Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship Vol. 16, No. 1 (2011) 145164 World Scientic Publishing Company DOI: 10.

1142/S1084946711001707

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS A CAREER OPTION FOR AFRICAN YOUTHS

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BEEM H. BEEKA Centre for Individual and Organizational Management Shefeld Hallam University, Howard Street, Shefeld, S1 1WB, UK Beem.H.Beeka@student.shu.ac.uk. MIKE RIMMINGTON Centre for International Hospitality Management Research Shefeld Hallam University, Howard Street, Shefeld, S1 1WB, UK M.Rimmington@shu.ac.uk

This paper presents ndings from a pilot study of four African entrepreneurs new to established, all who started their business as young people. Their narratives, enhanced by the inclusion of signicant events derived by the use of the critical incident technique, provide useful oral insights into their entrepreneurial heuristics and behavior. These reveal key inuences and critical issues that affect the young Africans decision to start a business and also perspectives into the nature of entrepreneurship in Africa. This paper concludes that the dichotomy between push and pull entrepreneurship is oversimplied, and social structures such as class, education and family background impact on ideas, opportunities, resources, skills and motivation. But most importantly, entrepreneurship can survive in an environment with many constraints, because career choices are inuenced by the youth entrepreneurs perception, decision-making abilities and experiences. Implications are drawn for the development of young entrepreneurs in Africa. Keywords: Young African; critical incidents; heuristics; opportunity recognition; entrepreneurship.

1. Rationale All over the world, interest is growing away from a managed economy and toward an entrepreneurial economy (Drucker, 1985; Linan-Alcalde Martin-Martin and GonzalezRodriguez, 2002; Stevenson and Lundstrom, 2002; Suddle and Hessels, 2007; Suddle Beugelsdijk and Wenneker, 2007). It is believed in less developed countries that new businesses can be used to empower excluded people, and this way economic growth can be expected as a result of increased entrepreneurial activity (Muller and Thomas, 2000).

Address correspondence to: Beem H. Beeka, Centre for Individual and Organizational Management, Shefeld Hallam University, Shefeld Business School, City Campus, Howard Street, Shefeld, S1 1WB, U.K. Tel: 44 (0) 114 225 3330. 145

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Entrepreneurship has been accepted worldwide as an important way of integrating more young people into the economic environment (Owualah, 1999) and research has shown that the desire to engage in entrepreneurial activity is an occupational goal for many (Reynolds and Curtain, 2008). However, there is a paucity of literature on the career decisions of young entrepreneurs in Africa. Most existing studies choose to draw out all the difculties of African youth unemployment, calling it a somber case. They emphasize Africas difcult operating conditions for small businesses (Elkan, 1988; Marsden, 1992). However, innovative entrepreneurs have emerged from environments considered too constraining (Manimala, 1992; Marsden, 1992). Entrepreneurship is the creation and extraction of value from the environment (Jack and Anderson, 2002). Thus, the inuence of the external environment is ambivalent, and too much concentration on its barriers takes away from understanding the micro-actions entrepreneurs employ to succeed. These are the pragmatic lessons that add to entrepreneurial training and development (Manimala, 1992). One may think there are only necessity youth entrepreneurs in Africa; however, this pilot study shows there are both necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs. Contemporary African entrepreneurs are consistent to depictions by classical and mainstream economists (Marsden, 1992) because they actively identify business opportunities and act on them (Elkan, 1988). Thus, this paper provides oral stories of the entrepreneurial actions of African youth entrepreneurs, and some of the critical incidents that shaped these. The paper aims to further the understanding of the entrepreneurial experience in Africa. By learning directly why indigenous youth entrepreneurs choose to become selfemployed, how they started, how they navigate constraints and their progression, insights provided in this paper allow the voices of African youth entrepreneurs to be heard. In turn this may empower more youths to consider entrepreneurship as a viable career option by exposing them to the risks, rewards and critical thinking skills as advocated by the Kauffman foundation (Taylor, 2008) this is needed to raise the entrepreneurial potentials of young people to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. This may in turn help alleviate poverty and some social ills associated with youth unemployment. This is a desirable goal, and also a great rationale for this research. 1.1. Introduction The population of Africa is now one billion and by 2050, this gure is projected to increase to nearly two billion (AllAfrica, 2009). By demographic transitions, African youths, dened as those between the ages of 1535 years old (African Union, 2006) are growing at the fastest rate in the world (Africa Commission, 2009; Chigunta, 2002a; Sommers, 2007) but they make up 60 percent of the total unemployed and only 37 percent of the labor force (World Bank, 2008). High youth unemployment is fundamental to the growing difculties in Africa, causing various economic, social and moral issues. A World Bank survey of 200,000 people in 20 countries revealed apathy and hopelessness among the poor, but self-employment and wages were noted as tools for upward mobility (Jenkins, 2007). Therefore, integrating more youths into the small business sector can

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contribute to alleviating the triad of unemployment, underemployment and poverty. However, specic research into the eld of youth entrepreneurship in the African context is limited or non-existent (Chigunta, 2002b; Chigunta et al., 2005; Schoof, 2006). Understandably, youth entrepreneurship is not the total solution to youth unemployment (Curtain, 2000; World Bank, 2008). However, it is recognized as an innovative strategy to integrate more youths into todays work environment given changing career patterns (Africa Commission, 2009; Chigunta et al., 2005; Egulu, 2004). All over the world entrepreneurship is linked to employment generation, innovation and economic growth (Drucker, 1985; Schumpeter, 1947; Suddle and Hessels, 2007). Nevertheless, entrepreneurship in Africa has been downplayed over the past 30 years (Marsden, 1992) even though Sub-Saharan Africas youths, more than any other part of the world, have the highest tendency to be self-employed (Chigunta, 2002b; Shariff, 2000). However, African entrepreneurs operate under resource-starved conditions. Their solutions to entrepreneurial start-up, nance, human-resources and operational strategy provide a rare insight into the unique skills and perspectives needed to start and sustain a business with minimal resources (Diomande, 1990). This perception can communicate the reality that risk and uncertainty are recurring facts of life but, despite this, entrepreneurial activity can take place. This can contribute to youth empowerment, individual well-being, social mobility, community development and economic growth (Farley, 2000).

