Establishing effects of entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial intent of graduating University students in Western Uganda

Establishing effects of entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial intent of graduating University students in Western Uganda

Dr Nuwatuhaire Benard, Mubehamwe Janan, Prof. Emmanuel Karoro

Valley University of Science and Technology, Uganda

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2023.7012017

Received: 17 November 2023; Accepted: 22 November 2023; Published: 29 December 2023

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effects of entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial intent of graduating University students in Western Uganda. The study adopted cross-sectional and causal-comparative research designs on a sample of 435 graduating students in Western Uganda. Descriptive results revealed that students entrepreneurial intent (x̅ = 3.03) was good with its aspects that were namely; entrepreneurial desire (x̅ = 2.73), entrepreneurial self-prediction (x̅ = 3.12) and behavioural intention (mean = 3.25) all being good. Entrepreneurial attitudes constructs including achievement attitude (x̅ = 2.90), personal control (x̅ = 2.90) and business management skills (x̅= 2.76) were equally good. Inferential results revealed that entrepreneurial attitudes (β = 0.224, p = 0.000 < 0.05) had a positive and significant effect with entrepreneurship intent. Therefore, it was concluded that achievement attitude, personal control and business management skills are probable skill requirements for entrepreneurial intent. Thus was recommended that technical and business management skills and managers of universities should establish teaching environments that create achievement, personal control and self-referent beliefs in students.

Key terms: Entrepreneurial attitude and Entrepreneurial Intent

INTRODUCTION

The impact of entrepreneurial activity and the creation of new businesses on the economic growth of a country and the generation of jobs are recognised phenomenon worldwide (Sánchez, 2020). Entrepreneurship has been propagated as the remedy to high unemployment problems and stagnant economic growth (Audretsch,Carree, van Stel&Thurik, 2020; Dilanchiev, 2019; Chidiebere, Iloanya & Udunze, 2014). Entrepreneurial attitude promotes entrepreneurial intentions of students by raising their awareness of self-employment as a career option (Oguntimehin & Olaniran, 2017). Therefore, in this study, it was conceived that entrepreneurial attitude in terms of achievement attitude, personal control and business management skills is related to entrepreneurial intentions of graduating students.

THEORETICAL REVIEW

The concept of need for achievement (nAch) was formulated in the 1950s by McClelland, Clark, Roby and Atkinson 1958 underpinned the study. McClelland and his colleagues argue that high-nAch people are more likely than low-nAch people to engage in energetic and innovative activities that require planning for the future and entail an individual’s responsibility for task outcomes. McClelland (1961) argues that high-nAch people are constantly preoccupied with a desire for improvement and look for situations in which successful outcomes are directly correlated with their efforts so that they can claim credit for success (Collins, Hanges& Locke, 2021). People with strong need for achievement often assess themselves as a way to measure progress towards various ends to get feedback about their performance. They set goals: strive to take moderate risks (that is to say challenging, but realistic); prefer individual activities; prefer recreational activities during which a person can get a ‘score’ (like sales target); and prefer occupations where performance data are clearly available, such as sales positions (Uduji&Ankeli, 2021). People with high-nAch set more difficult but achievable goals for themselves because success with easily achievable goals hardly provides a sense of achievement. They derive greater pleasure and excitement from solving a complex problem than from financial incentives and simple praise (Chandan, 2019). This means that people with a higher n Ach have higher entrepreneurial intention. This theory partially covers the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention by explaining that the entrepreneurial attitude of need for achievement relates to entrepreneurial intent. This theory thus further related entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial intent.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Entrepreneurial Attitude and Entrepreneurial Intent

Attitude refers the mental or neural state of readiness, organised through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence on the individual’s response to all objects and situations to which it is related. It is a mind-set or a tendency to act in a particular way due to both an individual’s experience and temperament (Pickens, 2018). Schwarz and Bohner (2019) contend that an attitude is an enduring organisation of motivational, emotional, perceptual, and cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of the individual’s world. It is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour. Attitudes are beliefs directed towards a person, object or event, and may facilitate positive or negative reactions. They are favourable or unfavourable evaluative reactions toward something or someone exhibited in one’s beliefs, feelings or intended behaviour (Perry, Conner & Shelar, 2008). Jowell (2022) posits that attitudes are generally understood to be formed through a process of individual subjective evaluation (involving a rational assessment of costs and benefits), but also influenced by affective and emotional responses and related beliefs. They are specific to an object or behaviour while more generic, relating to a wider world view, and tend to be more stable. Pickens (2018) surmises that   typically, referring to a person’s attitudes simply explains an individual’s behaviour. Attitudes cover personality, beliefs, values, behaviours, and motivations. They help individuals define how they seesituations, as well as define how they behavetoward the situation or object.

