Research Article: 2022 Vol: 25 Issue: 6S
Darkhan Orynbassarov, Narxoz University & Suleyman Demirel University
Ibrahim Kele?, Ala-Too International University
Nurettin Can, Vistula University & Nile University of Nigeria
Citation Information: Orynbassarov, D., Kele?, I., & Can, N. (2022). Entrepreneurial beliefs and intentions: A comparative analysiS on Kyrgyzstan and Nigeria. Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, 25(S6), 1-8.
This study as a concept paper embraces to identify entrepreneurial motives of students, which represent different cultural environments. The population consists of undergraduate students, who study business administration, from one university Kyrgyzstan and one university from Nigeria. This paper sight sees entrepreneurial intentions and their backgrounds as a comparative study among university students concerning Entrepreneurial Motive Questionnaire. The authors analysed the collected data by SPSSwin16 software and presented the findings comparatively. The findings show that recognition and family businesses motivate both Nigerian and Kyrgyz students.
Entrepreneurial Beliefs and Intentions, Perceived Problems, Student Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Tendencies.
Over the past several decades, entrepreneurship topics create the focus of academic research over the world. However, one of the main aspects of these studies devoted to entrepreneurial motives of university students, but unfortunately, a limited number of academic researchers have published articles on comparative studies, which investigate the problem in the cross-cultural context.
Entrepreneurship is an essential factor for economies, whether it being a big or small and developed or less developed economy. The essential elements of an economy founded and created a contribution to economic growth by those brave and hardworking people in the firms that are called entrepreneurs. The university business students signify an essential feeder pool for a country's source of entrepreneurs. The national development and prosperity positively affected by Entrepreneurial activities (Friedman, 2011; Kirzner, 2009; Acs, Desai & Klapper, 2008). If education schemes in a country lack the foundation to generate such a skilled labour force, it is not probable for that nation, and, also for the companies in that country, to withstand the winds of change, persist or compete effectively (Can, 2016). Competitiveness advantages are now resulting in the power balances in the world economy. Developed countries of the world; they are planning their education systems accordingly and organizing them by continually changing them in order to generate a skilled workforce (Can & Doğuç, 2015). A country without a middle class which is the likely result of entrepreneurship is doomed to extinction. Neither democracy nor the establishment of a free-market economy can be expected in places where the middle class cannot be mature (Can, 2011). In all over the world, small businesses are one of the mobile and resultative economic sectors and most of the economically active population engaged in it (Can, 2003).
In recent entrepreneurship studies, intention models become so popular and they are classified as an essential parameter for forecasting the behaviour of entrepreneurs (Hueso et al., 2020). As mindsets, beliefs and intentions have critical impacts on career preference and behaviour, the motives of entrepreneurs are essential, yet little empirical research exists that recognizes factors that envisage the wish to become an entrepreneur. And also, according to Bacq et al., (2016) several recent studies have shown the positive role played by work experiences as prior industry and venture experience on students’ entrepreneurship intentions. Such studies would have considerable effects for policymakers that hope to promote and motivate entrepreneurship on a national level. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate and compare the expectations of Nigerian and Kyrgyz students’ wish to be entrepreneurs.
The sample consisted only one university from each nation regardless of ethnicity, religion, and culture.
Kyrgyzstan, formally the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia, which gained its independence in 1991. This mountainous country is landlocked. Unlike the other Central Asian countries, Kyrgyzstan does not have rich mineral resources but rich with its water resources. The Kyrgyz economy depends on agriculture and services. It is a multi-ethnic country, both consisting of about a hundred ethnicities. Most of the population is Kyrgyz (73.5 %), Uzbeks (14.7%), and Russian (5.5 %) (www.stat.kg, 2019).
The Federal Republic of Nigeria is the giant of Africa. Especially the oil and gas sector and approximately 200 million population make Nigeria the biggest country in Africa. Nevertheless, having massive unemployment which stands to be a severe threat to both socio-economic stability and progress of the country (Onifade, Ay & Asongu et al., 2020). According to Onifade, Çevik & Erdoğan, et al., (2020), several cases of corruption and mismanagement of public funds harm the nation’s economic growth. These findings prove the importance of entrepreneurship for Nigeria.
| Table 1 Selected Social and Economic Indicators |
||
|---|---|---|
| Indicators | Kyrgyzstan | Nigeria |
| Governance Type | Parliamentary-Presidential Republic | Parliamentary-Federal Republic |
| Area | 198,951 km² | 923,768 km² |
| GNI per capita, PPP (current international $) | 5,110.0 (2018) | 2,800.0 |
| Population (2020) | 6,521,821 | 206,004,225 |
| Religion | 90.0% Muslim | 50.0% Muslim 40.0% Christian |
| Literacy rate | 99,2% | 61,3% |
| Unemployment rate | 8.0% | 23.9% |
| Doing Business Rank (2019) | 80 | 131 |
| Index of Economic Freedom (2020) | 81 | 116 |
www.stat.kg, http://databank.worldbank.org/, https://www.worldometers.info/ & http://www.heritage.org/
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 offers Literature reviews. Section 3 explains the Empirical Findings which contains methodology of the study, the description of data and unveils the empirical results of the study and in the final section, the conclusion and recommendations are posed along with suggestions for future works.
