Influence of Social Media on Entrepreneurship Innovation and Creativity Skill Acquisition of Polytechnic Graduating Students in Osun State, Nigeria.

Abstract

African youths, especially those in tertiary institutions, spend about two hours daily on social media. This study was undertaken to determine the real and potential influence of social media on entrepreneurship innovation and creativity skill acquisition among graduating polytechnic students in Osun State of Nigeria. To achieve the study purpose, two research questions were formulated while one null hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted descriptive survey design.  The population consisted of 5542 Higher National Diploma students in the two public polytechnics in the state, out of which a sample of 840 was drawn using stratified random sampling. The instrument used, tagged “Influence of Social Media on Polytechnic Students’ Entrepreneurship Skill Acquisition Questionnaire”, was face and content-validated by three experts. Cronbach Alpha method was adopted to ensure reliability of the instrument with a coefficient of 0.89 which indicated that the study instrument was reliable.  Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while the hypothesis was tested with multiple regression analysis.  The findings revealed among others that social media have positively influenced all identified creativity and innovation skills of graduating polytechnic students in Osun State of Nigeria.   The study concluded that social media have strong influence - real and potential - on the acquisition and mastery of entrepreneurship skills. Based on this conclusion, the study recommended the systematic application of social media for imparting entrepreneurship skills among students.