THE ROLE OF MENTORSHIP IN THE SUCCESS OF YOUTH ENTREPRENEURS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Chapter synopsis
Entrepreneurship has attracted significant attention in the twenty-first century across the world, Gibbs, (1996). Notably, Khan, Y. (2018) posited those entrepreneurial ventures have the potential to improve the service sector and productivity in the economy of a country, which may eventually lead to the enhanced and speedy growth of the country’s GDP. The success of business entrepreneurship is dependent on many factors and among them are; state of the country infrastructure, the socio-political environment, access to capital, route to market and the attitude and approach taken by the entrepreneur when getting into the market, Chowdhury, M. S., Alam, Z., & Arif, M. I. (2013). According to Tardy (2014), the role of mentorship on the success of youth entrepreneurship forms the basis of eradicating poverty and reducing unemployment rates among the youths, particularly in Nigeria. In recognition of the significance of entrepreneurship in developing the economy, Nigerian authorities have introduced several initiatives that encourage entrepreneurship in the country. Some of which includes; National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES), Small and Medium Industries Equity Investment Scheme (SMIEIS), Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), Bank of Industry (BOI), Urban development Bank of Nigeria (UDBN), amongst others. See; Olufisayo (2011), Osemeke, M. (2012).
It is however important to determine if the social and cognitive environment in Nigeria, through informal and formal mentorship influences entrepreneurial success among young people. Thus, the proposed study aims to predict the role of mentorship in influencing entrepreneurial success among young people in Nigeria. The section, will explore the background of the study, affirm the problem statements and objective of the study. We shall then focus on the research questions, significance of the research and the contribution the research will add to the existing body of knowledge. Delimitation flag poles will be appropriately positioned, while defining all key terms that will be used in the thesis. The section will be closed with a broad impression of how the entire study will be organized.
1.2 Background of the study
Business mentoring involves a fundamental relationship between a lesser informed new business owner and a seasoned business owner who is endowed with experience and is willing to share. It requires accepting responsibility to provide guidance, advice, and support for a youth entrepreneur to run and improve a business (Bel, 2014). It can entail a face-to-face meeting or online discussions, depending on the agreement between the parties. The parties maintain regular contact through telephones calls, meetings, e-mails, or other communication forms. Learning through experienced mentors in business is part of strategic planning in developing the business because mentors answer tough questions about the market and help give tips and insight (Zhu & Qihong, 2016). This study seeks to interrogate the influence exerted by mentorship on the outcome of the businesses that benefits from it.
The rate of changes in technological advancements within the global market, and in business suggests an imminent need for people and organizations to embrace the changing market environment. The speed and depth of changes in global business trends and technological advancements, coupled with the emergence of a knowledge-based economy continue to prompt the need for entrepreneurial innovation (Vaznyte & Andries, 2019). The establishment of new business ventures in a bid to embrace the globalization trends strengthens socio-economic development in a country, (Farooq, M. S., Salam, M., Rehman, S., Fayolle, A., Jaafar, N., & Ayupp, K. 2018). To this, the extant literature suggests that well-defined public policies on entrepreneurship, coupled with social support from institutional and social stakeholders tend to have a significant impact on the expansion of entrepreneurship activities among young people in an economy (Chen et al., 2015; Lortie & Castogiovanni, 2015). With the ambivalent economic environment in developing economies today, mentoring young people into entrepreneurship contributes to the accumulation of revenues and employment, which leads to improved GDP (Welsh, D.H.B., Memili, E., Kaciak, E., & Al-Sadoon, A. 2014). Accordingly, World Bank (2016), observed that entrepreneurship in a developing country contexts, especially in Africa is promising and it is signifecantly supported by technological advancements, internet penetration, and supportive cultures. The report further indicates that increasing the instances of entrepreneurship has the potential of improving the volume of market share from about $6 billion to about $20 billion in 2021. To achieve such projections, it is important to include the young people who are actually engaged in entrepreneurship activities across the developing countries.
