Entrepreneurship

Crowdfunding: Antecedents of Number of Backers and Success of a Project (Published)

This paper offers a discussion of the projects of a crowdfunding platform and exposes the determinants of the success and failure dynamics of crowdfunding projects. We have shown with two different models’ estimation that the probability of success comes through attracting a greater number of backers and demonstrated the antecedents of attracting sufficient number of backers. Drawing around 303,582 projects from an artistic crowdfunding platform this paper attempts to show that number of backers of a project depend on factors such as goal amount, time between project start and end date, amount pledged by backers, and the main category of the project. The project success ultimately comes through the accomplishment of being able to bring adequate number of backers. We have contributed to the crowdfunding projects’ success-failure dynamics research by offering important insights with two different models and discussing options that can still be explored in this area

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, alternative financing, backers., crowdfunding, new venture financing

Entrepreneurship Development and Youth Employment in Nigeria: Perspectives on Selected Entrepreneurship Schemes (Published)

The study examined the relationship between entrepreneurship development and youth employment in Nigeria. It focused on two empowerment schemes: Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YEDP) and Youth Initiative for Sustainable Agriculture in Nigeria (YISA). The nation’s unemployment record, especially among youth, is alarming. A National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report in 2018 shows that, out of the 85million labour force in Nigeria, 34million are unemployed and underemployed youths, with 25million largely uneducated. The YEDP and YISA schemes were designed to train and make youths entrepreneurs that would be self-employed and also employ others. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to show that in spite of the conscious and frantic efforts by government and non-governmental organizations through the framework of YEDP and YISA to address the unemployment challenge in the country not so much has been achieved. The study revealed that the programmes have created a number of entrepreneurs and employment for young people across the country. Nonetheless, these efforts have not significantly yielded the desired outcomes of massive job creation for the youths and ensuring national food security. To achieve desired results, using the agricultural value chain, there is need to adopt scientific knowledge based agricultural production. Hence the paper concluded that for Nigeria to address the twin challenges of massive unemployment and national food insecurity agricultural activities should be scientific and greatly modernized. The study recommended, among other things, that integrated farming approach, involving large variety of activities per hectare should be adopted and there should be substantial investment in R&D to generate new ideas and high yielding seeds for the new entrepreneur-farmers.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Food Security, Uneducated., Unemployment, Value Chain, Youths

Effects of International Marketing Environments on Entrepreneurship Development (Published)

Entrepreneurs all over the world seeks ways of introducing their products to international markets, unfortunately the international marketing environment pose a lot of opportunities and threats to foreign entrants. The cultural environment and political and technological environment has a lot to do in entrepreneurial success in global markets. This study employed the descriptive research design and questionnaires were used as instruments for gathering the much needed data. Findings revealed that the technological advancement has less significant impact on business transactions of international entrepreneurs which could be traceable to the fact that not all entrepreneurs are technological inclined to transact businesses. Furthermore, the political systems and governmental regulations on business dealings have a lot to do with entrepreneurial success in the international markets. The study recommends the establishment of a supportive governmental framework to serve as a platform for the willing entrepreneurs to succeed in the international market.

Keywords: Comparative Advantage, Entrepreneurship, International, Market, Nigeria

Agripreneurship Curriculum Development in Nigerian Higher Institutions (Published)

Sustainable agriculture has remained a subject of debate in Nigeria for decades without tangible results. Between 2001 and 2007, agricultural sector accounted for 40 percent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and 51 percent of job creation. However, in 2015 agriculture accounted for only 17.77% of Nigeria’s GDP (National Bureau of Statistics, 2015). These figures are indications that agriculture has not met the need of the country, and reveal the dwindling nature of the sector. The declining nature of agriculture calls for a new strategy that will support agricultural development in Nigeria. This paper aims to advance agripreneurship education in Nigerian Universities by attempting to develop a curriculum that will trigger agriprenuership taught classes in Universities in Nigeria in attempt to increase youth and farmers participation in agripreneurship and improve the agricultural sector in general.

Keywords: Agripreneurship, Development, Entrepreneurship, Nigeria, University

Dare to be Entrepreneurial: A Student’s Nightmare (Published)

In recent past, governments have focused on developing strategies to help curb the alarming rates of unemployment especially amongst graduates of tertiary institutions in Ghana. This is as a result of the failure of students to explore opportunities owing to the challenges associated with entrepreneurial activities. In addition, the lack of proper training and intervention strategies in influencing the intention levels of students also pose a colossal task in tackling the unemployment levels in the country. A sample size of 267 was selected using the stratified and convenience sampling method for the study. Data was analysed using Structural equation modelling. The findings reveal that all the three variables: entrepreneurial attitudes, perceived support and instrumental readiness influenced entrepreneurial intentions. The findings of the study imply that when entrepreneurial attitudes are favourable as well as capital, coupled with support from a student’s network, can influence entrepreneurial intentions. Recommendations for future research are also discussed.

Keywords: Attitudes Towards Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Activity, Entrepreneurship, Start-Ups

The Valuation of Student Entrepreneurs and Their Business Plans Using Factor Analysis (Published)

This work analyzes investor assessment of students’ business plan, with the hope of boosting their confidence level as they venture into business. The main goal of this study is to prove if investor support programs can assist students to get requisite know-how in becoming entrepreneurs, such that they could be great business tycoons after school. Conscientiousness or due diligence in entrepreneurship could be an approach of a modern-day investor to increase the confidence level of entrepreneurs being groomed in universities by identifying entrepreneurial skills in students and mentoring them. This forms a part of the investors’ strategy to make use of internal resources and skills, as well as opportunities and risks created by its external environment in venturing into a business. The entrepreneur is usually seen as an innovator, a source of new ideas, resources and business dealings. Identifying business opportunities, self-confidence and seed capital were found to be the most important attributes in motivating students to start a new venture. The authors of this study performed this kind of research using Factor Analysis.

