entreprenurship careers

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A CAREER OPTIONFOR AFRICAN YOUTHS

BEEM H. BEEKA

Centre for Individual and Organizational ManagementSheffield Hallam University, Howard Street, Sheffield, S1 1WB, UK

[email protected].

MIKE RIMMINGTON

Centre for International Hospitality Management ResearchSheffield Hallam University, Howard Street, Sheffield, S1 1WB, UK

[email protected]

This paper presents findings from a pilot study of four African entrepreneurs new to established, allwho started their business as young people. Their narratives, enhanced by the inclusion of significantevents derived by the use of the critical incident technique, provide useful oral insights into theirentrepreneurial heuristics and behavior. These reveal key influences and critical issues that affect theyoung African’s decision to start a business and also perspectives into the nature of entrepreneurship inAfrica. This paper concludes that the dichotomy between push and pull entrepreneurship is over-simplified, and social structures such as class, education and family background impact on ideas,opportunities, resources, skills and motivation. But most importantly, entrepreneurship can survive inan environment with many constraints, because career choices are influenced by the youth entrepre-neur’s perception, decision-making abilities and experiences. Implications are drawn for the devel-opment of young entrepreneurs in Africa.

Keywords: Young African; critical incidents; heuristics; opportunity recognition; entrepreneurship.

1. Rationale

All over the world, interest is growing away from a managed economy and toward anentrepreneurial economy (Drucker, 1985; Linan-Alcalde Martin-Martin and Gonzalez-Rodriguez, 2002; Stevenson and Lundstrom, 2002; Suddle and Hessels, 2007; SuddleBeugelsdijk and Wenneker, 2007). It is believed in less developed countries that newbusinesses can be used to empower excluded people, and this way economic growth canbe expected as a result of increased entrepreneurial activity (Muller and Thomas, 2000).

Address correspondence to: Beem H. Beeka, Centre for Individual and Organizational Management, SheffieldHallam University, Sheffield Business School, City Campus, Howard Street, Sheffield, S1 1WB, U.K. Tel: þ44(0) 114 225 3330.

Journal of Developmental EntrepreneurshipVol. 16, No. 1 (2011) 145–164© World Scientific Publishing CompanyDOI: 10.1142/S1084946711001707

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/S1084946711001707

Entrepreneurship has been accepted worldwide as an important way of integrating moreyoung people into the economic environment (Owualah, 1999) and research has shownthat the desire to engage in entrepreneurial activity is an occupational goal for many(Reynolds and Curtain, 2008). However, there is a paucity of literature on the careerdecisions of young entrepreneurs in Africa. Most existing studies choose to draw out allthe difficulties of African youth unemployment, calling it a somber case. They emphasizeAfrica’s difficult operating conditions for small businesses (Elkan, 1988; Marsden, 1992).However, innovative entrepreneurs have emerged from environments considered tooconstraining (Manimala, 1992; Marsden, 1992). Entrepreneurship is the creation andextraction of value from the environment (Jack and Anderson, 2002). Thus, the influenceof the external environment is ambivalent, and too much concentration on its barriers takesaway from understanding the micro-actions entrepreneurs employ to succeed. These arethe pragmatic lessons that add to entrepreneurial training and development (Manimala,1992). One may think there are only necessity youth entrepreneurs in Africa; however, thispilot study shows there are both necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs.

Contemporary African entrepreneurs are consistent to depictions by classical andmainstream economists (Marsden, 1992) because they actively identify business oppor-tunities and act on them (Elkan, 1988). Thus, this paper provides oral stories of theentrepreneurial actions of African youth entrepreneurs, and some of the critical incidentsthat shaped these. The paper aims to further the understanding of the entrepreneurialexperience in Africa.

By learning directly why indigenous youth entrepreneurs choose to become self-employed, how they started, how they navigate constraints and their progression, insightsprovided in this paper allow the voices of African youth entrepreneurs to be heard. In turnthis may empower more youths to consider entrepreneurship as a viable career option byexposing them to the risks, rewards and critical thinking skills as advocated by theKauffman foundation (Taylor, 2008) this is needed to raise the entrepreneurial potentials ofyoung people to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. This may in turn help alleviatepoverty and some social ills associated with youth unemployment. This is a desirable goal,and also a great rationale for this research.

1.1. Introduction

The population of Africa is now one billion and by 2050, this figure is projected toincrease to nearly two billion (AllAfrica, 2009). By demographic transitions, Africanyouths, defined as those between the ages of 15–35 years old (African Union, 2006) aregrowing at the fastest rate in the world (Africa Commission, 2009; Chigunta, 2002a;Sommers, 2007) but they make up 60 percent of the total unemployed and only 37 percentof the labor force (World Bank, 2008). High youth unemployment is fundamental to thegrowing difficulties in Africa, causing various economic, social and moral issues. A WorldBank survey of 200,000 people in 20 countries revealed apathy and hopelessness amongthe poor, but self-employment and wages were noted as tools for upward mobility(Jenkins, 2007). Therefore, integrating more youths into the small business sector can

146 B. H. Beeka & M. Rimmington

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contribute to alleviating the triad of unemployment, underemployment and poverty.However, specific research into the field of youth entrepreneurship in the African contextis limited or non-existent (Chigunta, 2002b; Chigunta et al., 2005; Schoof, 2006).Understandably, youth entrepreneurship is not the total solution to youth unemployment(Curtain, 2000; World Bank, 2008). However, it is recognized as an innovative strategy tointegrate more youths into today’s work environment given changing career patterns(Africa Commission, 2009; Chigunta et al., 2005; Egulu, 2004).

