays a vital role in the growth and development of many developed counties such as the United States of America, Japan, China, Russia, and Germany among many others. Entrepreneurship has helped in the development of employment generation, there are close to over twenty eight million small businesses in the United State of America and over fifty percentage of the country’s population work for small businesses. Chad Moutray an Economist in the United States of America said Small Business provide sixty to eighty percentage of  new jobs and most of these small businesses are under the age of two years and are driving innovation in the industry. Entrepreneurship also helps most of these developed counties by providing basic goods and services needed. Looking at most developed countries, entrepreneurs contribute to the development of these economies. Entrepreneurship is considered as one of the key drivers to the socio economic development of any nation because it provides millions of jobs, increase standard of living, increases varieties of goods available to consumers and also increases the GDP of a nation.

Entrepreneurship is considered as the process by which an entrepreneur pursues opportunities without consideration for the resources which are available. Entrepreneurship involves the ability to combine all the factors of production together which includes capital, land, labour and natural resources to ensure that the business is a success. Entrepreneurial participation is the involvement of students in acquisition of entrepreneurial knowledge. This involves getting the required skills which is needed to run a business profitably. Entrepreneurial participation is the involvement of individuals in entrepreneurial activities, these involves the practical engagement in business such as management of a business, running of a business profitably and ensure sustainability of the business. An entrepreneur is a person who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk of the business. An entrepreneur puts all the factors of production together and is responsible for either the success or the failure of the business.

1.2         Statement of Research Problem

Entrepreneurship is generally practiced in colleges and in universities. Besides the students own motivation the colleges and universities administration also encourage the students and graduates to participate in entrepreneurship through introduction of entrepreneurship studies, business plans competitions and funding thereof and academic business incubation. A case in mind is Covenant University which has encouraged its students to participate in entrepreneurship through the centre for entrepreneurship studies. Since its introduction in 2009, the University through the centre had produced thousands graduates. The performance of this graduates constituting the Alumni Association are measured in many ways for example assisting the corporate outreach programme and assisting the funding of the best business plan. Despite the association drawing many participants, no study has been carried out to determine the reasons why the graduates of the university and members of the association participate in entrepreneurship.

The entrepreneurship classes in the university also draw large number of students more than any other elective subject offered in the same university. There is however a lack of research in the field of graduate entrepreneurship in developing world and further research in developing countries may help to understand and shed light on the issues evolving around graduate entrepreneurship intentions, business start-up and education (Ghulami Nabi, Farancisco Linan, 2010). William et al contends that there is an entrepreneur in the youth who given the right stimulating education and a nurturing environment can contribute to economic growth, community development , individual well-being regardless of whether the individual ever launches the enterprise (Kourilsk, 2007). Young Entrepreneurs are motivated by the same basic factors as professionals everywhere. For the desire to become action however significant challenges that young entrepreneurs envision need to be addressed.

The most pressing obstacle for venturing into entrepreneurship is lack of managerial experience and lack of technical knowledge. This is what leads the young entrepreneurs in someha»w a dilemma of how to compete with already established entrepreneurs (Moy, et al 2003). This dilemma is not limited to regions but the same barriers to entrepreneurship faced by students and budding entrepreneurs from developed countries are same as those of developing countries (Manjit sign Sandhu, 2011). There seems to be a great gap of knowledge with regard to entrepreneurial activities of university students in developing countries. Majority of the literature has concentrated in developed countries and this study will therefore add to the insights of the differences in entrepreneurship motivations in developed world and developing world. The study therefore seeks to evaluate the factors that influence the graduate of the university to participate in entrepreneurship.

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