Abstract:

In recent years, several business success factors that may improve entrepreneurs’ business growth have been identified. However, most of these were predominantly focused on traditional male entrepreneurs in developed countries. Although these factors may be applicable to female entrepreneurs in a similar way, they may also be country and culture sensitive. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify business growth factors specifically from a female entrepreneur’s perspective and within the context of a developing country. The study made use of a descriptive, single-sample cross-sectional design, which involved the use of a structured questionnaire to collect data from the identified sample. The questionnaire was pre-tested and underwent a pilot test before the final version was sent out to the respondents. A combination of two non-probability sampling techniques (purposive and convenience) was used and a total of 510 usable questionnaires were received back and representing female entrepreneurs from all nine provinces. The collected data was statistically analysed and included reliability and validity analysis, descriptive statistics and principal component factor analysis (PCA). The PCA revealed the presence of four factors that were subsequently labelled access to entrepreneurial opportunities, political/community factors, skills and market opportunities, and internal factors. Furthermore, the respondents identified internal factors such as support from family and friends, having previous experience and working hard skills and market opportunities as the most important business growth factors. The importance of this study to the existing body of literature is twofold: firstly, it adds a female perspective on the most important business growth factors; and secondly, it is from a developing country perspective as this may differ in comparison to developed countries.

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