Factors influencing entrepreneurship among university students in Kisumu County

Abstract

In today’s turbulent job market, starting and having own business venture is a dream of young generation. Furthermore, many graduates are unable to get a job upon graduation. With this realization, University students in various Universities in Kenya have resorted to entrepreneurial activities. This study seeks to determine the factors influencing entrepreneurship among university students in Kisumu County. This study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population of this study was all the 16,019 students in Universities in Kisumu according to various universities websites. This study used a stratified random sampling method to select 384 students from the population of the study. Primary data was used in this study and was collected by use of questionnaires. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze quantitative data. In descriptive statistics, the study used frequency, mean, standard deviation and percentages. The analyzed information was then presented in tables and figures. Additionally, the study used factor analysis to outline the key factors influencing entrepreneurship among university students in Kisumu County. The study established that government related factors, socio cultural factors, technological factors, information related factors, education related factors, personal factors, managerial and leadership factors, globalization factors and financial factors affect entrepreneurial intentions among university students in Kisumu County. Specifically, the most important factors influencing entrepreneurial intentions among university students in Kisumu County include accessibility to business information, tax rates, traditions and beliefs, reduced monopoly, personality traits, rapid change of technology, team building skills, increased diversity and technical skills and life skills. The study recommends that financial institutions should reduce their requirements such as collateral when offering credits to university students. In addition, the government of Kenya should ensure that university student’s access credit to start or boost their business. This can be done by increasing the accessibility of the Youth Fund. In addition, Universities in Kisumu County as well as other parts of Kenya should have a stronger focus on the skills required by entrepreneurs in the developing world by ensuring that entrepreneurship training includes the economic and social impact of technologies networking and mentorship by successful entrepreneurs; business education including, accounting, marketing and finance and exposure to potential investors and partners.