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Respondent Profile : Exploring entrepreneurship in a declining economy

Written by: Journal of Development Entrepreneurship

Article Overview: A majority of the 81 entrepreneurs surveyed were males (72%) and operated in the capital city of Maiduguri (52%).

Respondent Profile : Exploring entrepreneurship in a declining economy

A majority of the 81 entrepreneurs surveyed were males (72%) and operated in the capital city of Maiduguri (52%). The rest of the respondents operated in the major cities of the state. With an average start-up age of 34.7 years, the typical entrepreneur appeared to be experienced in one activity or the other before the start-up. To follow this up, the last job engaged in by the respondents was investigated. As revealed in Table 1, only 19% of the respondents reported being either unemployed (10%) or were students (9%) before the start-up. The rest were managers (31%), professionals (20%), supervisors (20%), and operatives (11%). Forty-three of the respondents (53%) reported having no business relationship at all with their former employers after starting their businesses. However, 22% of the respondents considered their former employers as their direct competitors. Table 1 also revealed that the sample was concentrated in the service sector as opposed to the manufacturing and construction sectors.

Fifteen of the respondents (18%) come from sectors other than service, construction and manufacturing. They mainly come from restaurant, retail and wholesale sectors. The average firm in the study is ten (10) years old and employs up to eleven (11) workers.

Out of the 81 respondents, 39 reported to have received support from the institutionalized enterprise support programs and initiatives. Of the 39 responding firms that received support, 18 received financial support, 10 received non-financial support and 11 received both financial and non-financial support. Forty-two of the total responding firms did not receive any support whatsoever from any of the institutional supporting agencies running the support programs and initiatives. Eighteen of the 42 firms without support were ignorant of either the existence of the supporting agencies or the kind of support that they provide to the small business community. Twenty-three knew about the agencies and their programs but did not bother to solicit assistance because they considered the areas of support available to them as "useless" (13 respondents) or thought that only people with connections got support (10 respondents). The remaining 10 of the 42 firms without any support applied for support but did not receive any. Four firms applied without success on more than three occasions and they did not plan to apply again.

Exploring entrepreneurship in a declining economy
Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, Apr 2000 by Yusuf, Attahir, Schindehutte, Minet

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Article Tags: 10 years, business relationship, construction sectors, enterprise support, entrepreneur, existence, initiatives, last job, maiduguri, major cities, operatives, respondents, service construction, service sector, small business community, wholesale, wholesale sectors



Related Forum Posts
Re: Businesswomen in the news - Hey hey hey....Calm down. What you are forgetting and the press isnt taking into consideration the rise of entrepreneurship. Women arent leaving the workforce, they are starting their own workforces... A few years ago I was president of the Canadian Association of Women Executives. I got a call from Global National who wanted a comment on the fact that women were leaving corporate Canada in droves....and what did I think about it......was it the glass ceiling etc.. Well, its because women are flocking to entrepreneurship but ladies, that doesnt make the news. the media is looking for information that will prove their 'the economy is in a slump'.... It simply isnt true. There are more women starting and running their own businesses than we've ever seen. Dont forget that the media is out for the media and scare tactics and bad news gets the coverage.... J
Re: Service Or Product? - Service company always thrive in down economy. Let look at the advertising industies in any economy, you need to advertise your products or services even if you cannot afford any other things
Re: Corporate / Business Credit - It's funny you bring this topic up. I have a friend that works for a large Canadian bank and he is a financial analyst and advisor for several businesses. With the recent economic crunch, many of his clients are coming in and seeking lines of credit and loans to suffice their operating costs. He forecasts a lot of his clients will be asking for credit until the economy turns around. Many of the loan managers are declining applications because the business owners applying for these credits are actually stating in their application that they need it because they have been unable to deal with the recent crunch. Unfortunately, they at the bank do not look at this favorably. If they lend money, they want to know it will come back. If you report net losses for the last 6 months and expect them to lend money to you, it's going to be terribly difficult. I think that is why you are seeing a lot of businesses apply for credit, but not actually receive any assistance from the banks. The banks are also in crunch time and need to be mitigating their own risk as best they can.
Re: The Storm Brace a new invention - Hi Breck, To add your signature, click on "User Control Panel" above, then click on "Profile" and then "Edit Signature". You can also add a photo via the "Edit Avatar" link in the Profile section. DH
Re: Plan Your Retirement NOW - Hi, Beat I must say the state of the economy has me worried these days. Not so much the state of it...but the knowledge that the politicians and people who are supposed to be in charge of the economy are so incompetent it's not even funny...


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