ANALYSIS OF ENTREPRENEUR’S MOTIVATION TO START BUSINESS (COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN LATVIA IN COMPARISON WITH CANADA, USA, MEXICO)

Abstract

Business start is important issue from government policy side as well as it has interests of academic researchers worldwide. Researcher attention is paid on decision to start or not to start business (Townsend, et al, 2010), on issues on business takeover or new venture start (Parker, et al, 2012), different approaches in business start – up are analysed (Chwolka and Raith, 2012), there are made evaluations of different research conducted in this area during half a decade (Lambert and Davidson, 2013), made comparisons and cross – country investigations (Clerq, et al, 2012), made different kinds of forecasts (Cassar, 2014). Researchers are interested in performance expectations of entrepreneurs in business start: which driving forces are most important, do they differ in different countries, by age groups, by education level obtained to examine intrinsic and extrinsic motives in different contexts. Aim of the current research is to make comparisons of performance expectations of entrepreneurs willing to start business with special attention to factors influencing business success in comparison with entrepreneurs in Canada, USA and Mexico. Tasks of the current paper are: to find out the results of opinion of starting entrepreneurs, which factors are more important; find out the complex factors of entrepreneurs motivation to start business and make comparisons with the results in other countries; find out the opinion differences of starting entrepreneurs by age groups and by education level. The results of researchers could be used for public administrators and politicians for preparation of suggestions for decision making.

Methods and results: Research methods used: scientific literature studies, survey of starting entrepreneurs in the business start phase in Latvia (survey was conducted in October 2013 – February, 2014) which is comparable with survey conducted in Canada, USA and Mexico, results are compared with survey results in Canada, USA and Mexico. In survey for most of questions evaluation scale 1 – 5 is applied. The same methodology is used as in countries listed. For data processing descriptive statistical indicators, factor analysis and variance analysis are applied. Main findings of the paper are that in general the motivation factors in different countries are alike, but for Latvia entrepreneurs willing to start their business most important factors influencing business success are: good client service; honesty reputation; charisma and friendliness with clients; good management abilities and among the less important factors are: political support and interest. Factor analysis has indicated five complex factors from 17 initial factors. Factor analysis with extraction method: Principal component analysis, rotation method: varimax with Kaiser normalisation was performed rotated five complex factors in 9 iterations.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.8.6839