Entrepeneurial personality factors and business sectors in emerging economies: Nigeria and South Africa

Abstract

This paper examined some personality factors that promote entrepreneurial activities across business sectors in emerging economies. Specifically, it identified the most crucial personality factor in each sector, and the most prominent in each economy. We proposed that by examining these factors across sectors, and in two emerging economies, personality factors that enhance entrepreneurial activities would be industry specific and different. A total of 1200 questionnaires (650 in Lagos, Nigeria and 550 in Johannesburg, South Africa) were randomly and consecutively administered in both economies. Descriptive and Inferential Statistics were used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics showed the frequency of personality factors adopted in each sector while Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to identify the most crucial personality factor(s) in each sector. The research findings suggest that some personality factors are more crucial than others. Gender was the most crucial personality factor in all the selected business sectors in Nigeria, while entrepreneurial motive/passion was the most crucial personality factor in South Africa. However, the pooled analysis showed that family, age, and educational status are among the crucial personal factors that enhance entrepreneurial activities in both economies. We concluded that similarities exist in the personality factors that enhance entrepreneurial activities in some sectors of both economies, but variations exist in the most crucial personality factors that enhance entrepreneurial activities in both economies. We, therefore, propose several extensions of this study.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial activities, Personality factors, Business sectors, Emerging economies