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The 2017 International Conference on African Entrepreneurship
and Innovation for Sustainable Development (AEISD)
10
Chapter Two
ACCOUNTING FOR SUSTAINABLE ENTREPRENUERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT
OGODOGUN, COLLEGE. E.
Doctoral Student, Accountancy Department, Faculty of Management Sciences
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka
PROF. EMMA. I. OKOYE
PROFESSOR OF ACCOUNTING
Department Of Accountancy, Faculty of Management Sciences Nnamdi Azikiwe
University, Awka
Abstract
The study focuses on how accounting can be used to achieve sustainable entrepreneurship
development. The study was premised on a descriptive survey design, research questions
were raised and a review of extant literature carried out. A twenty-item questionnaire was
administered on 55 accountants purposively selected from the private and the public
sectors (ten years working experience and above) and 15 accounting lecturers from the
academia. The judgmental sampling technique was used because the respondents are the
ones in custody of the information required. The data generated from the study were
analyzed using the mean scores and the hypotheses tested with ANOVA techniques.
Findings revealed that accounting is a key element in sustainable entrepreneurship
development, though its effectiveness is affected by several factors, but sustainable
entrepreneurship has no significant effect on a nation’s development. It was therefore
recommended that entrepreneurs should be encouraged to acquire the basic accounting
skills and the various factors militating against the effectiveness of accounting in
achieving this goal should be remedied; so also government should be more proactive to
make entrepreneurship sustainable more relevant to nation development.
Introduction
Entrepreneurship is the process of bringing together creative and innovative ideas and
comparing them with management and organizational skills in order to combine
people, money and resources to meet and identify need and thereby create wealth.
(Appleby, 2000). Entrepreneurship came into lime light due to dwindling economic
situation and the resultant massive unemployment of both youth and adults in Nigeria.
That is why the federal government of Nigeria established the National Directorate of
employment (NDE) which eventually established the entrepreneurship programme.
Creativity and management strengths are provided by entrepreneurial skills which
combine strengths, skills and competence to produce goods and services.
The 2017 International Conference on African Entrepreneurship
and Innovation for Sustainable Development (AEISD)
11
Entrepreneurship also enhances self employment. Small business firms are offshoot of
entrepreneurial development, and in order to encourage these business units,
entrepreneurship need to be reinforced. In ensuring sustainable entrepreneurship,
extant literature shown that accounting plays a major role. Accounting is the
acquisition of accounting knowledge and skills through a teaching-learning process. It is
also seen as the measurement and communication of economic data. Armed with
accounting knowledge, the entrepreneur can decide whether to make an outright
purchase of a business premises or to rent; whether it is better to borrow money for
purchases or out -rightly buy on credit; whether to make or buy component parts, and
so on. Sound and intelligent answers to these questions require only the kind of
information generated by accounting process.
Motomura (2009) stated that entrepreneurship is nothing more than the power to make
things happen. Entrepreneurship occurs when an individual develops a new venture, a
new approach to an old business or idea; or a unique way of giving the market place a
product or service by using resources in a new way under condition of risk. Okoye and
Akenbor (2010) said entrepreneurs are those who dream and never go back to sleep,
until their dreams become real; start from little or nothing to build something from
nowhere; have an unending desire to create business whether they have ideas or not,
and so on. Timons (1983) in Younmo, Imuzai and Okpetu (2009) said entrepreneurship
involves the risking of financial, materials and human resources in a new way in the
course of creating a new business opportunity within existing firm.
Njoku (2002) on her part said, sustainable entrepreneurship is the identification of the
general characteristics of entrepreneurs and how potential entrepreneurs can be trained
in management techniques needed for effective performance of persons for long time
survival of the organization and development Dean and McMullen (2007) further
proposed that sustainable entrepreneurship development is the process of discovering,
evaluating and exploiting economic opportunities that are present in market failures
which detract from sustainability, including those that are environmentally relevant.
