Entrepreneurial engagement of business graduates in Region XI with entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial education as determinants: A convergent mixed methods study

The engagement of entrepreneurs in entrepreneurial operations is often hampered by its inability to obtain the required resources and the suitable knowledge and skills. The primary aim of this mixed methods study was to investigate the influence of entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial education on entrepreneurial engagement of business graduates in Region XI. The study employed a convergent mixed methods design, where 300 purposively chosen respondents participated in the quantitative strand and 17 in the qualitative part. Empirical data revealed that the overall entrepreneurial engagement and entrepreneurial education of business graduates were high, whereas the entrepreneurial motivation was very high. Moreover, the findings indicated that entrepreneurial motivation and entrepreneurial education had significant combined influence on entrepreneurial engagement with the former having a greater influence on entrepreneurial engagement. On the qualitative strand, the following a priori themes were generated: behavioral control, subjective norm, attitude towards self-employment, non-cognitive entrepreneurial skills, cognitive entrepreneurial skill, action-based teaching methods, and school engagement. As to the quantitative and qualitative data corroboration, the nature of integration is merging-confirmation.