Malaysian government is currently pushing and encouraging for women involvement in entrepreneurship, which will ultimately stimulate the country’s economy. Furthermore, concerns regarding the survival and sustainability of business and women entrepreneurs have been brought up by the leadership, despite governmental recognition. The journey towards business success among these women entrepreneurs, especially those from developing countries, may be further complicated by the lack of competencies. Thus, the present study is aiming to propose a model for women business success aligning with the role of social capital and entrepreneurial competencies. It has utilised 6 dimensions of entrepreneurial competencies, which are: strategic competencies, commitment competencies, organizing competencies, relationship competencies, commitment competencies, opportunity competencies and conceptual competencies. In developing countries, social capital is a topic of interest that has yielded positive effect on business performance. It is resources that can be accessed by entrepreneurs via personal network, allowing them to identify opportunities, mobilize resources and ensure the legitimacy of their operations. For this study, social capital have been used as a moderating effect. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) has been employed as the main statistical technique in this study.
Entrepreneurial Competencies and Business Success Among Women Entrepreneurs: Social Capital As A Moderating Effect
Mohamad Hanif Baharudin, Wan Mohamad Firdaus Mohamad, Mohamad Sayuti Salleh, Mohammad Ikram Ramzi, Azim Izzuddin Muhammad
Faculty of Business and management, MARA University of Technology, Malaysia
Abstract
Malaysian government is currently pushing and encouraging for women involvement in entrepreneurship, which will ultimately stimulate the country’s economy. Furthermore, concerns regarding the survival and sustainability of business and women entrepreneurs have been brought up by the leadership, despite governmental recognition. The journey towards business success among these women entrepreneurs, especially those from developing countries, may be further complicated by the lack of competencies. Thus, the present study is aiming to propose a model for women business success aligning with the role of social capital and entrepreneurial competencies. It has utilised 6 dimensions of entrepreneurial competencies, which are: strategic competencies, commitment competencies, organizing competencies, relationship competencies, commitment competencies, opportunity competencies and conceptual competencies. In developing countries, social capital is a topic of interest that has yielded positive effect on business performance. It is resources that can be accessed by entrepreneurs via personal network, allowing them to identify opportunities, mobilize resources and ensure the legitimacy of their operations. For this study, social capital have been used as a moderating effect. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) has been employed as the main statistical technique in this study.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Competencies, Women Entrepreneurs, Social Capital.
Introduction
The importance of women entrepreneurship to a nation and its economy is undeniable, especially due to their contributions towards economic development and poverty alleviation. Therefore, the reigning leadership must allocate a conducive environment for the purpose of entrepreneurship development, which encompasses elements like infrastructure, socio-cultural, economic and legal policies (Carter & Wilton, 2006). Meanwhile, entrepreneurs themselves are also obligated to play their own roles in complementing the government’s efforts to develop the sector. This calls for them to commit to making good business decisions, put forth efforts to acquire appropriate training or education, having the right motive, business acumens, innovation, market information, social networks and more. The Malaysian government are in recognition of potential contribution to the country’s economy with the commencement of woman participation in business, despite the low rate of women’s entrepreneurship (Rozita, Rozita, Akmal, & Zalinah, 2015). This can be substantiated by the different and myriad forms of support and assistance provided by the administration to nurture the sector. Encompassing various focuses, they include the materialization of national policy that spurs women’s economic involvement, availability of business advice, and access to financial funding and entrepreneurial skill development (Sulaiman, Salleh, Mohamad, & Sern, 2015). These initiatives are all targeted towards reducing barriers and obstacles hindering women from becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Literature Review
Underlying Entrepreneurial Competencies and Business Success
The significance of competencies towards organizational or business performance is indispensable and directly impacting in nature. In fact, Hazlina, Ramayah, Wilson, and Kummerow (2010) have highlighted its status as key indicators towards business successes for SMEs, with them being strongly associated and more prominent in environments that are hostile and dynamic. Hence, Hazlina, Hasliza, and Rohaida (2010) have proposed a framework for 6 domains of competencies and business success, whereby competencies encompass opp
In-Text Citation: (Baharudin et al., 2020)
To Cite this Article: Baharudin, M. H., Mohamad, W. M. F., Salleh, M. S., Ramzi, M. I., & Muhammad, A. I. (2020). Entrepreneurial Competencies and Business Success Among Women Entrepreneurs: Social Capital As A Moderating Effect. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 10(2), 431–438.
Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
