DEPARTMENT OF GARMENT TECHNOLOGY

Technology Research Methodology

IN THE TITTLE OF A Comparative Study on Influencing Factors of University

and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Graduate Students Intentions
Toward Entrepreneurship: Evidence from Addis Ababa City, Ethiopia

SUB. TO Dr. Gurumurthy.B.R

BY SIYOUM NEGASH

ID NO. 348/15

JUNE 4, 2023

ADISS ABEBBA
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 5
1.1. BACKGRAWEND OF THE STUDY ...................................................................................... 5
1.2. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY.................................................................................................... 6
2. LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................. 8
2.1. THEORETICAL REVIEW ...................................................................................................... 8
2.2. EMPIRICAL REVIEW ............................................................................................................ 8
2.3. NECESSITY OF THE STUDY: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL CONTRIBUTIONS .. 13
2.3.1. THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTIONS ............................................................................. 13
2.3.2. PRACTICAL CONTRIBUTIONS .................................................................................. 13
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................... 15
3.1. METHODS AND MATERIALS ............................................................................................ 15
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................... 18
4.1. RESULTS .............................................................................................................................. 18
4.2. DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................ 20
5. CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................... 24
5.1. CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS ................................................................ 24
5.2. RESEARCH GAPS................................................................................................................ 26
6. REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................. 27
ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to compare influencing factors of University and TVET graduate
students intention towards entrepreneurship in Addis Ababa City. Both questionnaire survey and
focus group discussion methods of data collection techniques were carried out. For the
questionnaire survey, 500 respondents were selected by using convenience sampling technique
from TVETs and Universities which are found in Addis Ababa City. Additionally, ten focus
group discussions were implemented and each group had eight members. A separate logistic
regression model was developed for TVET and University graduate students that can predicate
determinant factors of students’ intention.

The entrepreneurial inclination of TVET students was significantly influenced by age, gender,
field of study, income, subjective norms, entrepreneurial attitudes, internal locus of control and
entrepreneurial education. For University students, the variable family work, field of study,
entrepreneurship course, and entrepreneur ship test score, locus of control, entrepreneurial
education, subjective norms and entrepreneurial motivation had a statistically significant effect
on their intention towards entrepreneurship. The study used a mixed research approach for data
triangulation purpose.

The survey data were entered using SPSS version 20 and analyzed using STATA version 13
software. The qualitative data processed through thematic narration method. Based on the
analyzed data, the study found that many graduate students from TVET programs would like to
start their business compared to University students. Additionally, based on the descriptive
analysis fnding, University students had higher subjective norms and higher entrepreneurial
attitude than TVET students. Also, for the study variables (subjective norms, entrepreneurial
attitude, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial motivation, entrepreneurship education,
locus of control and perceived behavioral control), descriptive result depicted that TVET
students had an average mean value of 3.29 and University students had an average mean value
of 3.89 for all variables. So, University students had higher entrepreneurial intention than TVET
students.

Finally, the study recommended that practical education, family business, students loan, free tax
policy, business ethics, inclusive entrepreneurship policy, entrepreneurship education as a
degree, targeting on indigenous entrepreneurs and sectors coordination should have to be
addressed by the concerned body to enhance graduate students intention toward self-employment
and personal business.

Keywords

Keywords Indigenous Entrepreneurs · Inclusive Entrepreneurship · Intention · Family business ·

Entrepreneurship
 CHAPTER ONE

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1.BACKGRAWEND OF THE STUDY

Entrepreneurship has been identified as the best solution to unemployment, underemployment

and poverty among the youths, especially in instances where educated individuals cannot fnd
jobs (Brownhilder, 2016). Entrepreneurship education has been added to both Ethiopian
Universities and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) curriculum colleges
to develop and enhance students for starting a business following their graduation. The aim of
entrepreneurship is changing the mind and behavior of students to form new business and job
opportunities. In recent years, public policy has increasingly focused on promoting or stimulating
entrepreneurial activities since they are regarded as a driving force for innovation (Farrington
et al., 2012; Brancu et al., 2015).

The creation of one’s own business involves careful planning and thinking on the part of the
individual, making entrepreneurship a deliberate and planned intentional behavior (Bird, 1988;
Webster, 1977). Behavioral intentions have been identified as the best predictor of actual
behavior (Ajzen, 1991; Zaskar et al., 2015). The idea of becoming an entrepreneur is
increasingly more attractive to students because it is seen as a valuable way of participating in
the labor market without losing one’s independence (Autio et al., 2001a, b; Martinez et al., 2007;
Barros, 2015). According to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) project, less developed
countries with negative economic conditions such as low wages and high unemployment rates
have recorded higher entrepreneurial activity than most developed countries (Bosma & Levie,
2010). Although entrepreneurship education has been adopted as one of the key instruments to
increase the entrepreneurial attitudes of potential entrepreneurs, the influential factors that
determine the individual’s decision to start up a venture are not explicit enough.

