Entrepreneurial Orientation and Entrepreneurial Performance among Female Entrepreneurs: Empirical Evidence from Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to study whether entrepreneurial performance can be explained by entrepreneurial orientation among female entrepreneurs in Kenya. This empirical research is based on the data from 301 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) located in Kenya. A linear multiple regression analysis on the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on entrepreneurial performance among female entrepreneurs was conducted. The paper focused on the five aspects of entrepreneurial orientation (risk-taking, innovativeness, pro-activeness, competitive aggressiveness, and, autonomy) and their ability to prompt entrepreneurial performance which was defined as firm performance, development of personal wealth, and social performance. Social performance was rather well predicted by entrepreneurial orientation (by 4 out of 5 aspects), whereas firm performance was only limitedly predicted by entrepreneurial orientation (only by 2 out of 5 aspects) and development of personal wealth was not predicted by entrepreneurial orientation at all (by 0 out of 5 aspects). On the other hand, we see that the entrepreneurial orientation aspects of innovativeness and pro-activeness have the most predictive value (for 2 out of 3 entrepreneurial performance indicators), whereas risk-taking and autonomy have only limited predictive value (for only 1 out of 3 entrepreneurial performance indicators) and competitive aggressiveness has no predictive value at all (for 0 out of 3 entrepreneurial performance indicators). The paper is based on own-collected empirical data. The paper indicates that the benefits of aligning high levels of entrepreneurial orientation are not unanimous but vary across the different aspects of entrepreneurial orientation and the different entrepreneurial performance indicators.