Entrepreneurial Skills and Business Success in the Informal Sector: A Qualitative Study

The informal sector’s activities account for a significant proportion in production,consumption, employment, and development. There are contrary arguments saying thatthe informal sector would shrink and disappear on its own when the level of economyadvances in the country, but the trend nowadays shows the opposite, where there is anexpansion, mainly in business operating in the urban areas. In early entrepreneurshipresearch, it only focused on finding general individuality and motives of successfulentrepreneurs, where entrepreneurs require capability like traits, knowledge, and specificskills in order to be capable of achieving success as an entrepreneur. Yet, research on therelationship between entrepreneurial skills and business success is scarce, especially inthe informal sector because of availability of data in terms of management, workertraining, growth potential, and access to the world market. In this case, this study focusedon entrepreneurial skill which is the most important factor that contributes to businesssuccess in the informal sector. The result of this study showed that communication andnegotiation skills are the most influencing skills for the success of business in the informalsector in Malaysia.