Predictors of Students' Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy in Kenyan Secondary Schools

The unemployment rate is very high in Kenya, with approximately 25% of the youth between the ages of 15 and 25 being currently unemployed (GOK, 2007). Some entrepreneurship education scholars believe that entrepreneurship education can alleviate the problem of high unemployment among the Kenyan youth. However, we do know other factors are likely to influence students' decisions of starting their own business. The influence of entrepreneurship education as well as other factors known to affect entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) is, however, under-researched at the secondary level in Kenya. The current study therefore employs quantitative methods in examining how students' business education exposure influences their ESE controlling for tribe/ethnic culture, family entrepreneurship history, prior entrepreneurship experience, family socio-economic status (SES), the type of school the students are attending, and their gender, as well as the extent at which family SES and gender moderate the influence of business studies education on ESE.