CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY
According to Wenneker and Thurik
(1999) Entrepreneurship is the manifest ability and willingness of individuals
to perceive new economic opportunities and seize these opportunities into the market.
The importance of Entrepreneurship
in economic development is the subject of much interest to academic and policy
circles alike. Entrepreneurship is often credited with many positive changes in
developing countries. At the very least, it is associated with job creation,
wealth creation, innovation and its related welfare effects.
A strong small business sector and
Entrepreneurship are generally linked to a strong economy. Entrepreneurship can
be conceived as a process, which involves the efforts of an individual in
identifying viable opportunities in a business environment and obtaining and
managing the needed to exploit those opportunities (Blanch flower, 2000).
Entrepreneurship makes entrepreneurs to derive great satisfaction from their
entrepreneurial work. Blanch flower also further said being an entrepreneur
offers for greater security than being an employee else where.
Entrepreneurship enables
entrepreneurs to acquire wealth quickly and cushion themselves against
financial in security (Blanch Flower, 2000). The field of Entrepreneurship
involves the study of sources of opportunities, the processes of evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities and the set
of individuals who discover, evaluate, and exploit them ( Sheme and Venka Taraman,
2000). Entrepreneurship is a context dependent social process through which
individuals and teams create wealth by bringing together unique packages of
resources to exploit mark place opportunities (Ire land, HiH and Sirmon, 2003).
Entrepreneurship is the mind set and
process to create and develop economic activity by blending risk- taking,
creativity and or innovation with sound management, within a new or an existing
organization (Commission of the European communities, 2003). As a person gains
greater insight into business and Entrepreneurship, his chances of succeeding
in business improves.
Entrepreneurs are the determinants
of the creation of wealth and dynamism of a particular society when there is
market for almost every thing a firm’s competitive advantage comes from its
accumulated intangible assets (types of knowledge), brands, reputation,
technology and decision and problem solving system. This means that
entrepreneurs convert ideas into action products and services. Entrepreneurship
is a major catalyst that drives the economy of most nations. Besides being the
engine by which new ideas and novel approaches are introduced continually into
businesses and market place, entrepreneurship guarantees economic returns from
diverse form of activities- including research and development. In a more
specific sense, entrepreneurship is the vehicle on which innovation rides,
within this context, entrepreneurs are considered as “ Champions “ of some who
convert ideas into products and reduce unemployment.
There exists an increasing interest
in entrepreneurship in many parts of the word, especially in developing
economics. This is because entrepreneurial activity is considered as a means of
revitalizing the economy and a way of coping with unemployment problems that
characterize most developing economies. Thus more people, and very recently
undergraduates, are being encouraged into owing and growing small businesses.
Gender and entrepreneurial education
were found to be positively influential among WELSH Students who reported that
they are likely to set up a business venture within three years of graduation
(Czuchiry and Yasin, 2008). Family and community background had an important
influence in the orientation to wards entrepreneurship among the British, India
and Chinese students (Stella, 2008). Wang and Wong (2004) found that entrepreneurial
aspirations among Singaporean students were driven largely by family business
experience, educational level and gender by hindered by in adequate business
experience. Verhewl et al (2002) suggests a strong in direct effect of gender
on self – employment decisions in Europe and U. S. A.
In Nigeria, agribusiness enterprises
span the entire agricultural production, processing, distribution and
consumption spectrum from farm in put supplies through farms them selves.
Included also are wood producers, furniture manufactures, food processors, food
packers, food transporters, and food marketing companies. If agribusiness is
stretched to the farthest limits, more than 75 of all business operations in
Nigeria may be classified as agribusiness in form or typology and it provides a
broad range of investment opportunities for both institutional and private
investors (Onyido, 2006). Thus there are strong synergies between agriculture
for development. Dynamic and efficient agribusiness spurs agricultural growth.
A strong link between agribusiness
and small holders can reduce rural poverty. Agribusiness refers to the back
ward and for ward business linkages associated with agricultural production,
the provision of finance, machinery, fertilizer, seeds, etc at the input end
and the processing and marketing of food/ food stuff at the out put end. It is
a modern form of agricultural business ventures operated strictly for profit (Olayide
and Heady, 1982, Downey and Erickson, 1987). The agribusiness sector is
structured into small medium and large scale enterprise. The survival and
growth of small- scale agribusiness enterprise could be highly constrained by
the physical, institutional and economic environment in Nigeria. Such
constraint include in adequate utilization of information communication
technologies, merger capital out lay (Adebayo et al, 2004), in adequate credit
assistance (Opeolu and Oluwalana, 2004) Oluwalana et al 2004, Adebayo et al,
2004) in adequate acquisition of literacy and management skills (Abba and
Mustapha, 2004). Agric business enterprise constitute a vital engine for the
growth and development of Nigeria economy. Omereson (2004) observed that if
this sector is to survive and grow in the present volatile business environment
appropriate strategies must be developed and adopted by entrepreneurs.
