Determinants of Entrepreneurial Intention: Selected Kenyan Universities Service Sector Perspective. (Published)

Article Author: Thomas Kiptanui Tarus,Ambrose Kemboi,Denis okerosi okemwa,Kennedy Ntabo Otiso

Entrepreneurial intention has captured the attention of both academicians and policy makers during the last century. Unemployment poses a major challenge to developing nations Kenya inclusive where governments’ lacked sufficient resources to passing out of young graduates with immediate employment. However, many studies on entrepreneurial intention among graduates have focused mainly on developed countries and less on developing nations like Kenya perspective. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to bridge the gap by investigating the determinants of entrepreneurial intention among business undergraduate students. The specific objectives were to establish the effect of education, social network, innovativeness and self-efficacy on entrepreneurial intention. The study was guided by Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior that views behavioral intent as an immediate determinant of planned behavior. Explanatory research design was adopted and the study targeted 1,649 undergraduate business students drawn from Moi, Mount Kenya and Catholic universities in Uasin Gishu County. Stratified sampling was used to select a sample size of 321. The results indicated that innovativeness among students was highly and positively correlated to entrepreneurial intention at (r=0.650). Self efficacy was the second characteristic among students to positively associated with entrepreneurial intention (r = 0.618), education had significant and positively correlated with entrepreneurial intention (r=0.564). Finally, social network showed a positive and significant relationship with entrepreneurial intention (r = 0.507). From the findings it showed that all the four variables were positively correlated to entrepreneurial intention at 0.05 level of significance level. The study findings were of have valuable assistance to develop students’ entrepreneurial skills and knowledge which equip graduates with creativity, innovation, risk-taking and ability to interpret successful entrepreneurial effect models and identification of business opportunities for the future.