Author(s): Kingsley Njoku
Entrepreneurship Education (EE) provides students with basic tools and ideologies necessary for taking informed decisions regarding entrepreneurial activities (EAs) and business formation opportunities. In Njoku & Cooney (2020), the term ‘education’ was contextualized as an ethnic variable factor, capable of influencing an ethnic group’s Opportunity Formation (OF) idiosyncrasies subject to their countries of origin. As a cultural variable, what is not yet known in the literature is how EE might influence EAs amongst Immigrant Entrepreneurs (IEs). This paper will demonstrate that participants’ inclination to self-employment is facilitated by entrepreneurial courses undertaken before their arrival to the host country. In congruence with prior studies, immigrants’ EAs are influenced by mixed relationship. Therefore, the author argues that immigrants’ home countries play significant roles and thus facilitates EE subject to embedded predisposing skills, which immigrants bring to entrepreneurship. EE shapes immigrants’ entrepreneurial behaviours by influencing their cognitive abilities, which directs their choice of career path. Using data collected from 20 IEs in Dublin, this paper will make contribution to knowledge by building a framework model, that will show how education as a ‘cultural variable’ plays the role of ‘enabler’ amongst participants. Thus, the aim of this paper is to show how cultural perceptions can be subjective based on the responses obtained from participants. Using a phenomenological qualitative methodology, the paper analyses participants’ entrepreneurial behaviours based on their responses during in-depth interviews. Consequently, understanding how participants interpreted ‘educational culture’ is vital to elucidating how their perceptions influence their entrepreneurial (OF) as either ‘enablers’ of ‘threats’.