Energizing the Entrepreneurial Performance of Students through University Business Incubations (UBIs)

Abstract

This study examined the role of University Business Incubation (UBI) in energizing the entrepreneurial performance of students in Nigerian Universities. The study included 300 third-year university students who had either completed an entrepreneurship course or had not taken one yet. A sample size of 380 was calculated using the formula used by Krejcie and Morgan in 1970. The main source of data for this study was a questionnaire that underwent both validity and reliability testing. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis, and hypotheses were tested at a significance level of 5%. It was revealed from the analysis that mentoring services have a statistically significant influence on entrepreneurial learning (r = .951; R square = .905; F = 3181.759; P-value < 0.05) and that social networking has a statistically significant influence on promoting entrepreneurial intention (r = .947; R square = .896; F = 2877.785; P-value < 0.05). The study concluded that business incubations have a substantial impact on students' entrepreneurship performance. It was, therefore, recommended that entrepreneurship lectures and studies should go beyond classroom engagement and taken a notch further into providing mentorship services to students and networking opportunities should form part of the entrepreneurship curriculum in the universities.