Entrepreneurial self-efficacy and small business performance in Pakistan

Muhammad Khalil,Syed Nadeem Tahir,Hina Saleem,Syed Sohaib Zubair,Mukaram Ali Khan

doi:10.5267/j.msl.2021.2.011

Abstract

Entrepreneurial Self Efficacy (ESE) has gained immense importance in the past few years in the field of entrepreneurship. The focus of this study is to test the effect of each of the five dimensions of ESE and understand their importance in connection with firms’ performance. This study was carried out among small businesses entrepreneurs in Pakistan and a valid sample of 353 entrepreneurs was selected for this purpose. A survey technique was used for data collection and AMOS was used for data analysis. In line with expectation, the analysis concluded a significant positive relationship between ESE dimensions and performance of small businesses. It was also concluded that the Risk dimension of ESE contributes majorly in the improvement of firms’ performance whereas the financial control dimension of ESE contribution was least. It is also suggested that all five dimensions of ESE are important to achieve desirable performance outcomes.

Highlights

Entrepreneurship has a long history, Entrepreneurial Self-efficacy (ESE) has gained tremendous attention from entrepreneurship researchers since the beginning of this century
There are a number of small businesses in Pakistan who work on to try new ideas and come up with the modification of existing products or with new products and procedures which reflect positively upon their performance
Moving on to the relationship between the management dimension of ESE and small businesses performance, study has shown a positive and significant impact due to better management styles prevailing in the small businesses

Summary

Introduction

Entrepreneurship has a long history, Entrepreneurial Self-efficacy (ESE) has gained tremendous attention from entrepreneurship researchers since the beginning of this century. It is an important concept when it comes to the research of various entrepreneurial functions. Bandura (1977) was the one who firstly introduced the concept of self-efficacy in his theory of social learning It was defined as “an individual’s belief in his or her personal ability to achieve a precise set of tasks”. In continuation of recommendation by Bandura, ESE construct was proposed by a number of researchers They defined ESE as to have the belief in oneself to attain entrepreneurial goals. In spite of extensive research on this concept, there is still not a plentiful explanation to prove the exact type of association between an ESE and firm’s performance in the context of small businesses (McGee et al, 2009)

Objectives

Methods

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Conclusion