From local scholars in Ethiopia, Chuang et al. (2015) investigated that entrepreneurial intention
of student’s influenced by entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and
perceived opportunities. According to Gebremedhn and Raju (2106), potential entrepreneurs are
influenced to start their own business by their family members, business media, business people,
academics and attending on entrepreneurship course, personality and environmental factors.
Besides, in Wang et al. (2008), due to the example of self-employed parents, children with a
family business background have a higher probability to become entrepreneurs. Also, perceived
behavior control is the best predictor for entrepreneurship intention (Krueger et al., 2000a, b, c;
Zhang et al., 2015). According to Krueger et al. (2000a, b, c) subjective norms have not always
had a significant impact on entrepreneurial intention and thus have been excluded from the
entrepreneurial intention model by some authors. Moreover, entrepreneurship courses taught for
business students, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship have become more widely viewed as
key competencies (Tolentino et al., 2014). Several studies (e.g., Ajzen, 1991; Krueger et al.,
2000a, b, c) show that antecedent of entrepreneurial intentions is affected by situational factors,
among which educational background is one of the most important factors (Wu & Wu, 2008).

However, the explaining capacity of personal traits or demographic characteristics is still

reasonable (Liñán et al., 2011b). Hence, this study intended to fill this gap by considering more
demographic variables like gender, family income, father job type ( family work), age, students
score on entrepreneurship course and field of study effect on TVET and University graduate
students intention toward entrepreneurship. Finally, this project targeted on comparing the
influencing factors of TVET and University graduate students intention toward entrepreneurship
in Addis Ababa City.

1.2.PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to compare the influencing factors of University and TVET graduate
students towards entrepreneurship in Addis Ababa City. In line with the main purpose, the study
intended to answer the following research questions:

1. What are the factors that influence University and TVET graduate students intentions
towards entrepreneurship in Addis Ababa City?
2. How the identified factors comparatively influence University and TVET graduate
students intentions towards entrepreneurship in Addis Ababa City?
3. Which institution graduate students (University or TVET) comparatively have more
entrepreneurial intention towards self-employment in Addis Ababa City?
4. What is the role of the families, private institutions, governments and NGOs to incline
both University and TVET graduate students toward self-employment in Addis Ababa
City?
 CHAPTER TWO

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1.THEORETICAL REVIEW
Entrepreneurial intentions of an individual can be explained as his or her wishes to start a
business or to form a new organization in the future. The individual behavior to intend to
business was influenced by subjective norms, attitudinal behavior and perceived behavioral
controls (Ajzen, 1991). It also gives a valuable structure to see how mentalities, emotional
standards and behavioral control should consolidate to impact both planned and realized
behavior (Bansal et al., 2015). Much research in the area of entrepreneurship has found empirical
support from the theory of planned behavior (Kautonen et al., 2013; Kolvereid, 1996; Krueger
et al., 2000a, b, c; Linan, 2004; Liñán et al., 2011a, b; Tkachev & Kolvereid, 1999; Veciana
et al., 2005). All other factors are theorized to infuence intentions through three components of
the model (Moriano et al., 2012). Due to this reason, the study used the planned behavioral
theory to investigate the extent to which intentions of TVET and University students toward
entrepreneurial acts infuence their entrepreneurial intentions by including other variables. Other
variables like childhood experiences, frustration with traditional organizational careers,
challenges and excitements, moral encouragements of role models, nature of the businesses,
strategies and systems of entrepreneurs, availability of fnances, levels of educations and training,
professional support services and physical infrastructures, market accessibilities and
willingnesses to take risks also determine the intention of an individual to be an entrepreneur
(Ardichvili et al., 2000; Haftendorn & Salzano, 2003; Desai, 1997; Olomi, 1999; Desai, 1997)

2.2.EMPIRICAL REVIEW
Zefane (2012) argues that individuals with high entrepreneurial intention are more likely to start
a business than those with lower entrepreneurial intention since intention is the best predictor of
actual behavior (Franke & Luthje, 2004). As it has been investigated by scholars, entrepreneurial
intention of students was infuenced by many factors. Most researchers proofed that economic,
political, social, cultural, personality and psychological makeup, social networks and role models
are taken as determinant factors of an individual whether to behave entrepreneurially or not. In
this study, the variables of gender, age, family income, family work, a feld of study,
entrepreneurship course, entrepreneurship test score, attitude, subjective norms, perceived
behavioral control, entrepreneurship education, self-efcacy, entrepreneurial motivation and locus
of control have efects on students entrepreneurial intentions. Gender: It is found that there are
ample researchers on the statistically signifcant efect of gender on entrepreneurial intentions and
behaviors (Krueger et al., 2000c; Gird & Bagraim, 2008).

