By Dr Abbah Innocent Akor & Prof. Usang Usang Bassey
Abstract
This research highlights the entrepreneurial innovation of programme managers in private universities in North-Central Nigeria. The population of the study was made up of all the senior academic and non-academic staff of the nine private universities in North-Central Nigeria. A sample of four hundred and fifty (450) respondents was purposively selected for data collection. Questionnaire was the main instrument used for data collection. The study had one hypothesis with entrepreneurial innovativeness as independent variable and university sustainability as dependent variable. The sustainability indices of finance, facilities maintenance, linkages, staff motivation, university community relations and university corporate image formed the subvariables for the research. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used for statistical analysis. The result of the analysis showed that there was a strong and significant relationship between entrepreneurial innovation and private university sustainability. It is therefore concluded that the university programme manager, as an entrepreneur, needs a lot of energy, passion and drive to be able to coordinate all the factors that develop the capacity for successful ventures. It is recommended that entrepreneurial elements such as innovativeness, creativity, risk-taking propensity, information search, social investment and collaboration must be seriously considered in the effort to identify and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities.