Entrepreneurial Motivations, Opportunities, and Challenges: An International Perspective

Sally Kah, Seamus O’Brien, Seng Kok and Emer Gallagher

Journal of African Business, 2022, vol. 23, issue 2, 380-399

Abstract: The current entrepreneurship research has primarily focused on external environmental factors that influence enterprise development in developed economies, whilst studies from developing economies are lagging. Yet, evidence from the World Bank and Global Entrepreneurship Index suggest that entrepreneurship practice in developing economies has peaked. Using semi-structured interview data from 20 entrepreneurs in The Gambia, we examined their motivations for entrepreneurship, the market opportunities and challenges hindering enterprise growth. We found the factors influencing motivation to be individual (necessity, poverty, job creation, personal knowledge, and experience) and contextual (opportunity recognition, ethnic and religious norms). Interestingly, three forms of opportunities were identified: entrepreneurial networks, competitive market, and discovery. Nonetheless, the entrepreneurs faced individual challenges – insufficient finance and unskilled staff – and contextual limitations such as political change, limited government reforms, high taxes, high business cost, and market uncertainty. We offer critical insights into individual and contextual motivations for entrepreneurship, extending the current discourse. In addition, we expose specific dynamic market influences for enterprise development in a developing economy.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/15228916.2020.1838835 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:wjabxx:v:23:y:2022:i:2:p:380-399

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/wjab20

DOI: 10.1080/15228916.2020.1838835

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of African Business is currently edited by Samuel Bonsu

More articles in Journal of African Business from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().