The institutions play an essential role in entrepreneurial ecosystems, and there is an increasing trend in the role of institutions in entrepreneurship. Najimudinova (2017) prepared a literature review about student entrepreneurship in Kyrgyzstan by analysing 23 studies for the period of 2003-2017. Igwe & Icha-Ituma (2020) examined entrepreneurship in Africa by reviewing 57 studies for the period of 2009-2018.
Some examples of recent studies to describe and analyse Kyrgyz entrepreneurial ecosystems and comparative academic works be as follows.
Maksudunov, Jamtsho & Ilimbekov (2020) did a comparative study among university students from Kyrgyzstan, Bhutan & Taiwan and found that the motives of entrepreneurship that has the smallest effect are government assistance for Kyrgyzstan.
Dosalieva & Kobylińska (2019) prepared a comparative study of the environment and start-up barriers on the example of Poland and Kyrgyzstan. They found that flawed idea, lack of finance, lack of testing the product, competitors are most commonly faced obstacles for young entrepreneurs to start their project.
Schröder & Schröder (2017) depict trends how Kyrgyz entrepreneurs have adapted to new economic shifts and identify their common challenges and prospects.
On the other hand, some examples of recent studies to describe and analyse Nigerian students’ entrepreneurial beliefs and intentions are as follows.
Mahmoud & Garba (2019) analysed the effects of three variables as attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control on entrepreneurial intention using the assumptions of Theory of Planned Behaviour model. They found that there is a significant positive relationship with attitude but a negative relationship with subjective norms and perceived behavioural control to entrepreneurial intention.
According to findings of Jimoh, Yusuf & Bolaji (2019), the teaching of entrepreneurship course significantly impacts on student's knowledge and their entrepreneurial intention to start-up business and indicate perceived challenge which includes poor state of infrastructure. Lack of funds has an adverse effect on students’ entrepreneurship.
The study of Odia & Odia (2019) found that most of the students would like to start their business after graduation and they are interested in a business plan, start-up business, finance, and networking while the key entrepreneurial motivations to them included high profile entrepreneurs, family member entrepreneurs and media coverage respectively. And the work of Bloemen-Bekx et al., (2019) also showed the importance of family tradition in students’ intention for entrepreneurship in Netherlands.
The research of Haddoud et al., (2020) finds that entrepreneurship education improves entrepreneurial intention by regulating students’ emotions.
Those studies showed that entrepreneurs are facing issues in infrastructure and education in Nigeria. Nevertheless, there are some economic and political problems to overwhelm them, as well.
There is limited empirical research on entrepreneurial beliefs and intentions. A conceptual literature review prepared by Yalcin & Kapu (2008) described the motives and issues faced by entrepreneurs. According to these authors, four motives drive entrepreneurs:
Financial: The entrepreneurs have a motivation to increase their financial abilities.
Recognition: Becoming a successful person, showing their achievements, and getting the self-actualization is directing people to become entrepreneurs.
Freedom: Establishing their own business and becoming their own boss provides independence and flexibility for the individuals.
Family tradition: Growing in an entrepreneurial family result in entrepreneurial characteristics in generations. Those entrepreneur generations prefer to open a new business or continue their family businesses.
The Aspiring Entrepreneurial Motive Questionnaire (AEMQ) (Aziz et al., 2012; Friedman et al., 2012; Keles, 2016) developed based on Yalcin & Kapu’s (2008) comprehensive literature review to assess these motives and compare the motives of aspirant entrepreneurs in a cross-cultural context.
a. Scope and Purpose
This article aims to identify entrepreneurial beliefs and intentions of students, which represent different cultural environments.
b. Methodology
The authors organized the survey in capital cities of both countries as Bishkek and Abuja in February 2016. The sample size consists of undergraduate students, who study business administration, from Kyrgyz University (KG) (n=103) and Nigerian University (NG) (n=122) Universities. Thus, the final sample contained 225 undergraduate students.
