| dc.description.abstract | A person’s intention to act entreprenuerially is a strong predictor of entreprenuerial action
such as going into self-employment. In the quest to explain causation for entreprenuerial
intentions, the present study examined the relationship between socio-cultural factors and
intentions to become entreprenuers in the context of public undergraduate university
students in Kenya. Specifically, intentions to become an entreprenuer were predicted
using three of Hofstede’s grid for culture namely; individualism, masculinity and
uncertainity avoidance. Other variables included gender; entreprenuerial disposition;
entreprenuerial perceptions, ethinicity and exposure to entreprenuership education. The
broad objective was to examine the effect of culture and gender on students’
entreprenuerial intentions. Review of the extant literature was done and a conceptual
framework developed along with the research hypotheses. A positivism paradigm using
descriptive cross-sectional reseach design was used. The population comprised all public
undergraduate university students who were in their fourth year of study between January
and March 2013. Proportionate stratified random sampling was used. The sample size
was 2192 respondents selected from the seven public universities. Primary data was
collected using structured questionnaires measured on likert type interval scales. The
study yielded a 70.8 percent response rate. Descriptive statistics comprising means and
standard deviations were used to analyse the data. Hypotheses were tested using Pearson
product moment correlations, ANOVA and regression analysis. The findings indicated
that students do not consider gender when evaluating alternative career options.
Confirming the researcher’s expectations and previous study results, significance of
entreprenuership education on entreprenuerial intentions was supported. In congruence
with previous studies, the study found support for a positive effect of entreprenuerial
perceptions on students entreprenuerial intentions. In addition, the relationship between
entreprenuerial disposition and entreprenuerial intentions was supported by the research
findings. On the basis of the results of this thesis, it was concluded that culture has a
direct and indirect effect on entreprenurial intentions and that there are no differences in
any entreprenurial related variables between either gender or enthnicity. Based on the
study findings, it also became apparent that entreprenuerial intentions were
predominantly dependent on perceptions of desirablity and feasibility by the acting
individual as well as dispositional traits that arms an individual in readiness to act
entreprenuerially; and that entrepreneurship can be fostered through the current learning
process adopted in our public universities curriculum as this relationship was empirically
supported. | en |
