Entrepreneurial competencies of undergraduate students: The case of universities in Nigeria

Highlights

• We drew on Morris et al.’s (2013) identified entrepreneurial competencies from Delphi study.

• Entrepreneurship education influenced five of the thirteen entrepreneurial competencies.

• Participation in entrepreneurship education predicted opportunity recognition.

• The use of innovative teaching techniques can improve students' development of ECs.

• Entrepreneurship programs should be practical based rather than theory-based.

Abstract

The present study builds on Morris et al.‘s entrepreneurial competencies (ECs) identified from their 2013 Delphi study, to examine whether students' compulsory participation in entrepreneurship education (EE) in Nigerian higher education institutions (HEIs) influences their development of the identified 13 ECs for business start-up after graduation. Data were collected from 1191 final year undergraduates in 12 public universities within the six geo-political zones of Nigeria using questionnaire derived from the constructs of the 13 identified ECs. Findings show that students' participation in EE associated positively with five of the thirteen ECs including opportunity recognition, opportunity assessment, creative problem-solving, self-efficacy and building and using networks. However, we found no evidence of a positive association between students' participation in EE and the development of the remaining eight ECs including risk management/mitigation, conveying a compelling vision, tenacity/perseverance, resource leveraging, guerrilla skills, value creation through innovation, ability to maintain focus yet adapt, and resilience. This study contributes to the body of knowledge and covers a gap in the literature about the paucity of research on whether students' compulsory participation in EE in Nigerian HEIs help to improve students' development of the identified 13 ECs for business start-up after graduation. Also, while the study focused on Nigeria, the findings apply to other countries that have similar issues addressed in this study.

Introduction

As a growing economy, Nigeria requires skilled entrepreneurs. Despite the overwhelming natural resources available with many economic growth prospects, the literature shows that millions of Nigerian graduates lack entrepreneurial competencies (ECs) to start-up new businesses and create jobs to employ others (e.g., Adowa, 2013; Okolie et al., 2019; Utim, 2013). The HE graduates with low ECs are vulnerable in the labour market (Okolie et al., 2020; Scarpetta et al., 2010). The low-competent HE graduates face continual effects of unemployment (Quintini et al., 2007) and the inability to start-up businesses to earn livelihoods. As such, an educational programme capable of enhancing students’ ECs is imperative. To ensure that higher education institutions (HEIs) meet the target of producing graduates who can identify and recognize business opportunities, start-up new businesses, employ and training others, entrepreneurship education (EE) emerged (Ohe, 2012).

As Sirelkhatim and Gangi (2015, p. 1) have explained, EE “is one of the fastest-growing fields of education globally”. Fretschner and Weber (2013) noted that the fast expansion of EE in HEIs globally is due to its guarantee as a medium through which economic growth can be well promoted. One of the major arguments underpinning the fast growth of EE around the world is that; EE can be learned, students can be trained and motivated to develop entrepreneurial intentions and EE can assist learners to start-up businesses after graduation by equipping them with the right ECs (e.g., Fretschner & Weber, 2013; Pittaway & Cope, 2007). However, we adopt Binks' (2005, p. 2) definition of EE as “a pedagogical process involved in the encouragement of entrepreneurial activities behaviours and mindsets”. The literature is rich in the benefits of EE as a vehicle for economic development and identification of entrepreneurial opportunities, etcetera (e.g., Chankseliani & Relly, 2016; Nabi et al., 2010). Also, there is extant literature on the challenges of teaching EE in Nigeria (e.g., Iloputaife et al., 2011; Mbiewa, 2011; Nwekeaku, 2013), but there appears to be little or no empirical studies about whether EE offered in the Nigerian HEIs influence students' development of ECs as identified by Morris et al.’s (2013) Delphi study. This is the gap that this study intends to cover in the EE literature, particularly, in the Nigerian context. Using cross-sectional data from Nigerian university undergraduate students, we applied a robust empirical analysis to test a set of complementary hypotheses (Fig. 1).