Aziz et al., (2012) developed the questionnaire used in this study. The reliability of the survey instrument was satisfactory since the Cronbach’s Alpha was relatively high for the 33 motivation items. The Alpha for the motivation variables was 0.906. Five-point Likert scale was used to measure perceived motivation variables: 5 was «strongly agree», 4 was «agree», 3 was «neither agree nor disagree», 2 was «disagree» and 1 was «strongly disagree».
c. Findings and Discussions
The average ages are close enough, even if the Nigerian sample is significantly younger from the 20.8-year-old in Kyrgyzstan as opposed to the 19.0-year-old in Nigeria. 38.8% of the Kyrgyz students are male, as opposed to 53.3% in Nigeria. In 2016 less than half of the Kyrgyz students’ families (30%) have their businesses, in Nigeria; the percentage is around 60%.
| Table 2 Main Characteristics of Both Sub-Samples |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Variables | Kyrgyzstan | Nigeria | |
| Sample size | 103.0 | 122.0 | |
| Age (average) | 20.8 | 19.0 | |
| Gender | Male | 38.8 | 53.3 |
| Female | 61.2 | 46.7 | |
| Family business | Yes | 31.1 | 58.2 |
| No | 68.9 | 41.8 | |
| Table 3 Differences Between Samples |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Questions | University | N | Mean | Std. Dev. | Sig. |
| I want to be an entrepreneur | KG | 103 | 4,54 | ,57272 | ,000 |
| NG | 122 | 4,08 | 1,01713 | ||
| Being an entrepreneur will allow me to achieve my goals | KG | 103 | 4,31 | ,86352 | ,010 |
| NG | 122 | 3,95 | 1,14886 | ||
| By being an entrepreneur, I can decide my products’/services’ prices | KG | 103 | 3,43 | 1,02584 | ,000 |
| NG | 122 | 4,06 | 1,07363 | ||
| Being an entrepreneur will allow me to challenge myself | KG | 103 | 4,45 | ,73735 | ,000 |
| NG | 122 | 3,80 | 1,19669 | ||
| Being an entrepreneur will allow me to make a greater contribution to society | KG | 103 | 4,48 | ,68405 | ,002 |
| NG | 122 | 4,13 | ,95304 | ||
| Corruption is a barrier to run my business | KG | 103 | 3,93 | 1,15692 | ,006 |
| NG | 122 | 3,47 | 1,29980 | ||
| Taxation in my country supports entrepreneurship | KG | 103 | 3,15 | ,98774 | ,010 |
| NG | 122 | 3,52 | 1,12971 | ||
| Bureaucracy has a negative effect on entrepreneurs | KG | 103 | 3,63 | 1,03838 | ,014 |
| NG | 122 | 3,27 | 1,12107 | ||
| Material costs are reasonable in my country | KG | 103 | 3,57 | ,78718 | ,029 |
| NG | 122 | 3,28 | 1,10206 | ||
|
KG | 103 | 4,22 | ,80357 | ,002 |
| NG | 122 | 3,80 | 1,14010 | ||
The table 3 shows that questions number 3, 4 & 7 the average scores of Nigerian students have a higher average higher score than the Kyrgyz students and have a meaningful result score.
For the remaining questions, Kyrgyz students have higher average scores than the NG University students. For example, both groups of university students strongly agree with “I want to be an entrepreneur” sentences, but Kyrgyz students have a higher average score. Furthermore, Kyrgyz students have a higher average score for “I want to be an entrepreneur because I like to work with people”. On the other hand, “Corruption is a barrier to run my company” and “Bureaucracy has a negative effect on entrepreneurs” was scored higher by Kyrgyz students, based on this we can say Kyrgyzstan has a higher level of perceived corruption than Nigeria.
Factor analysis was applied to the entrepreneurial motives’ questionnaire for each sample separately1. According to the results of factor analysis for Kyrgyz student group, KMO and Bartlett's Test for entrepreneurial motives were calculated as 0,706. Seven factors appeared with Total Variance Explained calculated as 64,612. They are Family Tradition Motive, Governance Motive, Freedom Motive, Financial Motive, Business Environmental Motive, Corruption and Bureaucracy, Financial Security.
