Abstract
Through the recently launched Forum for Enterprise Development Centres at Higher Education Institutions and in recognition of the importance of small businesses in creating new jobs, the Human Resource Development Council of South Africa together with the Department of Higher Education and Training have declared ‘entrepreneur training and support’ as key to human capital requirements for economic growth (Blecher, 2013). Using the human capital theories of Smith (1937), Mincer (1958) and Becker (1975), this study aims to prove that independent entrepreneurship education and training (EE&T) programmes, similar to the one facilitated by Allan Gray Orbis Foundation (AGOF), have the ability to develop the kind of human capital necessary for entrepreneurship in the South African context. This study purports that while programmes offered at higher education institutions do have their advantages, they may not be entirely suitable to nurturing this, very specific, kind of human capital. Previous studies by Farrington, Venter & Neethling (2012a); Farrington, Venter, Schrage & Van der Meer (2012b) and Saunders (2013) have derived the attributes that define a student that is likely to become an entrepreneur, and whether programmes in higher education foster the development of entrepreneurial attributes among students in South Africa. However, these studies fail to test the conceptual robustness of the sixteen entrepreneurial attributes and also fail to test whether there are differences between commerce and non-commerce students in terms of attributes.
This study follows a quantitative research design, which involves the analysis of multivariate data using a combination of exploratory factor analysis (EFA), principal component analysis (PCA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA); it analyses entrepreneurial attributes of the chosen sample which consists of a group of undergraduate students, who are part of the AGOF EE&T Programme and are simultaneously registered across nine major universities in South Africa. An existing survey instrument, in the form of a questionnaire, is used to elicit the participants’ responses to the 16 entrepreneurial attributes associated with entrepreneurial intentions. The findings suggest a much simpler structure with merely six factors (as opposed to sixteen), and that for most factors, academic background is not a determinant of entrepreneurial attributes, so that undergraduate students from different streams can equally develop them, all other things being equal.
M.Com.