Keywords: Business Plan, Entrepreneurship, Investors, Students

Analytical Review of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Nigeria (Published)

The primary purpose of business is the supply of goods and services to satisfy the societal needs. Wherever people live in conurbations, there is always the need for goods and services. These goods and services are supplied by institutions such as the family, the voluntary organization, the business firms, local, state and federal government. Also, the importance of credit facilities from both the bank and non-bank financial institutions cannot be overemphasized in enhancing the development of SMEs in the country. However, only the effect of initial capital (CAP) and non bank credit facilities (NBK) is significant and responsive towards the enhancement of performance of SMEs while credit facilities from banks are insignificant with respect to SMEs development. Lastly it concluded that government agencies such as the National Directorate of Employment should intensify efforts geared towards training programmes for SMEs.

Keywords: Enterprise, Entrepreneurship, Environment, Growth, SMEs

Comparative Analysis of Opinions of Enterprise Managers and Business Students on Youth Entrepreneurship Development in Enterprises in the Context of Eritrea (Published)

The development of youth entrepreneurship has been forwarded as a very attractive alternative both to help the growing number of unemployed youth and to harness the potentials of the youth in an effort to bolster the economy of a country. This study has attempted to explore the level of importance of various factors for youth entrepreneurship development in enterprises in the context of Eritrea by seeking the opinions of private and public manufacturing enterprise managers and senior students in a business college. A total number of 150 managers and students were asked to rate 56 factors that are expected to influence or affect youth entrepreneurship development in enterprises. Respondents were asked to rate each factor, presented in the form of 5-points likert-scale. The ratings of the factors of importance for youth entrepreneurship development in enterprises by the three groups of respondents have a moderate degree of correspondence (as measured by the Spearman’s rho). Among the factors considered for youth entrepreneurship development in enterprises, prioritized factors by private enterprise managers are related with provision of more supportive environment for youth. Public enterprise managers have prioritized factors that target for the development of enterprise such as technology transfer and education while students have prioritized factors related with ambition, individual initiative and hard work In general, private enterprise managers were found to rate the factors higher compared to either public enterprise managers or the student group. The study has shown that the three groups of respondents have somewhat different opinions on how youth entrepreneurship in enterprises can be developed. This suggests the need to take into account the viewpoints of various relevant stakeholders when such programs of youth entrepreneurship development are envisioned.    

Keywords: Business Students, Entrepreneurship, Eritrea, Managers, Youth

The Regent Business Schools New Entrepreneurial Centre: Towards Transforming South Africa’s Past and Reformulating the Present (Published)

The paper looks at entrepreneurship in terms of its importance to South Africa. In this regard it discusses the importance of initiatives like the Regent Business Schools proposed new Entrepreneurial Centre which will be opened in the latter part of 2016. A brief historical perspective is undertaken in this regard, in order to firstly situate the thrust, importance and necessity of the entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial dynamic, as it relates to a democratic South Africa. This is undertaken within the context of development and leadership in South Africa. The importance of entrepreneurship cannot be under estimated, in terms of development and economic growth in South Africa for purposes of stimulating much needed small business development and, the empowerment of the masses of people neglected by the administrative government systems by both, the apartheid and democratic government, post 1994. In undertaking the discussion in this paper, the issues towards transforming South Africa’s past and transforming the present assumes significance, in terms of the transformation agenda of the state. In addition the paper very briefly discusses development theories, and calls for a reformulation of these theories in order, to engineer sustained and coordinated development within developing countries. The paper outlines the strategic plan for the Regent Business Schools Centre for Entrepreneurship and its modalities for engagement for purposes of consolidating this important and necessary initiative. By the same token, the paper discusses very briefly the problems that higher education confronts in respect to access into higher education in South Africa and, therefore, posits that entrepreneurial training and development can assist in solving some problems that the country confronts, in terms of access to higher education and entrepreneurial development.    

Keywords: Business, Economy, Education, Entrepreneurship, Reformulating, Transforming

Enabling and Stimulating Entrepreneurship Education in Higheer Education Institutions: Catalyst for Venturesome Youths and Sustainable Development in Nigeria (Published)

Entrepreneurship is increasingly being recognized as a significant conduct for bringing about a transformation to sustainable products and processes, with numerous high-profile thinkers advocating entrepreneurship as a panacea for many social and environmental concerns. Yet, despite the promise entrepreneurship holds for fostering sustainable development, there remains considerable uncertainty regarding the nature of entrepreneurship’s role in the area, and the academic discourse on sustainable development within the mainstream entrepreneurship literature has to date been sparse. While entrepreneurs have long been recognized as a vehicle for exploiting emerging opportunities associated with societal need, we have little understanding of how entrepreneurs will discover and develop those opportunities that lie beyond the pull of existing markets. Thus, while the case for entrepreneurship as a panacea for transitioning towards sustainable development society-wide is valid, there exists  major gaps in our knowledge of whether and how this process will actually unfold. This paper focuses on: (i) Factors that challenge the teaching of entrepreneurship education within the Higher Education Institutions to engender sustainable development and venturesome youths; (ii) Strategies to employ in addressing these challenges. Factors that Challenge the Teaching of Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Education Institutions; (iii) Imperatives and outcomes of entrepreneurship education and the state of entrepreneurship education in Higher Education Institutions

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship education, Higher Education Institution, Venturesome Youths Sustainable Development