Research Article: 2024 Vol: 28 Issue: 5
The Role of Student-Based Social Enterprise in Addressing Youth Unemployment
Aruleba, T.J, Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology
Fasanmi O.O, Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology
Adeeko J.D, Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology
Aruleba O.S, Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology
Oyekunle B.O, Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology
Citation Information: Aruleba, T.J, Fasanmi O. O, Adeeko J.D, Aruleba O.S, Oyekunle B.O. (2024). The Role of Student-Based Social Enterprise in Addressing Youth Unemployment. International Journal of Entrepreneurship, 28(5),1-17
Abstract
This study investigates the role of student-based social enterprise in tackling youth unemployment, as it aligns with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 (Decent work for all economic growth). The specific objectives are to determine the Influence of leadership training on the Enactus alumnus in the quest to overcome youth unemployment, ascertain the viability of the social enterprise for solving youth unemployment, investigate the potential benefits of the Enactus' social enterprise in the quest to solve the problem of youth unemployment. An exploratory research design was employed for the study. A stratified random sampling technique was employed to identify the key informants. Ten interviewees were recruited, and only five showed voluntary participation. The gathered data was analysed using content analysis. The results show an improvement in leadership and communication abilities, capitalising on the knowledge bank of the social enterprise to explore business opportunities and exposure to project management. Therefore, it is recommended that more NGOs combine social enterprise with their current missions to speedily reduce social vices in society
Keywords
Faculty Advisors, Enactus Nigeria, Decent work, Non-governmental organisation, Third sector.
Introduction
An organisation's mission is served and achieved by thoughtful leadership; team members are influenced through leadership, which can be either a skill or strategy adopted by faculty advisors (FAs), team executives and the general members to execute Enactus missions in chapters across the country. Its unique and crucial indices are sufficient to define an enterprise's success or failure. Most leadership research focuses on a complex relationship, including the leader's power, subjects, affluence and, situation, etc. Since effective leadership involves understanding the environment surrounding leadership styles and team members' qualities, it is worth considering these. Holistically, whatever form of leadership style that is adopted can only orchestrate positive and negative outcomes or both. The leaders of today's organisations must exhibit entrepreneurial traits: more results-driven, responsible, customer-process-oriented, action-oriented, conversational, tech-savvy, inventive and committed to continual development (Edward & Mbohwa, 2013).
Social enterprise can replace social ventures; it is a phrase publicly used in social entrepreneurship inquiries (Zhao, Zahra, & Qing-Liang, 2014). The social venture history has been traced to the book ‘Sociology of Social Movements’ published in 1972 (Ge, Xu & Pellegrini, 2019), where the idea of the social entrepreneur was initially put forth. Numerous efforts about the beginning of social entrepreneurship exist as well. It has been contested that the concept was inspired by Young's 1986 idea of creative non-profit entrepreneurs. Others think that the social economy idea put forth by Thierry Let Thai in 1998 is where the concept of social entrepreneurship got its start. Social companies were born because of society's charitable endeavours, not from the market's emergence. The social enterprise spectrum defines social entrepreneurship as a multivariate complex that can be wholly or partially non-profit. The idea was broadened to include social entrepreneurship as a type of social economy and a brand-new component of the third sector; in fact, the fourth sector is occasionally used to describe social entrepreneurship. Binary objectives, which pursue economic and social ideals instead of just one, are the most common characteristics of social enterprises. Consequently, social firms are motivated by both social and commercial objectives (Ge et al., 2019).
Social enterprises are created to advance the general welfare of society. Specific goals will fit this broad societal purpose (Bull & Ridley, 2019), even as refocusing is a top-notch effort for Enactus Nigeria. The religious, Dunantist, and Wilsonian traditions have all been relevant to modern NGOs' genealogy knowledge. The oldest of the three religious traditions arose from missionary service. However, unlike related evangelical organisations, most religious non-governmental organisations (RNGOs) do not engage in overt functions (Hasmath, Hildebrandt & Hsu, 2019; Tam & Hasmath, 2015). Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have grown in Influence and power over time. They are now regarded and accepted as one of the most powerful and influential actors globally when it comes to filling gaps, defending social and economic rights, and so on (Tjäder, 2020). Enactus International is one of the biggest and most honoured non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the world when it comes to leadership development. The non-profit sector is frequently referred to as the third sector, distinguishing it from the enterprise (public and private limited) and government sectors. A profit-driven ownership structure is unique to the mentioned sectors (Comfort & Blankenship, 2018). Enactus Nigeria is a non-profit organisation that promotes public interest through social activism. Enactus Nigeria receives financing from various public and private donors, which is used to help students develop their leadership skills.
