COVID-19 pandemic and entrepreneurial intention among university students: a contextualisation of the Igbo Traditional Business School
African Journal of Economic and Management Studies
ISSN: 2040-0705
Article publication date: 24 November 2021
Issue publication date: 15 February 2022
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates and contextualises the Igbo Traditional Business School (ITBS) and planned entrepreneurial behaviour across Nigerian higher education sector in a period of crisis occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a quantitative survey of undergraduate students on ITBS, and the data were analysed using the SmartPLS structural equation modelling (SEM).
Findings
The study finds that the COVID-19 pandemic has had negative influence on attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control (PBC) and entrepreneurial intention (EI) of students, but these negative influences are mediated/moderated by the ITBS.
Practical implications
The study presents some practical and managerial implications that will be of interest to ITBS administrators, the government and other stakeholder groups.
Originality/value
While research has increasingly explored the role of the ITBS in promoting entrepreneurial activities, not much has been linked to coping mechanisms for students in crisis times. The study unearths the “positive” influence of the pandemic on entrepreneurship and how the ITBS mediates the “negative” aspects of COVID-19 on entrepreneurial vocation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Editor, Prof. John Kuada and two anonymous reviewers for their contributions that helped in strengthening this paper.
Citation
Godswill Agu, A., Okwara, O.O., Okocha, E.R. and Madichie, N.O. (2022), "COVID-19 pandemic and entrepreneurial intention among university students: a contextualisation of the Igbo Traditional Business School", African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 89-104. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJEMS-05-2021-0227
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited