SOCIAL CAPITAL, NATIVE BUSINESS CULTURE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AS DETERMINANTS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION OF UNDERGRADUATES IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Entrepreneurship Education (EE) was introduced to the Nigerian university curriculum to raise students’ Entrepreneurial Intention (EI) and to equip them with competencies for selfemployment. However, reports have shown that the EI of undergraduates exposed to the EE programme in Lagos State is low, as manifested in the worsening unemployment rate among them. Past studies on EI had focused more on the human capital perspective than on the socio-cultural, which involves Social Capital (SC) and Native Business Culture (NBC). Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate SC (groups and network, trust and solidarity, collective action and, information and technology), NBC (business-related maxims, proverbs and native funding mechanism) and EE as determinants of EI among undergraduate students in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study was anchored to the Social Constructivist Theory of Vygotsky and Mishra and Koehler’s Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge Model, while correlation survey research design was adopted. The multistage sampling procedure was used. Three universities in Lagos State were purposively selected based on ownership. Three faculties of similar curricula were purposively selected. In each faculty, 400 level students were purposively selected on the basis that they have taken all the EE courses. A total of 559 students were selected through random sampling technique (private 201, federal 185, state 173). Data were collected with Social Capital, Education and Native Business Culture Questionnaire (α = 0.82) and Rubric for Evaluating Entrepreneurship Education (r = 0.97). Data were analysed using t-test, Analysis of variance, Pearson product moment correlation and Multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance. Majority of the respondents were below age 20 (71.0%). The respondents were from private (36.0%), federal (33.0%) and state (31.0%) universities. There were more female (64%) than male (36%) students. The students had average SC (mean = 2.51). Male students had higher SC scores (mean = 62.04) than their female counterparts (mean = 59.92). The EE exposed to the students covered personality skills (mean = 3.00), social skills (mean = 2.78), EE content (mean = 2.68), pedagogy (mean = 2.53) and technology and instruction (2.35). The students exhibited high EI (mean = 2.74). Social Capital factors – groups and network (r = 0.14), trust and solidarity (r = 0.11), collective action (r = 0.18) and information and technology (r = -0.09) – had significant relationships with students’ EI, while NBC and EE did not. There was a significant composite contribution of SC, NBC and EE to EI (F(11; 503) = 7.92). These three variables accounted for 12.9% of the total variance in EI (Adjusted R2 = 0.129). Students’ parental occupation had the highest significant relative contribution to EI (β = 0.31), followed by collective action (β = 0.16) and groups and networks (β = 0.09). Only social capital influenced entrepreneurial intention among university students in Lagos State. Therefore, social capital content should be embedded in the future Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards for entrepreneurship education in Nigerian universities.