Employability is one of the key means in which government, at all levels, have devised as an approach to combat the threat of youth unemployment (Aruleba, Olanipekun, Ayodele & Adeagbo, 2019; Emeh, 2017). Africa's core labour force (youths) is not devoid of the abilities or knowledge to work and idleness by choice. Rather, the key difficulty is providing opportunities to work (Mader, 2018); this also reflects the scenario in Nigeria as well. To combat youth unemployment and underemployment in Africa, working policies that create opportunities for the standard of living are required (Price, 2019). Poor rate of living and joblessness birthed the majority of the existing societal menaces, which include insecurity, leadership dearth and poor governance, among others that have acted negatively on human social existence and development (Adeosun, Bello & Aruleba, 2022). Youth has grown in popularity, and although there are many definitions, young people differ from nation to nation. In some cases, it is confusing to whom the name refers (Flynn, Mader & Oosterom, 2017; Price, 2019). This student-graduate, however, considers undergraduates to be youth because they are still in the age range of 15-29 of youth in Nigeria, as indicated by the 2019 Nigerian National Youth Policy (Erhiegueke, Esimone & Ugoo-okonkwo, 2022).
Adolescents are often regarded as the bedrock, main mover, and cornerstone of every nation's progressive development; nevertheless, when youths are denied opportunities for meaningful employment, they are more likely to engage in bad innovations that harm the country's development. Adeeko & Adeniyi, (2022) believed a high unemployment rate hampers entrepreneurship development. The unemployment crisis is a global threat that obstructs human development (Ogunmefun & Okuneye, 2020). Youngsters, an essential part of Nigeria's economy, are expected to be catered for to meet a wide range of requirements for modern job demands. As a result, diverting Enactus students' leadership capacity training to social enterprise is a critical, timely intervention and method to increase students' employability during and after school. In recent years, youth issues in Sub-Saharan Africa have yielded an increase, particularly those connected to unemployment. Nigeria is anticipated to have about 440 million people by 2050 and currently stands above 200 million, making it the world's third most populous country. Nigerians consider unemployment one of the country's most serious concerns, second only to poor living; unavailable jobs are particularly problematic for young people (World Bank, 2016). Nigeria's labour market is diverse and diversified, with underemployment as a major concern (Price, 2019; World Bank, 2016).
Between 2010 and 2030, an additional forty-fifty million or above-created jobs will be required to hire the youth population. These figures equate to an annual increase of almost 2 million in employment; the rate of joblessness in 2016 climbed from twenty-eight million to twenty-nine million in 2017 in Sub-Saharan Africa (Ogunmefun & Okuneye, 2020). However, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is 23.9 percent, which is excessively high among African countries (World Bank, 2016). The nation's leadership issue is one responsible for these gaps. It is worth noting that the National Youth Service Corps, or NYSC, mobilises over 300,000 graduates each year (Aruleba et al., 2019; Kazaure, 2017), with a lower employment rate. The rise in scholarly interest in social enterprise as the fourth sector of the economy and the practice of social enterprise indicate the activity of social entrepreneurship (Lepoutre et al., 2013; Wilson & Post, 2013). But there have been few scholarly works on the rise of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship (SE) in Nigeria and Africa (Doherty & Kittipanya-ngam, 2021; Sengupta & Sahay, 2017).
Also, because social entrepreneurship, its usage with leadership and social enterprise as an employability strategy, is still emerging in Nigeria, there is a need for more. Finally, employability has been studied all around the world, incorporating various structures from Taiwan, India, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom (Aruleba et al., 2019; Asuquo & Inaja, 2013; Benson, Morgan & Filippaios, 2014; Jonck, Walt & Der, 2015; Mohan, 2013; Pan & Lee, 2011). Within the realm of leadership re-engineering for youths, an attempt has yet to be made to combine it with social enterprise. As a result, there is a need to investigate the role of student-based social enterprise in battling youth unemployment. The specific goals of the research are to:
• Determine the Influence of leadership training on the Enactus alumnus in the quest to overcome youth unemployment.
• Ascertain the viability of the social enterprise for solving youth unemployment.
• Investigate the potential benefits of the Enactus' social enterprise in the quest to solve the problem of youth unemployment.
