Women entrepreneurship research in the developing world relies on theoretical perspectives derived elsewhere. Hence, understanding the original business-development approaches adopted by women entrepreneurs in developing economies remains elusive. Accordingly, we collected and analyzed rich data generated through 31 in-depth interviews and artifacts of Nigerian women entrepreneurs in the garment manufacturing business. Our analysis revealed distinct constructs that account for their business-development activities. It shows money (access and utilization), market (customer intelligence), and management (nonformal education and experience) as crucial enterprise development components in women entrepreneurship. Motherhood (household responsibilities), meso-and macro-environments (socioeconomic and cultural factors) not only affected business development but also inhibited women entrepreneurs' access and utilization of money, management, and markets and shaped their business development actions. Theoretical and practical implications for entrepreneurship research and policy development initiatives in the developing world are offered. KEYWORDS Gender-based growth model; growth determinants; women entrepreneurshipWomen entrepreneurs in West Africa generally operate their businesses within an institutional environment characterized by corruption, lack of government transparency, incoherent policies, bureaucracy and inefficiency, excessive red tape, disproportionate taxes, and poor infrastructures (Dana, 2018; Ogundana, Forthcoming). The legal and judicial systems in many West African countries suffer from the (a) absence of law and criminal sanctions explicitly addressing sexual harassment in business; (b) lack of legislation that ensures that married women and men have equal property ownership rights; and (c) presence of laws requiring married women to obey their husbands (World Bank, 2013). African culture, religion, and family systems generally assume that women are subordinate to men. Accordingly, women carry the CONTACT Oyedele Martins Ogundana

In Nigeria, most of businesses operate in the form of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). SMEs play a significant role in the economic development of many nations. This paper employs current perspectives to examine the factors affecting investment, productivity and growth of SMEs by employing the World Bank Enterprise Survey in Nigeria. It explored five main factors affecting investment and productivity in Nigeria as follows: education of the labour force, access to infrastructure, access to finance, size of firms and other business climate variables. Other business climate variables are insecurity, bribe or corruption, the amount of time that businesses spend dealing with government regulation, poor power availability, etc. In a survey of 2,676 firms, access to finance (33.1%), access to electricity (27.2%) and the level of corruption (12.7%) were the most ranked obstacles for business owners. By employing the World Bank Enterprise Survey, this paper presents and analyses the business environment challenges at the national level.

This research examined the direct and indirect impact of taxation on the Nigerian economic growth. This research centered on two major objectives by focusing on the trend of direct and indirect tax and the impact of the Nigerian tax system on the growth of the economy.  The research adopted the descriptive research design.  The secondary source of data was also engaged as this data was from CBN statistical bulletin and the annual reports from 1994-2013. The research also used the ordinary least square regression technique. With the use of E-views 7.1 to analyze the data, the first objective was achieved by using graphical analysis while the second objective used ordinary least square regression analysis. The results reveal that the direct and indirect tax have a positive impact on the economy of Nigeria. Therefore, it is recommended that government should take advantage of taxation and promote tax system in Nigeria.

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This study examined entrepreneurial competencies as a viable pathway for improving the innovative performance of SMEs in Nigeria's informal sector and the contingent roles of the business environment. A survey research design was used to gather data from 296 entrepreneurs who operate informal SMEs in Nigeria. Based on the findings from the SEM-PLS multivariate analysis, the study concluded that entrepreneurial competencies, especially organising, conceptual, learning, strategic, opportunity and risk-taking competencies, are essential for achieving higher innovation performance. The study also reveals that entrepreneurial competencies are useful towards mitigating environmental pressures resulting from operational turbulence and erratic policy changes, as the firm drives towards improving innovation outputs. As such, the entrepreneurship environment is becoming more endogenous as entrepreneurs, through their entrepreneurial competencies, have started to gain control over it. This study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by highlighting the most essential competencies alongside the relevant contingencies. By doing that, this study offers a practical guide on priority competence area that entrepreneurship stakeholders, including entrepreneurs and policymakers, should consider for investment.