Dash (2020) indicates that attitudes are learned tendencies that make people evaluate things in a certain way. This can include evaluations of people, issues, objects or events. Such evaluations are often positive or negative, but they can also be uncertain at times. For example, one might have mixed feelings about a particular person or issue.  Byrka (2018) indicates that such evaluations are specificity and stability. Specificity is disposition-like general attitudes toward such stimuli as physical objects, social issues, or social groups. Stability refers to specific behaviours with respect to an attitude object.  According to Inegbenebor and Ogunrin (2021), three components or facets of attitudes have been identified, namely; cognition also referred to as thoughts, cognitive or informational facet, affect also referred to as the affective, feeling or emotional facet, and behavioural or predisposition component. The cognitive or thought component pertains to information, opinions, perceptions or beliefs which someone has about a person, an issue or object. Affect is either a positive, neutral or negative feeling about the said person, issue or object. The behavioural component is the intention, tendency or predisposition (not actual behaviour) to behave in a certain manner toward the person, issue or object in question. With respect to entrepreneurial attitude, entrepreneurial attitude is defined as the conscious mind that leads towards business start-up as a target (Vaghefi et al., 2017). Entrepreneurial attitude includes need for achievement, personal control over entrepreneurial (Pihie & Bagheri,  2018) and self-referent beliefs (Laguna, 2013).

Need for achievement Attitude and Entrepreneurial Intention

Need for achievement is defined as a person’s desire either for excellence or to succeed in a competitive situation. This includes orientation of increasing past achievement, willing to increase responsibility, overcome difficult tasks as good as possible, show better performance than others (Susetyo&Lestaria, 2020). The need for achievement is based on expectations of doing something better or faster than others or better than the person’s earlier accomplishments (Samydevan et al. 2017). In the entrepreneurship context, need for achievement refers to the perceived results and outcomes of a new venture creation that drives one to take the burden and responsibility of starting and growing a business (Pihie&Bagheri, 2020). Individuals who score high on the need for achievement are attracted to work situations in which they have personal control over outcomes, face moderate risk of failure, and experience direct and timely feedback on their performance. Therefore, these individuals are attracted to entrepreneurship because it offers more of these conditions than most traditional forms of employment (Zhao et al., 2017).

Asmara et al. (2016) indicate that need for achievement is one of the characteristics of a person’s personality that will encourage him to have the intention of entrepreneurship. There are three attributes attached to someone who has the need for achievement which has the responsibility to make decisions, willing to take risks in accordance with their capabilities and have interest to always learn. Individuals who have a high need for achievement will be better able to engage in an activity or task that has a high responsibility, requiring skill and effort, have a level of risk, and which require feedback on performance rather than the individual who has Need for Achievement low. Thus, individuals who have a Need for High Achievement will be more likely to become an entrepreneur. Kusmintarti, Thoyib, Ashar and Maskie (2019) state that the need for achievement will make someone have better hopes or do something better or faster than other people or better than his previous achievement or than other previous people. The need for achievement will push someone to look for an entrepreneurial job to reach a higher achievement than another job. Need for achievement has a positive and significant influence on entrepreneurial tendency. Dahalan, Jaafar and Rosdi (2019) contend that achievement is a strong psychological force behind human action and it is a factor influencing entrepreneurial behaviour. Individuals with a high need for achievement have a strong desire to be successful and are actively searching for opportunities to succeed. There are different scholars (e.g. Asmara et al., 2016; Collins, Hanges& Locke, 2020; Dahalan et al., 2015; Ferreira, Raposo, Gouveia Rodrigues, Dinis and do Paço, 2020; Kusmintarti et al., 2014;  Susetyo&Lestaria, 2014; Tang & Tang, 2007; Uddin & Bose, 2017)  that relate the need for achievement to entrepreneurship intent. For instance, Asmara et al. (2016) sought to determine the effect of need for achievement on entrepreneurial intention, using students from the Department of Management at Faculty of Economics, State University of Malang in Indonesia. The findings show the need for achievement had direct effect on entrepreneurship intention

Collins et al. (2020) conducted a meta-analysis of the relationship between achievement motivation and variables associated with entrepreneurial behaviour. In their findings, achievement motivation is significantly correlated with both choice of an entrepreneurial career and entrepreneurial performance.Dahalan et al. (2015) examine the relationship between attitude (attitude toward money, attitude toward start-up) and entrepreneurial intention using local populations in Lenggong valley in Malaysia. The findings show that need for achievements, that is attitude toward money and attitude toward start-up influence entrepreneurial intention. The results reveal that relationship between attitude toward start-up and entrepreneurial intention is mediated by opportunity recognition. Ferreira et al. (2021) seek to develop and test a comprehensive structural equation model which combines both psychological and behavioural perspectives aiming to identify what variables had influence on entrepreneurial intention of secondary students in Portugal. The results show that need for achievement positively affects entrepreneurial intention. Kusmintarti et al. (2014) analyse the role of entrepreneurial attitude as a mediator of entrepreneurial characteristics influence on entrepreneurial intention using students of semester one to the last semester of State Polytechnic of Malang and Brawijaya University in Indonesia. The results reveal that the need for achievement in terms of motivation to reach present achievement, motivation to reach future achievement, motivation to do the job and motivation to reach more achievement than others have a positive significant effect on entrepreneurial intention.

Susetyo and Lestaria (2019) analyse the antecedences of entrepreneurial intention through self-efficacy and entrepreneurial attitudes using students taking entrepreneurial classes and courses from various universities in Semarang, Indonesia. Structural modelling results reveal that the effects of the need for achievement on entrepreneurial intention are insignificant. Tang and Tang (2015) seek to propose and empirically test a model of the entrepreneurial process that examine the dynamic relationships between entrepreneurs’ personality characteristics and environmental conditions using data from Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) on US nascent entrepreneurs. Findings reveal that entrepreneurs’ achievement motivation significantly and positively relate to new venture creation. Uddin and Bose (2012) test a causal model in context of business students of Bangladesh to identify what determines their intentions to be an entrepreneur using Bachelor and Masters Students in public and private universities in Bangladesh. The model results show that the need for achievement statistically and significantly determining the intention of students.