All over the world entrepreneurship is linked to employment generation, innovation andeconomic growth (Drucker, 1985; Schumpeter, 1947; Suddle and Hessels, 2007). Never-theless, entrepreneurship in Africa has been downplayed over the past 30 years (Marsden,1992) even though Sub-Saharan Africa’s youths, more than any other part of the world, havethe highest tendency to be self-employed (Chigunta, 2002b; Shariff, 2000).

However, African entrepreneurs operate under resource-starved conditions. Their sol-utions to entrepreneurial start-up, finance, human-resources and operational strategy pro-vide a rare insight into the unique skills and perspectives needed to start and sustain abusiness with minimal resources (Diomande, 1990). This perception can communicate thereality that risk and uncertainty are recurring facts of life but, despite this, entrepreneurialactivity can take place. This can contribute to youth empowerment, individual well-being,social mobility, community development and economic growth (Farley, 2000).

2. Theoretical Background

2.1. Defining entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur

Numerous attempts have been made to define entrepreneurship, yet to date it lacks ageneric definition (Cole, 1946; Gartner, 1988; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000). A fulldiscussion of definitions is beyond the scope of this paper. Kaplan and Warren (2007)describe it as “the process of planning, organizing, operating, and assuming the risk of abusiness venture.” The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) also supports a definitionbased on the actual operation of some kind of business, even if based on only selfemployment, defining entrepreneurially active people “as adults in the process of settingup a business they will (partly) own and/or currently owning and managing an operatingbusiness” (Reynolds et al., 2005). This is the stance that has been adopted in this paper.

Nascent entrepreneurs can be described as individuals in the process of starting a newbusiness (Carter, Gartner and Reynolds, 1995; Delmar and Davidsson, 2000; Parker andBelghitar, 2006). Thus, for the purpose of this paper a youth entrepreneur is a youngperson who is in the process of starting, has started, or is operating a business venture.

According to Drucker (1985) the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds toit and exploits it as an opportunity. Therefore, with the essence of entrepreneurship beingthe pursuit of opportunities without regard to resources under control, this situational andbehavioral approach focuses on actual behavior and practice, which can lead to betterstudies and insight relevant to the development of entrepreneurial skills in the Africancontext Stevenson and Jarillo (1990).

Entrepreneurship as a Career Option 147

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2.2. Entrepreneurial career choice

The field of economics has demonstrated that entrepreneurship is an employment choice(Arenius andMinniti, 2005). The decision to start a business can be a result of unemployment,or the threat of losing one’s job in the future, termed the push or desperation effect. The pulleffect alternatively occurs when individuals decide to take advantage of opportunities in theeconomy (Bosma and Harding, 2007; Kuratko, 2009; Linan-Alcalde, Martin-Martin andGonzalez-Rodriguez, 2002; Reynolds andCurtain, 2008; Stel et al., 2007; Thurik et al., 2008).

The occupational choice approach argues that when unemployment is high, the cost ofbusiness entry reduces substantially, thus making self-employment attractive; this push istermed the refugee effect (Thurik et al., 2008). However, this approach can be hamperedby the fact unemployed people, most often, have low endowments of “human capitaland entrepreneurial talent” required to sustain business ownership. Besides, beingunemployed also negatively affects personal wealth decreasing the self-employmentchoice (Criscuolo, Nicolaou and Salter, 2007; Stel et al., 2007; Thurik et al., 2008).Furthermore, most unemployed youths lack human capital (education, experience and jobskills), so when unemployment is high they typically become underprepared necessityentrepreneurs. In addition, individual constraints and entry barriers, such as raw materialcontrol, technology, market outlets, advertising and “threats of retaliatory action byincumbent firms” can also discourage potential necessity entrepreneurs (Bygrave andCowling, 2002). However, the opportunity cost argument is that in total it is more probablethat unemployed people, rather than the employed, will tend to exploit entrepreneurialopportunity (Shane, 2003).

The Schumpeter effect describes the positive impact of entrepreneurship on theeconomy (Criscuolo, Nicolaou and Salter, 2007; Stel et al., 2007). When new businessventures create jobs, unemployment is reduced, and when new entrepreneurs innovate,they bring about new products, improvement in production processes, increased pro-ductivity, more competition and better consumer choices (Bygrave and Cowling, 2002;Criscuolo, Nicolaou and Salter, 2007; Kirchhoff and Greene, 1995; Reynolds and Curtain,2008; Schumpeter, 1947; Stel et al., 2007).

