Factors Driving Entrepreneurial Orientation among Undergraduate Students in Zimbabwe: Questioning Pedagogical Perspectives and Entrepreneurial Intentions

Abstract

The paradigm shift in contemporary university curriculum is to produce employment creators rather than job seekers. This study explores the enterprise related entrepreneurship course content that may be ranked as most desirable in developing entrepreneurial intentions among university students. The problem is that the broad and widening focus of entrepreneurship courses offered at most universities appear not to provide an understanding of the specific characteristics that drive entrepreneurial intent among students with different social and economic backgrounds. Therefore, the objective of this study was to test and evaluate subject content items that are most influential in promoting entrepreneurial intentions among undergraduate students with the intention of recommending a streamlined entrepreneurship curriculum. A 26-item questionnaire was used to collect data from 300 participants in the Faculty of Business Sciences at Midlands State University. A quantitative descriptive analysis of the independent variables was made. Consistent with previous studies examining entrepreneurial intention, we also conducted correlations to check on the direction and strength of the relationships among the variables. A short regression analysis was also run (using SPSS 21) to check whether entrepreneurial intentions could be explained by some variables related to teaching approaches. The study found that opportunity recognition, independence and pitching of business ideas were the top items in the module content that inspired the intention to start an enterprise among undergraduate students. The study adds value to curriculum development by identifying entrepreneurship course content that increases the desire to be independent and shifta student’s focus from a job seeker to a career and enterprise development orientation.