Entrepreneurship

The Effect of Women-Owned Business on Entrepreurship and Small Business Management: The Case of ‘Happy Family’ (Published)

The paper examines the issue of entrepreneurship and small business focusing on women-owned businesses. It explores the relevant academic literature, addresses succinct research questions which will be answered after having examined one of the top US women-owned companies, Happy Family. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate how Happy Family may serve as a model for successful women entrepreneurship. Through the information derived from this research specific questions that arose from the literature review are answered. Findings indicate that indeed Happy Family, as a women-owned small business, has some basic unique features, such as decent background, limited access to capital and family related incentives. On the other hand, high level of education and entrepreneurial character skills are met in women who start a small company and lead it to full success. Some current challenges can be summarized into increasing competition as long as a company grows and continuous pursuit of initial mission.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Small Business Management, Women-owned Business

Assessing the Impact of Incubation Programme to Small and Medium Enterprises Development in the Western Cape Province of South Africa (Published)

This paper sought to determine the impact of incubation programme to Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) development in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. The study utilised a quantitative method approach to collect data by way of closed and open handed questionnaires. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software was utilised to analyse the data. The findings indicated that incubated SMEs had about; one to ten employees (85.7%) in the programme during the course of investigation. While those who had about eleven to fifty employees represented (14.3%) as this indicates slight improvement for economic participation and job creation in the Cape Metropolitan District. A majority of the respondents (53.6%) who participated in the study strongly agreed that businesses in the incubation program has a great potential to create more jobs opportunities. In addition, the results also indicate that respondents (60.7%) joined the incubation programme to obtain a multiple of skills such as networking, finance and growth. Recommendations to improve the current standard of incubated entrepreneurs in the study setting were made

Keywords: Business Incubators, Entrepreneurship, Incubation Programme, Small and Medium Size Enterprises

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Business Performance of Handicraft Industry: A Study of Nepalese Handicraft Enterprises (Published)

This paper represents the role of Entrepreneurial Orientation in business performance of handicraft enterprises in Nepal. The study is conducted among the members of Federation of Handicraft Associations of Nepal. Guided by the post-positivistic paradigm, this study examines the effect of five EO dimensions on handicraft business performance. Simple random sample is employed among 397 population and 196 respondents are asked to respond to the survey questionnaire. Out of 178 responded people, only 161 were found usable. The business performance is measured through the three dimensions, namely efficiency, growth, and profit. The descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis are used to analyze the data and to infer results. However, business status, respondents’ qualification, national coverage, employment generation, and gender equality seemed good but fertile areas of business were found only in tourist areas of Nepal. The findings of correlation and regression represent that autonomy, risk-taking, and pro-activeness and competitive aggressiveness were positively correlated with business performance. However, innovativeness had no correlation with business performance of handicraft enterprises in Nepal. Further, autonomy and competitive aggressiveness dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation were found only the contributors in handicraft business. The empirical findings of this study recommended that the companies should pay proper attention to expand their business in other States of Nepal as well because Nepal has also other potential areas of tourism. The study also found that the handicraft business is well operated in State 3 and 4 where Kathmandu and Pokhara are situated though they are prominent areas of tourism in Nepal.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Orientation, Entrepreneurship, Handicraft Business Performance

Social Innovation Strategies and the Performance of Social Enterprises in Nairobi City County, Kenya (Published)

Current trends have shown that social entrepreneurship is identified as the Key driver of the third sector as well as the public and private sector. Social enterprises play a critical role in social-economic development. Social innovation is one of the most important aspects of social entrepreneurship as it enhances the degree to which an enterprise effectively responds to emerging opportunities and challenges in the market. The field of social innovation turns critical societal problems into opportunities by actively involving the community actors. This paper is an analysis of how social innovations influence social enterprises in Nairobi County of Kenya. Cross -sectional design is used. The target population comprises all the registered social enterprises in Nairobi County. A simple random sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 107 registered social enterprises in the County. A self-administered questionnaire was used as the main data collection instruments. A pilot study was conducted to test validity and reliability of the questionnaire. Data was then analyzed both descriptively and using inferential statistics. One-way analysis of variance was used to test the hypotheses. Both Pearson’s product moment correlation and Chi-square were also used to test for significant associations between social innovations and performance of Social enterprises.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Performance, Social Enterprise, Social Innovation

Analysis of Students’ Attitudes toward Self-Employment Intention in Tertiary Institution in Nigeria (Published)