Studies on entrepreneurship indicates that females have a lower level of preference as compared
to males for becoming an entrepreneur (Shook & Bratianu, 2010; Blanchfower et al., 2001). Age:
The general consensus of research fndings is that entrepreneurship is concentrated among
individuals in midcareer that means between thirty-fve and forty-four years of age. Individuals’
age is negatively related to entrepreneurial intention, having thus younger individuals showing
higher intention (Krueger & Brazeal, 1994; Criaco et al., 2017). As Zissimopoulos and Karoly
(2007) stated that given rates of self-employment increase with age, a disproportionate share of
the self-employed are middle-aged and older workers. Age is one of the consistently strong
determinants with higher propensities for self-employment among men, older workers, those
who are more educated and those who are more educated and married (Parker, 2009;
Zissimopoulos & Karoly, 2007). Family income: The research validates a positive relationship
between the family’s fnancial capital and higher education intention of students (Sharma, 2014).
Chrisman et al. (2002) asserted that family represents a critical and often used resource for
startups.

It is well-documented in the entrepreneurship literature that entrepreneurs tend to rely heavily on

their family capital to derive various benefts (Zimmer & Aldrich, 1987). The career choice
preference of an individual is at its highest point at student life and as such the infuence of
others, especially family and society, can result in determining entrepreneurial intention (Hessels
et al., 2008; Lefel & Darling, 2009). Family work/business type/: According to Altinay and
Wang (2011), due to the example of the self-employed parents, children with a family business
background have a higher probability to become entrepreneurs. A study by Olomi and
Sinyamwale (2009) found that the students who had families which engaged in business had
been better socialized to the entrepreneurial career and were likely to engage in starting their
own businesses. Studies conducted in diferent countries like the USA (Crant, 1996), Singapore
(Phan et al., 2002), UK (Altinay et al., 2012) and Malaysia (Tong et al., 2011) gave similar
results and found that entrepreneurial families or parents positively influence entrepreneurial
career intentions in their children. Lindquist et al. (2012) found that having an entrepreneur for a
parent increases the probability that own birth children become entrepreneurs by 60%. Moreover,
self-employed parents can provide more fnancial and (or) social support to their children to start
their own business.

According to Corak and Piraino (2011) and Dunn and Holtz-Eakin (2000), secondgeneration
entrepreneurs are two to three times more likely to work in the same occupation as their fathers.
Field of study: Several studies show that antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions are afected by
situational factors, among which educational background is one of the most important factors
(e.g., Ajzen, 1991; Krueger et al., 2000a, b, c; Tolentino et al., 2014). Also, Wu and Wu (2008)
found that engineering students present a higher entrepreneurial intention than students from
other majors. In a study on (800) students in the Netherlands, Van Praag (2011) fnds a strong
association between the perceived status of the entrepreneur, which difers among felds of study,
and the willingness to become an entrepreneur. In particular, she shows that students in
Economics and Business attach similar status to the entrepreneur as students in the felds of
science, technical studies and humanities. Whereas, students in Health and Social Science attach
lower value to the status of the entrepreneur.

The study of Hassan and Wafa (2012) suggested that students enrolled in a science program (at
the University Malaysia Sabah) reveal a signifcantly higher level of risk-taking as well as
entrepreneurial intention. Zhang et al (2014), based on the entrepreneurial expertise approach,
claim that formal entrepreneurship education, usually associated with business, management and
economics (Nabi et al., 2010; Schwarz et al., 2009; Wang et al., 2002; Wu & Wu, 2008), endows
students in these majors with different unique entrepreneurial expertise that directly impacts on
their entrepreneurial intentions. Entrepreneurship course and test score: Studying
entrepreneurship course is a good idea and it is valuable as long as the business world exist
because this course mainly focuses on the complete knowledge of core business disciplines and
to develop critically entrepreneurial skills and mindset needed in order to successfully lead and
manage these processes. It is also assumed that when students score a good mark or grade, then
students inclined more to that course than others.

Similarly, as students score more grades on entrepreneurship then they are more interested in
love entrepreneurship and this signifcantly infuences their future choice to have a new venture.
Entrepreneurial attitude: Attitude is a tendency to react efectively in response to the risks that lie
ahead in business (Cruz et al., 2015). Christina (2017) claimed that attitude toward
entrepreneurial intention can be looked from the interest of the individual with a business
opportunity, a positive view of the failure of the business and business interests at risk.
Additionally, Aslam et al. (2012) and his colleagues proposed that there was a relationship
between attitude and intention towards entrepreneurship. For instance, students those who have a
positive attitude to being entrepreneurs tend to show a positive intention to be engaged in
entrepreneurship after graduation. Subjective norms: Prior research suggests that subjective
norms are a person’s beliefs on how and what to think about people considered important and
motivated to follow the thought (Maulana, 2009).

The entrepreneurial intentions of students infuenced by subjective norms and these norm are
departed from the belief of an entrepreneur and his or her support from families, friends,
colleagues, role models or reference groups and business partners are considered as
indispensable to the business starter (Carsrud et al., 2007; Sumaryono, 2012). However, other
researchers argued that social norms infuence positively or negatively to be or not to be an
entrepreneur (Krueger et al., 2000a, b, c). For instance, creating one’s own business venture is
taken in to account as a measure of success and it leads to attract admiration and praise in
America, whereas in Finland, starting once own business considered as a mix of awe and envy
(Carsrud et al., 2007). Perceived behavioral control: Ajzen (1988) argued that perceived
behavioral control is the entrepreneur past experience to do business and controlling challenges
and obstacles that hinder the growth of his/her activity. Perceived behavior control remains as
the best predictor for entrepreneurship intention.

