PERCEIVED REQUIREMENTS FOR STARTING AND SUSTAINING A BUSINESS VENTURES BY KEATS STATE UNIVERSITY ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION STUDENT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

The launch of a brand-new company necessitates the application of a variety of resources, ranging from monetary to behavioral in nature. There are a number of internal factors that make it easier to launch a new business, despite the widespread belief that an entrepreneur can discover all the resources in their surrounding environment, including sources of finance, information, and social capital.   The concept or idea behind these internal factors can be explained with the help of entrepreneurial competency. In general, knowledge, traits, and skills are the three subcategories that make up competence (Mojab, 2019). 

In the context of entrepreneurial personality traits, researchers looked into six distinct types of entrepreneurial competencies. These included opportunity, relationship, conceptualizing, organizing, strategic, and commitment competencies (Man, Lau, & Chan, 2022).The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor conducts studies on entrepreneurial capabilities through looking and comparing identified opportunities,competence, entrepreneur's role models all year round, and having less fear of failing businesses (Autio, 2015).   According to the findings of studies, the nature of an entrepreneur's competencies includes perceived opportunities and capability, whereas role fashions and a discounted worry of failure are focused to outline the entrepreneur's personality (Zali, Bastian, & Qureshi, 2018).  Accordingly, in this research, entrepreneurial competency is defined as both the skills of the entrepreneur and the personality of an entrepreneur.

The perceived requirements for beginning and continuing a business venture are a highly critical factor in achieving excellence in performance, which is necessary to ensure the sustainable growth and success of a venture in an environment that is filled with intense business competition.   Because of the significant strategic role that human elements, and especially commercial enterprise entrepreneurs, have been playing over the course of the last several decades, the necessity of possessing entrepreneurial competence has grown significantly.   

According to the findings of several studies conducted by experts in the area, the practice of entrepreneurship is widely considered as a driver of economic expansion, employment, and the accumulation of wealth.   Because it is believed that this would improve opportunity identification and the avoidance of the many pitfalls that await those without the relevant skills, entrepreneurial education is designed to teach the skill and knowledge that is required for embarking on new business ventures.   This is because entrepreneurial education is designed to teach the skill and knowledge that is required for embarking on new business ventures. At the international level, there is a high rate of failure among young businesses. Twenty percent of them will be eliminated by the end of their first year of activity, and that number will rise to sixty-six percent by the end of their sixth year (Franco &Haase, 2020).   

In addition, Driessen and Zwart (2020) predicted that fifty percent of newly established companies would fail within the first five years of their existence. A company cannot continue to exist if it does not achieve satisfactory levels of performance, particularly in an atmosphere characterized by intense competition. There are a number of factors that have the potential to affect the performance of a business; however, entrepreneurs focus their attention on external factors, particularly those of a financial and nonfinancial nature, in order to improve performance.   According to numerous empirical investigations, there exists an inextricable link between an organization's competencies and its overall performance (Garcia, 2018). Because entrepreneurial competencies are linked to the performance of businesses, business owners need to focus particularly on improving their own entrepreneurial competencies in order to increase their companies' overall performance (Mitchelmore& Rowley, 2020).  

Several governments place a high value on business education due to the fact that successful governments are dependent on the growth of entrepreneurship. Education in business is the single most important factor in determining economic wealth, growth, and progress. Education for and about business is a kind of new concept, which signifies not only a quality education, but also pay attention to the development of an individual's practical ability and competency of students, which will make them relevant in the world of work.   Education for and about business can be broken down into two categories: education that is focused on business, and education that is focused on education about business.   It is also referred to as a novel instructional approach that encourages innovative thinking, abilities, and attitudes among students, thereby preparing them for careers that are a good fit after graduation and allowing them to become successful entrepreneurs (European Commission, 2016).   The importance of education in business to the development of entrepreneurial skills is increasingly being recognized on a global scale. 

For example, the European Commission (2018) notes that almost half of the students enrolled in tertiary institutions across Europe have complete access to business education, which allows them to enhance their innovative capabilities and establish small businesses after graduation. According to the European Commission (2016), one of the most important aspects that needs to be incorporated into the existing educational system in order to adequately prepare individuals for productive participation in society is the concept of entrepreneurship.   In point of fact, the role that education in business plays in fostering entrepreneurialism and contributing to the growth of the economy on a global scale is widely acknowledged.  Therefore, the study will examine the perceived requirements for starting and sustaining a business ventures by Keats state university entrepreneurship education student.