Literature Review
Leadership
There exists a substantial amount of information about leadership, and this exposure can be usefully leveraged to improve managerial efficiency in social companies. It has to be identified what actually makes a good leader out of a social entrepreneur and NGO. There is a prevalent belief that strong leaders are born, not made, which most academics disagree with, yet there is an exception to what Enactus represents. Various leadership models have been investigated, produced, and examined in an attempt to highlight the most essential patterns of behaviour that excellent leaders display while analysing the notion of leadership and the hunt for the attributes that constitute good leaders. This investigation is based on the notion that identifying sound leadership attributes in youngsters that make specific persons exceptional leaders would benefit Enactus, other organisations, and society as a whole. Only authentic leaders who have gone through the process will emerge, implying that the organisation and community will operate more efficiently.
Inquiries into models of leadership and leadership concepts identified attributes, behaviour and behavioural patterns, and leadership theories (Edward & Mbohwa, 2013). Still, this study rooted for democratic and autocratic leadership styles in the discharge of humanistic efforts, with 90 percent democracy. As a result, it's critical to shift Enactus' focus to social enterprises without sacrificing the organisation's mission of developing leadership skills among Nigerian students and graduates.
Social Enterprise
By merging various institutional forms, social enterprises try to build and legitimise new institutions (McInerney, 2012) or basic features of enterprise and charity (Ebrahim et al., 2014; Mair, Mayer & Lutz, 2015). The variants of the social enterprise have been explained as entities that incorporate constructs from different aspects of society, including social business models (Ludeke-Freund, Massa, Bocken, Brent & Musango, 2016), capacity for analysing problem identification and solving to exploit and explore social innovation with an entrepreneurial mindset. It's ideal to think of these hybrid organisations as a link between the humanity and profit sectors' institutional realms, as they allow for the movement of ideas from one to the other (Sparviero, 2019). To tackle the problems of globalisation, social entrepreneurship is increasingly being valued as a strategy to utilise the approach for market efficiency. In addition, social entrepreneurship has been portrayed as a developing industry that has yet to reach a consensus and whose legal status is defined and controlled by various strong actors, including government agencies (Apostolopoulos, Newbery & Gkartzios, 2018).
The two distinctive attributes of a social venture are the drive for social goals (humanitarian and charity) and the adoption of relative commercial activity to generate revenue (Lumpkin et al., 2013). The commercial task is meant to cater for the social impacts, i.e., effectively, it is a function of social impact. Thus, public social enterprises set social transformation above the pursuit of individual wealth development, setting them apart from enterprises in the second (private) sector that aim to maximise returns for the collective goals. Practically, social goals include lowering carbon emissions, injustice, homelessness, internally displaced people, poverty, exclusion, inequality, unfairness, equity, education, poverty reduction, unemployment and social inclusions, among others. Hence, social enterprises are associated with wealth-giving and cooperative behaviour as social superstar objectives increase the standard of living and community development (Lumpkin et al., 2013).
Any business trading for social objectives is known as a social enterprise. Their principal goals are social, and income surplus by corporate activity is further injected into those goals. The social enterprise's third force is, by extension, social ownership. Social enterprises are self-contained businesses controlled by communities or individuals, get funding from local and international donors, and are not governed by the government, with earnings going to good causes. Enactus Nigeria is making use of this opportunity. Beneficiaries of social enterprises are typically localised communities and groups, but the effects of their activities frequently benefit wider geographical communities, particularly youths, in this study. It's important to think of social businesses as a compelling term encompassing different organisational kinds that operate in all economic sectors, especially regarding youth employment. Some compete in private markets like other enterprises (Steiner & Teasdale, 2016), while others provide public services under contract (Teasdale, 2012). Doherty & Kittipanya-ngam, (2021), a social venture is a business that deals with the goal of creating good for social and environmental values rather than self-benefit. Similarly, entrepreneurs create values to address the societal problem(s) (Aruleba, Adeosun & Adebowale, 2022).
Social ventures offer comprehensive techniques for tackling simple and complex problems in communities, towns, cities, suburbs and metropolitans, with a focus on occupying a niche place in society. The majority of social ventures are unlikely to ever be financially (selling and buying) sustainable purely through the sale of goods and services (Steiner & Teasdale, 2019). It's on this note and many other reasons that Enactus Nigeria is re-engineering the leadership prowess to social enterprise without neglect of the leadership. While the language of the daily ruining is centred on social ideals, the dominating and catalysing narrative is the transformational and radical ability of the market potential for reformation, and social entrepreneurship is sporadically seen and regarded as an acceptable organisational form that ailing sectors can trust (Apostolopoulos et al., 2018).