The literature review also shows that perceived behavior control is the best predictor for
entrepreneurship intention (Krueger et al., 2000a, b, c; Zhang et al., 2015). Entrepreneurship
education: Entrepreneurship education helps students to be self-employed and to increase the
probability of being involved in a new venture by 25%, their annual income increase by 27% and
their asset increase by 62% (Charney & Libecap, 2000). From the simple understanding of the
values of entrepreneurship education for economic growth. It also helps to change the mind of
the students to incline to become an entrepreneur in their future life (Volery & Mueller, 2006;
Wilson et al., 2007).
Teaching entrepreneurship towards someone is not to make that individual simply a merchant
and it goes beyond just being a seller (Nurseto, 2010). Besides, learning entrepreneurship is a
tool for an individual who has the desire to start a business to look and exploit business
opportunities and risks through increasing entrepreneurial knowledge (Christina, 2017; Gerba,
2012). The study investigated by Souitaris et al. (2006) proposed that entrepreneurship education
initiate the attitudes and behavior capability of students to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial
self-efcacy: It is also assumed that individual self-efcacy is necessary for entrepreneurship
education because it motivates them to go into entrepreneurial jobs.

Researchers like Forbes (2005) and Wilson et al. (2007) argued that self-efcacy in
entrepreneurship has a handful efect on business activity because; it supports entrepreneurs to
initiate new business entrants, to decide decisions for a new venture and to manage the business
which already started. Entrepreneurial motivation: Entrepreneurial motivation has a positive
impact on students for their propensity to start a new frm (Irene et al., 2016). Edelman and his
colleagues argued that underlying attitudes and goals of entrepreneurial motivation should give
rise to entrepreneurial intention (Edelman et al., 2010). Gatewood et al. (2002) argued that
entrepreneurial expectation infuences an individual to be motivated and preserving himself or
herself on entrepreneurial tasks.

Others like Shane and Venkataraman (2000) claimed that entrepreneurial behaviors like
independence, drive and egoistic passion motivate an individual to select an entrepreneurial task
and this shows that such students will have high intention to entrepreneurship. Additionally,
entrepreneurs were motivated by intrinsic factors such as interest, self-determination and need
for achievement and extrinsic factors like a monetary payof, recognition and external control to
start their own business (D’ Este & Perkmann, 2011). Entrepreneurial locus of control:
Fagbouhungbe and Jayeoba (2012) claimed that locus of control is an individual assumes or feels
that he or she will be responsible for his/her success or failure rather than attributing external
agents. According to Hermawan et al. (2017), internal locus of control has a positive and
signifcant efect on students’ entrepreneurial interest.
NO ACADEMIC INSTITUTION NAME STUDENTS’ FELD OF SAMPLE
STUDY
1 Addis Ababa University Natural and social science 40
students’
2 Addis Ababa School of commerce Business science students’ 120
3 St. Mary University Business science students’ 50
4 Africa and Betel Health College Healthy science students’ 40
5 Entoto TVET College Level-4 students’ 125
6 Addis Ababa Poly technique TVET College Level-3 students’ 75
7 Tegbared TVET College Level-1 and 2 students’ 50
Total 500
Table 1 Institutions and samples size description

2.3.NECESSITY OF THE STUDY: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL

CONTRIBUTIONS

2.3.1. THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Theoretically, ample researches have been done on entrepreneurial intention particularly based
on the theory of planned behavior which was developed in 1991 by Ajzen. Having in mind the
variables which were developed in the model, this study also used other demographic variables
like family income, age, gender, entrepreneurship course result and feld of study. Because only
the variables which were described in the Ajzen (1991) model cannot explain the model robustly.
Hence, this study contributed to the influence of other demographic variables to predict potential
entrepreneurs’ intention toward entrepreneurship in Addis Ababa City, Ethiopia.

2.3.2. PRACTICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Practically, today in Ethiopia there is a problem of political unrest. One of the critical causes of
such a problem is the existence of too many unemployed young graduates. Those young
forces/generations/ incubated from different TVETs and Universities in Ethiopia. Accordingly,
changing the mindsets of the University and TVET graduate students to shift into the business by
supporting them via finance, tax policy and practical business and entrepreneurial education
would be the day in day out homework for academic institutions and governments. More
importantly, for the purpose of policy decisions, which aimed at stimulating new
frm/entrepreneurial/ minded people in the country, it is more useful to know what kind of
graduate students should be incubated to consider for business to substantially impact the
country entrepreneurship culture development. To be incubated competent and self-employed
graduates' curriculum review for the given education system is mandatory.
 CHAPTER TREE

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1.METHODS AND MATERIALS

The study adopted a mixed research approach that employed a survey questionnaire and a semi-
structured interview. Adopting a mixed approach ensured that weaknesses in one method could
be compensated by the strengths in the other (Connelly, 2009; Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2010).
Additionally, the mixed approach helps for the triangulation of data and analysis methods. The
study also applied the sequential transformative method which helps to collect and analysis
quantitative frst and qualitative data next to interpret the results. Both SPSS and STATA
softwares were used for data entry and analysis purpose respectively.