Personal Control and Entrepreneurial Intent

Personal control is the extent to which people see themselves as being in control of the forces that importantly affect their lives (Creed &Bartrum, 2021).  Personal control is the belief that one has at one’s disposal a response that can influence an event. Three types of personal control are decisional control, informational control and behavioural control. Decisional control refers to the degree to which one can choose among various courses of action. Informational control refers to the information available to the subject and the way in which an event is interpreted, appraised, or incorporated into a cognitive plan. Behavioural control refers to the ability of a response that may directly influence or modify the objective characteristics of an event (Dion, 2017). On his part, Hassan (2015) indicates that personal control has two components that are autonomy and impact. Accordingly, autonomy refers to the level of discretion that employees perceive to have over work behaviours, whereas impact is the extent to which individuals believe they are able to influence decisions or outcomes in their workgroup. Personal control is high when an individual believes that he has considerable discretion in determining their work behaviour and influence on decisions in a workgroup. Apparently, given that personal control is a basic psychological need, lower personal control increases dissatisfaction and leads to a sense of helplessness, whereas higher personal control increases satisfaction and leads to a sense of empowerment resulting to entrepreneurial intent.

Caliendo and Kritikos (2012) argue that a main driver of entrepreneurship is the need for autonomy. Stepping into self-employment means becoming your own boss and the need for autonomy as a non-financial value becomes an important explanation when entrepreneurs make this career choice although their financial outcome might be lower when compared to alternatives. Amma and Fahad (2013) examine four traits connected with entrepreneurship, namely the need for achievement, autonomy, risk-taking, and self-confidence students of Sohar University in Oman as units of analysis. Their regression results reveal that there was a significant relationship between autonomy and intention to start-up business. Autio, Keeley, Klofsten,  Parker & Hay (2001) provide a test of the robustness of the intent approach using international comparisons using students from the universities of Helsinki University of Technology in Finland, Linko¨ping University in Sweden, the University of Colorado in USA, and Stanford University in the USA. Regression findings indicate that perceived behavioural control was the most important determinant of entrepreneurial intent.

Malebana (2014) investigated the entrepreneurial intentions final-year commerce students in a rural university in the Limpopo province in South Africa. Regression results indicate that perceived behavioural control had a positive significant influence on entrepreneurial intention. Schlaegel and Koenig (2014) in a meta-analysis and integration of competing models sought to establish the determinants of entrepreneurial intent. Correlation results show that perceived behavioural control had a positive significant correlation with entrepreneurial intent. Uddin and Bose (2020) in their study testing a causal model in context of business students of Bangladesh to identify what determines their intentions to be an entrepreneur used students at Bachelor and Master Level in public and private universities. Their regression results reveale that autonomy has a positive significant influence on entrepreneurial intention. Van Gelderen et al. (2022) investigate the entrepreneurial intentions of business students using undergraduate students of business administration at four different universities in the Netherlands. Their regression findings reveal that perceived behavioural control had a positive significant influence on entrepreneurial intent.

Self-Referent Beliefs and Entrepreneurial Intention

Self-referent beliefs are convictions a person holds about him/ herself, including the appraisals of their own worth and capabilities. Self referent beliefs include self-efficacy and self-esteem (Laguna, 2013). Self-efficacy is what an individual believes he/ he can accomplish using his/ her skills under certain situations. Self-efficacy is a task-specific version of self-esteem, a self-fulfilling prophecy (Samydevan et al., 2015).Self-efficacy applies to the judgments people formulate about their own capacity to act in specific situations or to cope with specific tasks (Laguna, 2013). Self-efficacy is the difference in how people feel, think, behave, and are motivated. In terms of feeling, a low sense of self-efficacy is associated with stress, depression, anxiety, and helplessness. Individuals with a low sense of self efficacy have low self-esteem and are pessimistic about their accomplishments and personal development. In terms of thinking, a strong sense of efficacy facilitates cognitive processes and performance in a variety of settings, including quality of decision making and academic achievement. People with high self-efficacy approach difficult tasks as challenges and do not try to avoid them.  People’s self-efficacy beliefs determine their level of motivation, as reflected in how much effort they will exert in an endeavour and how long they will persevere in the face of obstacles (Zulkosky, 2019). Unless people believe that their actions can produce the outcomes they desire, they have little incentive to act or to persevere in the face of difficulties. Therefore, self-efficacy beliefs affect virtually every aspect of people’s lives including entrepreneurial intention (Van Vuuren, de Jong & Seydel, 2020).

People with high levels of self-efficacy are more likely to set higher goals, commit to challenges that are more difficult, and strive to meet those goals because human behaviour is regulated by forethought embodying cognised goals, and personal goal setting is influenced by self-appraisal of capabilities. Individuals with high self-efficacy achieve the goals by visualising successful outcomes instead of dwelling on the potential negative consequences. A major function of thought is to enable people to predict the occurrence of events and to create the means for exercising control over those that affect their daily lives (Zulkosky, 2019). Entrepreneurial self-efficacy has influence over people’s learning ability, motivation and performance, as these people will often attempt to learn and perform tasks which they believe they will be successful (Samydevan et al., 2015). Entrepreneurial self-efficacy involves extending self-efficacy theory to the venture domain to explain how personal efficacy expectations might develop differently in entrepreneurial activities and management (Peng, Kong &Turvey, 2015).

