Does Entrepreneurship Skill Mediate Entrepreneurial Intention in a Turbulent Environment?

Scholarly research on entrepreneurship education (EE) sometimes fails to grapple with the heterogeneity of entrepreneurship education provision, and the impact of this on intention studies. Entrepreneurship education can be for, about, or in, entrepreneurship (Mwasalwiba, 2010). Fayolle & Gailly (2008) highlighted three different learning processes in entrepreneurship education: learning to become an enterprising individual, learning to become and entrepreneur, and learning to become an academic; and (Liñán, 2004) distinguished between four types of entrepreneurship education: entrepreneurship awareness education, education for start-up, education for entrepreneurial dynamism, and continuing education for entrepreneurs . In other words, not all types of entrepreneurship education are aimed towards entrepreneurial intentions. The type of training required is sometimes associated with the growth stage of the enterprise, from existence through survival, success, take off and resource maturity (Churchill and Lewis, 1983), or the individual’s stage in the entrepreneurship career path, from foundation to awakening, specialisation, creation, and maturing (Carayannis, Evans and Hanson, 2003). While scholars now agree that certain kinds of entrepreneurial education can contribute to entrepreneurial intentions, it is not clear how this takes place. Some scholars (Donald F. Kuratko, 2005; Bae et al., 2014; Rauch and Hulsink, 2015) have highlighted the impact of entrepreneurship education on raising positive attitudes to entrepreneurship, and that this in turn influences entrepreneurial intention. However, fewer studies have examined the role of entrepreneurial skills as a mediator of entrepreneurial intention. In other words, do newly acquired skills or newly improved skills achieved through entrepreneurship education have any positive impact on entrepreneurial intention? This study addresses this key question, survey of 331 students of the University of Maiduguri in Maiduguri Northeast Nigeria, and Bayero University Kano, in Northwest Nigeria. The paper also highlights the link between research context of entrepreneurship education, and the practice and policy contexts of entrepreneurship curriculum delivery and impact in a conflict environment.