Assessing Corporate Entrepreneurship in Conglomerates in Nigeria.

The Government in Nigeria has of recent years raised the awareness of Entrepreneurship practices through the introduction of different entrepreneurship programmes among all forms of corporations including the Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and conglomerates in the country; especially those manufacturing Corporations in the densely populated areas of the South western Nigeria. The Government has also raised entrepreneurship awareness among the citizenry by improving the accessibility to bank loans and also by including entrepreneurship courses in the curriculum of all postsecondary tertiary institutions in order to improve employability status of young graduates before they are recruited by the conglomerates. Unfortunately, mere observation of the Nigerian economy has not shown any improvement. Hence the need to assess the level of Entrepreneurial variables and Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) in Conglomerates in South-western and Lagos industrial axes of Nigeria. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources. The variables/elements of Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) were categorized into innovation/invention, risk-taking, and proactiveness. Corporate entrepreneurship in this paper is measured by behaviour and characteristics of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the coalition group. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted in selecting the sample population. Subsequently, the data generated were analysed with appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings showed that: Nigerian manufacturing industries were not highly entrepreneurial oriented. Though traces of innovations were observed, none for invention, Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) practices among the top management team were dominated by men. This gender imbalance calls for further research in future; The paper discovered that poor infrastructural development repelled most industries away from industrial estates as most CEOs prefer outright purchase of private sites. This made advantages of economies of scale to elude them, especially in the areas of research resulting in poor CE activities. Also, not many of these industries were listed on Nigerian Securities Exchange (NSE), thereby limiting amount of public funds available for research activities in these companies, and lastly, the three key variables/elements/Dimensions (Invention/Innovation, Proactiveness and Risk-taking) of Corporate Entrepreneurship were identified as channels through which Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) can be promoted in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]