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy means the beliefs in individuals’ capacities to successfully perform the tasks required for starting and managing a new business and their expectations towards the outcomes of creating a new venture. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy affects a wide array of individual behaviours and performance. It can also predict crucial aspects related to attitudes and entrepreneurial intentions (Kickul, Wilson, Marlino, & Barbosa 2008). According to Peng et al. (2015) entrepreneurial self-efficacy has been conceptualised as composing of five distinct dimensions, namely; resource acquisition, opportunity recognition, interpersonal relations, risk management and innovation management. Resource acquisition is the accessibility by an individual to the basic requirements when they create a new business, such as human capital, funds, materials (such as raw materials), information, and other basic business needs. Opportunity recognition relates to a kind of subjective judgment and discernment by an individual of business opportunities when they arise, thereby enabling them to further implement entrepreneurial behaviour. Interpersonal relations refer to the relationships of an individual in their social environment, their asset level, and their social status. Risk management relates to the ability of individuals to predict risk and to prevent these risky events from taking place; that is, they can handle and control the risk emergence effectively and reduce the loss quickly. Innovation management is concerned with the ability of individuals who take part in reforming management processes to reduce the influence derived from the traditional cultural environment by using their own knowledge, technology, and management methods to manage the entrepreneurial process.

With respect to self-esteem, this is an individual’s subjective evaluation of his or her worth as a person. Self-esteem is a feeling that one is good enough. It involves feelings of self-acceptance and self-respect (Orth & Robins, 2014). Self-esteem is associated with decision to take action, with perseverance in it, or with resignation. High self-esteem people are more effective in self-regulation and more persistent after a single failure. Self-esteem negatively predicts avoidance of personal goals, people with a higher level of self-esteem adopt approach goals and are more ready to orient toward positive objects and opportunities in the environment. They are also more ready to undertake risky activities, while people with a low level of self-esteem tend to avoid tasks connected with risk (Laguna, 2013). Gheyassi (2016) contends that self-esteem is a foundation of the tendency for entrepreneurship because a high level of self-esteem decreases anxiety and low self-esteem results in anxiety and loss. Therefore, overcoming anxiety is one of the main characteristics of entrepreneurs. Different scholars (Gheyassi, 2016;  Laguna, 2013;  Moa-Liberty, Tunde &Tinuola, 2016; Murugesan&Jayavelu, 2017; Ngah, Rahman &Buyong, 2016; Peng et al., 2015; Pihie&Bagheri, 2013) have related self-referent beliefs to entrepreneurial intention. For instance, Gheyassi (2016) investigates the impact of belief in self-efficacy and self-esteem on the tendency for entrepreneurship among university students using undergraduate and postgraduate students studying agriculture and natural resources at the University of Zabol in Iran. Regression results indicate that self- efficacy belief and self-esteem had a positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurship tendency.

Laguna (2017) investigates the role of self-referent beliefs in entrepreneurial intention formation and business start-up using the unemployed people registered with the employment agency and focused on business plan preparation in Poland. Regression findings show that self-esteem, general self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy were positively related to the intention of starting a business. Moa-Liberty et al. (2016) examine the influence of self-efficacy and socio-demographic factors on the entrepreneurial intentions of selected Youth Corp members with National Youth Service Corp members in Lagos State as units of analysis.  Regression results show that self-efficacy has a positive significant influence on entrepreneurial intentions. Murugesan and Jayavelu (2017) investigate the influence of self-efficacy (SE) on entrepreneurial intentions with students enrolled in Bachelor of Technologyin the academic year of 2008– 2009 in the university of National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (southern India) as units of analysis. Regression results reveal that self-efficacy had a positive significant influence on entrepreneurial intention. Ngah et al. (2016) explore the relationship between Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy (ESE) and Entrepreneurial Intention (EI) using BBA Entrepreneurship students who have taken entrepreneurship subjects as well as attended entrepreneurship seminars and workshops for the last two years of their studies at a Malaysian university.  Regression results show that ESE had a strong and positive direct impact on students’ EI. Peng et al. (2015) studies the impact of self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intentions using farmers in Shaanxi province in the two counties of Fu-feng and Hu-xian in the Yang-ling District of China. Structural modelling results show that self-efficacy had a significant and positive impact on farm households’ entrepreneurial intentions. Pihie and Bagheri (2013) examine the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention using public and private Malaysian university students as units of analysis. Regression results reveal that students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy had a significant and positive impact on their intention to become entrepreneur.

