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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate how work and family lives of female entrepreneurs in emerging Sub-Saharan countries including Ghana influence their business performance, with focus on criteria such as income, number of outlets, and number of employees the entrepreneur controls.Design/methodology/approachA phenomenological qualitative approach to research was adopted for this study to help the researcher gain deeper understanding of experiences of Ghanaian female entrepreneurs with respect to their work and family life and its influence on business performance. With a purposive sampling technique, 25 active women entrepreneurs with family responsibilities were sampled for the study. A multiple case study strategy, in-depth face-to-face interviews, and participant observation were used to solicit responses from participants included in the study.FindingsThe study revealed that a majority of female entrepreneurs involved in the study believe that their roles ...

Recently, it has become increasingly recognised that self-servicing is a growing rather than declining phenomenon. To explain this, a range of competing theories have emerged which variously portray those engaged in self-servicing either as rational economic actors, dupes, seekers of self-identity, or simply doing so out of necessity or choice. This paper evaluates critically the validity of these rival explanations. To do this, the extent of, and reasons for, self-servicing in the domestic realm is empirically evaluated through an ...

In recent decades, female entrepreneurs have been seen to contribute to the economic development of nations especially in developing countries. Until now the contribution of female entrepreneurs to economic development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been relegated to the background or ignored in development circles. Part of the reason is because female entrepreneurs mainly work in the informal economy and are necessity driven and marginalized. The main research question the study poses is 'what is the contribution of female entrepreneurs to socio-economic development in SSA?' This paper seeks to answer this by examining critically the contribution of female entrepreneurs from Ghana as a means to achieve economic development. The study employs a qualitative approach using multiple case study design. To examine female entrepreneurship, a 2014 survey involving face-to-face interviews of 60 female entrepreneurs from Accra in Ghana is analyzed. The key finding is that, although ...

Service quality within the health sector in Ghana has been of great concern to many. For years, the quality of health services in hospitals has come under intense scrutiny and this has become more worrying in recent times. This study was undertaken to assess perceived service quality in hospitals located in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The research was a cross-sectional survey which employed the use of a modified SERVQUAL questionnaire that was administered to 400 outpatients in the Greater Accra region of Ghana. Data obtained from the study was analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis and multiple regressions. Findings of the study revealed that, of the six dimensions used in the study, empathy, tangibility, reliability and affordability were the most significant predictors of service quality in Ghanaian hospitals. Although responsiveness and assurance are also considered in determining service quality, they were of less significance i...

The principal aim of this study is to provide a critical analytical overview of the nature and extent of informal entrepreneurship in Ghana, and to evaluate how it is being tackled through government policies under the spectacle of the dualist/modernist. Despite the widespread recognition of its magnitude and even growth, the informal economy in Ghana has not received the attention it deserves in the employment policies of the government until now. Little is known until now to evaluate how informal entrepreneurship could be tackled to make it more relevant to the economy. This study seeks to bridge this gap. Reporting data from a 2014 qualitative in-depth interview of government officials and other policy think-tanks, the key finding is that government policy towards tackling informal entrepreneurship has been at best ad hoc with no clear-cut policy to deal with informal entrepreneurship but somewhat adopting deterrent approach (mainly force eviction - aggressive, combative and impulsive). As a consequence, this paper calls for humane approach that will make informal entrepreneurship significant part of the overall economy such as deregulation, facilitating formalisation of informal entrepreneurship amongst others.

For years, informal entrepreneurs were largely classified as ‘marginalized’ and were perceived to be conducting marginalized ventures for survival. However, this perception gradually changed between the middle of the twentieth century and the start of the new millennium. In analysing the motivations of informal entrepreneurs from Ghana, based on face-to-face interviews with 150 respondents, the key findings were that the motivations of the entrepreneurs transcended the marginalization thesis and that informal entrepreneurs were often motivated not by necessity or opportunity, but rather by an amalgamation of the two. Although women constitute the majority of the necessity-driven informal entrepreneurs, in time some of them become opportunity-driven entrepreneurs. The implication is that there is a need for a shift from necessity–opportunity dualism to a unified approach, which depicts the motivations of informal entrepreneurs in more detail, and for broader research in other economi...

