Female Entrepreneurs' Pre-Exposure to a Business Environment and Its Influence on Selected Entrepreneurial Factors: A South African Perspective

Abstract

The role of entrepreneurship in societies has become more profound in recent times. Studies suggest that pre-exposure to an entrepreneurial environment while growing up can greatly contribute to an individual’s learning process as they see first-hand how entrepreneurial tasks and activities are performed. Growing up, or being exposed to such an environment might potentially reduce the uncertainty felt by a prospective young or new entrepreneur. The objective of this study was to explore the differences in several entrepreneurial variables between two South African female entrepreneurs’ pre-exposure to entrepreneurship groups. Group 1 represented female entrepreneurs who had no previous exposure from an entrepreneurial parent, close friend or relative and Group 2 included those who had some form of previous exposure from an entrepreneurial parent, close friend or relative. The study made use of a self-reporting questionnaire and used a convenience sample to collect data from female entrepreneurs. The final sample equated to 510 usable questionnaires which included responses from all nine South African provinces. Data were analysed using reliability and validity analysis, Multiple Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and Analysis of Variances (ANOVA). Results indicated that just one variable, internal motivation, was influenced by pre-exposure to entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs who were raised in a business environment; that is, having a parent, close friend or relative who managed an entrepreneurial business, reported a higher mean for internal motivation compared to those who did not have this exposure. Several studies suggest that benefiting from an entrepreneur role model such as a parent, close friend or relative may lead to a more positive outlook on entrepreneurship and a stronger inclination to start a business. The results from this study prove interesting as, in the case of South African female entrepreneurs, pre-exposure to entrepreneurship had little effect on the identified entrepreneurial factors with the exception of internal motivation.