Critical dimensions of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behaviour among mushroom growers: Investigation through Principal Component Analysis

Abstract

Mushroom cultivation is often promoted as profitable and income generating agri-business activity, while there is a very high rate of attrition in mushroom entrepreneurship. Performance of mushroom enterprise as a physical attribute and the entrepreneurial behaviour of mushroom growing farmers as a psychological attribute plays an important role in the success of the mushroom entrepreneurship. Both these variables are in turn influenced by several dimensions rendering it difficult to comprehend the nature of variability observed in them. Therefore, the principal component analysis (PCA) of these two variables was done for variable reduction and to understand their influence on mushroom entrepreneurship. The results of PCA ascertain the relative importance of different dimensions on the variables through Eigen weightages. Based on the findings, suitable strategies and necessary policy interventions are identified to make the mushroom entrepreneurship as a potential agri-business to augment farmers’ income.