PurposeThe study aims to evaluate critically how the elements of human capital theory such as level of education, area of education, training and prior work experience influence female entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa, with focus on Ghana. Though it is very critical that the elements of human capital are known and assessed, there is currently very little known about the elements of human capital as pertains to female entrepreneurship in Ghana. This situation has called for a study such as this one.Design/methodology/approachA phenomenological paradigm was adopted for the study. This includes in-depth interview, documentation and observation. Unlike narrative research that reports on lived experiences of an individual, phenomenological study focuses on describing the lived experiences of several individuals. It is mainly a descriptive account of shared experiences of those individuals located near universal lived experience(s).FindingsReporting data from a 2014 qualitative in-d...

This paper assesses the impact of Ghanaian culture on the entrepreneurial disposition of Higher National Diploma (HND) graduates of Accra Polytechnic from 2007 to 2012. Since the turn of the millennium, there has been more attention given to job creation than job seeking, especially among the youth, to address unemployment in developing countries. This is because of governments' inability to match the growing number of job seekers to job creation across the globe. One way to address this deficit in Ghana is the introduction of courses in entrepreneurship in almost all tertiary institutions, coupled with the setting up of institutions such as Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Development Agency (GYEEDA), National Youth Employment Program (NYEP), Youth Entrepreneurship Agency (YEA), Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES), among others. Reporting on 2015 data from Accra, the main finding was that collectivistic culture has negative effects on capital accumulation, human res...

This study explores the role of cultural practices on female entrepreneurship with some insights from the Nabdam district of Ghana. The views of twenty (20) female entrepreneurs were gathered through face-to-face in-depth interviews, which were analyzed according to identified themes. The key finding of the study is that, because of cultural influences and norms, entrepreneurship is perceived to be a field for uneducated women as highly educated women seek formal employment than self-employment. Also, the value and respect for traditions was found to be a limiting factor to the growth and expansion of female-owned enterprises. Therefore, this study concludes that the general poor performance of female entrepreneurs in the study area can be attributed to long-held traditional beliefs and practices rather than managerial inability on the part of women. The stereotype threat theory is used to explain the state of female entrepreneurship in the study area. Therefore, there is a call on ...

Purpose This paper aims to explore the role of culture and gender stereotypes in the entrepreneurial journey of women entrepreneurs. It specifically focuses on women entrepreneurs in the Nabdam district of Ghana. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted the qualitative approach and collected data from 20 women entrepreneurs in the Nabdam district in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Data were collected through face-to-face in-depth interviews which were analysed according to identified themes. Findings The key finding of the study is that culture, through gender stereotypes, acts as a “push” motivational factor of women entrepreneurship and breeds more necessity-driven women entrepreneurs than opportunity-driven ones. However, gender stereotyping is found to be a bane to entrepreneurial success of several women-owned enterprises. Due to gender stereotypes, countless women entrepreneurs are sceptical about venturing into “unknown sector” sectors not familiar and operating larger b...

Based on the recognition that enterprises operate at different levels of informality, this paper evaluates the determinants of their degree of informalization. To do so, a 2016 survey of the varying degrees of informalization of 171 entrepreneurs in Ghana is reported. The finding is that only 21% of enterprises were wholly informal and 16% wholly formal. Nearly two-thirds (63%) were neither wholly informal nor wholly formal. Higher levels of informalization are significantly associated with younger entrepreneurs, those with lower levels of educational attainment, lower household incomes and younger enterprises. It is also significantly associated with the wider institutional compliance environment. Higher levels of informality are present among entrepreneurs unaware of the need for registration, who lack vertical trust (i.e., do not believe the state does anything for them, and perceive there to be public sector corruption), view informality as normal (i.e., a normal practice in the...

This thesis re-evaluates the relationship between formal and informal work in third world cities. Until now, informal work has been theorised either as a residue (modernisation), by-product of contemporary capitalism conducted out of economic necessity (structuralism) or an alternative to formal work chosen due to either an overburdensome state (neo-liberalism) or for social, redistributive, resistance or identity reasons (post-structuralism). Keith Hart was the first scholar to use the concept of the "informal sector", which he employed to describe a large segment of the economy of Ghana during the 1970s. Following Hart's seminal work, there has been a continuous debate about the nature of the relationship between the informal and formal sector. This thesis returns to the birthplace of the concept and through a survey of the contemporary informal economy in' Koforidua it critically re-evaluates these various competing theories of the relationship between formal an...