The participants of the study are selected from well-known Universities and TVET Colleges
which are found in Addis Ababa City with a focus on natural science, social science, business
sciences, healthy sciences, and TVET program graduate students. The names of selected
institutions and samples are presented in Table 1. Data were collected from the selected graduate
student and his or her response was taken as a sample. Therefore, the individual level has been
the unit of analysis for the study. As this study was aimed at studying a particular population,
being fnal-year students, the convenience sampling method was used (Cooper & Schindler,
2001). Additionally, for the purpose of easily administration of questionnaire and collection of
data such kind of sampling technique has been employed. Accordingly, a total of 500
respondents were used. A cross-sectional study based on the existing theory was undertaken.
Being cross-sectional in nature, the information gathered represents the situation only at that
specifc point in time (Olsen & St. George, 2004).

Survey questionnaire which has a fve-point agreement level (from strongly disagree (1) to
strongly agree (5)) was distributed and collected from business science, engineering science,
social science, natural science, healthy and medicine, and TVET program graduate class
students. For the semi-structured interview, business sciences students were selected because the
course they have learned highly infuence their knowledge to business and they can provide an
adequate response to the question than other science tudents. The researcher personally
administered the questionnaires with five (5) assistants. The questionnaire was distributed inside
the selected institutions.

Age 1. Age: A: 18–22 B: 23–27 C: 28–32 D: Above -32

Gender 1: Male 0: Female
Field of study Field of study: 1/Business &Economics, 2/ Engineering sciences, 3/
Healthy sciences and 4/ Social sciences 5/ Others
Families work What is your families work?
1/ Run their own business
0/They are employed in government or private sector
Taking entrepreneurship Did you take entrepreneurship course____? 1/Yes
course 0/No________
Score on entrepreneurship How much you scored entrepreneurship course ___________?
course
Family income Do you or your family have enough income? /Yes 0/ No
Entrepreneurial education Five-point Likert scale ( 1: Strongly disagree to 5: strongly agree)
Entrepreneurial attitude Five-point Likert scale ( 1: Strongly disagree to 5: strongly agree)
Entrepreneurial Five-point Likert scale ( 1: Strongly disagree to 5: strongly agree)
motivation
Perceived behavioral Five-point Likert scale ( 1: Strongly disagree to 5: strongly agree)
control
Locus of control Five-point Likert scale ( 1: Strongly disagree to 5: strongly agree)
Entrepreneurial self- Five-point Likert scale ( 1: Strongly disagree to 5: strongly agree)
efcacy
Subjective norms Five-point Likert scale ( 1: Strongly disagree to 5: strongly agree)
Plan after graduation ( 1 start own/family business, 0: search job
entrepreneurial intention)
Table 2 Variable measurement Source: (Literature review, 2019)
Variables TVET graduates University graduates
No of items Cronbach’s alpha No of items Cronbach’s alpha
Entrepreneurship 7 0.799 7 0.724
education

Entrepreneurial 6 0.746 6 0.810

attitude

Entrepreneurial 8 0.814 8 0.848

motivation

Perceived behavioral 6 0.747 6 0.794

control

Locus of control 8 0.752 8 0.828

Entrepreneurial self- 7 0.711 7 0.809
efcacy

Subjective norms 5 0.632 5 0.629

Overall 47 0.864 47 0.75

Table 3 Reliability test results

The study had fourteen (14) independent variables and one dependent variable. The
variable which is entrepreneurial intention is measured binomially (1—running their business,
0—searching job). Other independent variables were measured ordinal, nominal and by interval
methods. The measurement of the variables is found in Table 2. One of the major requirements
of any research process is the consistency of the data and the results of the research fnding
(Kothari, 2004). A measuring instrument is reliable if it provides consistent results (Creswell,
2014). Correspondingly, to Cohen and his colleague (Cohen et al., 2000), reliability is the
replicability and consistency of the instruments over a group of respondents. To make sure the
reliability of this study, triangulation (using via survey and semi-structured) and Cronbach alpha
test has been employed. The Cronbach alpha coefcient is the most common method used for
assessing the reliability of a measurement scale (Hayes, 1998). Table 3 illustrates the results of
Cronbach’s alpha.
 CHAPTER FOURE

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1.RESULTS
According to Al-Ghamdi (2001), regression methods are widely used for analyzing the
relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. For this study,
if the dependent variable for both models (TVET- MODEL: 1 and University-MODEL: 2) was
categorical and dichotomous, then binary logistic regression is appropriate (Stevens, 2009).