METHODOLOGY

This study adopts the cross-sectional and causal-comparative research designs. Cross-sectional research design is a type of research study by which the entire population or a subset thereof is selected, and from these individuals, data are collected to help answer research questions of interest. It is called cross-sectional because the information about a study problem that is gathered represents what is going on at only one point in time (Olsen & Marie, 2021). In the cross-sectional study, the researcher compares two different groups within the same parameters (Williams, 2019). In a cross sectional study, all the measurements for a sample member are obtained at a single point in time. A cross sectional study is particularly suitable for estimating the prevalence of a phenomenon in a population. Cross sectional studies are generally quick, easy, and cheap to perform. A cross sectional study is based on a questionnaire survey helping to collect data that gather large amounts of data easily (Sedgwick, 2014). Therefore, using the cross-sectional design, the researcher was able to collect appropriate data quickly and cheaply. With respect to causal-comparative research design, it focuses on determining if a cause effect relationship exists between one factor of set of factors, the independent variable(s) and a second factor or set of factors, the dependent variable(s) (Ellis & Levy, 2018). In the causal comparative research, the researcher examines how the independent variables are affected by the dependent variables and involves cause and effect relationships between the variables. The factorial design focuses on two or more categories with the independent variables as compared to the dependent variable. The causal comparative research design provides the researcher with the opportunity to examine the interaction between independent variables and their influence on dependent variables (Williams, 2019). Using causal comparative design, the researcher collected data that enabled regression analysis to establish whether entrepreneurship education predicted entrepreneurial intent.

Data analysis

Qualitative data was done through thematic and content analysis. Thematic analysis involved comparing the emerged codes of clusters together and in relation to the entire data set comprising the main components of data analysis. Thematic analysis helped in identifying links between elements, domains and dimensions of participants’ perspective (Vaismoradi, Jones, Turunen&Snelgrove, 2016). Content analysis involved establishing the occurrence of selected terms within a text or texts .The data was interpreted by composing explanations and substantiating them using the respondents open responses. While analysing qualitative data, conclusions were reached on how different variables were related (Renner & Taylor-Powell, 2020).Quantitative data analysis was  done using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS 24.0) involved calculation of descriptive statistics namely, frequencies, percentages and means for descriptive analysis. For inferential statistics, correlation and regression analyses were used in the testing of hypothesis.

DATA PRESENTATION

Response Rate

In spite of the reminders and follow ups, for about four weeks, 18 respondents did not complete and return their questionnaires, therefore out of the 453 respondents that make the sample for this study, 435 responded to the questionnaire. This presents a response rate of 96.03%.

 Table 1: Response Rate

Source: Primary Data

The results in Table 1 indicates that questionnaire Data were collected from 83(73.5%) out of the initially anticipated 115 anticipated to provide data. With respect to data for the interview from managers of the companies, data were collected from all 5(100%) respondents initially determined to provide interview data. The overall response rate for both questionnaires was 74.6%. This was considered an appropriate response rate because according to Nulty (2008), in social research a response rate of 50.0% is acceptable.

On this educational entrepreneurial attitudes aspect, the respondents were asked whether they were always struggling to achieve big things, trying to make improvements for each mistake or failure they suffered, had a strong urge to connect with other successful people, had a strong need for social relationships and always managed time. The respondents were also asked to tell if they always had time to do activities outside their work, enjoyed competing with other people and set challenging goals for themselves. The results were as presented in Table 2

Table 2: Frequencies, Percentages and Means for Achievement Attitude

Source: Primary Data

The results in Table 2 above on whether the respondents were always struggling to achieve big things showed that cumulatively the majority percentage (75.8%) of the respondents agreed with 24.1% disagreeing. The mean = 3.01 is close to three which on the scale used correspond to “agreed”. On the scale used three being agreed (high), the results suggest that the respondents indicated that always struggling to achieve big things. As to whether the respondents tried to make improvements for each mistake or failure they suffered, cumulatively the majority percentage (80.4%) of the respondents agreed with 19.5% disagreeing. The mean = 3.04 is close to three suggesting that the respondents agreed. These results thus suggest that the respondents tried to make improvements for each mistake or failure they suffered.

With respect to whether the respondents had strong urge to connect with other successful people, cumulatively the majority percentage (80.6%) of the respondents agreed with 19.3% disagreeing. The mean = 3.10 close to three suggest that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents had strong urge to connect with other successful people. As regards to whether the respondents’ had a strong need for social relationships, cumulatively the majority percentage (78.9%) of the respondents agreed with 21.2% disagreeing. The mean = 2.96 is close to three which correspond to agreed. These results suggest that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents had a strong need for social relationships.

As to whether the respondents always managed time, cumulatively the majority percentage (87.8%) of the respondents agreed with 12.2% disagreeing. The mean = 3.26 close to three suggest that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents indicated that they always managed time. Regarding whether the respondents always had time to do activities outside their work, cumulatively the majority percentage (79.3%) of the respondents agreed with 20.7% disagreeing. The mean = 3.29 close to three suggest that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents suggested that they always had time to do activities outside their work.

As to whether the respondents enjoyed competing with other people, cumulatively the majority percentage (82.8%) of the respondents agreed while 17.2% disagreeing. The mean = 3.10 close to three suggest that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents indicated that they enjoyed competing with other people. As to whether the respondents set challenging goals for themselves, cumulatively the majority percentage (75.2%) of the respondents agreed with 24.9% disagreeing. The mean = 2.93 close to three suggest that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents indicated that they set challenging goals for themselves. To ascertain whether the items in Table 2 above are valid items measuring achievement attitude, the items were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and then reliability test to confirm their reliability. The results are given Tables 3 and 4 below:

Table 3: Components on Achievement Attitude

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Table 3 above shows that the eight items on achievement attitude in Table 4.47 were reduced to as many components.  However, only the first two component have eigenvalues = 3.098 and 1.029 that exceed 1.00. This implies that there are two significant components. The factors explain 3.098/8 x 100 = 38.719% and 1.029/8 x 100 = 12.862% of the joint variation in the seven items. The factor loadings of the respective items on the component and their reliability index (Cronbach alpha, α) are given in Table 4 below: 

Table 4: Loadings and Cronbach Alphas for Items on Achievement Attitude

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

 Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalisation.

