Factors Influencing Entrepreneurial Intention among Muslim Undergraduate Students: A Case Study of United States International University¬-Africa

A Research Project Submitted to Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA)The purpose of this study is to identify factors influencing entrepreneurial intention among Muslim undergraduate students in United States International University-Africa using Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior. The research also aims at identifying whether attitude towards the behavior, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control affect entrepreneurial intention of Muslim students. To achieve this objective, a deductive approach was employed where primary data was gathered through a questionnaire using data from a sample population of 120 Muslim students. As shown in the sample frame, questionnaires were issued to the target respondents around the campus. The selected students supplied data via administering a set of structured questionnaire which is line with the objective. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were employed for determining and analyzing factors influencing entrepreneurial intention. A Correlation analysis was used to find out the relationship between Personal Attitudes, Subjective Norm, Perceived Behavioral Control and Entrepreneurial Intention. Linear Regression analysis of variance, frequency distribution and cross tabulations was also used to analyze the findings. The study indicated that Muslim students are highly influencing by their attitude towards starting a venture. Most students were exposed to family business which have influence a positive personality or character towards starting their own venture. It was established that entrepreneurial intention among Muslim students is significantly affected by their personal attitude. On Subjective Norm, pressure from family members indicated to be very influential in the making of student entrepreneurial intention to engage in an entrepreneurial activity. The role of friends was less significant as compared to family. On Perceived Behavioral Control, majority of the student have acquired the skill and knowledge from the exposer of the family business. Therefore, Muslim student felt the ease and confidence to venture into their own ventures. They believe it will be easy for them and sure that they will succeed. The current study concluded that Ajzen Theory of Planned Behavior could predict the entrepreneurial intention among Muslim student. Personal behavior influences entrepreneurial intention. Subjective Norm was also influential to entrepreneurial intention. Perceived Behavioral Control also had an influence on entrepreneurial intention. This study recommends for further studies using other variables since the study focused only on three factors (Personal attitude, Subjective norm and perceived behavioral control) in the study. The research was only carried out in United States International University-Africa, therefore the information could be in exhaustive and thus ungeneralizable at some point, it also means that result might be skewed to the perception of the data from the university. Therefore, it is recommended that more studies should be carried out in other universities to unearth more on the subjec