Isidore Ekpe

Leadership skill, leadership style and job commitment among academic staff of Nigerian universities: the moderating effects of employee's attitude and work environment

The study aims to determine the moderating effects of employees attitude and work environment on the relationship between leadership skill and leadership style, and employees job commitment among academic staff of Nigerian universities. The results of this study would enable the Nigerian government to develop strategies to help lecturers develop more interest in research. The study employs cross-sectional survey design, with simple random sampling, to collect data from 340 academic staff of three universities in the northern, eastern and western regions of Nigeria. Descriptive statistics and Partial Least Square (Smart PLS) were used to analyse data. The results indicate that transformational leadership style is positively related to employees job commitment and that attitude moderates between transactional leadership style and employees job commitment. The study suggests that appropriate leadership (from heads of departments) and adequate funding (from government) could engender more research commitments among scholars at Nigerian universities.

Lean start-up awareness and effect on entrepreneurial intentions among Malaysian youths

In an attempt to develop greater interest in enterprise start-up, this study examines the level of awareness of lean start-up model and its effect on entrepreneurial intentions among Malaysian youths. In this study, we argue that greater entrepreneurial interest could be ignited in the youths if lean start-up model is applied in teaching and learning. Using a survey, data were collected from 191 university students at three universities in Malaysia peninsula. These data were analysed with descriptive statistics and regression methods. We found that majority of the students were not aware of lean start-up model. Our research also established a significant positive effect of lean start-up on entrepreneurial intentions among Malaysian youths. We recommend that the government and university authorities should draft appropriate strategies (e.g. inclusion in syllabus) that will engender greater awareness and adoption of lean start-up, especially among students and lecturers, for enterprise creation in the country.

Effect of crowd-funding on entrepreneurial intentions among academic staff of Nigerian universities

To develop greater interest in enterprise start-up, efficient corporate management among adults and effective enterprise finance strategy among policy-makers, this study was conducted to examine the level of awareness of crowd-funding model and its effect on entrepreneurial intentions among Nigerian university lecturers. With a survey, data were collected from 217 lecturers at three universities in north, east and west regions of Nigeria. Employing descriptive statistics and partial least square (Smart PLS-SEM) methods, data were analysed. Among others, we found that most of the lecturers were not aware of crowd-funding as a novel model for enterprise financing. We also discovered that crowd-funding has a significant positive relationship with entrepreneurial intentions. Therefore, it was recommended that the government and university management should draft appropriate strategies (e.g. inclusion in syllabus) that will engender greater awareness and adoption of crowd-funding, especially among entrepreneurial educators and students, for enterprise creation and development in the country.