The loadings in Table 4 show that all the items load highly, that is above 0.50, on the first component and second components. The Cronbach alpha result in Table 4.49 (α = 0.751) exceeded the benchmark of 0.7meaning that the items for the respective constructs are reliable. This means that the items are internally consistent and therefore all items reliably measured achievement attitude. To establish the level of achievement attitude of the respondents participating in the study, all items in Table 4 were aggregated into one average index (achievement attitudes) whose summary statistics are given in Table 5 below:

Table 5: Summary statistics on Achievement Attitude

Source: Primary Data

      The results in Table 5 show that the mean = 2.90 is equal to the median = 3.00 suggesting normality of the results despite the negative skew (skew = -0.64). Besides, the mean and median close to three imply high achievement attitude because basing on the scale used, three represented agreed. The low standard deviation = 0.50 implies limited dispersion in the responses. The curve in Figure 1 confirms the suggested normality.

Figure 1 Histogram on Achievement Attitude

Figure 1 shows normal distribution of the responses obtained from the respondents. This means that the data obtained on achievement attitude could be subjected to linear correlation and regression and appropriate results obtained.

With regard to the question item in the section of the questionnaire survey requiring the respondents to give their summary assessment of their achievement attitude several responses were given but they all largely pointed to the fact that they wanted to achieve excellence in the business world. For example, one respondent stated, “I want to be one of the top business investors in this country and I believe I can achieve because I have the requisite skill and now all that I need to get is starting capital and access the help of people that matter in business in the country. That is my target.” Another respondent stated:

I enjoy achieving big and that is why I topped my class in academic performance. I will thus be able to achieve big if I join business. Besides I have been paying my fees through doing small businesses like supplying food staffs and other products at the canteens in the university, I will now establish myself as a businessman.

Another respondent stated: “I know that I cannot become rich by being employed by anybody. I will therefore struggle hard to ensure that I work for myself. I do not like being dominated by someone who on top of it pays me peanuts.” The views above suggest that students had a high need for achievement. They therefore, had entrepreneurship intent as a way of getting to the top and being independent. In the interviewees, the respondents pointed out that entrepreneurship education emphasises the need for achievement such that students develop the desire to become entrepreneurs.  One respondent revealed;

Entrepreneurship education develops the need for achievement in the students not only by making the students feel the urge to start enterprises but also to set their own goals in life and figuring out the means to achieve those set goals. Entrepreneur education helps students develop initiative and think big other than remaining hoping for the miracle of employment.

Another respondent said;

The way the curriculum has been designed tends the students towards developing the need for achievement. The theories and pedagogical approaches that are used to teach entrepreneurship and the kind of models in the degree program for entrepreneurship education generally tends to unleash the need for achievement in the students. Indeed today a number of students’ talk of starting their businesses which is the agenda promoted by the Nigerian government.

Similar to the above, another respondent stated;

The content, the theories and the pedagogical practices all promote the need for achievement. Therefore, teaching entrepreneurship education helps to produce people who want to achieve in business.  The entrepreneurship course energises and motivates students to the entrepreneurial task of establishing new businesses. This is because students are equipped with entrepreneurial competencies and behaviours both physical and soft skills.

The results presented above suggest that entrepreneurship education promoted the need for achievement in the students. These views concur with those of the students which showed that they had high need to achieve through establishing enterprises. These qualitative findings thus, closely relate to those of the descriptive results which showed that the need for achievement was high amongst the students.

Personal Control Attitude

On this educational entrepreneurial attitudes aspect, the respondents were asked whether they  kept working on difficult tasks without needing encouragement from others, preferred to dig for facts about something rather than learn from someone else, easily said no when they did not agree with someone’s idea and whether what other people thought had limited influence on their behaviour. The items also included whether group preferences rarely swayed them, they rarely depended on others for decisions, depended on their abilities to accomplish their activities and when involved in something they tried to find out all they could about what was going on even when someone else was in charge. The results are as presented in Table 4.51below:

Table 6: Frequencies, Percentages and Means for Personal Control Attitude

Source: Primary Data

The results in Table 7 above on whether the respondents kept working on difficult tasks without needing encouragement from others showed that cumulatively the larger percentage (55.9%) of the respondents agreed with 44.1% disagreeing. The mean = 2.57 is close to three which on the scale used correspond to “Agreed”. On the scale used three being agreed (high), the results suggest that the respondents indicated that they kept working on difficult tasks without needing encouragement from others. As to whether the respondents preferred to dig for facts about something rather than learn from someone else, cumulatively the larger percentage (66.2%) of the respondents agreed with 33.8% disagreeing. The mean = 2.71 is close to three suggesting that the respondents agreed. These results thus suggest that the respondents preferred to dig for facts about something rather than learn from someone else.

