Entrepreneurial Competencies of Women Entrepreneurs Pursuing Business Growth
Entrepreneurial Competencies of Women Entrepreneurs Pursuing Business Growth
Entrepreneurial Competencies of Women Entrepreneurs Pursuing Business Growth
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Entrepreneurial competencies of
women entrepreneurs pursuing
business growth
Siwan Mitchelmore
Competencies of
women
entrepreneurs
125
Jennifer Rowley
Downloaded by KYOTO UNIVERSITY At 01:46 11 April 2016 (PT)
Introduction
There is widespread acknowledgement that the success, performance and growth of a
SME is heavily dependent on the competencies of the entrepreneur. The management
structure and independence of a small enterprise places the entrepreneur in a critical
position in the business operation (Bird, 1995; Capaldo et al., 2004; Chandler and
Jansen, 1992; Olson and Booker, 1995). Further, some researchers have suggested that
an understanding of competencies that are exercised by the entrepreneurs leading
successful small businesses can be used to support the development of those
competencies, and has potential to, in turn, drive business growth (Churchill and
Lewis, 1983; Low and MacMillan, 1988).
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Whilst entrepreneurial competencies are important for all SMEs, the imperative to
develop the understanding of such competencies in the context of female-led
businesses is particularly strong. There are growing numbers of self-employed women
in developed economies such as the UK and the USA (Carter and Shaw, 2006), and
many of these businesses are highly dependent on the owner and her skills (Lerner
et al., 1997). In addition, there is a widespread assumption that many of these
businesses are lifestyle businesses, and as such their commitment to growth may be
relatively low (Wiklund et al., 2003). Nevertheless, governments and other agencies, in
pursuit of economic growth (or in these times avoidance of recession) are looking to
SMEs to play a significant role (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, 2010).
These agenda apply as much to those businesses led by women as to those led by men.
Although entrepreneurial competencies are seen as important to business growth
and success, according to Brinckmann (2008) the discussion of competencies in the
entrepreneurial literature is in its early stages. Indeed, whilst over the years there have
been some notable studies that have sought to examine the skills and competences of
entrepreneurs (e.g. Chandler and Jansen, 1992; Markman et al., 2002), they are few in
number, and each is to some extent context-dependent. In particular, only one or two
studies (e.g. Lerner and Almor, 2002) have specifically focussed on businesses owned
by women, although there are other studies that have discussed womens competence
in specific areas, such as financial management and management competency
(e.g. Carter et al., 2006; Lerner et al., 1997; Walker and Webster, 2006).
The structure of the remainder of this article is as follows. First, a literature review
argues the case for the importance of female entrepreneurship and the role of
competencies in its development, and reviews previous theory and research on
entrepreneurial competencies. Next, the methodology for this research is outlined,
including the questionnaire design, data collection and analysis, respondent profile,
and data analysis. The Findings section that follows presents the result of the PCA
analysis, and the Female Entrepreneurial Competence (FEC) framework that emerges.
The Discussion section then compares the FEC framework with previous research on
entrepreneurial competencies. Finally, the Conclusions section summarises the
contribution of this research and offer recommendations for practice and for further
research.
Literature review
The importance of female entrepreneurship and the role of competencies
In 2010, 104 million women in 59 economies which represent more than 52 per cent of
the worlds population and 84 per cent of world GDP embarked on new venture
creation and development. These self-employed women comprise between 1.5 per cent
and 45.4 per cent of the adult female population in their respective economies (Levie
and Hart, 2012). Accordingly, women-owned businesses make an increasingly
important contribution to economies. Many of these businesses are SMEs (Hart and
Levie, 2010), which means there is considerable concern regarding support for new
venture creation and business growth (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
, 2010). In the USA, the Womens Business Act of 1988 put in place long-term
infrastructure to support womens enterprise development. Subsequently womens
business ownership has increased significantly. This growth has been aided by federal
Competencies of
women
entrepreneurs
127
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et al., 2003). Relevant to this study, there is a distinct gap in the understanding of
competencies in female entrepreneurial businesses.
Researching entrepreneurial competencies
Bird (1995) suggests that entrepreneurial competencies are defined as underlying
characteristics such as specific knowledge, motives, traits, self images, social roles and
skills which result in venture birth, survival and/or growth. Man et al. (2002) defined
entrepreneurial competencies as the total ability of the entrepreneur to perform a job
role successfully. According to the resource-based theory of the firm, the value creation
process of firms is strictly related to the capability of managers in acquiring and
developing resources (Barney, 1991; Grant, 1991). In summary, then, there is a
consensus that entrepreneurial competencies are carried by individuals, who begin and
transform their businesses, and a widespread recognition that the range of skills and
competencies required to run a small firm are qualitatively as well as quantitatively
different from those needed in larger organisations (Fuller-Love, 2006; Johnson and
Winterton, 1999; Walker and Webster, 2006). This is at least in part because in an
entrepreneurial context the focus is on the individual (Hunt and Meech, 1991).
