2.1. Introduction
Education lies at the heart of every society. It is a key and a
vital element in the broad development of the nation’s youth’s capacity
to address and solves difficulties. Education forms the basis for the
proactive and positive economic, social and political changes in the
society. Education remains the key to empowerment of the people and the
nations as a whole (Olawolu and Kaegon, 2012). Education consolidates
and builds upon basic education to empower the youth to really live,
function as a productive member of the society, earning a living, and
contributing to societal progress. Business education continuously
builds on the knowledge, skills, values and attitude learnt at the lower
phases of education. The greatest weapon against poverty is education
of the youths. (Nwangwua, 2007). The author further explains that any
form of education that does not equip its beneficiaries with skills to
be self-reliant is a faulty system of education. Kaegon (2009) believes
that business education must be ready to offer their recipients
functional education that will enhance performance as well as assist
them to contribute meaning to the economic development of the country.
According to Okereke and Okoroafor (2011) the desire of the Nigeria
government to attain the vision 20-20:20 20 and Millennium Development
Goals (MDG) propelled the Nigerian Educational Research and Development
Council to revise the secondary education curricula. Thereason for
this exercise is the transformation at the curriculum with the
entrepreneurial education, informational communication technology (ICT)
skills, and civic education and for the nation’s sustainable
development. The demand for higher education, particularly university
education is on the increase all over the world. Entrepreneurship
education prepares youths to be responsible and entering individuals,
who become entrepreneurs or entrepreneurial thinkers by exposing them
in real life learning experiences where they will be required to think,
take risks, manage circumstances and incidentally learn from the
outcome (Olawolu and Kaegon, 2012). Ememe (2010) observes that
entrepreneurship education enables youths to sekk for success in
ventures through one’s effort. Buttressing the above view, Okereke and
Okoroafor (2011), asserts that entrepreneurial education and ICT skills
have been acknowledged world wide as a potent and viable tools for
self-empowerment, job and wealth creation. Business education has three
basic career options, such as skilled, vocational option, professional
option and executive business education option. (Okoh, 1999). The
professional option include: auditing, administration and the
accountancy profession (Accounting), therefore, the accounting option
is the focus for this study. Business education as a discipline is
expected to expose its recipients to diversity curricula, hence, it is
that type of education that inculcate in its recipients attitudes,
knowledge, skills, values that is required in the business world. This
is a means of producing a healthy, literate self-reliant citizen that
would create wealth for human development, when they become
self-employed, thereby resulting to sustainable nation’s development at
large. Business education must have impacted accounting skills and
creative knowledge required for employment generation opportunities,
such entrepreneurial skills and accounting competences that would also
make the business graduates to adopt some strategic survival instincts.
2.2. THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
Entrepreneurship Theories
2.2.1.Cantillon's theory (1755)
This theory does not view the entrepreneur as a production factor
as such, but an agent that takes on risk and thereby equilibrates
supply and demand in the economy. In a neo-classical framework, this
function resembles that of the optimizing residual claimant, e.g., the
business owner who rents labor and capital from workers and land owners
in a world of uncertain demand or production.
2.2.2. Marshall’s approach to entrepreneurship (Marshall, 1949)
Marshall is an equilibrium creating entrepreneur. To Schumpeter,
the crucial fact about the modern corporation is that its managers
cannot fill the strong social role played by the entrepreneur.
(Schumpeter, 1942, p. 134).The Neo-classical theory and thereby the
„Marshallian? analysis tries to explain equilibrium conditions in the
markets under the assumptions of perfect knowledge and information,
perfect competition (existence of many firms), existence of homogenous
goods, and free entry and exit. Marshall's main concerns and at the
same time goal is to show that markets clear under the perfect
competition assumptions and there are no excess profit opportunities
and hence there is no exploitation of labor in production process since
everyone earns his marginal contribution to production and national
income. Marshall uses small changes (innovations) in the market process
by many small competitors andconfusingly indicates that large scale
production is essential for economic progress and economic innovation
(Schumpeter, 1942). Marshall tried to create equilibrium by having many
players in the market, hence perfect competition and not monopolist
market. His theories consider many „great men? who establish
equilibrium in the supply and demand in the market for goods and
services. Marshallian analysis gives small contributions from a very
large number of modest entrepreneurs? lead economic progress.
2.2.3 The Social Enterprise School
Entrepreneurship is viewed as “social enterprise” initiative. This
refers to any organization, in any sector, that uses earned income
strategies to pursue a double bottom line or a triple bottom line,
either alone or as part of a mixed revenue stream (as a social sector
business) that includes charitable contributions and public sector
subsidies.” Social Enterprise School centers on earned-income activity
by nonprofits, but also includes market based solutions to social
problems as well as businesses that generate profit that is donated to a
social venture or purpose.