On the positive side, studies suggest that youth entrepreneurship in Nigeria is gradually gaining traction and has the potential to improve the GDP (Shittu, 2017). Such an opportunity to spur youth entrepreneurship is however impeded by the slow pace of mentorship (Shittu, 2017). Consequently, mentorship in youth entrepreneurship is an important concept that should be studied within the Nigerian context. This comes on the precept that young people in Nigeria constitute more than half of the population (Federal Republic of Nigeria National Youth Policy, 2019), and will only continue to play a parasitic role in the economic development of the country if not properly involved.
In any business environment and industry, successful businesspeople who have gathered a lot of experience through the years are considered a resource to the economy and the industry. In business, experience is the most expensive asset, and it is crucial to its success. Apart from the knowledge in the art of the business, networks and associations bring in the required clientele, who are the greatest targets of any business (Merkel, 2011). The need to study the impact of a successful business person who mentors a youth entrepreneur in the business environment on where to go, where not to go, who to contact, how to analyze business trends among other elements is essential.
According to Tardy (2014), the influence of mentorship on the success of youth entrepreneurship forms the basis of eradicating poverty and reducing unemployment rates among the youths, particularly in Nigeria. Research reveals that many youths in Nigeria are currently struggling to achieve financial independence via the initiation and the execution of entrepreneurial projects (Zhu F & Qihong L., 2016). This situation has called for the need to empower them with the necessary entrepreneurial skills that will help them to establish and sustain their business ventures. In this regard, this study seeks to investigate the outcome when mentors take responsibility for convening entrepreneurial networks and relevant skills to help the youth entrepreneur identify market gaps, enhance divergent thinking, cultivate individual expression, foster innovation, and establish conducive environment for the youth’s entrepreneurial endeavour.
Any viable business idea is set for great success but can also fail if the right strategies and tools are not used effectively. Contacting and listening to a mentor increases the chances of success because the youth entrepreneur obtains access to knowledge on the paths to use and avoid for business development (Franco, 2013). A survey carried out by Sage Publishers found out that 93% of business owners that started as start-ups say that mentorship is a significant element of business success (Harvard Business School, 1998). The youth have relatively limited experience compared to owners of established companies who have been in business for more than 20 years and succeeded in navigating through rise and falls castigated by internal and external vagaries of the business environment (Tardy, 2014). This study seeks to evaluate how the incorporation of mentorships to the youth entrepreneurs’ curricula can help them realise an economic breakthrough as a countermeasure to different challenges bestriding their entrepreneurial path.
1.3 Statement of the problem
For long, the economy of Nigeria has relied on the sale of oil and petroleum products for its growth (Heritage Foundation, 2018). Recently, however, the world oil and petroleum prices have been unstable, resulting in singnificant economic instabilities in Nigeria (Heritage Foundation, 2018). In response, the Nigerian government has initiated different strategies, such as the Nigerian Vision 2030 strategy that seeks to help shift the economy of the country from reliance on the petroleum-based economy to knowledge and service-based economies. Different governments in Nigeria have supported the articulation of this vision, through the creation of an environment that encourages social space and engagement in entrepreneurial ventures (Abalkhail, 2019). Nevertheless, young people have been sluggish to effectively seize such opportunities. This could partly be attributed to limited informal mentorship, and a socially restrictive economic environment which depicts minimal perceived social support (Abalkhail, 2019). The key decision-making organs in Nigeria that are concerned with youth development are slow to identify and promote social support (informal mentorship) as a pillar for the promotion of successful entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Improving social support among young people through mentorship programs thus provides them with opportunities to engage in entrepreneurial ventures and support different courses of the Nigerian economy. The burgeoning network of youthful entrepreneurs is social support to the peers, which will further enlarge youth engagement in entrepreneurship.
There is a need for the diversification of the economy to involve as many players as possible, independent of the oil and gas sectors. Moreover, dominant and traditional Nigerian cultures reserve the role of young people, and especially young women to the family responsibilities, while older men continue to dominate most sectors of the economy (Abalkhail, 2019). This happens regardless of the research evidence that young people in Nigeria, like others in different parts of the world, bear the significant entrepreneurial potential to accomplish individualized growth while contributing to national economic growth (Sharahiley, 2020; Welsh et al., 2014). According to the Global Gender Gap Report (2020), Nigeria is on the path to achieving gender representation and youth engagement. However, Nigeria significantly lags behind other countries in Africa and the rest of the world. The report indicates that developed economies and some countries in Africa, such as South Africa and Kenya have introduced initiatives that seek to bridge the economic gap between different gender, and among all ages of the economy (Sharahiley, 2020). Consequently, the significant gap in economic disparity in Nigeria between the young and the old, and the different genders, reveal the existing opportunities to engage youth in active entrepreneurship as a means of bridging the economic gap.
