GENDER INFLUENCE ON ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOUR OF NIGERIAN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

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GENDER INFLUENCE ON ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOUR OF
NIGERIAN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

• Afolabi O. O., Siyanbola W. O.1, Egbetokun A.
  A., Dada A. D., Sanni M. and Jesuleye O. A.
• 1 Corresponding Author
• Willie O. Siyanbola, B.Sc (Ife), M.Sc, Ph.D
  (Sussex), FMSNDirector General/Chief
  ExecutiveNational Centre for Technology
  Management (NACETEM), Federal Ministry of
  Science Technology (FMST),Obafemi Awolowo
  University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Paper presented at the 3rd SMU EDGE Conference
in Singapore between 9th and 11th of July,2008
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INTRODUCTION

• An entrepreneur is a person who recognises
  opportunities, has ideas and uses them to create
  or develop a business (Gartner, 1998).
• It has generally been argued that the
  institutions of higher learning is one of the
  best places to nurture these characteristics
  (Wang and Wong, 2004).
• For this reason, NACETEM carried out a study of
  entrepreneurial attitudes in Nigerian tertiary
  institutions

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INTRODUCTION

• Female entrepreneurs are considered important for
  economic development (Verheul and Thurik, 2001).
• Very little literature is available, even at the
  international level, on the factors that
  influence student entrepreneurship on the basis
  of gender.

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This Presentation

• Part of a much larger study Assessment of
  Technological Entrepreneurial Attitude in
  Nigerian Tertiary Institutions
• Key Themes
• Influence of
• Age
• Gender
• Academic Performance
• Entrepreneurial Education
• Family
• Ethnicity
• etc

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Objectives

• Quantify students and lecturers interest and
  involvement in entrepreneurial practice
• Assess the influence of specific factors on
  entrepreneurial attitude
• Evaluate the existing entrepreneurial education
  curricula in the institutions

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Scope

• Undergraduate students from Nigerian tertiary
  institutions were the main subjects lecturers
  were secondary targets
• Over 7500 students and over 1200 lecturers
  sampled
• 13 Universities 9 Polytechnics 3 CoE (Tech)

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METHODOLOGY

• Data was collected among undergraduates of 25
  tertiary institutions in Nigeria using
  questionnaire.
• The questionnaire elicited information on
  socio-economic background of the students, their
  entrepreneurial interest and involvement, among
  several other explanatory variables.

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OBJECTIVES OF THIS WORK

• To assess gender differentials in students
  interest and involvement in entrepreneurial
  practice in Nigeria.
• To establish whether or not there are different
  factors explaining female and male
  entrepreneurship in Nigeria.

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METHODOLOGY

• Respondents were selected from penultimate and
  final year classes because they are closer to
  making career choices and will be more
  representative of student entrepreneurial
  tendencies.
• We investigated the relationship between a set of
  explanatory variables and the entrepreneurial
  behaviour of male and female students separately.

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Location of selected institutions
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DEPENDENT VARIABLES

• The dependent variables are
• Entrepreneurial interest (EI) disaggregated on
  the basis of gender into
• Male EI (MEI) and
• Female EI (FEI)
• Present entrepreneurial involvement (EINV)
  disaggregated on the basis of gender into
• Male EINV and
• Female EINV

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INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

• The explanatory variables are
• Social characteristics
• Families entrepreneurial history
• Academic characteristics and
• Risk perception
• Correlation analysis was used to evaluate the
  relationship between the dependent variables and
  independent variables

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KEY FINDINGS

• Our results show that there is indeed a gender
  disparity in the
• entrepreneurial interest (EI) and
• entrepreneurial involvement (EINV) of the
  students.

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KEY FINDINGS

• There was a higher incidence of male student
  entrepreneurs (29.2) than female student
  entrepreneurs (23.2).
• The tendency of male undergraduates to do
  business while in school (MEINV) does indeed
  differ from that of their female counterparts
  (FEINV) (?2 24.51 p lt 0.001),
• Male undergraduates are more likely to be student
  entrepreneurs (r 0.065 p lt 0.001).

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KEY FINDINGS

• MEI (87.4) was found to be higher than FEI
  (77.0).
• Interest of male students in entrepreneurship
  (MEI) significantly differs from that of female
  students (FEI) (?2 104.26 p lt 0.001)
• Male students show higher interest in
  entrepreneurship (r 0.135 p lt 0.001).

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KEY FINDINGS

• We also found a gender-based disparity in the
  correlates of EI and EINV.

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KEY FINDINGS

• Age, ethnicity and academic performance would
  matter for FEINV, they are not important for
  MEINV.
• On the contrary, parent-related variables such as
  fathers and mothers education are significantly
  associated with MEINV.

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KEY FINDINGS

• Familys entrepreneurial history, as reflected in
  incidence of entrepreneurs in the family, as well
  as students exposure to entrepreneurial
  education are significantly associated with EI
  and EINV for male and female students.

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KEY FINDINGS

• MEI is significantly associated with marital
  status, ethnicity, family size and parents
  education.
• FEI is similarly associated with marital status,
  ethnicity and parents education but not with
  family size.

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POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• A gender imbalance exists in student
  entrepreneurship with male students possessing
  superior interest and level of involvement.
• The dissimilarities in the factors that influence
  male and female student entrepreneurship suggest
  the need for gender-sensitive policies and
  programmes on entrepreneurship, especially in the
  developing country context within which this
  study is situated.
• Specifically, attention should be paid to female
  students age, ethnicity and school grades in
  designing such policies/programmes.

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POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• Providing entrepreneurial education to students
  would positively influence their interest in
  entrepreneurship.
• The influence of entrepreneurial parents/close
  relatives as positive influencers is also
  indicated.
• From the forgoing, there is the need for
  appropriate policy interventions if indeed female
  entrepreneurship is to be optimised.

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