A Capability Approach to Entrepreneurship and Human Development: Theoretical Foundations and Applications to Nigerian Policy

This dissertation develops an original application of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum's capability approach to entrepreneurship theory, constructing a normative framework for evaluating entrepreneurship policy in terms of its effects on human capabilities rather than solely on enterprise creation and economic growth metrics. The capability approach, which defines development as the expansion of substantive human freedoms, has been applied to development economics and education, but its application to entrepreneurship research and policy is theoretically underdeveloped. This is a significant gap given that entrepreneurship policy in developing countries including Nigeria frequently reproduces development frameworks that treat enterprise activity as an end in itself rather than as an instrument of human capability expansion. The dissertation proceeds through three phases: theoretical integration of capability approach principles with entrepreneurship theory, including a critique of human capital theory's reductionist treatment of the entrepreneur as a resource rather than a rights-bearing subject; empirical application through a capability-centred evaluation of three Nigerian federal entrepreneurship programmes using a mixed-methods design involving beneficiary surveys, in-depth interviews, and secondary policy data; and the construction of an original Entrepreneurial Capabilities Index designed for policy evaluation use. Theoretical contributions include a capability-based definition of entrepreneurial opportunity, a model of capability deprivation as a structural barrier to entrepreneurship, and a theory of how entrepreneurship programmes can expand or contract human agency. The policy evaluation findings demonstrate that existing programmes systematically under-invest in non-economic capability dimensions. Keywords: capability approach, entrepreneurship theory, human development, Nigeria, policy evaluation.