Entrepreneurial Skills and Enterprise Growth: An Investigation of Women-Owned Enterprises in South Africa

Enterprise growth has been studied extensively, yet, only limited attention has been devoted specifically to the growth in women-owned firms. Women entrepreneurship studies to date have focussed largely on the start-up rather than the growth stage. Given the dearth of research with this focus and the recognised prime role of the entrepreneurial skills in driving enterprise growth, this study focusses on the specific entrepreneurship skills driving firm growth, through a quantitative survey of 202 women-owned SMMEs in South Africa. Regression analysis highlights that specific entrepreneurship skills (managerial skills, technical skills, marketing skills and financial management skills) strongly influence the growth of women-owned businesses. We contribute a more nuanced understanding of growth from a human capital view, in women-owned SMMEs. The study findings validate that the mainstream entrepreneurship literature on firm growth, which is non-gender-specific in nature, is applicable in the women context. However, the study fails to capture the interactions of these entrepreneurship skills. Future research could concentrate on exploring the combination of these entrepreneurship skills, using both qualitative measures and quantitative measures.