Nwadiani (2011) further posit that, sustainable entrepreneurship is involved developing
understanding and capacity for pursuit of entrepreneurial behaviours, skills and
attributes for nation’s building.
In a sharp contrast, European commission (2006), said that, there is no global
framework at some national levels for the development of entrepreneurship and training
in many countries. Countries like Greece, France, United Kingdom, etc, do not have
entrepreneurship as part of their school curriculums. While countries like Nigeria,
Zimbabwe and other Africa countries have entrepreneurship in their school curriculums
but lack social infrastructures (especially power) and proper funding to make it
functional in and out of the school.Onwuchekwa (1998) in Younmo, et al (ibid) while
focusing on sustainable entrepreneurship education said, it is a way through which
teachers can help their students who have skills, intelligence and self control needed for
self reliance and to own a small business of their own. Cohen and Winn (2009) also
claimed that entrepreneurship is the examination of opportunities to bring into
The 2017 International Conference on African Entrepreneurship
and Innovation for Sustainable Development (AEISD)
12
existence, future goods, and services that are discovered, created and exploited, by
whom and with what economic, psychological, social and environmental consequences.
Okoye and Akenbor (2010) said that becoming an entrepreneur means more than just
getting a business idea and sourcing the funds to finance it. According to them, it
requires special training for knowledge and skill acquisition. Obadan (2001) said that
even though there are some intangibles that entrepreneurs possessed that are not
teachable, achieving successful entrepreneurship requires learnable set of skills and
knowledge. Gray and Balmer (2001) identified these learnable set of skills to include,
entrepreneurial skills, technical skills and genetic skills.They further broke down
entrepreneurial to include innovativeness, creativity, risk-taking, goal getting, hard
working and informality. The business skill is also further broken down to include basic
business management and administration, marketing, operations management and
accounting. The technical skill on the other hand include – engineering and design,
computers and ICT, while the genetic skills are time management skills,
communication, team work, speaking/presentation, writing, diplomacy and flexibility.
Accounting skills include basic book keeping, costing techniques, taxation, auditing,
financial planning, cost control etc.
Before an entrepreneur can do well he must possess these skills. And in the process of
getting acquainted with these skills, accounting knowledge and acquisition becomes
“sine qua non”.
Statement of the problem
Sustainable entrepreneurship did not occurred as a chance phenomenon; its
development is as a result of rising need of the society. It was developed to create
employment and to nullify unemployment, to bring prosperity and to eradicate poverty.
But how well and how soon can these goals be achieved? High level of unemployment is
still very prevalent among graduates, this has brought to the fore, social vices such as
kidnapping, robbery, prostitutions, yahoo ritualists, child-trafficking, cattle rustlers,
extremists, cultism, thuggery, pipeline vandalism, resistant groups, militancy, among
others. In all these, one will need to appreciate:
To what extent can accounting promotes sustainable entrepreneurship
development?
To what extent can sustainable entrepreneurship promotes development?
What are those factors militating against the effectiveness of accounting in
promoting sustainable entrepreneurship Nigeria?
What are those factors militating against sustainable entrepreneurship
development?
Objectives of the study
The main objective of the study is to examine the role of accounting in sustainable
entrepreneurship development. The specific objectives include:
1 To examine the extent to which accounting promotes sustainable entrepreneurship
development.
2 To determine the extent sustainable entrepreneurship promotes development.
The 2017 International Conference on African Entrepreneurship
and Innovation for Sustainable Development (AEISD)
13
3 To identify those factors militating against the effectiveness of accounting in
promoting sustainable entrepreneurship Nigeria.
4 To identify those factors militating against sustainable entrepreneurship
development.
Hypotheses of the study
1. HO: Accounting does not significantly affect sustainable entrepreneurship.
2. HO: Sustainable entrepreneurship does not significantly affect development.
Challenges of sustainable entrepreneurship development in Nigeria.