On an individual level, this career choice can be a lifetime goal rather than a decisiontaken in isolation. Thus, entrepreneurship is not always the case of displaced individualslooking to get out of a bad situation, but rather a socioeconomic choice (Reynolds andCurtain, 2008). However, although the general notion is that men venture into entrepre-neurship for independent work, control and for increased earnings, a pilot study providedan alternate view that men of Black African origin, highly educated but disadvantaged inthe labor market, were becoming necessity entrepreneurs (Nwankwo, 2005). However, inAfrica, females makeup the bulk of unemployed youths (Africa Commission, 2009).

In view of the causal factors, it can be concluded that entrepreneurship can be a careerchoice, particularly in situations of high unemployment. While unemployment increasesself-employment, self-employment reduces unemployment (Thurik et al., 2008). Researchhas found inconclusive arguments both for and against push and pulls factors (Aderemiet al., 2009; Campbell and De Nardi, 2007; Delmar and Davidsson, 2000).


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2.3. Entrepreneurial characteristics

Progressing from the viewpoint that entrepreneurship is a personal choice, certain factorscan also affect the decision to become an entrepreneur. These include the existence of rolemodels, self-confidence about one’s skills, readiness to take risk, coping with the fear offailure and the ability and alertness to take advantage of opportunities given the peculiaritiesin each individual’s country’s environment (Arenius and Minniti, 2005; Wagner, 2004).Kaplan and Warren (2007) advanced that the success or failure of enterprises depended ona special mix of courage, self-confidence and skills.

2.4. Entrepreneurship opportunity recognition

For many years, the focus of entrepreneurship was on who entrepreneurs were and whatthey did, concentrating on personality traits and characteristics rather than the entrepre-neurial process. This contributed to the absence of a conceptual framework that showedthe unexplained and predictable phenomenon of entrepreneurship. However, more recentinvestigations have focused on the process of entrepreneurial discovery, evaluation and theexploitation of opportunity, and why, when and how different modes of action are used toexploit entrepreneurial opportunities (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000).

2.5. Entrepreneurial heuristics

Entrepreneurial heuristics are cognitive thumb-rules that guide the decisions involved instarting or managing a new venture (Scot and Shaver, 1991). Entrepreneurial heuristics canhelp explain entrepreneurial behavior/performance (Manimala, 1992; Wickham, 2004;2006), and the reality of decision making is that entrepreneurs often do not have allnecessary information or detailed cost-benefit analysis before they make decisions(Mitchell et al., 2007). Most decisions are made without objective assessment, and theprobability may be inconclusive (Tversky and Kahneman, 1973).

The practical mindset to mobilize entrepreneurship is necessary to succeed, because simplyremoving environmental barriers will not reduce poverty (Farley, 2000). Also, becausebusinesses cannot choose their operational environments, their adjustments to social, economicand business forces become a necessary evil; the ability to innovate through quality decisionskeeps some businesses afloat and avoids extinction (Cole, 1946). For youths, opportunityrecognition and positive entrepreneurial heuristics are therefore important business skills.

3. Methodology

An interpretative approach is best for researching the entrepreneurial experience (Mitchell,1996; Steyaert, 1997). Thus, the methodology for this study is interpretative, based aroundusing a narrative approach enriched by the Critical Incident Technique (CIT):

The critical incident technique consists of a set of procedures forcollecting direct observations of human behavior in such a way as tofacilitate their potential usefulness in solving practical problems anddeveloping broad psychological principles (Flanagan, 1954).


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CIT is a useful way of studying entrepreneurial behavior and gathering discursive, cog-nitive, affective and behavioral influential data. It can provide significant insights into thepractical nature of entrepreneurship (Chell and Pittaway, 1998). The narrative constructionapproach significantly introduces enhanced conceptual, epistemological and methodo-logical reflection (Steyaert and Bouwen, 1997). Practical theories are developed fromnarrative life stories that are implicit, intuitive and tacit in situated resources of practice.They draw out what works, through practical examples of opportunity recognition,decision-making, venture creation and managing business growth (Rae, 2004).

Given that narratives are straightforward accounts of past happenings (Bruner, 1991;Rubin and Rubin, 1995), the participants were asked questions that elicited insightsregarding their background, why they chose to start a business, how they became entre-preneurs, their unique challenges and their view of their prospects. The respondents wererequested to identify any critical incidents that influenced their views. They were also askedto describe at least one positive and negative event experienced during the course ofdeveloping business. It is based on their narratives that critical incidents or common themeswere developed and compared with entrepreneurial theory. Their incidents deal with variousissues ranging from career motivation, business planning and operations.

