Crafting Innovativeness For Graduate Entrepreneurship Development In East Africa: Are Graduates Innovators Or Imitators?

Résumé: Innovation is a central determinant that contributes to entrepreneurs’ pursuits of opportunities. It is the vehicle that carries the means to concur market and successful establishment of an enterprise. This study aimed at assessing graduates’ innovativeness for entrepreneurship development by employing a cross-sectional research design. A sample size of 124 was selected from a population of Masters's students specializing in science subjects originating from East African countries. Objective one and two were analyzed descriptively via per cent and frequencies while objective three was analyzed through inferential statistics where one sample T-test was employed for assessing the difference between innovation developed and innovation advanced to markets. The findings indicate that for all forms of innovation the level of innovation is relatively low since all the ratings were below 40 per cent. Similarly, the innovation advanced to the markets were respectively low compared to innovation developed. It is concluded that the level of innovation is limited among first-degree graduates specialized in science subjects in East African countries and the number of innovations advanced to the market for entrepreneurship development is relatively low compared to innovation developed.This call for a review of the innovation process development in higher learning education system. In addition, recasting of enabling environment for innovation development is apparently needed.

Publié dans la revue: مجلة بحوث الإدارة والاقتصاد