Anyakoha (2002), Idowu (2002), Osuala (2002), Okaro, Okafor and Oraka (2010)
identified the following as challenges facing sustainable entrepreneurship development
in Nigeria: Insufficient funding, Poor power supply, Inadequate research and
development ventures, Insufficient manpower, Unfavourable public attitudes, Gender
discrimination, Leaders paying lip-service to sustainable development, Poor state of
infrastructures, Poor ICT development, Poor populace orientation, Lack of basic
accounting skills, Poor entrepreneurial skills, Poor Maintenance culture of existing
infrastructures by authorities, etc.
Challenges of accounting in Nigerian tertiary institutions
Agbiowgu (2010), Okaro et al (2010), Okoye and Akenbor (2001) identified the
challenges facing accounting as follows:
1. Poor funding
2. Poor ICT exposures
3. Infrastructural decay
4. Bad maintenance culture of facilities of higher institutions
5. Poor and incompatibility of accounting curriculum
6. Narrowed teaching methodology
7. Insufficient opportunities for industrial work experience
8. Dichotomy between university and polytechnics graduates
9. Inadequate availability of experienced and qualified accounting lecturers
10. Lack of instructional materials
11. Illiteracy among the learners and teachers in the use of computers
12. Lack of conducive learning environment
13. Lack of clearly defined need for accounting information
14. Inadequate accounting journals publication on various issues
15. Inadequate Accounting programme duration time
16. Poor quality of new intakes.
Methodology
The data for the study were gathered from a survey of accountants in the public and the
private sectors in Delta state and M.Sc. and above degree holders accounting lecturers in
College of Education, Warri and Delta State University, Abraka through a well
structured questionnaire. On the whole, a total of 70 (seventy) respondents were
considered. The questions were designed in the response point of Rensis Likert (1964)
The 2017 International Conference on African Entrepreneurship
and Innovation for Sustainable Development (AEISD)
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scale of insufficient, very low extent, low extent, high extent, very high extent and these
are graded: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. This implies that, the lowest graded responses for
an individual respondent will be 20 while the highest graded response is 100.
Validity of the research instrument
The research instrument before its usage was tested for both construct, face and content
validity by experts in the field of methodology and found to be valid.
Reliability of research instrument
The split half method was used to test the reliability of the research instrument which
produced a correlation coefficient of 0.8. This indicates a strong relationship and can
test what it is applied to test.
Administration of research instrument
The questionnaire were administered by hand and collected after three days. Extra
copies were also distributed within the said period to make room for destroyed and
badly filled ones.
Method of data analysis
The data collected were analyzed in line with the objectives of the study using the mean
statistical inference. While the hypotheses were tested using one-way ANOVA statistical
technique
Presentation and Analysis of data
Let X1 Represent private and public accountant responses
“ X2 “ Accounting Lecturers’ responses
Research question 1:
To what extent can accounting promotes sustainable entrepreneurship development?
Responses are as presented in table 1, below:
Table 1: Respondents’ opinion on the extent accounting enhances sustainable
entrepreneurship development
Grades
X1
Responses
X2 Responses
Responses
X
F
Fx
F
Fx
Remarks
Insufficient
1
2
2
5
5
Very Low Extent
2
9
18
3
6
Low Extent
3
6
18
2
6
High Extent
4
12
48
4
16
Very High Extent
5
26
130
1
5
High extent
accepted
15
55
216
15
38
Source: Research Data (2017).
The 2017 International Conference on African Entrepreneurship
and Innovation for Sustainable Development (AEISD)
15
x1 = 3.93; x 2 = 2.53; Expected Mean = 3.00; Average mean score =
3.23
Decision: The computed average mean score (3.23) > the expected mean (3.00). This
implies that accounting enhances sustainable entrepreneurship development to a very
high extent.
Research question 2
To what extent can sustainable entrepreneurship promotes development? Responses are
as presented in table 2 below.
Table 2: Respondents’ opinion on the extent sustainable entrepreneurship
promotes development.