The critical incident technique has been utilized by various researchers (e.g. Chellet al., 1991; Chell and Pittaway, 1998; Flanagan, 1954), it avoids the breadth of cases thatcan get lost in translation, and instead provide more in-depth understanding of complexissues that at first glance seem trivial; it also allows for practical issues to be uncovered,which adds to learning because the majority of people can be affected by similar situations.At times the true stories may even be stranger than fiction and almost unbelievable(Hinkin, 1995). Narratives are stories of experiences rather than described events(Andrews et al., 2008). This is how the self is constructed and how the entrepreneurs makesense of their world (Bruner, 1991). An advantage of the CIT is that it provides completedata, as well as the rich details described; it provides insights into entrepreneurial heur-istics and how they affect outcomes (Chell and Pittaway, 1998). A limitation is ensuringincidents are captured and represented sufficiently.

3.1. The participants

The four entrepreneurs involved in this pilot study operate in the same city, but come fromthree different sectors at different stages of their career experience from early stage toestablished enterprise. Two operate informally and two formally. Three are currently withinthe African youth range, while one is older but also started his enterprise young. All areeducated to at least secondary school level. This exploratory limited participant group is adeliberate act to garner depth rather than breadth andwill inform others of the research agendaand methodology to be used in a more extensive study. The entrepreneurs were identifiedthrough personal recommendations and networking. Narratives and critical incidents weregathered as the participants told stories about their entrepreneurship career. Ethical researchprocedures were followed. Below is a brief profile of the entrepreneurs; because of con-fidentiality, their real names and those of firms and corporations have been changed.


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3.1.1. Gwen, female, micro mobile phone-call center and top-up cards retail

Gwen is 23 years old and a sole trader. In 2009 she started and runs a micro mobile phone-call center at a single location in a central commercial area, under a large customizedtelecom giant umbrella, within close proximity of public sector offices, shopping malls,restaurants and hotels. Her operations are simple; while some people come over and useher collection of mobile phones to make calls and pay for minutes used; others buyrecharge cards (mobile top-up). In 2010 she expanded her operations and recently startedselling bottled water and soft drinks.

3.1.2. Alex, male, micro mobile phone-call center and top-up cards retail

Alex is 32 years old and a sole trader. Similar to Gwen, he also runs a micro mobile phone-call center and sells mobile phone recharge cards (top-up). He is located at an areaconsidered highbrow, next to the suburb’s hospital with some restaurants in close proxi-mity. Ten years ago, after an apprentice term at a building materials business, he started anidentical business venture. Unfortunately, he lost everything in dire circumstances becauseof the retrospective enforcement of development planning control, which led to buildingsbeing demolished. He had to start another venture all over again.

3.1.3. Tony, male, photographic and video studio

Tony is 35 years old and the founder-owner of a photography and video studio. He startedphotography as a hobby while in vocational training. Subsequently, he gained professionalexperience in other established photo studios before he started his own studio 14 yearsago. He has three permanent staff.

3.1.4. Terhide, male, interior designer

Terhide is an interior designer who started his business at age 21 and is currently 50 yearsold. He is the founder-owner of an interior design firm, furniture manufacturing factoryand indoor-outdoor display systems. He is highly creative, analytical and studied at auniversity in England. He later got some contracts and soon after relocated to Nigeria tostart his own business. He has 27 permanent staff.

Findings from the entrepreneurs are presented below. The interviewee’s were able toeasily recount oral stories that included critical incidents. These are presented in themesthat allow the integration of practice to theory. Discussion is used to evaluate the impli-cations of the findings.

4. Findings and Discussion

This section presents the oral stories, the empirical investigation and an examination of theresults regarding the career choice, decisions and key considerations from the selectedentrepreneurs.


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4.1. Stories of opportunity recognition and career decision

These present oral accounts of how the entrepreneurial identities of the participants wereconstructed.

4.1.1. Necessity push

After my WAEC (West African Examination Council) I started computerstudies but had nothing to do, no job, no school, so last year a friendintroduced me to the business. I started with nothing, she loaned me amobile phone handset, which I used in making calls, and two monthslater I raised enough money to refund her phone and buy my ownphone. For the recharge cards (prepaid) the Mallam’s (Hausa term for‘Mr’; trade supplier) owned the bulk of it and would drop them off in themorning and in the evening come back to collect what hasn’t been soldand their money and then pay you your share (commission). I did this till Iearned enough money to start buying my own cards…I started as a callcenter, and subsequently added selling of recharge cards. This year, Istarted selling water and soft drinks, my initial motivation was becausesitting here I get thirsty, but now that side of trade is also growing (Gwen).

I am the kind of person who in any business I do, I do more thanexpected. My boss (while on apprenticeship) for over two years gave mestock worth NGN 200,000 [USD 1¼NGN 150.53] paying for that backwith NGN 300,000 worth of goods I generated stock worth over NGN1,000,000… In 2003 I started my own shop and was selling buildingmaterials (zinc, cement and paint) when Wudu new market was demol-ished, they even put fire and burnt everything. I didn’t even recoveranything, everything was damaged…A lady called me to operate her callcenter for her, I did this for two years and in 2005, I started my own callbusiness. I bought my own handset and started gradually (Alex).