2.2.4 Schultz Approach (Schultz, 1975)
Argues that entrepreneurship is closely connected to situations of
disequilibria and that entrepreneurship is the ability to deal with
these situations. In disequilibrium, agents are acting sub-optimally
and can reallocate their resources to achieve a higher level of
satisfaction. Entrepreneurship is the ability to coordinate this
reallocation efficiently, and it follows that agents have different
degrees of entrepreneurial ability. Schultz argues that, in
disequilibrium, individuals know that opportunities to increase
satisfaction exist but the reallocating process requires time. A better
allocation of resources can be achieved either by experimenting (trial
and error) or by investing in human capital. Schultz (1975) argues
that entrepreneurship exists in all aspects of life. Thus, housewives
and students are entrepreneurs when reallocating their time for
housework or student activities. Furthermore, since entrepreneurship is
an ability that can be augmented by investment, Schultz argues that a
market for entrepreneurship exists and that it is possible to analyze
entrepreneurship within the conventional supply and demand framework
(Hebert and Link, 1988).
2.2.5. Kirzner’s "alert" entrepreneur (Kirzner, 1997)
While in Neoclassical analysis (Marshall) the main focus is the
conditions necessary to sustain an equilibrium, and Schumpeter's focus
was to explain the progress in capitalistic system by using innovator
entrepreneur's destructive creation, Kirzner- representing the
Neo-Austrian approach to entrepreneurshipfocused on answering the
question of whether a market economy works and, if it does so, what is
the process that leads the economy towards an equilibrium? Kirzner
claims that initially the economy is in disequilibrium and the
competition among 'alert' entrepreneurs leads to equilibrium. Unlike
Neo-classical economists, Kirzner realizes that markets are not always
clear, there is no perfectly informed representative agent and for
change to occur the entrepreneurs need incentives and this incentives
comes from the difference among agents in terms of information and
knowledge. According to Kirzner, an improvement in the technique of
production or a shift in preferences leads to change (disequilibrium)
in the market where initially there was equilibrium. If there is
equilibrium in the market there is nothing for the entrepreneur to do
and no exchange and profit opportunities for them since everybody will
be able to carry out his initially determined exchange plans. But
whenever the change has occurred, some planned activities will not be
realized. Kirzner states, there is no room for entrepreneurialdiscovery
and creativity: the course of market events is foreordained by the
data of market situation and for the system to create profit
opportunities for entrepreneur there is need for an exogenous shock to
the system. Kirzner argues that the economy is in a constant state of
disequilibrium due to shocks constantly hitting the economy.
Furthermore, economic agents suffer from "utter ignorance"--they simply
do not know that additional information is available. In this world,
the alert entrepreneur discovers and exploits new business
opportunities and eliminates (some of the) "utter ignorance" and thus
moves the economy toward equilibrium, which is the state where no more
information can be discovered. Kirzner's analysis of entrepreneurship
identifies a disequilibrium that can only be corrected (to equilibrium)
by alert entrepreneurs who produce and exchange, but the emphasis is
on the exchange opportunities and progress that comes mainly from this
part. He postulates that entrepreneurial progress does not depend on a
“great man" but it does depend on many great men, many players in the
business arena. Profits from an entrepreneurial venture may not usually
be very large and in some cases before the break-even point is
established, the returns maybe negative. Since there is a lot of
uncertainty in the business environment, profits is always a
speculative affair by the entrepreneurs and therefore an
entrepreneurship is an act of risk taking. Seeing risk and grabbing
them may be considered too certain and requires an extra talent of
people who can see the extra ordinary things. This scenario may
therefore negate Kirzner theory.
2.2.6 Schumpeter (1999): the discovery and opportunity theory of entrepreneurship (equilibrium destruction theory)
Schumpeter looks at entrepreneurship as innovation and not
imitation. Schumpeter's innovator as an economic and social leader does
not care much about economic profits and only joy he gets from being
an innovator and being a server to his society. Schumpeter?s
entrepreneur is an innovator in the entrepreneurship arena. In the
Schumpeterian theory, the entrepreneur moves the economy out of the
static equilibrium. Marz (1991), states that "Schumpeter hardly denied
that the process of accumulation is the ladder to social power and
social prestige; but he thought the very mainspring of the exercise of
the entrepreneurial function is the powerful will to assert economic
leadership. The joy of carrying through innovations is the primary
motive, the acquisition of social power a subsidiary to it. The
entrepreneur is not (necessarily) the one who invents new combinations
but the one who identifies how these new combinations can be applied in
production. This line of reasoning implies that a business owner is
considered an entrepreneur only if he is carrying out new
combinations." The entrepreneur moves the economic system out of the
static equilibrium by creating new products or production methods
thereby rendering others obsolete. This is the process of "creative
destruction"(creating uncertainty) which Schumpeter saw as the driving
force behind economic development (Schumpeter, 1949).