Leveraging Social Media Engagement for Digital Entrepreneurship among Undergraduates

Abstract

The study considered the effect of social media engagement on digital entrepreneur intention among undergraduate students in federal tertiary institutions in Ogun State, Nigeria. Opportunity recognition and exploitation are mediating variables considered in this study. The study adopted a cross-sectional design to collect data from 2,522 undergraduate students from three universities using multistage sampling techniques. The study leverages a four Likert scale validate instrument on social media engagement, opportunity recognition, opportunity exploitation, and digital entrepreneurial intention. Pearson’s correlation, multiple regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) were adopted for a comprehensive analysis. The results show significant prediction of social media engagement on digital entrepreneur intention including opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation. However, the influence on opportunity exploitation is less when compared to opportunity recognition, this is due to the established gap between opportunity awareness and opportunity execution. The SEM results confirmed that opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation shows a reasonable mediating force between social media engagement and digital entrepreneurial intention with opportunity recognition showing the highest mediating influence. The study concludes that entrepreneurial awareness and intention are driven by social media engagement while entrepreneurial action could be affected by limited practical capacities and support. The study recommends that entrepreneurship training and access to resources should be encouraged to close the gap between opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation in digital entrepreneurship. Keywords: social media engagement, digital entrepreneurship, opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation, opportunity awareness and opportunity intention