4.1.2. Opportunity pull

I am a trained technician, l trained as a plumber in college, while atschool I started photography as a hobby and also to sustain myselfaround the school. After that I did casual work at John’s Images, aphoto studio in Mayland. While there someone saw something good inme, picked interest and asked me to help set up his professional photostudio in Abuja…After I was being blackmailed I left and worked at thebest studio in Abuja, Photoshop, but I left after one year, because rightfrom day one I always had the zeal to work for myself and myself alone.I became an ardent listener of the radio, I listened with passion— this ishow I got news and information about what was happening, I wouldhear about the conferences and appear there to snap pictures…I had the


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passion for photography, that is why I worked at Photoshop even thoughI had no definite salary. I was getting about NGN 1,600. Late 1996when I left them I at least had minor business exposure. A young manneeds exposure and understanding. These experiences make one notscared of larger work or the larger world anymore…When I left Pho-toshop I swore I would not work for anyone anymore, so I startedSuccess Studios. I had saved below NGN 5,000 so I rented a camera andstarted attending conferences and snapping to take pictures. My kidbrother and I came up with the name Success Studios while jugglingthrough names…Eventually I rented a shop for about NGN 2,000 whichalso served as my home. I was sleeping in the shop and developing theplace. With NGN 500 I bought film, I would print and sell, and I usedabout NGN 2,000 to register the business with the CAC (CorporateAffairs Commission) (Tony).

I had always been artistic, good with both fine arts and everything to dowith calculations; at one point I thought I would study statistics. I wasadvised to go study fine arts and I thought me, an artist? I got acceptedto study textile design at university and not quite two weeks into thecourse…I went into the career management office, picked up a pro-spectus and saw interior design. I was impressed with the course contentand job possibilities for interior design since it offered a wider area tofashion….I switched courses, right from the word go I really enjoyed thestructure of the course, we would get the curriculum in advance andI would work on that finishing 3 to 5 months ahead of others. So I hadmuch time on my own and started studying building technology,restructuring old buildings and so on. When I came back from Englandin 1981 there were no job opportunities for interior designers, they werenot popular and were overshadowed by architects when it came tobuilding and auxiliary services. Even though there were no job oppor-tunities I knew that specialized interior designing services was needed inthe country. While in England I was approached to design hotels andconference centers, I did other projects too…Basically I got into mycurrent business while looking for a way to generate a job when I cameout of university, plus I had a strong urge to practice what I went toschool for, so I started introducing myself to people, sending write-upsand brochures of portfolio I developed from school…When I started Iwanted to take up only the professional services, not contract and fur-niture making. But I discovered that after I gave manufacturer’s designsof furniture to make they were not getting my designs right, I venturedinto furniture making, designing and manufacturing myself (Terhide).

From these oral stories, it is clear that opportunity recognition often occurs at the earlystages (nascent) of venture formation with reoccurrence over the lifetime of the enterprise


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(Hills, 1995). An essential theme that has also emerged from these opportunity discovery,evaluation and exploitation (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000) is that in real life, careerdecisions are made with the help of happenstance, entrepreneurial alertness and a responseto serendipitous opportunity (Bandura, 1977). Given the career choice argument in section2.2, the narratives establish that the motivation for Gwen and Alex were negative externalforces, the push or desperation effect (Thurik et al., 2008) because of unemployment(Gwen) and a tragedy (Alex) that occurred from inconsistent development control plan-ning. Tony and Terhide were pulled into entrepreneurship seeking independence, self-actualization, wealth and other desired outcomes (Carter et al., 2003). But, one also mayargue that Terhide may have been pushed into entrepreneurship; thus, the dichotomybetween necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs may be oversimplified.

Furthermore, it is also clear that a desire for autonomy (Manolova, Brush and Edelman,2008), innovation (Schumpeter, 1947), technical knowledge (Kuratko, 2009), priorindustry experience (Ardichvili et al., 2003; Marsden, 1992; Shane, 2003) both experi-ential (by doing) and vicarious (from others) learning (Shane, 2003), basic educationalattainment (Reynolds and Curtain, 2008) and social networks (Dubini and Aldrich, 1991;Marsden, 1992) have been key ingredients for business venturing. Additionally, asDrucker (1985) points out, the new technology is now knowledge application, the higherexpertise levels of Tony and Terhide increased their ability to engage in more specializedservices. Thus, the more educated are found in knowledge based sectors (Delmar andDavidsson, 2000).

4.1.3. Social networks and role models

Those who know self-employed people have greater propensity to also follow that path(Arenius and Minniti, 2005; Wagner, 2004). Self efficacy is the self-belief in personalability to perform a task (Bandura, 1977) and role models have been known to enhanceself-efficacy (Arenius and Minniti, 2005), because role models provide knowledge on thebest ways of exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities (Shane, 2003). For Gwen, probablybecause of her poor background and cultural factors, her parents did not encourage her tobecome an entrepreneur. However, knowing other entrepreneurs does influence entre-preneurship (Arenius and Minniti, 2005). It is evident that directly or indirectly allentrepreneurs had been influenced by their social network; parents, friends, relatives(Gwen, Tony and Terhide) and apprentice boss (Alex).

