Establishing the Relative Importance of Challenges in Early-stage Entrepreneurship using Analytical Hierarchy Process

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is of utmost importance in a country’s economic development. Starting one’s own business is not easy and it is even more difficult to sustain in this highly competitive environment. This research helps understand the relative importance of challenging factors that hinders the growth of an enterprise resulting in an entrepreneur deciding whether to continue the business or exit it in the early phase itself. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is the technique used here to determine the relative position of these factors in persuading an entrepreneur’s decision to continue or exit the business. A thorough literature review identified the key challenging factors in early-stage entrepreneurship related to, Finance, Administration, Personal, Product & Market, Environment, and Human Resources. Pairwise comparison is done by collecting the opinions of eight specialists from the industry and from academia, for formulating the reciprocal matrix and analysis using AHP. The finding of this study helps entrepreneurs identify the major hurdles and their impact on the successful launch or growth of their enterprise. On the other side, this research can also be useful for the Government and other support agencies in framing policies, to wipe out hurdles that pave way for a conducive entrepreneurial environment.

Digitalization in Entrepreneurship: Unveiling the Motivational and Demographic Influences towards Sustainable Digital Sales Strategies

“…This can also be achieved through business internationalization (expanding into foreign markets), wherein digital technologies in sales play an important role [33,34]. In newly established enterprises, the limited resources available for business initiation can hinder digitalization [35]. Additionally, the utilization of digital technologies demands specific skills that the early-stage entrepreneurs might not have, because their educational background is from the field in which the company operates.…”

“…Additionally, the utilization of digital technologies demands specific skills that the early-stage entrepreneurs might not have, because their educational background is from the field in which the company operates. Acquiring these digital skills can be time-consuming or may require hiring personnel proficient in these skills, which entails extra costs [9,35]. On the other hand, established entrepreneurs possess accumulated resources for digital technology investments.…”