Some are more analogous to voluntary organisations and cooperative societies, relying on volunteers and grants in acknowledgement of their significance for social development (Munoz et al., 2015). Few provide jobs for underserved groups, which may necessitate government intervention (Teasdale, 2012). These are the circles to which Enactus Nigeria belongs. Many social businesses integrate numerous purposes and depend on various finance to realise their social mission and vision (Steiner & Teasdale, 2019).
Non-Governmental Organisations
Embassies and agencies of International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) and governments were the main sources of funding for local or chapter NGOs (Chifuti & Kasongo, 2020). Enactus Nigeria, in particular, raises funds from the parent organisation (Enactus International) and international benefactors. Such include private entities, national and regional indigenous groups, and community support/village clusters that support growth. NGOs mobilise private funds for production, food distribution, community organisations (charitable organisations, trusts and foundations, professional societies, independent cooperatives, neighbourhood unions, societies, trade associations, consumer groups, and faith organisations) (Agyemang, O’Dwyer, Unerman & Awumbila, 2017), in this case, Enactus Nigeria stands for developing students' leadership capacity.
The character and purpose of NGOs have changed as well as their risen number, breadth, and involvement in local and global governance. They now operate in a wide range of political conditions, economic conditions, and socio-cultural situations. It also collaborates with states and other stakeholders for effective service delivery (Hasmath et al., 2019; Nelson-Nunez & Cartwright, 2018). To better understand the issues that NGOs face in resource mobilisation, it was discovered that NGOs have relied on the donors’ grace to support their activities and programmes for continuity via aid, grants, and donations (Chifuti & Kasongo, 2020). More than a decade ago, NGOs made giant efforts to raise social enterprises with mandates of environmental, health, poverty, unemployment and educational issues. Emphasis has been stressed on the essential roles played by NGOs in the narratives and perceptions about these issues. Plenty of studies have also shown the growing Influence of NGOs' international fora and their positive contribution to the development of and welfare of all. Similarly, there has been divergent views about NGOs success in compelling nations’ government to embrace, adopt and adhere with more vigorous and compelling positions (Azis, 2022), as regard social issues affecting the segregated communities.
One of the veritable tools for meeting the social needs of the disadvantaged (Individuals and communities) is social entrepreneurship through the operations of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) (Adeyeye, 2016), community participation being central to achieving the missions of the third sector. NGOs are regarded as the third sector of society, which is the public sector, where individuals volunteer their time to gain positive outcomes (Kallman, Meghan, Clark, Wu & Lin, 2016; Molina, 2021). A standard classification for NGOs is that they function as the third sector of society, meaning they are voluntary public sectors that do not receive state funding nor are influenced by the government. The first and second sectors of society include public and private organisations that are regulated by economic, political, and social agendas. The third sector plays a significant role in global value creation via advocacy, service delivery, cultural programs and social movements. NGOs are part of the third sector, which provides advocacy and social work to the public. Social actors were first acknowledged as NGOs after the Cold War when the world was recovering from colonialism, communism, and the remnants of World War II (Kallman et al., 2016).
Employability
Educators, researchers, and employers have all heard of the word employability. It refers to the skills, knowledge, and talents needed to seek a job and advance in a career. The concept of employability is rooted in people's economic well-being and a country's competitive advantage that has grown to rely on the workforce's knowledge, skills, and initiatives (Amadi, 2019). Employability refers to the abilities, personal characteristics, knowledge and understanding that permit young people to choose and get employment in which they will be happy and successful (Aruleba et al., 2019). Underemployment in the informal sector is a common symptom of Nigeria's employment crisis (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2017); most employed individuals labour for themselves or their family members in or near their homes and under informal working conditions. Some do more than one job with a meagre pay (World Bank, 2016). Also, (Price, 2019) aligned with this submission. However, (Aruleba, Adeosun, & Adebowale, 2022; Noy, James & Bedley, 2016) succinctly distinguished between formal and informal sectors.
Price, (2019), the national strategies for youth employability have been revised, including the Nigerian Youth Employment Action Plan (2019-2023) and the National Employment Strategy 2017. In the meantime, none of these or others have been able to provide work for Nigerian students and youths. The strategy identifies Nigeria's barriers to comprehensive growth as being directly tied to insufficient physical infrastructure, inadequate human capital generation and the failure to convert output growth into the creation of jobs (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2017). Enactus Nigeria, as a non-governmental organisation, has a solid inclination to intervene and become a catalyst in the above-mentioned social entrepreneurship strategies.