Grade
X1
X2
Responses
X
F
Fx
F
Fx
Remark
Insufficient
1
3
3
1
1
Very low extent
2
6
12
2
4
Low extent
3
9
27
2
6
High extent
4
12
48
4
16
Very high extent
5
25
125
6
30
Very high extent
accepted
Total
55
215
15
57
Source: Research Data (2017).
x1 = 3.91 x2 = 3.80 Average Mean Score = 3.86; Expected mean score =
3.00
Decision: The average mean calculated (3.86) > the expected mean score (3.00). This
implies that sustainable entrepreneurship promotes development to a very high extent.
Research Question 3
What are the factors militating against the effectiveness of accounting in Nigeria?
Responses are as shown in table 3 below:
Table 3: Factors militating against the Effectiveness of Accounting in enhancing
sustainable entrepreneurship development.
Factors
Responses
Mea
n
Vh
e
He
Le
Vle
I
X
1. Inadequate availability of accounting teachers.
25
26
7
8
4
3.81
2. Poor funding
30
25
8
4
3
4.07
3. Incompatibility of accounting curriculum
35
20
5
6
4
4.09
4. Poor I. C. T. exposure and usage
28
15
10
7
10
3.63
5. lack of instructional materials
25
30
9
3
3
4.01
6. Infrastructural decay
27
24
15
3
1
4.04
7. Illiteracy among the teachers and learners in the
use of
20
35
10
2
3
3.96
The 2017 International Conference on African Entrepreneurship
and Innovation for Sustainable Development (AEISD)
16
computers.
8. Bad maintenance culture of facilities by the higher
Institutions
29
20
12
4
5
3.91
9. lack of conducive learning environment
32
28
2
4
4
4.14
10. Narrowed teaching environment
33
24
4
5
4
4.10
Average mean score
3.98
Source: Research Data (2017).
Decision: The calculated average mean score (3.98) > the expected mean score (3.00).
This implies that all the above factors militate against the effectiveness of accounting in
enhancing sustainable entrepreneurship development.
Research Question 4. What are the factors militating against sustainable
entrepreneurship development?
Table 4: Respondents’ opinion on the factors militating against sustainable
Entrepreneurship development
Responses
Ttl
Resp.
Me
an
SA
A
D
S
D
U
D
X
1. Insufficient funding
29
20
6
7
8
70
3.79
2. Poor Accounting skills
35
22
3
9
1
70
4.16
3. Inadequate Laboratory facilities
30
24
7
5
4
70
4.01
4. Poor I. C. T. development
29
19
8
11
3
70
3.86
5. Gender discrimination
28
32
5
2
3
70
4.14
6. Insufficient opportunities for
industrial experience
31
21
14
3
1
70
4.11
7. Poor state of infrastructures
27
29
11
1
3
70
4.13
8. Poor attitudes attitude towards
practicals
25
26
13
4
2
70
3.97
9. Unfavourable public attitudes
33
25
4
6
2
70
4.16
10. Insufficient manpower.
34
23
2
8
3
70
4.10
Average mean
score
4.04
Source: Research Data (2017).
Decision: The computed average mean (4.04) > the assumed mean (3.00). This means
that, all the factors mentioned above affects sustainable entrepreneurship development.
3.2 Test of Hypotheses.
Hypothesis One
H0: Accounting does not significantly affect sustainable entrepreneurship development
H1: Accounting significantly affects sustainable entrepreneurship development
The 2017 International Conference on African Entrepreneurship
and Innovation for Sustainable Development (AEISD)
17
Table 5: Summary of One-Way ANOVA test on the effects of Accounting on
sustainable entrepreneurship development
Rspdts
N
Mean
Std.
Std.
Er
Lev. st
df
F
Sig.
Dec.
PPS.
Accts.
55
68.24
15.43
2.03
0.381
1
68
0.011
0.915
Reject
Acct. Lect.
15
68.73
17.65
4.55
Source: Research Data (2017)
From table 5 above, the computed F is 0.011 which is statistically significant at 0.05
alpha. Therefore the null hypothesis is rejected. This implies that there is a significant
relationship between accounting and sustainable entrepreneurship development. This
finding is statistically significant at F (1, 68) = 0.011, p < .05.
