Ghanaian and Kenyan Entrepreneurs: A Comparative Analysis of Their Motivations, Success Characteristics and Problems

Abstract

Three hundred and fifty-six entrepreneurs from Kenya and Ghana were surveyed to determine their motivation for business ownership, variables contributing to their business success, and the problems they encountered. Kenyan and Ghanaian entrepreneurs indicated that increasing their income and creating jobs for themselves were leading factors motivating them to become business owners. Hard work and good customer service were cited by both Kenyan and Ghanaian business owners as critical for their success. But, compared to the Kenyan entrepreneurs, Ghanaians weighed support from family and friends and external relationship building as more important. A weak economy is the most important problem preventing entrepreneurs of both countries from achieving their goals. Ghanaian entrepreneurs were more concerned about the inability to obtain capital, while Kenyan entrepreneurs were more concerned about government regulations and problems related to business location.

Rural Women Entrepreneurs in Malaysia: What Drives Their Success?

“…Second, it must be noted that, the model is just to find out the direct relationship between entrepreneurial characteristics and business success. As being reported in previous literatures, many factors influence business success including internal factors such as skills and knowledge (Makhbul & Hasun, 2011;Chu, Benzing, & McGee, 2007;Cox & Jennings, 1995;Kozan, Oksoy & Ozsoy, 2006), attitudes and behaviours (Makhbul & Hasun, 2011;Benzing et al, 2009;Coy, Shipley, Omer & Khan, 2007) and external factors such as government supports (Yusuf, 1995), market opportunity (Kozan et al, 2006;Lussier, 1995), availability of financial resources (Lee & Stearns, 2012;Gundry & Welsch, 2001) and supports from others (Levent, Masurel & Nijkamp, 2003;Fielden & Dawe, 2004). In addition, the results that found only two variables influencing the business success showed that there are variables that missing in this study.…”

Entrepreneurial Innovative Strategies for Diaspora Entrepreneurship Growth Among Kenyan Immigrants

“…However, Diaspora entrepreneurs have not had a smooth sail making their entrepreneurial ventures. The migrant entrepreneurs face some setbacks such as lack funding, face stiff competition, high cash burn rate, lack of legitimacy, management team formation, identifying an appropriate market segment, protecting intellectual property, operational issues, and legal/regulatory issues among other challenges (Chu et al, 2007). This shows that although the Diaspora entrepreneurs may have right managerial skills, education, experience and training, psychological traits, social networks, and environmental conditions (Benzing, Chu, & Kara, 2009;Zimmerman & Jiang, 2009), to growth Diaspora entrepreneurship may be difficult since the above problems are quite difficult to address and may threaten the start-up and growth of a new business.…”

Understanding the Interactions among the Barriers to Entrepreneurship Using Interpretive Structural Modeling

“…They argue that, in Russia, enforcement of laws occurs in a selective or arbitrary manner, there is no consistency or stability for firms to count on from the regulatory environment, friendly ties with government officials and bureaucrats are crucial in smoothing the way for businesses to operate, bribing is customary, and the business climate is especially hostile due to the predatory nature of many regulatory authorities and inspectors. Other institutional barriers such as lack of government assistance, infrastructure issues, poor contract and property laws and corruption has been variously mentioned (Ivy, 1997;Kiggundu, 2002;Chu et al, 2007;Benzing, Chu, & Kara, 2009;Sandhu et al, 2011).…”