Whilst comprehensive studies of the competencies of female entrepreneurs are rare,
there is more research into entrepreneurial competencies in general. We undertook a
comprehensive review of this research in an earlier article (Mitchelmore and Rowley,
2010). Here we identify some of the most significant studies, and reflect on the different
approaches adopted in previous studies to the measurement of entrepreneurial
competencies.
One of the recurrent distinctions in the literature on the entrepreneurs competencies
is that between management competencies or skills and entrepreneurial competencies
or skills (Smith and Morse, 2005). For example, in one of the few studies on women,
Lerner and Almor (2002) in their study of 220 female Israeli entrepreneurs found that
managerial skills (finance, human resource management, operations and strategic
management) and entrepreneurial skills (innovation and marketing) were separate
factors. Chandler and Hanks (1994)s research is based on the assumption that
entrepreneurs needed to be competent in two key roles, i.e. entrepreneurial (recognise
and envision taking advantage of opportunity) and managerial (acquire and utilise
resources to co-ordinate the business interest and activities); their research in
manufacturing businesses in Pennsylvania measured the two areas separately. In a
seminal work in the field, Chandler and Jansen (1992) researched a sample of
companies in the state of Utah, identifying entrepreneurial, managerial, and technical
functional functions as the three roles that founders must competently enact in order to
be successful. They suggested that effective performance in the entrepreneurial role
requires the founder to have the ability to recognise business opportunities and the
drive to see firms through to fruition. Effective execution of the managerial role
requires conceptual, interpersonal and political competence. To be competent in the
technical role, they state that founders must be able to use the tools or procedures
required in their specialised field.
Other studies have also sought to understand the differentiation between
management and entrepreneurship. For example, Shane and Venkataraman (2000)
suggest that opportunity recognition and exploitation are focal concepts in
entrepreneurship which differentiate entrepreneurship from management. Bird
Competencies of
women
entrepreneurs
129
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(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
human;
strategic;
commitment;
learning; and
personal strength competencies.
Competencies of
women
entrepreneurs
131
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other occasions the questionnaires were e-mailed through the agency of the network
coordinators.
A total of 210 useable questionnaires were collected. Data were entered into SPSS
for descriptive and principal component analysis (PCA) analysis.
Findings
Respondent profile
Respondents profiles in terms of their age, education, years of business experience,
sector, and age of business are presented below. Comparison with other statistics and
studies suggests that on the basis of these variables the sample in this study can be
regarded as representative of female entrepreneurs in England and Wales.
Regarding the age of respondents, the highest responding age group among
respondents was between 45 and 54, followed closely by those aged 36 to 44. Other
studies such as the GEM report (Hart and Levie, 2010) have noted that these are the
most entrepreneurially active age groups. Overall, female entrepreneurs within this
sample were mostly highly educated, with 33 per cent having a professional
qualification and 46 per cent a degree. This is consistent with Carter and Shaws (2006)
assertion that women business owners increasingly have higher levels of educational
attainment.
Most respondents from the sample reported some years of business experience prior
to setting up their businesses, with only 17 per cent of the respondents indicating that
they had no previous experience. This is not consistent with previous research, which
has suggested that many female business owners lack previous entrepreneurial and
managerial experience (Brush, 1992) and this has an effect to on their ability to survive
(Daniel, 2004; Fuller-Love, 2006; Srinivasan et al., 1994).
As in previous studies of female entrepreneurs, there was a preponderance of
businesses in the services sector (78 per cent). Data collected by the Small Business
Service (Atkinson and Hurstfield, 2003) showed that 48 per cent of female
entrepreneurs own businesses in the service sector. Birley (1989) suggests that the
concentration of women in these sectors is not surprising given that they represent
traditional areas of employment for women. Retail and service industries are
categorised as female type, with manufacturing, technology and construction as male
type (Fuller-Love, 2006; Walker and Webster, 2006).
Studies have shown a tendency for female-controlled businesses to be relatively
young (Brush, 1992; Fuller-Love, 2006; Rosa et al., 1996). The data collected in this
study also shows that many of the businesses were young: 64 per cent of all businesses
were under three years old and only 18 per cent had been operating for between four
and six years.
