Entrepreneurship management skills requirements in an emerging economy: A South African outlook

Background: Entrepreneurship is seen as a driver of sustainable economic growth as entrepreneurs create new businesses and employment. Because entrepreneurship contributes to economic growth, it is important to have the skills needed to be successful in business venturing.

Aim: This study’s aim was to determine skills required by South African entrepreneurs to run their businesses.

Setting: Entrepreneurs who own and run businesses in South Africa.

Method: A sequential exploratory mixed method research design was applied in the study. Phase I, which consisted of qualitative interviews with 15 entrepreneurs and 6 national experts, resulted in skills that were used to develop a survey instrument. A survey was conducted in Phase II on 235 entrepreneurs to confirm the skills to a larger population.

Results: Confirmatory factor analysis results showed that entrepreneurs require financial management, human resource management, start-up, social and interpersonal, leadership, personality, marketing, technical and business management skills.

Conclusion: The identified skills through empirical research will be instrumental in the training of entrepreneurs and as a tool to measure skills in future entrepreneurship skills research.