Attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control on entrepreneurial intention of Nigerian postgraduates in UUM

The study used descriptive quantitative survey in order to examine the entrepreneurial intention among Nigerian postgraduate students of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) in relation to attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. Data of the study were collected through a survey questionnaire of 156 Nigerian postgraduate candidates, covering masters (50) and PhD (106) students who are studying under the College of Business, College of Arts and Sciences and College of Legal, Government and International studies. Descriptive analysis has been used to give an insight on the respondent profiles, while inferential statistics have been used to make conclusions. Then, reliability test was performed using the cronbach Alpha method which shows all variables are reliable with a value of > 0.80. Later, correlation and VIF analysis were derived with result of Pearson correlation having < 0.9 value and VIF having < 10 indicating that the data is free from multicollinearity issue. Regression analysis was also used to determine the relationship and predictive capability of the variables to entrepreneurship intention. The findings showed that attitude towards entrepreneurship (β =.475, p < .000), and perceived behavioral control (β = .349, p < .000) are positively and significantly related to entrepreneurial intention among UUM Nigerian postgraduate students. However, subjective norm, is insignificant to entrepreneurial intention (β = .112, p > .051). Considering the Beta values, attitude is the strongest factor that influences the entrepreneurial intention among UUM Nigerian postgraduate students. The Nigerian government is therefore recommended to make more effort in redesigning its entrepreneurship development policies to fit the findings of this study