ASSOCIATION BETWEEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION AND EVOLUTION OF STUDENTS’ SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURIAL CHARACTER IN UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA

I have personal experience of failing in products business but succeeding service business. I have observed some friends fail in some businesses while others succeed in similar business ventures. I have read about some successful global businesses like the Google, Facebook, Amazon and so forth, but The Economist (2014 p.3) gives a fascinating-sad story of ‘Kongo Gum i, a Japanese construction business founded in 578 but failed in 2006’. I find it is surprising to imagine how a business can fail after 1428 years of existence! It is sad that Kongo Gum i construction firm could not keep pace with the tough fast-changing entrepreneurial construction terrain in the modern Japan. Entrepreneurship is therefore an intriguing subject that demands thorough understanding, if business ventures are to flourish in time and space. Are institutions of higher education in Kenya equipping students with the necessary business agility to face the fast-changing business environment in the globe? The fact that there are so many business ventures failing before the dawn of their fourth year in the market (Par do & Alfonso, 2017), indicates that there is discord between what the business environment demands and, the students’ abilities to positively drive business ventures. What more could mold students’ entrepreneurial character to flourish in business ventures than the entrepreneurial education provided at the university level?