Identification of clusters of competencies
Factor analysis was used to determine the smallest number of factors to best represent
the inter-relationships among the set of self-reported competencies of the female
entrepreneurs, and to identify the competencies that loaded onto the key factors. Factor
analysis was chosen since it is suitable for identifying correlation among variables in
complex sets of data (Pallant, 2007).
Prior to conducting PCA the suitability of the data for this test was established by
various means. Cronbachs a coefficient was calculated; with a value of 0.98 this
confirmed the reliability of the scale within the sample (Bryman and Bell, 2007). Both
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartletts test of sphericity were conducted to measure
sampling adequacy. The KMO value was 0.9, which is greater than the recommended
value of 0.6 (Kaiser, 1974). Bartletts test is statistically significant at the p , 0:01 level
(Bartlett, 1954).
A scree plot was used to identify the number of factors; this resulted in the
identification of four factors. Table I lists the eigenvalues associated with these four
factors, and the variance in self-reported competencies explained by each of the factors.
The selected four components explain a total of 46 per cent of the variance. More
specifically, Factor 1 explains 14 per cent of the total variance; factor 2, 13 per cent;
factor 3, 10 per cent; and factor 4, 10 per cent of the total variance.
Next, the factors were rotated using Varimax with Kaiser normalisation as
recommended by Pallant (2007) to generate the component matrix shown in Table II.
The component matrix shows a clear structure, with meaningful strong loadings for
each of the four components, but with some items loading onto more than one
component. This is not surprising given that the research instrument was constructed
using an extremely wide range of competencies from earlier studies, with some
potential repetition, coupled with the fact that there is good reason to believe that the
boundaries between different groups of competencies are permeable.
All items with a correlation at 0.5 or above were selected for presentation in the
Female Entrepreneurial Competencies framework shown in Table III. Some items have
been slightly re-worded for clarity and succinctness. The factors are:
.
Factor 1 personal and relationship competencies. Eleven items cluster to form
the first factor. This factor includes an interesting mix of communication and
relationship building skills, together with a number of personal traits that are
generally associated with the internal drivers, motivators and traits of the
entrepreneur.
.
Factor 2 business and management competencies. Eight items cluster to form
this factor. The factor includes competencies relating to a typical range of
business tasks such as budgeting and managing finance, systems, planning, and
business operations.
.
Factor 3 entrepreneurial competencies. Nine items cluster to form this factor.
This factor includes a range of competencies typically associated with the
entrepreneur including innovation, risk taking, creativity, visioning, and idea
generation.
Component
Total
1
2
3
4
8.969
8.779
6.749
6.337
Competencies of
women
entrepreneurs
133
13.589
26.890
37.116
46.716
Table I.
Initial eigenvalues for
factors selected
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Table II.
Rotated component
matrix
1
Interpersonal skills
Oral communication skills
Relationship building
Networking with others
Integrity
Passion for work (love of work)
Commitment competencies (make business work no
matter what)
Motivating self
Political competence (ability to enhance your position,
establish connections)
Self-confidence
Being proactive
Desire to succeed
Perseverance
Persuasive skills
Manage customers
Present-future time orientation
Stress tolerance
Written communication skills
Familiarity of the market
Budgeting skills
Business operational skills
Development of the management system necessary for
the long-term functioning of the business
Formulating and implementing strategies for taking
advantages of opportunities (develop programmes,
budgets, procedures, evaluate performance)
Business plan preparation and writing
Development of the operational systems for day-to-day
functioning
Planning business activities (strategic planning)
Manage finance, e.g. accounting and cash control
Organisation skills
Ability to acquire finance
Problem analysis and solving skills
Analytical skills
Decision-making skills
Conceptual competencies (mental ability to co-ordinate
the business and its interests)
Acquisition of appropriate resources
Ability to conduct market research
Self-management
Logical thinking
Looking beyond the present
Able to use technology (computers, the internet,
e-commerce)
Marketing and sales
Deal-making skills
Component
2
3
0.703
0.662
0.635
0.613
0.594
0.577
0.563
0.554
0.537
0.536
0.534
0.525
0.507
0.491
0.460
0.458
0.447
0.423
0.405
0.320
0.412
0.323
0.313
0.321
0.344
0.330
0.397
0.364
0.303
0.342
0.352
0.685
0.672
0.377
0.666
0.656
0.599
0.381
0.350
0.434
0.476
0.366
0.598
0.594
0.587
0.585
0.545
0.539
0.538
0.532
0.455
0.339
0.407
0.528
0.519
0.489
0.472
0.450
0.427
0.329
0.393
0.392
0.376
0.303
0.406
0.337
0.360
(continued)
1
Manage overlapping family and business systems
Industry skills
Idea generation
Innovation skills
Visioning
Ability to envision taking advantage of opportunity
Product innovation (design specific products and
services)
Creativity
Ability to recognise an opportunity (perceive customer
needs, identify goods or services people want)
Willingness to take risks
Scan environment for new opportunities
Risk taking
Employee development
Managing employee performance
Human relations skills (supervise staff, administer
payroll)
Employee relations
Hiring skills
Leadership skills
Motivate others individually and in groups
Management style
Ability to delegate authority and responsibility
Management skills
Development of the organisational culture (environment)
0.330
Component
2
3
0.337
0.333
0.300
0.324
0.771
0.763
0.707
0.675
135
0.663
0.659
0.430
0.311
0.467
0.323
0.594
0.565
0.558
0.558
0.773
0.772
0.384
0.453
0.432
0.322
0.380
0.331
0.367
0.730
0.709
0.640
0.628
0.608
0.607
0.592
0.551
0.384
Notes: Extraction method: principal component analysis. Rotation method: Varimax with Kaiser
normalisation (rotation converged in seven iterations)
.
