Title: Assessing the Impact of Institutional and Students' Factors on Entrepreneurial Intention among University Undergraduates in South West, Nigeria
Authors: Abel Adekanmi ADETONA Monica Ngozi ODINKO, PhD
Volume: 9
Issue: 7
Pages: 29-38
Publication Date: 2025/07/28
Abstract:
This paper assessed the impact of institutional and students' factors on entrepreneurial intention among university undergraduates in South West, Nigeria. This study adopted Survey research of correlational design with four (4) research hypotheses to establish the causal relationship among institutional, students' factors and entrepreneurial intention using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used. Five (5) adapted instruments measured in 4-point Likert scale were trial tested and validated. These instruments and their psychometric properties include; University Environment Questionnaire (0.85), Peer influence Questionnaire (0.90), Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (0.86), Attitude towards Entrepreneurship Questionnaire (0.85) and Entrepreneurial Intention Questionnaire (0.88). All the instrument have high-reliability scores, hence, the items on the instruments were reliable and fit for the study. Data were collected from 1200 undergraduates drawn from the six public universities in their penultimate classes. The students were randomly selected from the first generation public universities in South West states of Nigeria. Structural Equation Modeling was employed and SmartPLS 4.1 was used to analyse the collected data to answer the four research questions raised in the study. The finding on multicollinearity test carried on the reflective model showed that all the VIF values are acceptable for all the indicators and fit for the model. Also, the findings on the measurement model indicated that good values were obtained for the internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity, composite reliability and average variance extracted for the variables in the model. The study found that all institutional and students' factors (university environment, peer influence, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and students' attitude towards entrepreneurship education) significantly and positively influenced entrepreneurial intention. Further, the study concluded that both the institutional and students' factors meaningfully contributed to entrepreneurial intention of university undergraduates in public universities in South West, Nigeria.