The influence of perceived entrepreneurial competencies and intentions on the willingness of dirty workers to become entrepreneurs
- Authors: Shava, Herring https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2094-9585
- Date: 2018-06
- Subjects: Entrepreneurship , Businesspeople , Work -- Psychological aspects
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/29076 , vital:76601
- Description: This study was undertaken primarily to investigate the influence of entrepreneurial competencies and intentions on willingness to become an entrepreneur for employees involved in dirty work, classified to be physical. Extant literature indicated that owing to the stigma attached to the nature of dirty work, people involved therein find it difficult to create a positive social identity as they are marginalised and considered people of low status. As a result of this stigma, employees involved in dirty work could turn to entrepreneurship, a boundaryless career with a probability of gaining hefty economic rewards in return. Economic rewards comprise, for example, money that is used by individuals to turn around their poor backgrounds or low status into respected figures as well as role models in their societies. However, for employees to be willing to demonstrate entrepreneurial activities, it was argued that they should possess high levels of entrepreneurial competencies. The same argument was advanced with regard to entrepreneurial intentions. It was argued that for employees involved in dirty to be willing to consider entrepreneurship as a career choice, they should possess a high score for entrepreneurial intentions. The study was undertaken in selected towns in the Eastern Cape Province. Primary data was collected from 348 employees involved in dirty work through a self-administered questionnaire. Primary data, quantitative in nature, was analysed through factor analysis, Pearson correlation and regression analysis to arrive at meaningful findings. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 was used. The study found that entrepreneurial competencies have a positive significant influence on willingness to become an entrepreneur. This was because employees involved in dirty work had a relatively high score with regard to entrepreneurial competencies. It was also observed that entrepreneurial intentions of employees involved in dirty work had no significant influence on their willingness to become entrepreneurs. This could have been caused by the fact that employees involved in dirty work had an entrepreneurial intent score slightly above average (not high enough). In other words, entrepreneurial competencies better predict willingness to become an entrepreneur for employees involved in dirty work compared to entrepreneurial intentions, which had no unique contribution towards their willingness to becoming entrepreneurs. The majority of South Africans have attempted to pursue entrepreneurship as a career without meaningful success as is evident in the high failure rate of SMEs currently pegged between 60 and 80percent depending on the province. It is not known to what extent employees involved in dirty work are part of these entrepreneurship start-up attempts. In light of the study’s findings, there is need to evaluate the quality of entrepreneurial competencies of employees involved in dirty work including other aspiring entrepreneurs before they can be encouraged to start their own initiatives. The revised or modified EPAI tool comes in handy in making individuals in South Africa to be aware of their entrepreneurial competency levels. This will ensure that people who are recruited for formal and informal entrepreneurship courses and training programmes in various communities are the intended recipients of these programmes leading to effective utilisation of scarce resources. More importantly, this will be an essential step towards providing the society with entrepreneurs and self-employers who will contribute to overall building of the economy through employment creation and boosting the economic situation. Given the average entrepreneurial intent score observed, there is a need to come up with viable programmes that will stimulate entrepreneurial intentions for employees involved in dirty work to raise them beyond the average level. One of the relevant programmes for the task of raising entrepreneurial intentions could be entrepreneurial education, particularly short courses where learning by doing will constitute the greater part of the curriculum (practical activities). , Thesis (PhD (Industrial Psychology)) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2018
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- Date Issued: 2018-06
The small business entrepreneur : a psychological profile
- Authors: Street, David Michael
- Date: 1995
- Subjects: Businessmen -- Psychology , Businesswomen -- Psychology , Self-employed -- Psychology , Entrepreneurship -- Psychological aspects , Small business -- Psychological aspects , Businessmen , Businesswomen , Businesspeople
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: vital:3065 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002574 , Businessmen -- Psychology , Businesswomen -- Psychology , Self-employed -- Psychology , Entrepreneurship -- Psychological aspects , Small business -- Psychological aspects , Businessmen , Businesswomen , Businesspeople
- Description: With the growing importance being placed on the small business environment as having a positive influence on economic growth and vitality (Erwee, 1987: Burns & Dewhurst, 1989), there has been a corresponding increase in attention being paid to entrepreneurship and the characteristics of the entrepreneur. This increased attention is due to the fact that entrepreneurs have long been linked to small business creation and recognised as an important factor in the small business development process (Boyd & Gumpert, 1983). Despite the quantity of research on entrepreneurship, there appears to be an ongoing controversy oyer what characterises an entrepreneurial business. and the specific characteristics of the small business entrepreneur. It has been argued that although there is an overlap between entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial businesses. they are in fact different entities (Carland, Hoy, Boulton & Carland, 1984: Drucker, 1985), and that not every individual who starts a business is an entrepreneur (Drucker. 1985). Small business entrepreneurship has been found to be specifically related to the psychological characteristics of the owner-manager who controls the business (Miller. 1983). The purpose of this research was to identify and describe psychological characteristics displayed by a group of South African small business entrepreneurs, thereby compiling a psychological profile of the small business entrepreneur. Given the nature of entrepreneurial activities and processes, Hofer and Bygrave (1992) recommend that accurate, precise qualitative data that is rich in its descriptive characterisation of the situation and the phenomenon involved be collected. As a result the researcher used qualitative rather than quantitative methods of investigation. Innovative behaviour has long been linked to entrepreneurship (Schumpeter. 1934) and entrepreneurial businesses were distinguished from other small businesses by their use of innovative strategic practices. Two sample groups consisting of entrepreneurial and non-entrepreneurial businesses, were created and the data collected were analysed independently. The results, based on personal interviews with 32 small business owner-managers and the administration and interpretation of tihe Structured Objective Rorschach Test (SORT), indicate that small business entrepreneurship should not be used as a term synonymous with small business ownership and/or management. Despite similarities between small business entrepreneurs and other small business owner-managers. the results suggest that a distinction between the two groups is necessary for accurate future research on entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs differed from other small business owner-managers in terms of their psychological characteristics including their motives, their perception and attitude towards the external environment, and various sociological factors. The entrepreneurial businesses were also different in that they were more innovative and growth oriented than the non-entrepreneurial businesses. The research contributes towards a clarification of the concept of small business entrepreneurship and indicates a need for more precise sampling techniques to be used in entrepreneurial research.
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- Date Issued: 1995