My parents sell foodstuffs in the market, but they didn’t encourage us tohelp out; rather they wanted us to go to school (Gwen).

Dad was a policeman — I look very much like him. Mum was the self-employed one, and the motivator she was selling tomatoes and pepper andI used to help her sell when I got back from school. I was the one closest toher and I can say that was where I learned buying and selling (Tony).

Dad was a quantity surveyor who worked for the government, while mumwas considered a full time housewife, but she ran a Mobil distributorship


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business, we would go to her shop then and interact with customers…Myaunties were really into big time buy and sell; they would go to Beirut andRome and buy all kinds of apparels and jewelry to sell. I followed them forabout one year before I started university, buying and selling men’s shoesand shirts, then I resumed university. I really wasn’t looking for moneythen or thought much of it; it was just something to do (Terhide).

4.2. Individual characteristics

As theory confirms, the participants believe an entrepreneurial career is feasible based ontheir individual assessment of personal abilities and interpretation of the environment(Delmar, 2000). Essentially, their individual characteristics reveal their personality traits,attributes and entrepreneurial heuristics.

4.2.1. Personality traits and attributes

Personality traits have been a subject of debate for so long (Gartner, 1988). Yet studieshave proven that personalities lead and shape firms (Chell, Hedberg-Jalonen and Miettinen,1997). Traits and attributes offer important predictions regarding entrepreneurial behavior,the most common being achievement motivation, creativity, risk-taking propensity,determination, initiative, self-confidence, need for autonomy, locus of control and copingwith the fear of failure (Arenius and Minniti, 2005; Kuratko, 2009; Shane, 2003; Wagner,2004). The entrepreneurs certainly from all their accounts exhibit some of these.

Furthermore, Tony and Terhide offered self-actualization, creativity and anticipation ofchallenges as the basis for entrepreneurship; their motives appear not to be money, but it isaccepted as a measure of success (Bridge, O’neill and Cromie, 2003). For Gwen and Alex,their present desires appear to be personal or family survival, economic security (Areniusand Minniti, 2005). In addition, Alex has shown determination and the ability to bounceback from a near death experience.

At the moment I can pay my bills with this business (Gwen).

After my shop and then house were demolished, I almost died…I left forthe village but four months later I was back because there was nothingto do there except if I decided to become a farmer. There are so manyrelatives depending on me. I can’t sit idle…When I came back the optionwas between hawking on the streets, or pounding Garri and Akpu inrestaurants for NGN 300 per month. I want to avoid embarrassment soI declined that work. It is better than I start small and come into my own(Alex).

My decision to start a business had to do with self-actualization. I amvery passionate about my goals and actualizing my dreams. I am aresource that I wish for people would tap into. When you have positivedreams they turn into money, if you feel your dreams are tough, then go


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get people to buy into your ideas and actualize it, when you achieve thatyou make money. Selfish people say that money is their motivator, butideas are superior (Tony).

Self-actualization is definitely why I became and entrepreneur. I findwhat I do intellectually stimulating and physically challenging. When anidea is in my head, I put it down quickly and seeing what I envisionedbeing brought to life gives satisfaction (Terhide).

4.2.2. Entrepreneurial heuristics

During new venture creation, heuristic behavior of entrepreneurs is an attribute that leadsthem to perceive low risk (Simon, Houghton and Aquino, 2000). This approach is used byresource starved entrepreneurs to start a successful business. The entrepreneurial decisionsmade by the entrepreneurs were made under uncertainty. They did not wait to gather allinformation before making decisions, thus using their mental capacity to construe meaningand simplify to effect actions (Holcombe et al., 2009; Tversky and Kahneman, 1973). Allthe narratives throughout this paper have shown elements of decision simplification, it isimportant to note that none of the entrepreneurs actually felt they did not have the requiredbusiness skills. For example, most entrepreneurs embark on ventures without formalknowledge of business creation strategies (Wickham, 2006). Apart from Terhide, none ofthe entrepreneurs started their businesses with a feasibility study. When Tony was asked tomove from one state to another and startup a photo business for someone he said

This was a big acid test; I jumped at the chance and surmounted thechallenges…The vision was all from my head. I had no formal businessplan drawn (Tony).

5. Negative Incidences and Challenges

Regarding challenges, the entrepreneurs seemed to have high risk tolerance and thepsychological make-up to cope with failure (Bridge, O’neill and Cromie, 1998). Self-efficacy makes it possible for these participants to keep going. It is said that entrepreneursmay be overconfident when it comes to accessing risk, and this can be because they aresimply relying on cognitive biases, or sometimes their actions may be a result of anillusion of control (Simon, Houghton and Aquino, 2000). It is deduced that these Africanentrepreneurs are of the opinion that once you understand the environment and its inherentissues, they stop being a problem; rather you can learn to overcome the challenges andgrow in business. This pilot study tentatively suggests these entrepreneurs know andperceive high levels of risk, yet still choose to engage in entrepreneurial activity becausethey believe in their ability to overcome obstacles. Some feel the risks are high and so arethe benefits, even though it is undisputed they can negatively impact margins.

