Impact of Business Environmental Scanning Behaviour on the Entrepreneurial Performance of Micropreneurs: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Today, business enterprises are generally immersed in a competitive and constantly changing environment. Research has shown that one way through which micropreneurs learn about the environment is Business Environmental Scanning (BES). However, most studies in BES behaviour [i.e., Degree of Interest (DOI) and Frequency of Scanning (FOS)] seem to have focused more on the medium sized and large enterprises, thereby neglecting the microenterprises. More so, it has been established that changes in the environment cause more uncertainties in microenterprises than in the medium sized and large enterprises. These changes ultimately affect the BES behaviour and Entrepreneurial Performance (ENP) of the microenterprises. This effect is influenced by the Entrepreneur and Enterprise Characteristics (IEC/ETC). Thus, this study reviewed extant literature to develop a framework with the following propositions: degree of interest is positively related to entrepreneurial performance; frequency of scanning is positively related to entrepreneurial performance; the relationship between the degree of interest and entrepreneurial performance is moderated by individual entrepreneur characteristics; the relationship between frequency of scanning and entrepreneurial performance is moderated by individual entrepreneur characteristics; the relationship between the degree of interest and entrepreneurial performance is moderated by enterprise characteristics; and the relationship between the frequency of scanning and entrepreneurial performance is moderated by enterprise characteristics. Micropreneurs can thus enhance their ENP by increasing their DOI/FOS and improving on their IEC/ETC. Again, empirical studies using this conceptual framework are suggested so as to validate the propositions and their generalization.

Keywords: Individual entrepreneur characteristics, Enterprise characteristics, BES behaviour, Entrepreneurial performance