RISK PROPENSITY, SELF-EFFICACY AND PARENTAL BUSINESS BACKGROUND ASDETERMINANTS OF UNDERGRADUATES’ ENTREPRENEURIAL INTENTION IN OGUN STATE

Abstract

The role of entrepreneurship in economic development has been recognized globally but the Nigerian youths
especially undergraduates are not showing much interest, instead they prefer to take up paid employment after
graduation. This study aims to determine the contributions of risk propensity, self-efficacy and parental business
background to undergraduates' entrepreneurial intention. To achieve the main purpose of the study, three
specific purposes, three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The study employed a
descriptive survey research design. The population consists of 1256 final year undergraduate in two state-owned
universities. From the population, two hundred and eighty (280) undergraduates from the two state-owned
universities in Ogun state were sampled for the study. Four validated instruments namely: demographic data
form structured by the researchers; risk propensity questionnaire, self-efficacy questionnaire and
entrepreneurial intention questionnaire adapted from past studies were used for data collection. Data collected
were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and regression analysis to
test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that there are significant contributions of
risk propensity, self-efficacy and parental business background to undergraduates’ entrepreneurial intention. It
was recommended among others that entrepreneurship education and training in the tertiary institutions should
include orientation on personality traits such as risk propensity and self-efficacy that can influence their
intention towards business start-ups.