When the public sector contracts, when the civil servants are involved atthe initial stage they will fast track it, but when they are not they


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frustrate you. Things don’t work the way they should; with one project, wecame up with the ideas for the government but since they were not forth-coming we converted it to BOT (Build Operate and Transfer), only when aforeign firm comes in will they stand up and call it PPP (Public-PrivatePartnership). But the fact is that doing business in Nigeria is riskier but thebenefits are always higher, that’s why you see the expatriates staying backin the country when their contracts expire…The general aspects, when youdo a government contract are that they pay percentages but don’t want topay the balance, most cases when you eventually get paid, it eventuallyamounts to nothing. In a situation where you had to borrow money tocomplete the project, what is left after paying bank charges will nevermeet your projected profit. It’s just not a normal situation (Terhide).

Nigeria has a population of about 149 million people (CIA, 2010) and the telecom industry isbooming; by January 2010 there were 66,738,944 active GSM (Global System for Mobilecommunication) lines in Nigeria (Nigerian Communications Commission, 2010). The callcenter business in Nigeria is ubiquitous; these micro sole traders can be seen everywhere.This is the most particular retail side of the telecom business; mobile phone calls, sim cardand recharge card (top-up) sales. The trade has low barriers to entry, all the telecom giants areactively encouraging call center/recharge card sales business, this is one of their salesstrategies, which they also say helps to enhance the economic status of the unemployed inNigeria (Grage, 2008). Yet, almost every day the AEPB (Abuja Environmental ProtectionBoard) does not relent in harassing these sole traders, who are informal because of low entrybut probably also to minimize their risk and protect their low returns. The reasons Gwen andAlex cited for remaining informal were:

There is no need for CAC registration. We were asked to acquire one ofthe M telecom boxes (Kiosk) and the environmental people will leave usalone. I paid about NGN 20,000 for mine but nothing happened, that ismoney gone (Gwen).

We registered with M telecoms with NGN 35,000 but the politics that Mhad stopped paying money to government caused the task force to comeand took mine (Kiosk) away; even if I collect it back I don’t know where Iwill keep it so I left it with them…My younger sister came to visit andunfortunately she was caught by the task force and locked up, it wasembarrassing back in the village. For myself I just laugh at them. Life istrouble on its own, when you reach the village your only option is tobecome a farmer, one day things will be better so I shall stay and manage.You get many knocks but keep going because you have no option (Alex).

Regarding challenges, Tony and Terhide said

(Laughs) Sometimes you fool yourself that you see no challenges. ButNigeria is such a complex place you just have to understand how to


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operate in a complex place…there are so much financial barriers, butthen again some break those barriers while others try…It is all aboutworking hard and getting connected, it is not about money. Go after theconnections and with that you get what you need to operate…Whenpeople appreciate what you do, do it very well and then when you needcapital intensive investments you can meet people. But you need to workon yourself— invest in your field…The little you make, how you utilize ittells about your future. When I was starting out as a young man I couldhave used the NGN 4,000 I had to buy the reigning loafers (shoes) andthen squat but instead I invested it into NGN 3,000 rent, NGN 200transport, NGN 300 introducer, NGN 500 landlord…With NGN 500 Iwent out and started a photo business, now I have a camera worth NGN600,000 so the challenges depend on your situation and where you havekept yourself and where you have been, the challenges are not thesame for everyone…About the problems of doing business in Nigeria,all excuses about the challenges in Africa are surmountable; if it ispower problem then save towards an inverter. In some situationsyou don’t look for who to blame, you just handle it yourself. I seechallenges not problems everywhere I step…Your dreams determineyour immediate challenges, for it to last long you require knowledge todrive from A to B, you’d think you know but there is always room toknow better (Tony).

When Giant Hotel wanted to renovate some wings, they put out a tenderand nine of us appeared on the day claiming to be interior designers.There were about four abandoned floors and we were being takenaround to see the extent of the work required. Floor by floor peoplestarted backing out, by the time we got to the last floor I was the onlyperson left since I had been the one asking all the technical questionsbefore approval came for the job there was a military coup….We allneed to make ends meet, its survival, because of challenges you won’trun away, you have to master and fashion out a way by which you cansurvive. You don’t run away from challenges you devise a method tosmoothen our own way e.g. when the challenge is power, do it alter-natively, get a generator, backup etcetera. In the factory we ensure wealways have diesel and you factor those into your costs. But mostimportantly one must always plan, however small a project is start witha feasibility report, I have always done this (Terhide).

All entrepreneurs said they had the capacity to handle all aspects of their business, sorather than talking about their business skills or internal operational challenges, theyemphasized the challenges from the external environment. However, the incidents showthe enterprises with the most educated owners were better at adapting to the businessenvironment (Mead and Liedholm, 1998).