Competencies of
women
entrepreneurs
Factor 4 human relations competencies. Nine items cluster to form this factor.
The items in this factor are an interesting mix of those skills and competencies
typically shared by a human relations function and line management in larger
businesses. They include hiring, staff development, leadership, employee
relations and motivating staff.
Discussion
This study has contributed to the limited previous research on female entrepreneurial
competencies. Specifically, it has generated a framework that shows female
entrepreneurial competencies to cluster into four groups:
(1) personal and relationship competencies;
(2) business and management competencies;
(3) entrepreneurial competencies; and
(4) human relations competencies.
The FEC framework produced in this research is comparable with other frameworks of
classifications of entrepreneurial competences generated by earlier researchers,
Table II.
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Factor
Item
Interpersonal skills
Oral communication skills
Relationship building
Networking
Integrity
Self-confidence
Motivating self
Political competence
Being active
Desire to succeed
Perseverance
Budgeting skills
Business operational skills
Developing management systems
Formulating and implementing strategies for exploiting
opportunities
Business plan preparation and writing
Development of operational systems
Planning business activities
Managing finance
Idea generation
Innovation skills
Visioning
Envisioning opportunities
Product innovation
Creativity
Willingness to take risks
Scan environments for opportunities
Risk taking
Employee development
Managing employee performance
Human relation management skills
Employee relations
Hiring skills
Leadership skills
Motivate others
Management style
Management skills
136
Entrepreneurial competencies
Table III.
Female Entrepreneurial
Competencies framework
last category does not arise in this research because we did not specifically explore any
sector- or profession-specific skills.
On the other hand, it is important to note that this study did not only generate the two
factors associated with entrepreneurial competencies and business and management
competencies, but also surfaced two other clusters of competencies, relating to personal
and relationship competencies and human relations competencies, respectively. Previous
commentators and evidence have suggested that one of the areas in which female
entrepreneurs may outshine men is in their abilities to build strong inter-personal
relationships (Birley et al., 1987; Daniel, 2004; Fuller-Love et al., 2006), so perhaps it is not
surprising that these two additional clusters emerge in this study.
However, other studies have generated frameworks that include a larger number of
clusters of competencies than previous studies focusing on female entrepreneurs. For
example, Baum et al. (2001) identified nine entrepreneurship competencies, whilst
Orser and Riding (2003) developed 25 competency scales, which were grouped into nine
functional areas. Perhaps the most interesting study for our purposes is that conducted
by Man et al. (2002). They identified the following ten areas of entrepreneurial
competencies:
(1) opportunity;
(2) relationship;
(3) analytical;
(4) innovative;
(5) operational;
(6) human;
(7) strategic;
(8) commitment;
(9) learning; and
(10) personal strength competencies.
All of these are variously evident in the items in our FEC framework, but they cluster
differently. This may be because the competencies for female entrepreneurs do indeed
have different clusters, or may be due to the rather longer list of competencies included
in our research.
Ultimately, given the diversity of approaches to the construction of scales,
classifications and frameworks of entrepreneurial competence it is difficult to make
comparisons, and therefore difficult on the basis of this research to offer a definitive
answer as to whether the entrepreneurial competencies of female entrepreneurs are
essentially different to those exercised by men. Nevertheless, we draw attention to our
identification of the two key clusters of competencies in this research i.e. personal
conceptual and relationship competencies and human relations competences which
seem to lend more emphasis to communication and relationship building (including its
contractual and leadership dimensions) than they have previously received.
Conclusions
Entrepreneurs and the organisations that support and advise entrepreneurs are
increasingly paying attention to the issue of knowledge, skills and competencies as
Competencies of
women
entrepreneurs
137
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