Entrepreneurial behaviour among catholic Christians in Plateau State-Nigeria

The purpose of this paper is to develop an entrepreneurial behaviour model of both quantitative and qualitative factors that are relevant in influencing the entrepreneurial behaviour (self-employment) of catholic Christians in Plateau State-Nigeria.

The study followed a cross sectional (one shot) design. Also, a descriptive survey with a mixed methods and triangulation focus constitutes the study’s research design. A methodological paradigm triangulation concurrently was carried out where both qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection was employed. Valid research instruments (questionnaire and interview) were utilised to conduct the survey on 302 catholic Christians. Frequency distribution and Structural Equation Model (SEM) through the aid of IBM SPSS AMOS software version 22 were used to analyse and test the hypotheses formulated.

It was established that catholicpreneurship (innovation) has a strong and positive relationship with entrepreneurial behaviour. The catholicpreneurship (innovation) factor accounts for an estimate of r=0.327, **p<0.01; significant at 0.000 in our model.

The study is only restricted to Jos and Bukuru areas of Plateau State – Nigeria. Further research could be conducted to cover all the seventeen (17) LGAs of the state. Furthermore, the study employed the cross-sectional approach. A longitudinal approach should be employed to study the trend over a period of at least two years. Finally, the four (4) factors identified in influencing/triggering entrepreneurship behaviour may not be sufficient enough in explaining the phenomenon. Hence, there are other factors that may contribute in influencing entrepreneurship behaviour of the catholic Christians that were not part of this study.

This study indicates a number of implications for the church and policy makers. Since entrepreneurship is crucial to economic growth and self-employment, it is pertinent for the church to intensify initiatives in encouraging the spirit of Catholicpreneurship (innovation) among Christians in Plateau State and Nigeria at large. Hence, the church should promote entrepreneurship (sponsor training/classes for its members. With diverse programmes offered by the government to encourage entrepreneurship, the church has a wide range of opportunities to cash on when trying to set up ventures.

This paper is the first in Nigeria (Africa) to test empirically the relationships between catholicpreneurship (innovation), attitude, perceived behavioural control, intention and entrepreneurship behaviour among catholic Christians.