AN ANALYSIS OF DETERMINANTS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL MOTIVATION: EVIDENCED AMONG PRIVATE AND PUBLIC UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATES IN SELECTED STATES OF SOUTH WEST NIGERIA

Abstract

The study was carried out to investigate the differences in the determinants of entrepreneurial motivation among public and private university undergraduates in selected states of southwest, Nigeria.

The study employed proportionate sampling techniques and randomly selected 3,254 respondents. One hypothesis was formulated and the Mann-Whitney U test was used to examine differences and also test the formulated hypothesis.

Findings revealed that there are differences among the entrepreneurial motivation of public University undergraduates in terms of psychological needs (); socio-cultural influence (); entrepreneurial education(); and attitude () compared to their counterparts in the private university in terms of psychological needs (); socio-cultural influence (); entrepreneurial education(). ); and attitude ((). However, overall results showed that the entrepreneurial motivation of students in public Universities is not statistically significantly different from that of their counterparts in private Universities (U=1506723.500, p=0.610). In view of this result, the formulated hypothesis was hereby accepted.

The study therefore concludes that there exist differences in the determinants of entrepreneurial motivation among private and public university students in Southwest, Nigeria.  However, no significant difference was found.  The study therefore recommends that private university undergraduates in Southwest, Nigeria should be encouraged so they can be intrinsically motivated to be self-employed; participation in the practical aspect should be made mandatory for public university undergraduates; The Federal government should also contribute towards putting in place infrastructure for entrepreneurship training in private universities.