Statement of the problem

Entrepreneurial skills are essential for graduates of business education programs to have in order for business enterprises to be successfully established and managed. So, if students of business education get training in entrepreneurship, they have a better chance of becoming successful company owners. The vast majority of students graduate from universities without having acquired the requisite knowledge and abilities. In addition, a significant number of these students do not have the entrepreneurial abilities that would allow them to launch and run a small commercial company after graduation, therefore enabling them to become self-employed and financially independent. 

In a similar vein, Falobi(2018) observed that the objectives of business education have not yet been accomplished due to a lack of the necessary practical skills and entrepreneurial competencies that will enable individuals to be self-employed. A lack of abilities necessary in the world of work has been ascribed to the high percentage of unemployment that exists among business students. According to Khan (2017), a lack of employable skills is one of the primary reasons why college students are experiencing high rates of unemployment. 

Therefore, graduates of business education programs are put in the position of having to shoulder the burdens of an excess of unemployed workers because of the significant skills gap caused by the lack of entrepreneurial competencies. This necessitates the development of entrepreneurial skills, which is a requirement for engaging in any kind of self-employment that is worthwhile.Therefore, this study sought to identify the perceived requirements for starting and sustaining a business ventures by Keats state university entrepreneurship education student.

Objective of the study

The broad objective of the study is to examint the perceived requirements for starting and sustaining a business ventures by Keats state university entrepreneurship education student. The specific objectives is as follows:

To determine whether managerial skills is required by entrepreneurship education students in sustaining a business ventures.

To Determine the factor hindering the establishment of small scale  ventures among entrepreneurship education students.

To find out whether entrepreneurship education student  in  Keats State university can sustain a business ventures.

To investigate whether ICT skills is required by entrepreneurship education students in establishing a business ventures

Research Questions

The following questions have been prepared for the study:

Is managerial skill required by entrepreneurship education students in sustaining a business ventures?

What are the factor hindering the establishment of small scale  ventures among entrepreneurship education students?

Can entrepreneurship education student  in  Keats State university sustain a business ventures?

Is ICT skills required by entrepreneurship education students in establishing a business ventures?

Research hypotheses

The following hypothesis have been formulated for the study:

H01: managerial skill is not required by entrepreneurship education students in sustaining a business ventures.

H02: entrepreneurship education student  in  Keats State university cannot sustain a business ventures.

H03: ICT skills is not required by entrepreneurship education students in establishing a business ventures.

1.6 Significance of the study

The outcomes of this study will be of tremendous advantage to recent graduates of business education programs, employers of labor, business education lecturers and curriculum developers in business education, potential researchers, as well as governments and the whole country.

The outcomes of the research will provide graduates of business school programs in Nigeria with an introduction to the basic skill sets necessary for successful entrepreneurship. This might serve as a motivating factor for individuals to enroll in entrepreneurial training programs in order to gain the skills necessary for self-employment rather than searching for less profitable paid jobs that are not even accessible.

Employers of labor would be motivated to play a more active role in providing current information on the relevant skills and technologies of the business world to business educators and authorities of educational programs as a result of the findings of this study. This would be done with the intention of addressing the skill mismatch that exists among graduates. It is hoped that the results of this research will give employers of labor with information that can be independently verified in order to better prepare their potential workers for staff training and development programs.

Students all around Nigeria would be inspired to start their own businesses as a result of the findings of this research, which will cause business education professors to revise their teaching approaches to include more entrepreneurially focused methodology. The results are likely to also drive the lecturers to acquire the essential instructional competences so that they may appropriately prepare their students for entrepreneurial success once they graduate from school.

1.7 Scope of the study

The study will determine whether managerial skills is required by entrepreneurship education students in sustaining a business ventures. The study will also Determine the factor hindering the establishment of small scale  ventures among entrepreneurship education students. The study will further find out whether entrepreneurship education student  in  Keats State university can sustain a business ventures. Lastly, the study will investigate whether ICT skills is required by entrepreneurship education students in establishing a business ventures. Hence, the study is delimited to Keats state university.

1.8 Limitation of the study

Like in every human endeavour, the researchers encountered slight constraints while carrying out the study. Insufficient funds tend to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature, or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire, and interview), which is why the researcher resorted to a moderate choice of sample size. More so, the researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. As a result, the amount of time spent on research will be reduced.

1.9 Definition of terms

Business: a person's regular occupation, profession, or trade.

Entrepreneurship: the activity of setting up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit

Students: a person who is studying at a university or other place of higher education.

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