A person’s intention to act entrepreneurially is a strong predictor of entrepreneurial action such as going into self-employment. In the quest to explain causation for entrepreneurial intentions, the present study examined the relationship between socio-cultural factors and intentions to become entrepreneurs in the context of public undergraduate university students in Kenya. Specifically, intentions to become an entrepreneur were predicted using three of Hofstede’s grid for culture namely; individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. Other variables included gender; entrepreneurial disposition; entrepreneurial perceptions, ethnicity and exposure to entrepreneurship education. The broad objective was to examine the effect of culture and gender on students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Review of the extant literature was done and a conceptual framework developed along with the research hypotheses. A positivism paradigm using descriptive cross-sectional research design was used. The population comprised all public undergraduate university students who were in their fourth year of study between January and March 2013. Proportionate stratified random sampling was used. The sample size was 2192 respondents selected from the seven public universities. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires measured on likert type interval scales. The study yielded a 70.8 percent response rate. Descriptive statistics comprising means and standard deviations were used to analyse the data. Hypotheses were tested using Pearson product moment correlations, ANOVA and regression analysis. The findings indicated that students do not consider gender when evaluating alternative career options. Confirming the researcher’s expectations and previous study results, significance of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intentions was supported. In congruence with previous studies, the study found support for a positive effect of entrepreneurial perceptions on students entrepreneurial intentions. In addition, the relationship between entrepreneurial disposition and entrepreneurial intentions was supported by the research findings. On the basis of the results of this thesis, it was concluded that culture has a direct and indirect effect on entrepreneurial intentions and that there are no differences in any entrepreneurial related variables between either gender or ethnicity. Based on the study findings, it also became apparent that entrepreneurial intentions were predominantly dependent on perceptions of desirability and feasibility by the acting individual as well as dispositional traits that arms an individual in readiness to act entrepreneurially; and that entrepreneurship can be fostered through the current learning process adopted in our public universities curriculum as this relationship was empirically supported.

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