Crafting Innovativeness for Graduate Entrepreneurship Development in East Africa: Are Graduates Innovators or Imitators?

Innovation is a central determinant that contributes to entrepreneurs’ pursuits of opportunities. It is the vehicle that carries the means to concur market and successful establishment of an enterprise. This study aimed at assessing graduates’ innovativeness for entrepreneurship development by employing a cross-sectional research design. The study involved 124 respondents selected from a population of Master's students specialising in science subjects originating from East African countries. Objectives one and two were analysed descriptively via per cent and frequencies while objective three was analysed through inferential statistics where one sample T-test was employed for assessing the difference between innovation developed and innovation advanced to markets. The findings indicate that for all forms of innovation the level of innovation is relatively low since all the ratings were below 40 per cent. Similarly, the innovation advanced to the markets was respectively low compared to innovation developed. It is concluded that the level of innovation is limited among first-degree graduates specialising in science subjects in East African countries and the number of innovations advanced to the market for entrepreneurship development is relatively low compared to innovation developed. This calls for a review of the innovation process development in the higher learning education system. In addition, the recasting of enabling environment for innovation development is needed.