PurposeThis study investigates and contextualises the Igbo Traditional Business School (ITBS) and planned entrepreneurial behaviour across Nigerian higher education sector in a period of crisis occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on a quantitative survey of undergraduate students on ITBS, and the data were analysed using the SmartPLS structural equation modelling (SEM).FindingsThe study finds that the COVID-19 pandemic has had negative influence on attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control (PBC) and entrepreneurial intention (EI) of students, but these negative influences are mediated/moderated by the ITBS.Practical implicationsThe study presents some practical and managerial implications that will be of interest to ITBS administrators, the government and other stakeholder groups.Originality/valueWhile research has increasingly explored the role of the ITBS in promoting entrepreneurial activities, not much has been linked to coping mechanisms for students in crisis times. The study unearths the “positive” influence of the pandemic on entrepreneurship and how the ITBS mediates the “negative” aspects of COVID-19 on entrepreneurial vocation.