Unemployment in Nigeria
The Federal Ministry of Youth Development (FMYSD) designed this plan as an approach for efficiently responding to Nigeria's youth employment crisis. The plan's primary goals are to reduce fragmentation and maximise technical and financial resources for maximum impact. It covers the finance, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation mechanisms for supporting the creation of jobs for youth in crucial economic and social sectors. The strategy is aimed at young people, and the definition of the age range has been altered from 18 to 35 years to 15 to 29 years (Price, 2019). In the report of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the unemployment rate in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) was 5.9 percent in 2018 and is anticipated to be the same through 2020. Africa's population is expected to expand to 2.7 billion people by 2050, emphasising the significance of concerted measures to improve youth employability. In Sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria), youth unemployment remains one of the major barriers (Haji, 2015).
Solving youth unemployment could bring social justice, fairness, and equity to Nigeria's most engaged people. For example, youth unemployment tends to expose youths and their communities to negative repercussions such as poverty, which can lead to social marginalisation and youth disengagement, which can lead to the loss of emotional support and financial aid networks. Furthermore, youth unemployment may harm their chances of finding profitable employment by preventing them from gaining the necessary work experience and deteriorating their skills, which have severe consequences for future earnings and networks. Unemployed youths risk becoming political thugs and bloodthirsty hoodlums, who may be used as local militants to attack and vandalise public and private property or engage in other projects such as blackmailing, or who may be manipulated by politicians to harass their opponents for pay, thus fuelling social instability (Melyoki, 2021).
The approaches enhance the creation of decent work via a variety of means, including the re-invigoration of the private sector, agricultural transformation, physical infrastructure, market access for private businesses, and credit availability. An increase in youth unemployment will lead to other social problems, which will affect people's psyche and hinder their ability to develop entrepreneurial skills, as well as a loss of social prowess. Similarly, unemployment statistics in Nigeria show that an increase in the unemployment rate among Nigerian youth hurts the country's development. When youth face unemployment, regardless of their family background, educational aspirations and qualifications, marital status, or ethnic or religious background, they will turn to available alternative means for achieving success without considering the long-term consequences of criminal sanctions (Ogunmefun & Okuneye, 2020).
Theories
The need for theoretical backing has been substantiated by (Aruleba, 2023; Aruleba & Adediran, 2022). Stakeholder, social origin, macro institutional social enterprise framework, and consensus theories were used as the basis for this research. Human resources, NGOs, social enterprise, and employability are all represented in the used theories. A management theory is the stakeholder theory; the significance of stakeholders in non-governmental organisations is discussed. Employees of Enactus, community beneficiaries, faculty advisers, Enactus students, partners, suppliers, consumers, and others are all involved in this scenario. Irrespective of this, a balance should be found between major and minor stakeholders. The study classified faculty advisers, students (youths), Enactus personnel, and benefitting communities as significant stakeholders on this note (Solomon & Sije, 2022). Thus, whether majority or minority, everyone's interest is essential for the social good. Conflict of interest is expected to arise at any stage of engagement due to variations in individual and collective needs and wants. The Enactus employees, students, and faculty advisers are expected to succumb to the EN's interest in prevailing for the overall mutual benefits of communities. By this, conflicts of stakeholders' interest will be effectively managed for continuity.
The theory of social origins traces and links the relationship that exists between historical events and the correlation it has on size, character and interaction with the government of any nation's non-profit sector on enhanced knowledge of multi-national disparities (Anheier & Salamon, 2006; Salamon & Anheier, 1998). People in liberal states are anticipated to be the most inclined to donate money to NGOs, followed by those in corporatist, social democratic, and statist states. Because the government does not guarantee residents' social well-being, people in liberal nations have a higher tendency to donate to social welfare groups. Likewise, the probability of donating to arts, culture, advocacy, and foreign charity in social democratic countries, where the government takes care of social welfare needs, is high. In a tested hypothetical statement, liberal democracies would have the highest charity giving, notably to human charities.