Investment is the present sacrifice for future benefit. Individual, firms and governments are all
regularly in position to decide whether or not to invest, and how to diverse
among the options available. An
individual might have to decide whether to buy a stock, plant seeds, undertake
a course of training, a firm may decide to purchase machinery or conduct
building and government may decide whether or not to build market.
Investment into agribusiness is widely propagated particularly by the
managers of small medium enterprises projects, and is sometimes believed that
because agribusiness returns have a low correlation to other investment, they
have the potential to improve returns and reduce risk in a diversified
portfolio hawking and Hastic, 1990).
Agribusiness is basically
agricultural related business which accounts for 12.1% of Nigeria Gross
Domestic product (G M D) 2003- 2004 and accounts for almost 25% of national
merchandise exports (126.1 billion in 2003- 2004 and it is the biggest
manufacturing sector and accounts for 46% of total retail spending (Anon, 2010).
However, despite the holistic benefits of agribusiness to our nation- Nigeria
there seems to be dearth of knowledge on what drives the agribusiness investors
on their investment decision in Nigeria
1.2 Problem
Statement
Despite the growth in venture
capital funding, access to funding remain a problem for small enterprises in
particular .However the growth and evolution of agribusiness has been
researched, even as global development and market dynamic impact on the
agriculture industry as a whole.
Entrepreneurship is considered as a
key to the ever growing problem of unemployment among graduates in Nigeria.
Though, in Nigeria to day, both male and female unemployed ability increased
drastically than other countries. Consequently, some people in the society have
not agreed to determine their career by becoming entrepreneurs even when they
are unemployed. Besides, the public and private sector endeavor to solve the
unemployment problem, the number of job opportunities in those sector are not
escalating to satisfy the demand of our labour force.
Lack of profitable opportunities and
high capital and fevered business risk that cannot and be mitigated in a cost
effective manner are the main reasons for low agribusiness investment in
Nigeria. Corruptions, bureaucratic harassment, the weak development of
financial intermediation are all factors that impact negatively on the
development of the private sector. Other determinants of entrepreneurship are
such as individual characteristics including academic success and education
background, performance on a test of cognitive ability personal confidence,
greed, and willingness to take risks.
By stimulating entrepreneurship, the actual goal is especially to
stimulate the people who will be successful after starting up their businesses
considering the great variety within the group of (potential) entrepreneurs,
there is need for specific insight in the factors that determine the success of
starting entrepreneur, (Dijk, 1996).
Nocke (2006) enumerated the factors
that hinder the growth of entrepreneurship in the African setting to include
inadequacy of market opportunity, poor access to finance, poor market
information, and poor managerial skills. However, what actually determine career
choice and entrepreneurship among Nigeria undergraduate is to effectively
address the problem, yet not clearly understood. The study seeks to provide
possible answer to the following questions.
- What
are socio- economic characteristics of undergraduates of agriculture?
- What
are the critical factors that influenced the students’ choice of course of
study?
- What
are the factors that may influence their decision to be in agribusiness
occupation?
- Does family
characteristics/ back ground influenced their career and occupations choice?
- What are
the constraints that may hinder their choice of agribusiness when they graduate?
1.3 Objective
of the Study
The broad objective of the study is to investigate the determinants of
career choice and entrepreneurship in agribusiness among undergraduates in
south west, Nigeria.
Specifically, the objectives are to;
(i) Characterize
the undergraduates of agriculture according to socio economic attributes;
(ii) Assess
the critical factors that influenced the students’ choice of course of study;
(iii) Determine
the factors that may influence their decision to be self employed agribusiness
occupation;
(iv) Analyze how family characteristics may
influence their career and
occupational choice;
(v) Assess
the perceive constraints that may affect the students choice of agribusiness;
1.4 Hypothesis
Ho: Family characteristics do not have
significant influence on the
career and occupational choice undergraduate of agriculture.
1.5 Justification
for the study.
They study will further fill the
existing gap in knowledge covering career choice and provide determinants In
agriculture and provide a plat form for upcoming entrepreneurs and investor in
the area to take off. The research work will also be immerse help to
government, policy makers, planners, researchers, undergraduates students and
other investor in formulating the best policies for economic development in
agribusiness by agricultural graduates .
Further more, the study will provide
benchmark information on the important effect and contribution of
entrepreneurial skill development occupational choice in agribusines among the
undergraduates of agriculture in the study area in particular and Nigeria at
large.
It will also serve as a guide to
government and other government agencies such as ministry of agriculture ( M O
A ) and agricultural development programme (A D P ) and universities in the
formulation and implementation of plans and policies particularly concerced
with improving the entrepreneurial skills of undergraduate students of agriculture of study area.