Evaluating Entrepreneurial Features of Firm's Growth Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis
Abstract
The growth of Small and medium-size firms cannot ensue without the entrepreneurial features and the environment that the firm operates. The entrepreneurial characteristics, therefore, are vital due to the unique individualism of firm owners or sponsors. Construction SME growth-oriented firms are a significant contributor to Ghana's economic gain. Conversely, the concept of growth varies from one entrepreneur to the others depending on the exhibited skills by the entrepreneurs, hence entrepreneurial features. Numerous factors influence the entrepreneurial features as a factor of firm’s growth. Some are of the factors are established and categorised as having strong influence while others are classified weak. This study, therefore, adopted the confirmatory factor analytical technique to justify the factors after exploring. To achieve the goal of the study, respondents such as firm owners, SME managers and construction professionals engaged by SMEs as the population were administered with questionnaires. In all, 315 questionnaires were given out in the form of semi-structured structured, but only 228 were retrieved for analysis representing a responds rate of 72 percent. The study established Cronbach alpha and composite reliability values that predicted the entrepreneurial feature as a subsequent determinant of firm’s growth. Additionally, the hypothesis was supported statistically suggesting that there is a direct relationship between entrepreneurial features and firm growth.
Downloads
References
Bentler, P. M. & Bonett, D. G. (1980), Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88(3), 588.
Carlson, K. D. & Herdman, A. O. (2012), Understanding the impact of convergent validity on research results. Organisational Research Methods, 15(1), 17-32.
Cassar, G. (2007). Money, money, money? A longitudinal investigation of entrepreneur career reasons, growth preferences and achieved growth. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 19, 89-107.
Cliff, J. E. (1998). Does one size fit all? Exploring the relationship between attitudes towards growth, gender, and business size. Journal of Business Venturing, 13, 523-42.
Cooper, A. C., Gimeno-Gascon, F. J. & Woo, C. Y. (1994). Initial human and financial capital as predictors of new venture performance. Journal of Business Venturing, 9, 371-395.
Delmar, F. & Wiklund, J. (2008), The Effect of Managers’ Growth Motivation on Firm Growth: A Longitudinal Study. Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, 3, 437 – 457
Dillon, W. & Goldstein, M. (1984). Multivariate analysis: Methods and applications. New York: Wiley Publishers.
Ensley, M., Pearson, A. & Amason, A. (2002). Understanding the dynamics of new venture top management teams: cohesion, conflict and new venture performance. Journal of Business Venturing, 17(4), 365-86.
Fornell, C. & Larcker, D. F. (1981), Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39-50.
Fraering, M. & Minor, S. M. (2006) The Virtcomm scale: A virtual community measurement tool. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association Summer Educators Conference Proceedings.
Goedhuys, M. & Veugelers, R. (2012), Innovation strategies, process and product innovations and growth: Firm-level evidence from Brazil. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 23, 516–529
Gliem, J. A. & Gliem, R. R. (2003). Calculating, interpreting, and reporting Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for Likert-type scales. In 21st Annual Midwest Research-to-Practice Conference on Adult, Continuing, and Community Education, 8-10 October. Columbus OH, 2003.
Gopinath, R. C. (2012). Understanding the determinants of firm growth in young REITs, Singapore.
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E. & Tatham, R. L. (2010). Multivariate data analysis with readings. 7 ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Hashi, I. & Krasniqi, A. B. (2011) Entrepreneurship and SME growth: evidence from advanced and laggard transition economies. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 17(5).
Islam, M. A., Khan, M. A., Obaidullah, A. Z. M. & Alam, M. S. (2011). Effect of entrepreneur and firm characteristics on the business success of small and medium enterprises.
Kaiser, F. H. (1970). A second generation little jiffy. Psychometrika, 35(4) 401 – 415.
Keskin, H. & Senturk, C. (2010). The importance of small and medium - sized enterprises SMEs in the economies: SWOT analyses of the SME sector in Turkey and Albani. Vol 3, Nr1, fq.116-132.
Kipkebut, D. J. (2010). Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction in Higher Educational Institutions: The Kenyan Case. PhD thesis, Middlesex University.
Kritikos, A. S. (2014). Entrepreneurs and their impact on jobs and economic growth, World of Labor Evidence-based policy making, IZA, Germany
Malhotra, N. K. (1999). Marketing research: An applied orientation 3rd edition New Jersey Presentation Hall.
Miriam, J. (2006). Organic Vs Inorganic Growth: A case study, Dissertation Presentation for the Degree of MA in Finance and Investment.
Pajarinen, M., Rouvinen, P. & Ylä-Anttila, P. (2006). Uusyrittä jien kasvuhakuisuus, KTM julkaisuja 29/2006. Helsinki: Ministry of Employment and the Economy
Papadakis, V., Lioukas, S. & Chambers, D. (2000), Strategic decision-making processes: the role of management and context. Strategic Management Journal, 19, 115-147
Ruef, M., Aldrich, H. & Carter, N. (2003). The structure of organisational founding teams: homophily, strong ties, and isolation among US entrepreneurs. American Sociological Review, 68(2), 195-222.
Shane, S. (2003). A General Theory of Entrepreneurship: The Individual-Opportunity Nexus. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Tabachnick, B. G. & Fidell, L. S. (2007). Using multivariate statistics 5th edition. Boston: Pearson Education.
Wiklund, J., Davidsson, P. & Delmar, F. (2003). What do they think and feel about growth? An expectancy-value approach to small business managers’ attitudes toward growth. Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, 26(2), 247-70.
Yu, C. H. (2001). An introduction to computing and interpreting Cronbach coefficient alpha in SAS. In Proceedings of the 26th Annual SAS Users Group International Conference. North Carolina, 2001. SAS.
Zhou, H. & de Wit, G. (2009). SCALES, Scientific Analysis of Entrepreneurship and SME’s, Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Copyright (c) 2017 Arthur-Aidoo B M, Aigbavboa C, Thwala W D
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of a revised paper in the light of suggestions of the reviewers, editorial team edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.
This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.