In contrast, social-democratic countries would have more donations to expressive, advocacy, and foreign causes (Einolf, 2014). It is worth noting that Enactus has found itself on these platforms. Salamon & Anheier, (1998), defined and classified the non-profit sector along two axes, one for government social welfare spending and the other for its size. Liberal states have a large non-profit sector with low government social welfare spending. In contrast, corporatist states have a sizeable non-profit sector with high government social welfare spending, and social-democratic states have a small non-profit sector with high government social welfare spending (Einolf, 2014). It is based on liberalism that NGOs such as Enactus Nigeria and others receive grants and donations to chart the course of students' projects and their viability for a social enterprise that, in the short, medium and long terms, addresses the social problem of unemployment.
Macro institutions and processes are responsible for a major part of the diversity in social entrepreneurship among nations. This is in keeping with the historical institutionalism theory, which claims that formal and informal institutions can establish causal trajectories in which the formation of the latest institutions is impacted by both the limitations and supports provided by earlier and present institutions. The theory contends that current institutions which play a significant role in influencing the various homeland models of social enterprise emerged from a complex mingling of culture, local (including social class), regional, and global hierarchies, as well as political-economic histories. These factors influenced the evolution of the present state, which in turn influenced the state of the economy and civil society. Theorists have long argued that state institutions and policies have structural institutions at the macro and micro levels, including social enterprise, business, and civil society organisations (Kerlin, 2018). The opportunity screening, seizing and exploring are peculiar, and the function of the environment projects are executed and the location of the students' enterprise. There are certain environments (religious belief, gender restriction, inability to release land and community hostility, among others) that are harsh to community engagement and projects, thereby impeding the success of such opportunities, and its looming challenges will be detrimental to the image of the major stakeholders as well as a waste of resources committed.
The consensus theory of employability is founded on the belief that investing in human capital via generic skill development will assure student-graduate employment and career advancement (Selvadurai et al., 2012) with soft, technical and vocational skills (effective communication, leadership, critical thinking and creative thinking, curiosity, presentation, script writing, design and creativity, time management, teamwork and collaboration, problem-solving, research skills, idea sharing, networking, empathy, project planning and organising, independent work, adaptability among others) acquired by the students in the process of project identification, project execution and conversion to social enterprise. Their employment status will certainly be scaled up.
Methodology
The researcher's technique to combine parts of the research title and objective(s) in an organised, systematic, and logical manner is known as research design to ensure that research challenges are solved and the research goal(s) are met. An exploratory research design was adopted. An open-ended instrument (Aruleba et al., 2019; Flanagan et al., 2015), which allows the respondents' feelings and opinions to flow freely without being manipulated, best suits the nature of the research. The qualitative study used a stratified random sampling technique to identify essential informants for the collection of soft data (recorded interview). This was used based on the FAs that attended the 2022 leadership conference.
The population of the faculty advisors (FAs) that attended the 2022 leadership conference is twenty, out of which ten were stratifiedly recruited from formerly Enactus students and faculty advisors. Only five showed voluntary commitment, this include two former Enactus students who are now FAs and FAs who were not alumni. This category of participants was captured due to their comprehensive understanding of the activities of their respective teams, more than the Enactus students in their teams. This sample size is supported by the efforts of (Dworkin, 2012), who noted a minimum of five and a maximum of fifty. In this case, (Boddy, 2016) made a case for one sample size as far as there is justification.
Malterud, Siersma & Guassora, (2016) suggested criteria for sufficient sample size: quality of dialogue, study’s aim, strategy for analysis, use of established theory, and sample specificity, all of which this study has fulfilled. The study sought and got the approval of Enactus Nigeria on June 7, 2022. The interactive in-depth interview sought for their participation with the letter of consent and subject information sheet. The study adhered to the given time for the interviews. The exercise (interview) was done in a space of two weeks. The consent letter and interview permitted the interview to be recorded, which was later approved. The audio records were transcribed in this manner along with the open-ended instrument. A content form of analysis was deployed to analyse the collected data. Lastly, participant validation, member checks and peer review were used to validate the data collecteds see figure 1.
Figure 1 Methodological Approach
Source: Authors’ Conceptualization, (2024).
Results and Analysis
The data was analysed using the title of the current study, which corresponds to the research objectives. With the key informant's permission, the one-on-one interviews were taped and transcribed see figure 2.
Figure 2 Process of Content Analysis
Source: Authors’ Conceptualization, (2024).
Reported Results
The report might be delivered in a narrative or point-by-point manner (Birt, Scott, S., Cavers, Campbell & Walter, 2016; Zairul, 2021). The results from the instrument administration were assessed using qualitative data analysis; they were then sorted and categorised to eliminate recurrence and ensure that their responses were brief. As reported by the key informants, the responses that emanated from the three research objectives are.
