This dissertation contributes to entrepreneurship research in three respects: First, our longitudinal approach enabled us to investigate not only causal relationships, but also reciprocal determinisms in the entrepreneurial processes that had not been taken into account previously. Second, by identifying psychological success determinants that are proximal to actual behavior, we re-emphasized the importance of the individual in the entrepreneurial process. Finally, investigating in/formal (un/registered) small business owners in a developing country contributes quantitative data to a research area that was hitherto mainly approached qualitatively.
A Unitary Concept of Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO):
Confirmatory factor analysis in a sample of N=248 Southern African small business owners lead to a single-factor EO construct that consists of learning- and autonomy-, innovative-, achievement-, and risk-taking orientation, competitive aggressiveness, and personal initiative. Personal initiative had the highest loading on EO. The second and third most important components were achievement- and learning orientation. Neither achievement- nor learning orientation had previously been considered by the currently predominant conceptualization of EO.
EO, Strategy Process Characteristics, and Business Performance:
Cross-sectionally, EO and its components were good predictors for business performance. Especially relevant for small business success were the owners' achievement orientation and personal initiative.
Longitudinally, we found the causal effect from EO on business performance to be mediated by complete planning, critical point planning, and reactive strategy characteristics of the owner. Strategy process characteristics are action templates that are more proximal to entrepreneurial behavior than EO. Thus, EO influences performance only via the manner of implementation, the owners' strategy process characteristics.
Furthermore, we found reciprocal determinisms that suggest the existence of upward and downward spirals. EO and complete planning strategy characteristics facilitate success. In turn, business success strengthens the owners' EO and complete planning strategy characteristics. For reactive strategy characteristics, the reciprocal determinism was negative: Reactive strategy characteristics lead to low performance and low performance increases the owners' success-obstructive reactive strategy characteristics.
Opportunistic strategy process characteristics had no direct impact on performance. Yet, the relationship was moderated by EO: For owners low on EO, opportunistic strategy characteristics have a positive effect on performance. Highly entrepreneurial owners, however, should structure their strategies and approach business more planningly. Consequently, entrepreneurship programs should only attempt to increase business owners' EO when also addressing their strategy characteristics. An increase in EO could be fatal for owners who employ opportunistic strategies because for them, high EO leads to a decrease in performance.
Informal and Formal Businesses:
Our data provides longitudinal evidence for the causal relationship between operating a business in the formal sector and the creation of employment. Furthermore, we established a battery of individual predictors that classified 71% of our participants correctly into in/formal owners (discriminant analysis). Formal business owners had a better school education, better practical business knowledge, were more risk-taking, and less uncertainty avoiding. Lastly, we found that 91% of the formal owners had registered their business within the first year of operation. This suggests that after the first year businesses enter a phase of consolidation where fundamental change such as business registration becomes less likely.
Conclusion:
Economic and political circumstance are certainly contextual aspects that influence individual entrepreneurial success. Nonetheless, even under the adverse Southern African economic circumstances, individual factors influence the performance of small businesses owners. The contribution of the small businesses sector to economic and social prosperity is likely to increase through the promotion of (A) psychological success determinants such as complete planning strategy characteristics and EO, (B) formal sector business conduct as well as, (C) practical business knowledge (D) as early as possible in the entrepreneurial process.
Verknüpfung zu Publikationen oder weiteren Datensätzen
