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Entrepreneurial Intentions and Innovativeness Among Undergraduate Students in Oyo Town, Nigeria

Igbayilola, E.O.

Abstract

This paper examined the effect of innovativeness on entrepreneurship intentions among undergraduate students in some selected higher institutions in Oyo Town, Oyo State, Nigeria. In the context of Nigeria’s ongoing youth employment crisis and a spate toward self- employment, the role of innovativeness (creative ability, risk-taking propensity, and ideation) in influencing entrepreneurial intentions within semi-urban settings is less investigated. This study had a cross-sectional quantitative survey design, and the sample was composed of 397 undergraduate students recruited using stratified random sampling from three institutions. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire and analysed using Pearson correlation and regression analyses. The findings showed a moderate positive correlation between creative ability and entrepreneurial intention (r = 0.437, p < 0.001), so the first null hypothesis was rejected. Risk-taking propensity significantly predicted entrepreneurial intention (β = 0.288, p < 0.001), but it accounted merely for 8.3% of the variance thus rejecting H02. Among the second independent variables, ideation had the most powerful influence (β = 0.501, p < 0.001), explaining 25.1% of variance in entrepreneurial intention which led to rejection of third null hypothesis. The research finds that innovativeness is a positive predictor of entrepreneurial intention, but it’s ideation the ability to extract concrete, diverse and executable business ideas which held the strongest predictive power. Hence, seeing that there is open creative potential amongst them, entrepreneurship education in semi-urban settings must focus on practice-based ideation training rather than generic business plan writing to channel students’ creativity into viable entrepreneurial ideas.

Keywords

Creative ability; Entrepreneurship; Ideation; Innovativeness; Risk-taking propensity

References

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