FAMILY ENTREPRENEURIAL ROLE MODELS AS A DETERMINANT OF STUDENTS' CHOICES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Entrepreneurship education plays vital role in affecting students’ attitudes towards entrepreneurship and overall entrepreneurial susceptibility. However, there are several other factors that challenge this educational process. One of them is students’ individual preference towards Entrepreneurship. It may be influenced by various fundamental as well as extrinsic factors. Such as social capital refers to as an extrinsic factor, relates to the external social networks, relationships, and connections that provide individuals with access to resources, opportunities, and support. Role models provide access to opportunities and resources, and it also influences individual’s perceptions of entrepreneurial knowledge. On the other hand, the role of knowledge acquisition through social capital might be lost by direct transfer of desire, motivation and self-efficacy from role models. In the case of students, one of the most important social groups and role models source is the family. Our attention is focused on its role in affecting the student’s interest in entrepreneurial career. Therefore, the main research question of our paper is to analyze what role do family entrepreneurial role-models play in determining students’ preferences towards entrepreneurship. To find out how intentions to become an entrepreneur differ between students having an entrepreneur in their family and students with no entrepreneurial role model between their relatives. To do that, we conducted a survey among 207 students of three different study options (Accounting, Commerce and Cooperative and secretarial Technology) in Business Education department of Enugu State University Technology (ESUT), Agbani and Enugu State, Nigeria. The research hypothesis was tested using chi-square statistical with SPSS. Based on the analysis of the findings, it was revealed that students with family entrepreneurial role models show significantly higher intention to become entrepreneurs than those without. Therefore, we state that the association between exposure to family role model with positive experience in business and students’ entrepreneurial intention is significantly positive. Based on the findings, it was recommended that Entrepreneurship curricula at secondary and tertiary levels should include modules that highlight the importance of entrepreneurial role models, particularly within the family setting