The Influence of Counselling, Training and Consultancy on Venture Start-Ups by Women and Youth in Baringo County, Kenya (Published)
Enterprise development interventions are critical to the development of an entrepreneurship society. The support interventions are critical to new venture starts-ups among the vulnerable members of society. This paper examines the influence of counselling, training and consultancy enterprise development interventions facilitate new venture start-ups among women and youth. The paper is based on a study of new venture start-ups among women and youth in Baringo County. The study adopted a survey design. The target population of the study was 1049 respondents from which a sample of 281 was randomly selected. Questionnaire and data sheet were used as the data collection instruments. The collected data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study showed that most of the entrepreneurs in Baringo County are influenced by group members to engage in new business ventures. Other motivators include personal imitative, family members and access to entrepreneurship training. Unfortunately, most of the youth and women entrepreneurs have never received any business management training in basic accounting, book keeping and entrepreneurship skills. This can be attributed to the fact that, as attested to by most of the respondents, most of the training available is not for free or subsidized. Therefore, most of these budding entrepreneurs may not afford to take part in training. Nevertheless, the entrepreneurs admitted that there they needed training to enhance their capacity to successfully run their enterprises. The regression model indicated that there is a significant relationship between consultancy, training and counselling and new venture start-ups (p=0.022). The study concluded that support is generally available and relatively easy for farmer-owned commodity processing businesses to obtain. The study recommended that the county government of Baringo should support entrepreneurs by creating a favourable business environment for their operations.
Keywords: Baringo County, Consultancy, Counselling, Training, Venture Start-ups, Women, Youth
Brand Equity for Tablet Chocolate and Convenience Product Purchases by Women (Published)
This research aims to demonstrate direct influences of marketing mix variations on the customer-based brand equity process for tablet chocolate and convenience products. The proposed model examines product quality, price perception, reaction to stock-outs, the perceived effect of advertising as antecedents of the customer-based brand equity process, along with the moderation of brand consciousness. Methodology includes simple random sampling and the partial least squares. Sample involves 172 female tablet chocolate consumers out of Generation X and Millennials in Istanbul, Turkey. Results indicate that product quality generates brand knowledge and loyalty, but price perception generates only loyalty. Besides, brand consciousness moderates the effect of product quality on brand knowledge. Implications include the effects of neglecting brand experience, the link between operations and marketing, and transition of marketing mix. The final model is proposed as a minimum requirement to substitute tablet chocolate branding due to concerns about public health and sugar consumption.
Keywords: Brand Equity, Brand Experience, Chocolate, Convenience Products, Marketing Mix, Women