In Table 1, the participants' age varies from 30 being the minimum and fifty-two being the maximum. This is an indication that they are young and agile bodies, as such, they can cope with the responsibilities that come with the positions of faculty advisors and Enactus alumnus. Thus, their respective teams can have seamless and great project execution as well as sourcing for equipment and infrastructure for their meetings, sourcing for Business Advisory Board (BAB) and venues for meetings and attendance for virtual national competition. There is an inclusiveness in the gender that constitutes faculty advisors and Enactus alumni. This implies that Enactus Nigeria has developed the leadership capacity and social enterprise ability of faculty advisors and alumni. This act has spurred the participants to engage in purposeful leadership growth and build their social acumen as social entrepreneurs. As such, there has been a reduction in leadership dearth in the circles in which they find their selves in the universe.
| Table 1 Participants' Social and Demographic Profiles | |||
| S/N | Item | Responses | |
| 1 | Age | 30, 35, 36, 43, 52 | |
| 2 | Gender: | Female | 1 |
| Male | 4 | ||
| 3 | Highest Educational Qualification | M.Sc, M.Sc, MSc, M.Sc, PhD | |
| 4 | Institution/ chapter team | Ekiti State University, Kwara State University, Owo Polytechnic, BOUESTI (Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science and Technology Ikere-Ekiti) | |
| 5 | How long have you been working with Enactus Nigeria? | Less than a year, 4, 7, 8, 9 | |
| 6 | Strength/number of institutional team: | 10, 27, 40, 55, 120 | |
| 7 | Source of Financing projects | Partners, BAB, Benefactor, Donations from corporate bodies and our institution, proceeds from institutional support, students contribution, FAs’ contribution, Government agency WECA (wealth creation agency)-OESAAC, and Team’s contribution. | |
| 8 | Number of institutional (Business Advisory Board) BAB | 1, 5, 7, 7, 10 | |
| 9 | Stakeholder: | Enactus Alumnus and Faculty Advisor, | |
The participants are well-read, as the minimum qualification is a Master's degree. The alumnus have been able to read further the level of the first degree; as such, they have been able to have the benefits of higher education for themselves on the premises of higher income, better exposure and further knowledge acquisition. Five faculty advisors were captured in the course of this inquiry. They cut across the northern and southern parts of the country. This means that Enactus Nigeria's activities are not sectional, nepotistic, factional, or biased. Thus, comprehensive Influence is assured.
Thus, the Enactus students (current and alumnus) have benefited from the array of activities for Enactus teams, such as leadership conferences, networking, collaboration, community engagement, project execution, national completion and the World Cup. Less than a year to nine years characterised the working years of the participants. Due to this, they have gathered experience that will assist the teams in delivering social goods to the various selected communities. It has assisted the students in easily working over challenges attached to leadership crises in their departments, faculties, universities/polytechnics and the nation at large. The strength of the teams managed by the faculty advisors in terms of number ranges from ten to one hundred and twenty. It is a huge way of influencing youths positively, most especially the multiplier effects on the students, tertiary institutions, communities, society, Nigeria, Africa and the globe. Partners, BAB, benefactors, Donations from corporate bodies and our institution, proceeds from institutional support, students' contribution, FAs' contribution, Government agency WECA (wealth creation agency)-OESAAC and Team's contribution have been the sources for raising capital to finance projects executions and other itineraries. This means that there is a high level of collaboration amongst Enactus Nigeria, teams and society. Hence, it's not a one-way affair. It's all-encompassing. This put the number of BAB in the range between one and 10. This is in reality with the realities of the universities' teams and rules of Enactus Nigeria. Two Enactus alumni turned FAs and three FAs were covered in this inquiry.
Research Question One: What impact does leadership training have on Enactus alumni in the fight against youth unemployment?
The leadership training provided adolescents with the required work-ready abilities to become a driving force behind entrepreneurial concepts; allowed students to apply what they've learned in class to real-world tasks; develop and birth new concepts; communication abilities; develop and strengthening leadership abilities, skills and capabilities; create a chance to kick-start a career; self-reliable; ability to act on your own; volunteering; industrious; creative; it provides economic benefit by bringing innovation to a tough period; the mentality of problem-solving; sporting, identifying and seizing of possibilities where they appear to be non-existent; conversion of the seizing opportunities into the feasible project(s), this was substantiated by the investigation of (Kapoor et al., 2022); it boosts one's self-esteem; students' titans are being reawakened; entrepreneurial capacity development and; fearlessness in the face of adversity.
