July 03/2023

Title of the article: Entrepreneurial competencies of women

entrepreneurs pursuing business growth

Authors: Siwan Mitchelmore and Jennifer Rowley

Publisher: Emerald Insight, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development
Subject: Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development
Place of Publication: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, UK
Date of Publication: Published: 2013
Number of pages: page 23
Reviewer’s name: - Bekele Mirkena
Date and year of Critiques and review: - 03/07/2023

1. Summary of the article

Entrepreneurial competencies have an impact on firm performance and growth. The

purpose of this paper is to report empirical research into the entrepreneurial competencies
reported by female entrepreneurs who are committed to the growth of their business.

This research Specifically emphasizes to determine the following Female Entrepreneur

Competence (FEC) framework, which encompasses four clusters of competencies:

(1) personal and relationship competencies;

(2) business and management competencies;

(3) entrepreneurial competencies; and

(4) human relations competencies.

Theories discussed in the article the way they compared
As I have reviewed the author tried to provide enough background information for the
intended audience to understand it. To meet the aim, various publications on the subject
matter have been reviewed and synthesized and I compared the logic and arguments of
various scholars to draw conclusions and develop Entrepreneurial competencies
entrepreneurs pursuing business growth. Although, most of them are generic and not
specific to woman.

Most researchers agree that managerial and entrepreneurial competencies are

multidimensional constructs. In their overview of the competencies literature, Smith and
Morse (2005) observed that there are two broad themes in managerial competencies:

(1) functional competencies, such as marketing and finance; and

(2) organisational competencies, such as the skills related to organising and motivating,
personal skills and leadership.

Reuber and Fischer (1994) suggest 16 areas of expertise including general management,
strategic planning and marketing. In a similar functional approach, Orser and Riding (2003)
developed 25 competency scales, which were grouped into nine functional areas. Man et al.
(2002), in their process/behavioural approach based on a review of previous empirical
studies, identified six competency areas under entrepreneurial competencies such as :
1. opportunity; 2. relationships; 3. conceptual; 4. organising; 5. strategic; and
6. commitment competencies.

Baum et al. (2001) formed the following entrepreneurship competencies:

1. knowledge; 2. cognitive ability; 3. self-management; 4. administration;

5. human resource; 6. decision Skill; 7. leadership; 8. opportunity recognition;

9. opportunity development; and 10. organisation skill.

Man (2001) identified the following ten areas of entrepreneurial competencies:

1. opportunity; 2. relationship; 3. analytical; 4. innovative; 5. operational;

6. human; 7. strategic; 8. Commitment 9. learning; and

10. personal strength competencies.
Literature Review: particularly the description on the first paragraph are not articulated in a
simplified and coherent manner. “The importance of female entrepreneurship and the role
of competencies. In 2010, 104 million women in 59 economies which represent more than
52 per cent of the world’s population and 84 per cent of world GDP embarked on new
venture creation and development.” Furthermore, 104 million women were not equivalent
to 52 % of the world population in 2010.

Research Methodology:
- The research design and methods was A questionnaire-based survey was conducted
in order to collect data about female entrepreneurs, their businesses and
competencies. This Method was selected by researched based on two reasons such
as survey questionaries’ are a tradition particularly in their area of expertise and
secondly, to get also a large respondent as this method is critical for this purpose.
- The Questionaries’ had been designed in three sections, such as:
1. Profile of the entrepreneur (age, years of business experience, qualifications,
family history of enterprise).
2. Profile of the entrepreneur’s business (annual sales, number of employees,
business sector, legal status, stage of business development); and
3. Entrepreneurial competencies.
The Researchers are arguing on Data Distribution methods such as E-mail versus
Postal and finally decided to use Email.
- Questionnaires were distributed online as an e-mail attachment. An online survey
was preferred over a postal survey because it is cheaper and quicker to conduct,
non-responses are easier to detect, and it is possible to access larger research
sample groups and difficult-to-contact populations. As to me also their final decision
methods seem relevant.
- The Data Collection Method: The Researcher prefers Convenience Samples. Which is
non random sampling. they provided reasons for it as they tried other methods
initially they got elicit responses from the SMEs listed on specific databases met with
only limited success. As a support for their decision they referred also a theory
 mentioned by Bryman and Bell,2007. which emphasises that, Convenience sampling
is useful where it is otherwise difficult to elicit a sufficient level of response.
Furthermore, the researchers were faced the following problems while tried to
access data base partly due to the volatility of the SMEs leading to dated contact
details in all of the several databases of SMEs that had been investigated for the
purpose of the research, and partly due to the difficulty of identifying those
businesses that were owned by women from such lists.
The researchers were managed to collect about 210 usable questionaries’ and
plugged in to SPSS software to get the descriptive and Principal components of
analysis (PCA).
Findings, Conclusion and Policy Recommendation
After data collection and data had been analysed and the following major findings
were found:
- The most respondent age group of females are between 45 to 54 years followed by
36 to 45 years. As per the theoretical review it seems reasonable. Furthermore, most
of the women were educated with degree holder and having some years of business
experience prior to lunch their enterprises. But, the finding from this report was not
coincides with previous studies from literatures.
- The type of business women participated was in service sector which accounted
78%. The data analysis was also supported by the theoretical references.
- The researchers had used Factor analysis to determine the smallest number of
factors to best represent the inter-relationships among the set of self-reported
competencies of the female entrepreneurs, and to identify the competencies that
loaded onto the key factors. They used the following four clustered categories such
as:
1. Personal and Relationship competencies: - This factor includes an interesting
mix of communication and relationship building skills, together with a number of
personal traits that are generally associated with the internal drivers, motivators
and traits of the entrepreneur.
 2. Business and Management competencies: - The factor includes competencies
relating to a typical range of business tasks such as budgeting and managing
finance, systems, planning, and business operations.
3. Entrepreneurial competencies: - This factor includes a range of competencies
typically associated with the entrepreneur including innovation, risk taking,
creativity, visioning, and idea generation.
4. Human Relations competencies: - include hiring, staff development, leadership,
employee relations and motivating staff
These categorization was also comparable with frameworks of classifications of
entrepreneurial competences generated by earlier researchers.
The Researchers had also tried to check the suitability of data for Principal
Component determination and adequacy of the samples by using different means
like calculating Cronbach’s a coefficient.
Conclusion:
The researchers had discussed on the importance of knowledge, skills and
competencies for Female entrepreneurs’ development. Here, I see repetition of
words as they forget the word Competence to include knowledge, skills, behaviour
and attitudes.
Generally, the research topic and the reference used are adequate and such types of
researches shall be encouraged in order to motivate participation of Females to
entrepreneurs ship.
Strength and Weakness of this Research as to Me:
Strength:
- This study has contributed to the limited previous research on female
entrepreneurial competencies.
- The way the researchers tried to make factorization of competencies are good.
Which helps to manipulate the competency required to pursue women
enterprenuire ships.
- Authors are experienced in their field and this is their second topic.
- Reviewed literatures and notes are more clear.
- Questionnaires are well specified the title of study in different directions.
 Weakness:
- Research Design the researchers are not use any statistical method to determine the
number of samples needed before executing the data collection.
- Still it recommends further study. But I expect few recommendations on some
competencies.
- For Better understanding of the audience, this research still lacks comparative
analysis on the competence difference between male and Female
enterprenuireships although, they tried to describe in the literature reviews.