Growing statistics on economic disparity in Nigeria are suggestive of the fact that government agencies in Nigeria are yet to exhaustively recognize the potential contribution of young people to the economy of the country through entrepreneurial ventures. On the contrary, inaction to encourage youth into entrepreneurial ventures will rarely contribute to the economic growth of the country. Along with the burgeoning statistics, there is limited literature to attest to the fact that social support to youth entrepreneurship is effectively explored in Nigeria (Lincoln, 2017). This calls for the need to access the level of social support and informal mentorship that young people receive to address the increasing youth unemployment in Nigeria. Further, such a scenario necessitates comprehensive studies, which offer substantial evidence on the levels of youth mentorship and support towards entrepreneurship ventures in Nigeria.
In today’s competitive business environments, industries require specific skills and experiences, which are still a problem for most young entrepreneurs. These issues need extensive research on mentoring, specifically regarding establishing, running, and sustaining successful businesses. Like any other developing country, Nigeria faces high youth unemployment rates, and a significant number of its youths live in abject poverty. Therefore, entrepreneurs play a critical role in the success of economic and industrial development among youths. In consideration of the above, El Hallam and St-Jean (2016) posit that mentorship on youth entrepreneurship is the ideal strategy for generating employment opportunities for the youth and, consequently, raising their income levels as well as breaking the vicious cycle of poverty.
In Nigeria, the youths constitute the largest proportion of people migrating to foreign countries in search of employment opportunities (Unicef, 2013). Due to limited participation in business creation, the youths lose a variety of business possibilities that are present in local markets. Also, most of the youth entrepreneurs are mainly in small business units. These are primarily small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are in different regions and varying industries. However, these SMEs suffer a lot from uninformed decisions that end up haunting the enterprise. The Bureau of Statistics has recorded that about 20% of SMEs fail in their first years of operation, while about 50% fail by their fifth year (bls.gov, 2016). On the other hand, many of these SMEs that survive remain small (Kaminskaite, 2017). Some of the primary reasons behind the failure of these businesses include challenges in market research, inexperience decision-making process, and poor business strategies. On the whole, there is an overall lack of mentorship and guidance for the youth entrepreneur SMEs owners. The need to evaluate the interrelationship that prevail between the above factors and the success of youth entrepreneurship in Nigeria constitute the core problem of this study.
1.4 Objectives of the study
The research seeks to examine whether business mentorship is a factor for success in youth entrepreneurship. By defining and outlining the roles of mentorship, the research would want to find out more about its importance and relevance to youth success in entrepreneurship. The study will also investigate whether mentoring influences entrepreneurial behaviours negatively or positively. The study thus aligns with the following specific objectives to achieve the broader goal of this research.
i. To understand the influence of the perceived social support due to mentorship on entrepreneurship intentions and attitudes among young people in Nigeria.
ii. To examine the impact of mentorship on cognitive development, and eventual intention towards entrepreneurship of the young people in Nigeria.
iii. To explore the influence of mentorship on entrepreneurship self-confidence and identity development of young people in Nigeria.
iv. To determine the direct impacts of mentorship on entrepreneurial success among young people in Nigeria.
1.5 Research Questions
In consideration of the outlined objectives, the study seeks to answer the following research questions:
i. What is the impact of perceived social support due to mentorship on the intention to engage in entrepreneurship among young people in Nigeria?
ii. What is the impact of youth mentorship on their cognitive development and intention to engage in entrepreneurial ventures in Nigeria?
iii. What is the influence of mentorship on the entrepreneurship identity of the youth in Nigeria?
iv. What is the effect of mentorship on the success of youth entrepreneurship in Nigeria?