Research Question Two: What is the viability of social enterprise in solving youth unemployment? This is in line with refocusing on capacity (leadership-social enterprise). Being an Enactus alumnus, faculty advisor and employee, how workable is the Enactus’ social enterprise in solving youth unemployment?
The enterprise is presenting ample opportunity to become a social entrepreneur, (Rampasso, Quelhas, Anholon, Silva, Ávila, Matsutani, and Yparraguirre, 2021) investigation aligns with this result; they develop youth social consciousness which lead to them to make ethical decisions; equipping the youth with hand-ons training to understand the real sector i.e out of classroom experience; capitalising knowledge bank of the social enterprise to explore business opportunities, this conform with the effort of (Zangara et al., 2022); transformation of lives and financial capability of impacted individual or communities help motive members to carry on; it exposes the participants to real-world situations; encourage them to take ownership of their choices; this improves their ability to handle resources; they are exposed to project management; provides them with the necessary skill sets for job creation, the work of (Wersun et al., 2019) aligns with this findings; brainstorming; for economic gains, the proposed solution is viable; the drop in the unemployment rate has made it a reality for the social enterprise's long-term existence and; because the pilot stages of community (projects) have been successful, the workability is a resounding.
Research Question Three: What are the potential benefits of the Enactus' social enterprise in the quest to solve the problem of youth unemployment? As stakeholders of Enactus Nigeria (alumnus, faculty advisor and employee.). Kindly enumerate the potential benefits of the Enactus' social enterprise in the quest to solve the problem of youth unemployment.
Training; mentorship; competition; enactus is a forum for all stakeholders to network; it exposes the participants to real-world situations; encourages them to take ownership of their choices; this improves their ability to handle resources; they are exposed to project management; provides them with the necessary skill sets for job creation; addition of knowledge platform; it makes room for collaboration and partnership; it provides exposure to worldwide entrepreneurial operations; it improves leadership abilities; it improves communication abilities; profit for short-term and wealth building for long-term; resolving societal issues and; the creation of jobs. The results of the empirical research carried out by Bavestrelli (2020) in Italy among Enactus students are in tandem with these potential benefits.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Based on the reported results, the study concluded that Enactus Nigeria has been able to contribute meaningfully to the leadership capacity via effective communication abilities, volunteering, problem-solving, self-esteem and the making of students' titans of students-graduates in Nigeria and, by extension, the globe, which has distinguished her among compatriots, as well as reducing good leadership dearth in Nigeria. Since there have been successful pilot phases of community-based projects of the unintended social enterprise through experiential learning, brainstorming, knowledge bank, real-world situations and choice ownership.
It's concluded that it's viable, visible and workable to achieve greater results of social goods. The benefits of collaboration, project management, teamwork, entrepreneurial operations and others derived from the social strides are of greater benefit to the students-graduates, communities, Nigeria and the universe. Thus, leadership-social enterprise is one of the surest ways of combating youth unemployment. Therefore, it is recommended that more NGOs should combine social enterprise with their current missions in other to speedily reduce social vices in society as the third (NGOs) and fourth sectors of the economy (social enterprise).
Theory and Practical Implications
The consequences of the study’s findings span through the theoretical and practical relevance of Enactus Nigeria on how effective the leadership conference is and other operations; reflect the effort of EN and conviction by Enactus Global for the chapter; Enactus Teams reflect teams’ strides in making the communities better through projects they execute; evaluation of the annual national competition, assessment of the biannual leadership conference; efforts of the faculty advisors, Enactus alumni and the society which benefit mostly from the Enactus operations. The study has made the stakeholders scientifically assess the excellent leadership qualities, the feasibility of the social enterprises and the potential benefits of the social enterprises, which has not given any room for assumptions and predictions. This would assist in formulating further policies to enhance leadership capabilities. Most importantly, social enterprises to be birthed from the endeavours will solve more societal problems. Furthermore, other NGOs will empirically be aware and adopt the recommendations.
Acknowledgements
The research thanks the country director and the Enactus Nigeria team for establishing a conducive environment for the investigation's success.
Authors’ Declarations
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Received: 28-Jun-2023, Manuscript No. IJE-24-15160; Editor assigned: 01-July-2024, Pre QC No. IJE-24-15160 (PQ); Reviewed: 15-July-2024, QC No. IJE-24-15160; Revised: 20-July-2024, Manuscript No. IJE-24-15160(R); Published: 27-July-2024