The paper analyzes students’ attitudes toward self-employment intention. Students have different traits which perhaps are responsible for shaping their attitudes. The decision to become self-employed is dependent on so many factors. People become self-employed either because they want to explore an existing opportunity or because there is limited paid employment opportunities. High unemployment rate among graduate is one of the major problems facing government of Nigeria at present. The recent effort by the governments at different levels to encourage youth to become self-employed is an indication of the resolve to redirect students’ attitudes toward self-self-employment in the country. At this stage, it is important to ascertain what influence the attitude of students and how they vary in their intention toward self-employment. Survey design was conducted to collect data from final year student of Higher National Diploma (HND) across four schools of Kano State Polytechnic. Correlation analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to examine the relationship among the selected variables and to know the difference among the students on their self-employment intentions. It was found that the relationship between self-employment intentions with the students’ self-efficacy, innovativeness and risk taking propensity are positive, whereas self-employment intention negatively relates with the students’ locus of control. The study also reveals that there is no significant difference among students on their self-employment intentions.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Self-employment intention, Students’ attitude

STRATEGIC FOCUS ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION (Published)

The aim of vocational education is oriented toward sustainable performance that can contribute to the country development. A mission is of great importance to the organizations as well as for vocational high schools since it promotes vision, values and its goals. It communicates not only to the employees but to the stakeholders and provides the basis for the priorities, strategic plans and work tasks of the organization. The paper focuses on the mission statements of Macedonian vocational high schools posted on their web sites. By content analysis, the research has the aim to evident the presence of mission statement and its elements – words that support entrepreneurial spirit, like: entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity, self-employment. Aside from determining the focus of interest of vocational high schools and their readiness to develop entrepreneurial skills, the research results can contribute to promoting the quality of the mission statements of the vocational high schools.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Mission statements content analysis, Strategic Management, Vocational education

ENTREPRENEURIAL PERFORMANCE AND SMALL BUSINESS ENTERPRISES IN UGANDA (Published)

Globally, many scholars view entrepreneurship as important to small business enterprises (SMEs) in general because it is critical to development. Small business development is of key concern in Uganda, because SMEs dominate the Ugandan economy. However, the entrepreneurial performance is very low; it is therefore in the interest of the country to increase performance of these enterprises. This paper develops a conceptual model to test how to increase entrepreneurial performance among small business enterprises in Uganda: Data was collected by means of personal interviews, approximately 2000 face-to-face interviews with the entrepreneurs. Results indicated that entrepreneurship capital, entrepreneurial knowledge and entrepreneurial capacity have significant implications for entrepreneurial performance.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Capacity and Knowledge, Entrepreneurial Performance, Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Capital, Uganda, small businesses

FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN EGG-LAYING DOMESTIC FOWL PRODUCTION IN NIGERIA (Published)

The need to financially develop and empower women and youths (especially the numerous unemployed) as prerequisite and necessary preparation for their adequate and successful role as ‘home-builders’ and ‘leaders of tomorrow’ was considered. Entrepreneurship was alluded to as a very reliable avenue to ensure the success and sustainability of this necessary development and empowerment need. Egg-laying domestic-fowl production was identified as having the much prospect for successful venture into entrepreneurship. The role and use of the domestic fowl production as a tool to enhance the entrepreneurial development and financial-empowerment was highlighted and appraised. The egg-laying domestic-fowl is a necessary and profitable venture and instrument for successful entrepreneurship and sustainable financial-development,empowerment and poverty-alleviation among unemployed/underemployed men, women and youths as well as a means of averting the possible involvements of these vulnerable groups in vices and criminality. The cost of carrying out the projects, duration, the financial returns, and possible sources of funds/financial assistance were highlighted

Keywords: Domestic fowl, Entrepreneurship, Financial empowerment, Women, Youth

Rural Community Support as Elixir of Rural Business and Entrepreneurship Development (Review Completed - Accepted)

The purpose of this study is to establish the effect of community support on the rural business and entrepreneurship development. From the analysis of data collected and hypotheses tested, the study concluded that  (i) the existing community support in the rural areas of Oyo State is gender biased, (ii) Rural business and Entrepreneurship development to some significant extend reflect the tempo of community support level in a given rural setting and (iii) Community social indices support in the rural region of Oyo State, have a kind of significant effect on rural business and entrepreneurship development, based on these conclusion some recommendations were made to the government and the community leaders.

Keywords: Business, Community support, Entrepreneurship, Gender, Social crisis

ENTREPRENEURIAL AGRICULTURE FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT. A CASE STUDY OF DOTITO IRRIGATION SCHEME, MT DARWIN (Review Completed - Accepted)

Agriculture is viewed as the main economic activity which contributes to the overall creation of wealth in the country. This then calls for both small scale and large scale farmers to practice entrepreneurial agriculture. However, this study examined the relationship between entrepreneurial agriculture and human development in the context of public policy. Human development has emerged as the main indicator of the country’s ability to promote human rights. Therefore, the study documented the relationships that exist between entrepreneurial agriculture and human development .Qualitative methodology was employed in the collection and analysis of data. The study was enforced by Hitt et al’s (2003) strategic entrepreneurship model

Keywords: Agricultural Productivity, Country’s Ability, Entrepreneurship, Human development, Strategic Entrepreneurship