Demographic variables TVET College University

Gender 79%male and 21% female 67% male and 33% female
Students family work 56% government employed 61% government employed and 39% self-
and 44% self-employed employed
Field of study/department 100% TVET programs 55% Business and Economics, 33%
Engineering sciences, 19% healthy sciences
and 4% social sciences
Students taking 100% (all participants) 7% not yet and 93% taken
entrepreneurship course
Family income 63% not enough and 37% 67% not enough and 33% enough
enough
Plan after graduation 74% start own business and 32% start own business and 68% search
26% search jobs jobs

Table 4 Frequency distribution

Table 4 illustrates that for the gender variable for TVET Colleges, 79% of respondents was male
and the remaining 21% were females. Similarly, for Universities respondents 67% were males
and the rest 33% were females. This implies that for both institutions males were the dominate
graduate classes than females. For students family work, 56% of TVET graduates families were
government employed and the remaining 44% were self-employed, whereas, for Universities
students, 61% of respondents’ families were government employed and the other 39% were self-
employed. This shows that compared to Universities students families, TVET students families
worked as self-employed employees.
With regard to students department, all participants were TVET students for TVET Colleges.
Likewise, for Universities students (natural and social sciences), 55% were business and
economics graduates, 33% were engineering sciences graduates, 10% were healthy sciences
graduates and the remaining 4% were other social science graduates. Besides, all TVET
participants were taken entrepreneurship course and from the point of view of Universities
participants, 93% were taken entrepreneurship and the remaining portion of 7% were not taken
the course. This infers that entrepreneurship course offered in 100% coverage and in the
institutions the course was not addressed to all students. From the family income point of view,
63% of the TVET graduates respond that their families’ monthly income was not enough and the
remaining 37% of students were replied enough. While 67% of Universities graduates families
income was not enough, the rest 33% of graduates claimed that their families did not get enough
income. As noted above most TVET families were got enough income compared to Universities
graduates’ family income. Lastly, 74% of TVET graduates planned to start their own business
and the remaining 26% would like to search for jobs. Unlike TVET students, 32% of graduates
planned to start own business and the rest 68% of students targeted to search jobs. This implies
most graduate students from the TVET program would like to start their business compared to
University students.
4.2.DISCUSSION
This study aimed to compare the influencing factors of TVET and Universities graduates
intentions toward entrepreneurship in Addis Ababa City. From the descriptive analysis, male’s
students outnumber than female’s students in both TVET and University. Compared to
University students families, TVET students families worked as a selfemployed employee. All
TVET participants were taken entrepreneurship course and from the point of view of
Universities participants, 93% were taken entrepreneurship and the remaining portion of 7%
were not taken the course.

This infers that entrepreneurship course offered in 100% coverage and in the institutions the
course was not addressed to all students. Also, most TVET families were got enough income
compared to Universities graduates’ family income. Many graduate students from the TVET
program would like to start their business compared to University students. For TVET students’
entrepreneurial education had the highest mean value followed by entrepreneurial motivation,
perceived behavioral control, locus of control, entrepreneurial self-efcacy, entrepreneurial
attitude and subjective norms, whereas Universities students had the highest mean value for
subjective norms followed by entrepreneurial attitude, entrepreneurial motivation,
entrepreneurship education, locus of control, entrepreneurial self-efcacy and perceived
behavioral control.

Following the descriptive statistics, regression analysis was performed for the explanatory
variables. In this study, the variable gender had a statistically signifcant efect on TVET and
insignifcant efect on University students’ intention toward entrepreneurship. The result of TVET
supported by (Blanchfower et al., 2001; Mueller & Stephen, 2004; Shook & Bratianu, 2010) and
they also noted that male students found entrepreneurship more attractive than female students.
However, for University students the fnding was supported by (Krueger et al., 2000c; Gird &
Bagraim, 2008) and they found that there were no statistically signifcant relationships between
gender and entrepreneurial intentions.

The second variable for the study was age, and the study found that it had statistically signifcant
efect on TVET students and insignifcant efect on University students’. Krueger and Brazeal
(1994) found that age has both a direct and indirect efect on an individual ‘s entrepreneurial.
They confrm that age had a negative relationship with entrepreneurial intention. However, in this
research age had a statistically positive relationship with intention for TVET students and
positive insignifcant relationship for University students. Family income has a statistically
signifcant efect on TVET graduate students but not on University graduates, meaning that it was
only rejected the alternative hypothesis of University students.

The results of family income on TVET students were supported by the fndings of (Hessels et al.
2008; Lefel & Darling, 2009), because they stated that the career choice preference of an
individual is at its highest point at student life and as such the infuence of others, especially
family and society, can result in determining entrepreneurial intention. The TVET students
fndings on income are also consistent with (Chrisman et al., 2002; Sharma, 2014) that were
validated a positive relationship between the family’s fnancial capital and higher education
intention of students and they asserted that family represents a critical source for business
startups (Table 6).