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6. Positive Incidences and Ambitions

All the entrepreneurs have plans on sustaining their operations and for future growth.Terhide’s plans involved various innovative patents and joint ventures that touched oncreativity, knowledge and education. Terhide’s responses indicated a sense of higherpurpose. He said “You keep praying to God asking for things and when they come youdon’t realize it immediately.” Even though so many of the projects he dreamt of as a youngentrepreneur had been actualized, he still had many to go. All the entrepreneurs areexpecting to advance in the future, and have a strong desire to succeed. For two of theentrepreneurs, recounts of their positive events and prospects were tied to what they coulddo for their families, then career achievements. Characteristics that have emerged with thepositive incidents are the need for achievement, creativity and the anticipation of constantchallenge, being optimistic, making tough decisions, importance of staying positive,navigating challenges and the desire to succeed.

I would like to go to university and study accounting, which will improveme and my future business (Gwen).

If not for the task force disturbing us now the business was quite goodwhen I started this, I built a three-bedroom house in the village with myearnings. With NGN 20,000 one can start this business. But if you start asa dealer distributor it’s about NGN 500million you will be operating with.It is my plan that in future I can become a distributor. At that level you aremaking a lot of money and gaining a lot too, as a distributor you are giventhe authority to print cards, for example DeneTel — just buy the pinnumbers, the rest of the paper and cover they do themselves (Alex).

Snapping the President of the Federal Republic, providing the firstofficial portrait of the then ‘E’ boss, taking various portraits andpassports for those considered ‘who is who’ in Nigeria. These are somany I can’t say which is best. Also, I trained my younger ones tograduate (university) level, and for the past fifteen years they have neverhad to live in squalor at least going by the average Nigerian’s standardsI have been able to provide accommodation for all my relatives…Nigeria is a virgin market, there are so many opportunities…I know howto work comfortably in Nigeria; I need a bigger challenge I would liketo expand my horizon. I would like to interact with the best in the world.I would like to collaborate with others and have a wonderful exhibitionon culture showing the beauty of photography (Tony).

7. Limitations and Further Research

This research was based on a pilot study of four entrepreneurs. Further research shouldincorporate more participants to extend the research agenda and provide more generalizedfindings. Also, the narrative approach has been criticized, in that the reasons entrepreneurs


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give for starting a business in retrospect are subject to significant self-justification bias (Carteret al., 2003). Nevertheless, as said before these narratives are the participants’ learningepisodes, and thus the meanings they derive from their entrepreneurial experience.

Furthermore, this exploratory research does not include any interviews from insti-tutional experts, who can, through better policy implementation, ease some of the bot-tlenecks encountered by African youth entrepreneurs, and foster more positive attitudestoward institutional support, so extended dimensions to the research are called for. Africanentrepreneurs have been described as “pioneers of development” because they do flourishwith institutional support and still manage to thrive in harsh environments (Marsden,1992). Africa’s youth entrepreneurs can be agents of change, but they need more support ifthey are to accomplish this mission (Steel, 1994).

8. Conclusion

As each entrepreneur told their story of exploring reasons, consequences and outcomes,significant themes emerged, which gave meaning to entrepreneurship as a viable careeroption for them. Undoubtedly, this methodology of gathering critical incidents about theentrepreneurial career of African youths has drawn out practical examples of opportunityrecognition, decision-making, venture creation and managing business growth (Rae, 2004).

These entrepreneurs were confident in their ability to start and run business ventures,based on subjective perceptions developed from an alertness to opportunities influenced byboth push and pull causal factors, and facilitated by the presence of role models, theirnetworks, great confidence in their ability to overcome obstacles, high risk tolerance andmaking decisions on their feet. For these entrepreneurs the push/pull argument appearsmore complex than a simple unemployed/employed situation; they may have been bothpushed and pulled into entrepreneurship. The more educated went for the registeredlimited liability structure, while the least educated started in the informal sector. A Galluppoll found that access to credit, the filing process and other indicators were perceivedobstacles that explained the decision to remain informal (Rheault and Tortora, 2008). Allentrepreneurs experienced difficulties dealing with regulatory issues and inconsistentpublic service institutions (Rheault and Tortora, 2008; Rogerson, 2001).

Africa’s development agenda has identified the small business sector as valuable foremployment creation, poverty alleviation and economic development (Rogerson, 2001).However, it is imperative that African governments do more to create a better enablingenvironment for enterprise development. These narratives show that, even with resourceconstraints, the entrepreneur can be central to economic development (Schumpeter,1947). These entrepreneurs have created employment in the economy, thus reducingunemployment.

The two more developed entrepreneurs had expertise that lowered their barriers to entryinto more specialized business sectors. The two phone center retailers chose to operate inlow barrier to entry businesses; however, their entrepreneurial characteristics enabled themto flourish, even though they were more vulnerable to environmental shifts. This pilotstudy finds that mindset heuristics was much more important than formal business plans


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when making the decision to start a business; being streetwise and having a can-do attitudeenabled these entrepreneurs to take advantage of business opportunities and handleobstacles. These are the lessons that can contribute to African youth entrepreneurship; thesepragmatic lessons add to entrepreneurial training and development (Manimala, 1992).

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