Agro-Based Entrepreneurial Intentions in Selected Nigerian Universities in South-South Nigeria: A Stimulus-Organism- Response (SOR) Framework Approach to Understanding Student Motivation
Abstract
The present study seeks to investigate agro-based entrepreneurial intentions of university students in some selected institutions in South-South Nigeria based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response theory to examine the psychological mechanism by which stimuli impact the motivation of students towards engaging in agribusiness ventures. While there are immense agricultural resources in Nigeria and the federal government's policy on economic diversification, the engagement of youth in agro-based business remains very low, especially in the oil-rich South- South region where agriculture is viewed as an unglamorous and subsistent venture. Based on the SOR model first proposed by Mehrabian and Russell (1974), this paper conceptualizes entrepreneurial stimuli (agricultural entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship and agricultural curriculum content, government agribusiness policy, mentorship and role modeling, and provision of finance and land) as factors which influence the organism states of students (attitude towards agribusiness, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and desirability and feasibility perception) which in turn influences their agro-based entrepreneurial intentions. Cross-sectional survey design was used for the study. Using a structured and validated questionnaire, data were collected from 400 final year undergraduate students who were selected purposively from four public universities in the states of Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, and Bayelsa in South-South Nigeria. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) analysis was conducted in SmartPLS 4.0. It is observed that entrepreneurial stimuli have a significant effect on organism- level factors (β = 0.612, p < .001) which in turn significantly influence agro-based entrepreneurial intentions (β = 0.548, p < .001), with organism states significantly mediating stimulus–response relationship. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy proved to be the strongest organism level predictor.
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