With regard to the family work, the hypothesis for TVET was rejected and it was accepted for
University graduates. Parallel with the University students’ fndings, Altinay and Wang (2011)
supported that due to the example of the selfemployed parents, children with a family business
background have a higher probability to become entrepreneurs. Similarly, a study by Olomi and
Sinyamwale (2009) found that the students who had families which engaged in business had
been better socialized to the entrepreneurial career and were likely to engage in starting their
own businesses.

The fndings of the feld of study in the research found that both TVET and University students
intention model was accepted. Entrepreneurship course was removed from the model-1, but this
variable had a signifcant impact on students’ intention for University students (model-2). Hence,
the hypothesis for entrepreneurship course on a university student was accepted. Students who
had a high score on entrepreneurship course tests and examinations were forced to incline to
business. Also, the signifcant test also showed that the test score for entrepreneurship variable
was statistically signifcant. The entrepreneurial attitude in the TVET model was supported, and
these fndings are consistent with (Aslam et al., 2012; Christina, 2017; Cruz et al., 2015),
whereas, for the University students, the hypothesis for the variable was rejected. The variable
subjective norms and entrepreneurship education hypotheses were also accepted in both models.
These fndings were supported by Volery and Mueller (2006), Wilson et al. (2007), Krueger
et al., (2000a, b, c) and Zhang et al. (2015) who found that social norms, entrepreneurship
education and perceived behavioral control infuence positively or negatively to be or not to be an
entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial motivation had signifcant and locus of control had insignifcant
efect on University students’ intention. The motivation result was consistent with Irene et al.
(2016) and Gatewood et al. (2002) because they argued that entrepreneurial motivation has a
positive impact on University students for their propensity to start a new frm. However, a locus
of control fnding contradicts with Hermawan et al. (2017) fndings which stated that internal
locus of control has a positive and signifcant efect on students entrepreneurial interest.

No Description: (The stated below hypotheses are null hypotheses) H0:Supported/ Rejected
TVET University
1 Gender does not have a positive influence on graduate students Rejected Supported
toward entrepreneurial intention
2 Age does not have a positive influence on graduate students Rejected Supported
toward entrepreneurial intention
3 Family income does not have a positive influence on graduate Rejected Supported
students toward entrepreneurial intention
4 Family work does not have a positive influence on graduate Supported Rejected
students toward entrepreneurial intention
5 Field of study does not have a positive influence on graduate Rejected Rejected
students toward entrepreneurial intention
6 Taking entrepreneurship course does not have a positive –––– Rejected
influence on graduate students toward entrepreneurial intention
7 Entrepreneurship course test score does not have a positive Supported Rejected
influence on graduate students toward entrepreneurial intention
8 Entrepreneurial attitude does not have a positive influence on Rejected Supported
graduate students toward entrepreneurial intention
9 Subjective norms do not have a positive influence on graduate Rejected Rejected
students toward entrepreneurial intention
10 Perceived behavioral control does not a positive influence on Supported Supported
graduate students toward entrepreneurial intention
11 ot have a positive influence on graduate students toward Rejected Rejected
entrepreneurial intention
12 Entrepreneurial self-efficacy does not have a positive influence Supported –––––
on graduate students toward entrepreneurial intention
13 Entrepreneurial motivation does not have a positive influence Supported Rejected
graduate student toward entrepreneurial intention
14 Locus of control does not have a positive influence on graduate Supported Rejected
students toward entrepreneurial intention
Table 6 Hypotheses test result

Remark: The symbol (––-) indicates that the variable deleted from the model due to
multicollinearity problem

Lastly, the hypothesis for self-efcacy was rejected from the TVET model and these
fndings contradict with Forbes (2005) and Wilson et al. (2007) and they argued that self efcacy
in entrepreneurship has a handful efect on business activity because it supports entrepreneurs to
initiate new business entrants, to decide decisions for a new venture and to manage the business
which already started. But for University students, the variable self-efcacy was removed because
of the multicollinearity problem. From the qualitative analysis, the study found that for both
institution students because of entrepreneurship given as a course, students were assured that
they will start their own business following their graduations by preparing a business plan. One
of their big concerns to start personal work is because of the presence of low job opportunity, to
live with better living standard, to help their families and to maximize proft using
entrepreneurship as a conventional instrument. Despite the fact that most students were
interested in choice self-employment as an option to get a job, they predict that they could be
challenged by a shortage of fnance, business acceptability in the mind of the community, market
linking problem, lack of area for work, problems of infrastructure (road, electricity, water,
internet, etc.), political peace and stability of the country, high tax rate, lack of practical business
experience and personal problems of entrepreneurs like lack of self-confdence, decision-making
quality and opportunity identifcations.
 CHAPTER FIVE