With respect to whether the respondents easily said no when they did not agree with someone’s idea, cumulatively the larger percentage (61.3%) of the respondents agreed with 38.6% disagreeing. The mean = 2.66 close to three suggests that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents easily said no when they did not agree with someone’s idea. As regards to whether the thinking of other people had limited influence on the respondents’ behaviour, cumulatively the majority percentage (75.8%) of the respondents agreed with 24.1% disagreeing. The mean = 2.88 is close to three which corresponds to agreed. These results suggest that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents indicated that the thinking of other people had limited influence on the respondents’ behaviour.

As to whether group preferences rarely swayed the respondents, cumulatively the majority percentage (93.3%) of the respondents agreed with 6.7% disagreeing. The mean = 3.32 close to three suggest that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents indicated that group preferences rarely swayed the respondents. Regarding whether the respondents rarely depended on others for decisions, cumulatively the majority percentage (84.1%) of the respondents agreed with 15.8% disagreeing. The mean = 3.09 close to three suggest that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents suggested they rarely depended on others for decisions. As to whether the respondents depended on their abilities to accomplish their activities, cumulatively the majority percentage (78.2%) of the respondents agreed while 21.9% disagreeing. The mean = 3.00 equal to three suggests that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents indicated that they depended on their abilities to accomplish their activities.

As to whether the respondents when they are  involved in something they tried to find out all  they could about what was going on even when someone else is in charge, cumulatively the majority percentage (76.1%) of the respondents agreed with 23.9% disagreeing. The mean = 3.00 equal to three suggest that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents indicated that even when not involved in something, they tried to find out all they could about what was going on even when someone else was in charge. To confirm whether the items in Table 6 are valid items measuringpersonal control attitude, the items were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and then reliability test to confirm their reliability. The results are given Tables 7 and 8 below;

Table 7 Components on Personal Control Attitude

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Table 7 shows that the eight items on personal control attitude However, only the first two component have eigenvalues = 3.595 and 1.404 that exceed 1.00. This implied that there are two significant components. The factors explain 3.595 /8 x 100 = 44.939% and 1.404/8 x 100 = 17.549% of the joint variation in the eight items. The factor loadings of the respective items on the component and their reliability index (Cronbach alpha, α) are given in 8 below:

 Table 8: Loadings and Cronbach Alphas for Items on Personal Control Attitude

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

 Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalisation.

The loadings in Table 8 show that all the items load highly, that is above 0.50, on the first component and second components. The Cronbach alpha result in Table 8 (α = 0.815) exceed the benchmark of 0.7meaning that the items for the respective constructs are reliable. This means that the items are internally consistent and therefore all items reliably measure achievement attitude. To establish the level of personal control attitude of the respondents participating the study, all items were aggregated into one average index (personal control attitude) whose summary statistics are given in Table 9:

Table 9:  Summary statistics on Personal Control Attitude

Source: Primary Data

The results in Table 9 show that the mean = 2.90 was equal to the median = 3.00 suggesting normality of the results despite the negative skew (skew = -0.64). Besides, the mean and median close to three imply high personal control attitude because basing on the scale used, three represented agreed. The low standard deviation = 0.50 implies limited dispersion in the responses. The curve in Figure 2 confirms the suggested normality.

Figure 2:  Histogram on Personal control Attitude

Figure 2 above shows normal distribution of the responses obtained from the respondents. This means that the data obtained on personal control attitude could be subjected to linear correlation and regression and appropriate results obtained.

With regard to the question item in the section of the questionnaire survey, the respondents were asked to give a summary assess or their personal control over events. The respondents gave views which pointed to the fact that because of entrepreneurship in education, they had developed an attitude of self control. The students revealed that in business, one has to take charge and in case of failure you continue pushing. One respondent stated, “I have learnt that for one to be a successful entrepreneur, he or she has to develop self control by understanding that business choices should not be based on impulse but on appropriate planning. I also know that faced with failure, I need to move on by not putting all my minds over what has been lost.”  Another respondent stated, “I know that whatever happens in my life is because of my personal choice. My choice is that I will join business because I can handle it. In the interviews, the respondents revealed that entrepreneurship education involved teaching of issues about risk taking and stress management. One respondent indicated that entrepreneurship provided counsel to the students building in them self control. The respondent indicated that entrepreneurial education touched emotional states including doubt, fear and aversion which individuals feel towards certain activities. This thus prepared students to know how to handle themselves in business ventures. The views affirm the descriptive statistics which indicated that self-control amongst the respondents was good.

Self-referent Beliefs Attitude

On this educational entrepreneurial attitudes aspect, the respondents were asked whether they were confident when handling any matter, trusted in their own business skills, on the whole they were satisfied with themselves, could always manage to solve difficult problems and were confident that they deal efficiently with unexpected events. The items included whether they remained calm when facing difficulties and business activities satisfied their expectations. The results are as presented in Table 10 below

Table 10: Frequencies, Percentages and Means for Self-referent Beliefs Attitude

Source: Primary Data

The results in Table 10 above on whether the respondents were confident when handling any matter showed that cumulatively the larger percentage (52.7%) of the respondents disagreed with 47.3% disagreeing. The mean = 2.50 is lowly close to three which on the scale used corresponds  to “Agreed”. On the scale used three being agreed (high), the results suggest that the respondents indicated that fairly, they were confident when handling any matter. As to whether the respondents trusted in their own business skills, cumulatively the larger percentage (63.4%) of the respondents disagreed with 36.5% agreeing. The mean = 2.42 was close two suggesting that the respondents disagreed. These results thus, suggest that the respondents trusted in their own business skills.

