Entrepreneurial Competencies and Business Success Among Women Entrepreneurs: Social Capital As A Moderating Effect

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.