Entrepreneurial Orientation and Venture Creation in Nigerian Context: Assessing Mediating and Moderating Roles of Self-Efficacy and Entrepreneurial Support among Graduates

Abstract

Over-reliance on hired jobs in the public and private sectors of the Nigerian economy has discouraged most graduates from becoming entrepreneurs. This leads to unemployment, poverty and low economic growth that breed insecurity. Drawing from the formative perspective, this study analyzed the mediating role of self-efficacy (SELF) and the moderating effect of entrepreneurial support (ENTSP) in relation to individual-level entrepreneurial orientation (ILEO; innovativeness, risk taking and proactiveness) and venture creation (VC) among Nigerian graduates. A reflective/formative type II method was applied to test the model’s relationships using 291 survey responses. The result of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) reveals that the indirect relationship between ILEO and VC through SELF was positive and significant but negatively moderated by ENTSP, implying that not all instances of ILEO will result in VC through SELF because ILEO can directly lead to VC. The finding also indicates ENTSP did not have an impact on strengthening the relationship between SELF and VC. A limitation lies in the chosen method that weakens the generalizability of the result, but future studies considering a longitudinal survey are suggested. This study extends the entrepreneurial orientation model to enhance the venture creation literature theoretically and practically. We recommend intervention agencies to initiate effective ENTSP covering financial, non-financial and incubation services required to boost VC activities.

The effect of entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurial intention of different college students: Gender, household registration, school type, and poverty status

“…Many Chinese college students are in poverty [4,108]. EE helps poor college students participate in entrepreneurship and eradicate poverty [6,[13][14][15][16][17]. Poverty affects the EI of students.…”

“…With the addition of one level of EE, the probability of nonpoor and poor students participating in entrepreneurship increases by 142.26% and 51.14%, respectively (see Table 11). Quite a few college students are in low-income family economic situations (see Table 2), so entrepreneurship is an effective tool for poverty alleviation through education [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. However, EE widens the gap and thus exacerbates the intergenerational cycle of poverty.…”

“…Higher education and entrepreneurial activity drive economic growth, employment, entrepreneurship, and poverty reduction [1][2][3][4]. Entrepreneurship education (EE) and training are policy tools to promote economic development and poverty alleviation through education [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. EE is growing globally [2,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32].…”

“…There have been many studies on the impact of EE on EI [20,41]. Previous studies were mainly conducted from the perspectives of the overall impact of EE on EI [1,19,22,25,38,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49], gender differences [22,39,[50][51][52][53], the economic situation [6,[13][14][15][16][17], human capital theory [15,20,[54][55][56][57], self-efficacy theory [2,13,17,49,[58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65] and planned behavior theory [12,25,34,64,[66]…”

Entrepreneurial support: a theoretical framework and case study of Tunisia

“…Contrary to Bruyat (1993), "the interventions and services of the caregivers are certainly part of a processual framework but also fundamentally emergent." This duality should respond, with coherence and pragmatism, to each expectation and need of the supported person, according to his aspirations, the skills and resources he seeks to acquire, and the opportunities presented by the environment, and this, according to the needs of each phase of his entrepreneurial journey (Na-Allah and al., 2022;Yi, 2021;Degeorge, 2017).…”