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Entrepreneurial Orientation in the Segment of Micro-Enterprises:Evidence from Czech Republic


Affiliations
1 Mehmet Civelek, Department of Enterprise Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Mostni 5139, 76001, Zlin, Czech Republic
2 Ashiqur Rahman, Department of Enterprise Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Mostni 5139, 76001, Zlin, Czech Republic
3 Ludmila Kozuikova, Department of Enterprise Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Mostni 5139, 76001, Zlin, Czech Republic
 

The objective of this comprehensive research is to identify and explore the dissimilarities of gender and education level of entrepreneurs and enterprises’ age with regards to entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in the segment of micro enterprises. All of the dimensions of EO are included such as innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness and autonomy for our analysis. The data that we have used for this study, was collected by a structured questionnaire during 2015 in Czech Republic, and consists of 1141 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 740 of them are defined as micro enterprises by using the definition of European Commission. The empirical results of our study indicates a that university educated micro-entrepreneurs are more innovative and autonomous comparing with lower educated micro-entrepreneurs and also younger micro firms are more innovative, risk taker and proactive than the older micro firms. However, our results do not show any significant differences between men and women in relation to the all components of EO. Our result can be explained by having higher percentage of university educated women micro entrepreneurs comparing with their men counterparts and education may have a substitution effect on the gender based differences in the segment of micro firms.

Keywords

Entrepreneurial Orientation, Micro Enterprises, Gender, Education, Firm Age, Czech Republic.
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  • Entrepreneurial Orientation in the Segment of Micro-Enterprises:Evidence from Czech Republic

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Authors

Mehmet Civelek
Mehmet Civelek, Department of Enterprise Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Mostni 5139, 76001, Zlin, Czech Republic
Ashiqur Rahman
Ashiqur Rahman, Department of Enterprise Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Mostni 5139, 76001, Zlin, Czech Republic
Ludmila Kozubikova
Ludmila Kozuikova, Department of Enterprise Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Mostni 5139, 76001, Zlin, Czech Republic

Abstract


The objective of this comprehensive research is to identify and explore the dissimilarities of gender and education level of entrepreneurs and enterprises’ age with regards to entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in the segment of micro enterprises. All of the dimensions of EO are included such as innovativeness, risk taking, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness and autonomy for our analysis. The data that we have used for this study, was collected by a structured questionnaire during 2015 in Czech Republic, and consists of 1141 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 740 of them are defined as micro enterprises by using the definition of European Commission. The empirical results of our study indicates a that university educated micro-entrepreneurs are more innovative and autonomous comparing with lower educated micro-entrepreneurs and also younger micro firms are more innovative, risk taker and proactive than the older micro firms. However, our results do not show any significant differences between men and women in relation to the all components of EO. Our result can be explained by having higher percentage of university educated women micro entrepreneurs comparing with their men counterparts and education may have a substitution effect on the gender based differences in the segment of micro firms.

Keywords


Entrepreneurial Orientation, Micro Enterprises, Gender, Education, Firm Age, Czech Republic.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.15759/ijek%2F2016%2Fv4i1%2F190289