Test of hypothesis Two:
Ho: Sustainable entrepreneurship does not significantly affect a nation’s development.
Hi: Sustainable entrepreneurship significantly affects a nation’s development.
Table 6: Summary of One-Way ANOVA test on the effects of Sustainable
entrepreneurship on a nation’s development
Rspdts
N
Mean
Std.
Std.
Er
Lev.
st
df
F
Sig.
Dec.
PPS.
Accts.
55
68.44
16.42
2.03
0.44
1
68
1.347
0.250
Accept
Acct. Lect.
15
73.93
14.81
4.55
Source: Research Data (2017)
From Table 6 above, the F factor computed is 1.347 which is statistically significant not
at 0.05 alpha. Therefore the null hypothesis is here accepted. This implies that there is a
no significant relationship between sustainable entrepreneurship and a nation’s
development. This finding is statistically significant at F (1, 68) = 1.347, p > .05.
Discussion of findings
From the various tests and analyses carried out, below is the discussion of their findings:
i. Accounting enhances sustainable entrepreneurship development. This finding agreed
with the assertion of Obadan (2001) when he said that, accounting skills enhances the
work of the entrepreneur.
ii. Entrepreneurship does not significantly affect development. This finding agrees with
the work of European commission (2006), when it said that, there is no global
framework at some national levels for the development of entrepreneurship and
training in many countries as such it does not affect their development. However, the
finding disagreed with the work of Nwadiani (2011) who posit that, sustainable
entrepreneurship is involved developing understanding and capacity for pursuit of
entrepreneurial behaviours, skills and attributes for nation’s building.
The 2017 International Conference on African Entrepreneurship
and Innovation for Sustainable Development (AEISD)
18
The findings also revealed some factors militating against the effectiveness of
accounting in enhancing sustainable entrepreneurship development and others against
sustainable entrepreneurship in achieving nation’s development. Prominent among
them include; lack of conducive learning environment, narrowed teaching methodology,
incompatibility of accounting curriculum, poor funding, infrastructural decay, lack of
instructional materials, illiteracy among teachers and learners in the use of computers,
poor maintenance culture of facilities by higher institutions, lack of basic accounting
skills, gender discrimination, poor funding, no legislative backing, paying of lip service
by authorities and leaders, poor ICT development, etc. These factors were not
significantly different from those identified by Anyakoha (2002), Idowu (2002), Okaro et
al (2010) and Okoye and Akenbor (2010).
Conclusions
From the above findings, the researcher wish to conclude that, there is significant
relationship between accounting and sustainable entrepreneurship development.
However this relationship does not exists between sustainable entrepreneurship and a
nation’s development. Some factors has been identified to be militating against the
effectiveness of accounting and sustainable entrepreneurship, which is preventing them
from carrying out their roles in this enhancement process. Based on these revelations,
the following policy recommendations are hereby put forward.
1. Entrepreneurs should be encouraged to acquire basic accounting skills.
2. The various factors militating against the effectiveness of accounting and sustainable
entrepreneurship should be addressed. For example, our higher institutions
environment should be made conducive. This they can do by eliminating cultism,
extra charges, dilapidating structures, among others.
3. Accounting teaching methodology should be broadened from the existing lecturing
method to include discussion methods.
4. Accounting curriculum should be made compatible to include, ICT, sufficient
industrial experience, seminars and workshop, etc.
5. Our classrooms should be made a replica of the student future working
environment.
6. Government should enhance power supply.
7. Government should match her words with action as regard entrepreneurship
development.
8. There should be proper supervision of graduate entrepreneurs after training.
9. There should be proper orientation and sensitization of the populace (especially the
youths) on the benefits of entrepreneurship.
10. Business infrastructures should be made available by government in order to reduce
the cost of doing business.
The 2017 International Conference on African Entrepreneurship
and Innovation for Sustainable Development (AEISD)
19
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