The analysis among Kyrgyz students according to the family tradition motive factor with independent t-test, only the first factor determined as meaningful and retaining the family traditions.
| Table 4 Independent Samples Test Group Statistics |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factor | Own Business | N | Mean | Std. Deviation | Std. Error | Sig. |
| Family Tradition Motive | Yes | 32 | 3,5391 | ,80850 | ,14292 | ,001 |
| No | 71 | 2,9507 | ,85838 | ,10187 | ||
However, several factors equal to Kyrgyz results, factor analysis of Nigerian sample gave different results from Kyrgyz sample2. KMO and Bartlett's Test for entrepreneurial motives were calculated as 0,842 with Total Variance Explained calculated as 65,031. Factors: Freedom Motive, Business Environmental Motive, Family Motive and Bureaucracy, Financial Security, Governance Motive, Financial Motive, Family Tradition Motive.
While the analysis among Nigerian students shows the family tradition motive factor with independent t-test and several factors found meaningful for Business Environmental Motive, Family Motive and Bureaucracy, Family Tradition Motive.
| Table 5 Independent Samples Test Group Statistics |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Factor | Own Business | N | Mean | Std. Deviation | Std. Error | Sig. |
| Business Environmental Motive | Yes | 71 | 3,5282 | ,83902 | ,09957 | ,029 |
| No | 51 | 3,1830 | ,86491 | ,12111 | ||
| Family Motive and Bureaucracy | Yes | 71 | 3,5258 | ,89027 | ,10566 | ,010 |
| No | 51 | 3,0850 | ,96112 | ,13458 | ||
| Family Tradition Motive | Yes | 71 | 3,4296 | 1,10936 | ,13166 | 023 |
| No | 51 | 2,9510 | 1,17156 | ,16405 | ||
The perceived marketing opportunities were one of the primary motivators for both Kyrgyz and Nigerian students. The production-oriented marketing is still dominant in examined countries, and people’s purchasing power is not high. The market offers low priced products that consumers can afford in both countries. However, there is an upper-class segment in both countries who demands better quality services and goods. These upper-class segment consumers prefer to purchase expensive goods and services that fit their social reputation (Aziz et al., 2013). The marketing practices are less developed in these geographies so that marketing opportunities become one of the main motivations for many entrepreneurs. Shane (2004) examined the rational basis for opportunity recognition, and that as entrepreneurial opportunities may be objectively real, individuals must first subjectively recognize them as opportunities to behave. Casson (2005) noted that people must recognize these changes to utilize them as entrepreneurs. Having a family-run businesses experience and being wealthy is an example of some factors behind family background that influence the level that such opportunities are recognized and exploited.
Entrepreneurship is one of the best ways for development in emerging economies. The “Entrepreneurship Education” was introduced into the curricula of the higher education institutes by a joint decision by several different public organization in Nigeria (Can & Tursunbadalov, 2019). This introduction was effective from the 2007/2008 Academic session (Sule et al., 2019). A similar approach, putting entrepreneurship education is included as part of the curricula of the higher education institutes in Kyrgyzstan would be a good initiative. Besides this, the curriculums must be customized and updated based on findings of similar research. Higher Education Societies and successful organizations should encourage entrepreneurship to the younger generations in especially in developing countries to start-up businesses (Can et al., 2018).
This study contributes to entrepreneurship literature as a first comparative academic work on entrepreneurial beliefs and intentions among emerging countries’ students of Kyrgyzstan and Nigeria.
Recognition and family businesses motivate both nationalities, and the recognition motivates the Nigerian students the most. Additionally, many of the students in Nigeria reported that their family ran businesses which have helped provide income for the family members. In contrast to Kyrgyzstan students, Nigerian students have a more complex set of motives. The finance, recognition, freedom and marketing opportunities are significant elements of their motivation set.
Kyrgyzstan and Nigeria both have emerging economies where many people are looking for financial stability. Kyrgyz students feel the need for self-achievement more than the Nigerian students, while the Nigerian students are more motivated by recognition. However, aspiring to become an entrepreneur is multidimensional in factors.
Higher Education Institutes and successful organizations should encourage entrepreneurship to the younger generations in especially in developing countries to start-up businesses. The aspiring entrepreneurs should be mentored and monitored positively by these so-called organizations.
Some common problems for these countries are unfavourable tax regulations, unstable economic conditions, high inflation and corruption. In order to overcome these problems, public organizations, universities, and businessmen should collaborate in order to widen the support for entrepreneurship.
Future research should study students’ belief and intentions in other emerging economies and should try to analyse importance of those elements. By this way decision makers can develop better environment for entrepreneurship.
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Received: 18-May-2022, Manuscript No. JLERI-22-11253; Editor assigned: 20-May-2022; PreQC No. JLERI-22-11253 (PQ); Reviewed: 03-Jun-2022, QC No. JLERI-22-11253; Revised: 09- Jun-2022, Manuscript No. JLERI-22-11253 (R); Published: 25-Jun-2022.