5. CONCLUSIONS

5.1.CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

The study reached the listed below conclusions based on the study findings: Based on the
data which were collected through semistructured interview questions, it is proved that limited
financial accessibility and availability, improvised community attitude toward entrepreneurship
and self-employment, lack of ethical and systematic marketing information and distribution
channels, business infrastructures full filament challenges ( electricity, internet, water, road, etc.),
country political instability, unfair government tax policy, lack of exemplary and practical the
business experience were considered as a bottleneck problem for graduate students to become
actual entrepreneurs. By relying on the regression analysis, it was found that the variable gender,
age, family income, the field of study and entrepreneurial attitude had a statistically signifcant
effect on TVET students’ intention toward entrepreneurship. This implies that for TVET students
the probability to be inclined into a business is influenced by being male or female, aged or
young, having enough family income or not, having natural or social science study,
implementing a positive or negative attitude toward entrepreneurship. In this study male, young,
having enough family income, studying engineering and business sciences and positive image
for entrepreneurship enhance the tendency to be an entrepreneur in the next three to five years of
graduate students. Similarly, the variable family work, the field of study, entrepreneurship
course, and entrepreneurship test score, locus of control, entrepreneurship education, subjective
norms and entrepreneurial motivation had a statistically significant effect on University students’
intention toward entrepreneurship. Many graduate students from the TVET program would like
to start their business compared to University students, because the educational system for the
TVET program is very practical and easy to complete within a short period of time, whereas
most university graduates dislike starting a business and they asked themselves why I attended
three or four or fve or seven years in the University? This factor forces University students to
look at the hands of the government for employment instead of findings self-employment
businesses. To tackle entrepreneurial obstacles, potential entrepreneurs/graduate students seek
help from their parents, governments, private and non-governmental organizations. From their
parents, they need motivation, fnance and idea support. From the side of the government, those
potential entrepreneurs require licensing, training, fund, land and good tax regulation advantages.
Lastly, it is expected from private and non-governmental organizations to assist potential
entrepreneurs by providing job opportunities for employment, finance, technology, practical
business experience, training and internship program support to enhance their moral and interest
in the business. In line with the conclusion sections of the study, it is recommended to address
practical education to develop students’ technical and life skill training, family and generation-
based business promotion, students loan and free tax policy design and implementation,
government policy on business ethics and free-market economic system consideration, inclusive
entrepreneurship policy in the country formulation, teaching entrepreneurship education as a
degree, targeting indigenous entrepreneurs for sustainable self-employment opportunities and
sector coordination platform. The detail description of each policy implication was discussed
below:

• Practical education should be endorsed to develop students’ technical and life skill
training: Strongly working among industry, community, college, university linkage and
commencing student internship centers enhance pragmatic knowledge for TVET and University
students before they are completing their education.

• Family business should be promoted: In the near future having a vacant job position for
employment will be challenging and rare in Ethiopia. Hence, initiating family business has to be
taken as an alternative means.

• Graduate students loan and free tax policy should be design and implemented: Finance
and high tax system are the big barriers for potential entrepreneurs to join into entrepreneurial
activity. The small interest rate for the government loan and free tax policy for startups up to one
year of their business establishment should be encouraged for students.

• Inclusive entrepreneurship policy in the country should be formed and implemented:

Drafting and implementing aggressive business and entrepreneurship education for elementary,
high school, preparatory, TVET, natural and social science students, experience sharing among
rich entrepreneurs and students inside their campus, motivational speech on entrepreneurship
should be facilitated to help students to create business awareness.
 • Focus on talent-based education system: To reach out to continuous and sustainable
entrepreneurship in Ethiopia, talent-based education should be considered instead of forcing
students to study social and natural sciences fields without their interest.

• Entrepreneurship education as a degree has to be given: The degree of having many

entrepreneurs by teaching only one single course (entrepreneurship course) for students is merely
a wish for the community and the governments. Hence, it is recommended that designing
entrepreneurship education as a field is better to broaden the chance for students to join into self-
employment.

• Sector coordination platform: It is recommended that sector coordination has to be

formulated to mitigate challenges for potential entrepreneurs by including governmental
(political), economical, social and environmental sectors in the nation.

5.2.RESEARCH GAPS
This study focused to compare influencing factors of TVET graduates intentions toward
entrepreneurship with that of University graduate students only in Addis Ababa City, and
therefore, it is difficult to generalize the results to other cities of TVET and University graduates
in Ethiopia. Hence, it is better to take a sample from other TVET and University students to
generalize the findings of the study in Ethiopia. Additionally, although there is a great deal of
previous research established a reasonable connection between intentions and future behavior,
we should keep in mind that intentionality does not necessarily lead to actual behavior. Hence,
tracer study should have to be done to check whether they have changed their thinking after they
have graduated or not based on longitudinal research designs to follow up to see which
participants actually start their own business. Besides, the present study was conducted based on
a non-probabilistic sampling technique (convenience) to select respondents from Universities
and TVET colleges in Addis Ababa City, and as a result, the findings of this study were limited
to its sample population. Therefore, future researchers should use probabilistic sampling
technique to generalize the study over the sample population. Moreover, the limited sets of
explanatory variables were assessed. Hence, it had better incorporate other variables to predict
graduates students intention toward entrepreneurship.
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