Digital Entrepreneurial Behaviour of Millennials in the Fourth Industrial Revolution In Southwest Nigeria

Digital Entrepreneurial Behaviour of Millennials

Abstract

This paper examines the Digital Entrepreneurial Behaviour (DEBs) of the Nigerian Millennial   and makes conceptual contributions to the literature on how their digital entrepreneurial conduct influences the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) in Southwest Nigeria. The study adopted survey research design targeting the population of Millennials across the six States in Southwest Nigeria. A total of 900 Millennial-technopreneurs who are engaged in Digitally-based Enterprises (DBEs) were sampled in the States using purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The study revealed that the majority (91.67%) of the Millennials possessed thorough knowledge of Innovative Digital Technologies (IDTs) with 61.32% engaged in DBEs. The DBEs are cloud computing, data analytics, machine learning, mobile development, data visualisation, FinTech, blockchain technology, software development, data engineering, cyber security and internet-of-things (IoT) which are acknowledged to be the building blocks of the fourth industrial revolution. The study further reveals that the factors that influence the engagement of the Millennial in DBEs were entrepreneurial alertness, personal exploits, business innovation competitions/innovation challenge programmes, attendance at seminars and workshops and enterprise innovation foundations. All these factors contribute 74.1% (R² value of 0.741) to the Millennial’s engagement in DBEs. The study concludes that the knowledge and entrepreneurial behaviours of the Nigerian Millennial in DBEs is relatively high with potentials for 4IR in Nigeria. The paper discusses the policy implications of the findings and implications for future research on 4IR in Nigeria.