With respect to whether the respondents on the whole, were satisfied with themselves, cumulatively the larger percentage (62.1%) of the respondents agreed with 37.9% disagreeing. The mean = 2.85 close to three suggest that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents indicated that on the whole, were satisfied with themselves. As regards to whether the respondents could always manage to solve difficult problems, cumulatively the majority percentage (68.0%) of the respondents agreed with 31.9% disagreeing. The mean = 2.86 is close to three which corresponded to agreed. These results suggest that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents indicated that they could always manage to solve difficult problems.

As to whether the respondents were confident that they could deal efficiently with unexpected events, cumulatively the majority percentage (65.7%) of the respondents agreed with 34.3% disagreeing. The mean = 2.80 close to three suggest that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents indicated that they were confident that they could deal efficiently with unexpected events. Regarding whether the respondents remained calm when facing difficulties, cumulatively the majority percentage (67.6%) of the respondents agreed with 32.4% disagreeing. The mean = 2.88 close to three suggested that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents suggested they remained calm when facing difficulties.

As to whether business activities satisfied their expectations, cumulatively the majority percentage (77.9%) of the respondents agreed while 22.1% disagreeing. The mean = 2.99 close to three suggests that the respondents agreed. Therefore, the respondents indicated that business activities satisfied their expectations. To confirm whether the items in 10 are valid items measuringself-referent beliefs attitude, the items were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and then reliability test to confirm their reliability. The results are given Tables 11 and 12 below:

Table 11:  Components on Self-referent Beliefs Attitude

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Table 11 shows that the eight items on self-referent beliefs attitude .  However, only the first component has eight values = 3.176 that exceed 1.00. This implied that there are two significant components. The factors explain 3.176/7 x 100 = 45.370% of the joint variation in the seven items. The factor loadings of the respective items on the component and their reliability index (Cronbach alpha, α) are given in Table 12.

 Correlation between Entrepreneurial Attitudes and Entrepreneurial Intent

To establish whether there was a relationship entrepreneurial intent and entrepreneurial attitudes, correlation analysis was carried out relating the three aspects of entrepreneurial attitudes, namely achievement, personal control and self-referent beliefs to entrepreneurial intent. The results are given as in Table 13 below:

Table 13:  Correlation Matrix of Entrepreneurial Attitudes Intent and Entrepreneurial Attitudes

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The results in Table 13 above indicate that there is a positive and significant effect between entrepreneurial attitudes and entrepreneurship intent. For all the variables, the critical values were significant at lower than 0.05 level of significance. These results suggest that research hypothesis (H3) to the effect that there is a relationship between entrepreneurial attitudes and entrepreneurship intent was supported. However, the results show that self-referent beliefs and entrepreneurial intent (r = 0.453, p = 0.000 < 0.05) have a more significant relationship followed by entrepreneurial achievement (r = 0.312, p = 0000 < 0.05) and personal control (r = 0.270, p = 0.000 < 0.05). Therefore, at preliminary entrepreneurial attitudes correlated with entrepreneurial intent.

Regression of Entrepreneurial Intent on Entrepreneurial Attitudes

At the confirmatory level, to find out whether entrepreneurial attitudes predicted entrepreneurial intent, the dependent variable namely, entrepreneurial intent was regressed on entrepreneurial attitudes the third independent variable. The entrepreneurial attitudes were measured in terms of achievement, personal control and self-referent beliefs.  The results are as in Table 14.

Table 14:  Regression Model for Entrepreneurial Intent on Entrepreneurial Attitudes

Dependent Variable: Entrepreneurial Intent

The results in Table 14 above show that, the entrepreneurial attitudes explained 28.7% of the variation in entrepreneurial intent (adjusted R² = 0.287). This means that 71.3% of the variation was accounted for by other factors other than those considered under this model. The regression model was significant (F = 59.101, p = 0.000 < 0.05).  Nevertheless, the magnitudes of the respective betas suggest that entrepreneurial self-referent beliefs (β = 0.389, p = 0.000 < 0.05) have the most significant effect on entrepreneurial intent followed by entrepreneurial personal control (β = 0.216, p = 0.000 < 0.05) and entrepreneurial achievement (β = 0.184, p = 0.000 < 0.05) respectively.

CONCLUSION

Drawing on the findings of this study on entrepreneurial attitude and entrepreneurial intent it was concluded that, Achievement, personal control and self-referent beliefs are significant attitudes necessary for development of entrepreneurial intent. Nevertheless, entrepreneurial self-referent beliefs are the most significant entrepreneurial attitudes for entrepreneurial intent followed by entrepreneurial personal control and entrepreneurial achievement respectively.

RECOMMENDATION

Basing on the findings and conclusions of this study it was recommended that Managers of universities should establish teaching environments that create achievement, personal control and self-referent beliefs in students. This should be through ensuring that the teaching environments promote a competitive spirit, resilience, desire to succeed, hard work, independence and inquisitiveness.

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