The Entrepreneurial Orientation of Immigrant Entrepreneurs in South Africa

Abstract

The objective of this study was to measure the entrepreneurial orientation of immigrant entrepreneurs in South Africa. Data was collected through the use of self-administered questionnaires in a survey. The study focused on immigrant entrepreneurs from West Africa specifically, Nigerians, Ghanaians and Senegalese that are business owners in the retail sector and have been in business for at least five years. Because of the difficulty in obtaining the population of immigrant entrepreneurs in the study area, purposive and snowball sampling methods were used. The results indicated that immigrant entrepreneurs are adept at introducing new product lines and also making changes to their product lines. This suggests that immigrant entrepreneurs are innovative. The results also showed that immigrant entrepreneurs are proactive as they have the tendency to be ahead of others in introducing new products. In additions, immigrant entrepreneurs have a strong preference for high risk projects with chances of high return.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p497