2. Theoretical Background 2.1. Dening entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur Numerous attempts have been made to dene entrepreneurship, yet to date it lacks a generic denition (Cole, 1946; Gartner, 1988; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000). A full discussion of denitions is beyond the scope of this paper. Kaplan and Warren (2007) describe it as the process of planning, organizing, operating, and assuming the risk of a business venture. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) also supports a denition based on the actual operation of some kind of business, even if based on only self employment, dening entrepreneurially active people as adults in the process of setting up a business they will (partly) own and/or currently owning and managing an operating business (Reynolds et al., 2005). This is the stance that has been adopted in this paper. Nascent entrepreneurs can be described as individuals in the process of starting a new business (Carter, Gartner and Reynolds, 1995; Delmar and Davidsson, 2000; Parker and Belghitar, 2006). Thus, for the purpose of this paper a youth entrepreneur is a young person who is in the process of starting, has started, or is operating a business venture. According to Drucker (1985) the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity. Therefore, with the essence of entrepreneurship being the pursuit of opportunities without regard to resources under control, this situational and behavioral approach focuses on actual behavior and practice, which can lead to better studies and insight relevant to the development of entrepreneurial skills in the African context Stevenson and Jarillo (1990).

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2.2. Entrepreneurial career choice The eld of economics has demonstrated that entrepreneurship is an employment choice (Arenius and Minniti, 2005). The decision to start a business can be a result of unemployment, or the threat of losing ones job in the future, termed the push or desperation effect. The pull effect alternatively occurs when individuals decide to take advantage of opportunities in the economy (Bosma and Harding, 2007; Kuratko, 2009; Linan-Alcalde, Martin-Martin and Gonzalez-Rodriguez, 2002; Reynolds and Curtain, 2008; Stel et al., 2007; Thurik et al., 2008). The occupational choice approach argues that when unemployment is high, the cost of business entry reduces substantially, thus making self-employment attractive; this push is termed the refugee effect (Thurik et al., 2008). However, this approach can be hampered by the fact unemployed people, most often, have low endowments of human capital and entrepreneurial talent required to sustain business ownership. Besides, being unemployed also negatively affects personal wealth decreasing the self-employment choice (Criscuolo, Nicolaou and Salter, 2007; Stel et al., 2007; Thurik et al., 2008). Furthermore, most unemployed youths lack human capital (education, experience and job skills), so when unemployment is high they typically become underprepared necessity entrepreneurs. In addition, individual constraints and entry barriers, such as raw material control, technology, market outlets, advertising and threats of retaliatory action by incumbent rms can also discourage potential necessity entrepreneurs (Bygrave and Cowling, 2002). However, the opportunity cost argument is that in total it is more probable that unemployed people, rather than the employed, will tend to exploit entrepreneurial opportunity (Shane, 2003). The Schumpeter effect describes the positive impact of entrepreneurship on the economy (Criscuolo, Nicolaou and Salter, 2007; Stel et al., 2007). When new business ventures create jobs, unemployment is reduced, and when new entrepreneurs innovate, they bring about new products, improvement in production processes, increased productivity, more competition and better consumer choices (Bygrave and Cowling, 2002; Criscuolo, Nicolaou and Salter, 2007; Kirchhoff and Greene, 1995; Reynolds and Curtain, 2008; Schumpeter, 1947; Stel et al., 2007). On an individual level, this career choice can be a lifetime goal rather than a decision taken in isolation. Thus, entrepreneurship is not always the case of displaced individuals looking to get out of a bad situation, but rather a socioeconomic choice (Reynolds and Curtain, 2008). However, although the general notion is that men venture into entrepreneurship for independent work, control and for increased earnings, a pilot study provided an alternate view that men of Black African origin, highly educated but disadvantaged in the labor market, were becoming necessity entrepreneurs (Nwankwo, 2005). However, in Africa, females makeup the bulk of unemployed youths (Africa Commission, 2009). In view of the causal factors, it can be concluded that entrepreneurship can be a career choice, particularly in situations of high unemployment. While unemployment increases self-employment, self-employment reduces unemployment (Thurik et al., 2008). Research has found inconclusive arguments both for and against push and pulls factors (Aderemi et al., 2009; Campbell and De Nardi, 2007; Delmar and Davidsson, 2000).

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2.3. Entrepreneurial characteristics Progressing from the viewpoint that entrepreneurship is a personal choice, certain factors can also affect the decision to become an entrepreneur. These include the existence of role models, self-condence about ones skills, readiness to take risk, coping with the fear of failure and the ability and alertness to take advantage of opportunities given the peculiarities in each individuals countrys environment (Arenius and Minniti, 2005; Wagner, 2004). Kaplan and Warren (2007) advanced that the success or failure of enterprises depended on a special mix of courage, self-condence and skills.
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2.4. Entrepreneurship opportunity recognition For many years, the focus of entrepreneurship was on who entrepreneurs were and what they did, concentrating on personality traits and characteristics rather than the entrepreneurial process. This contributed to the absence of a conceptual framework that showed the unexplained and predictable phenomenon of entrepreneurship. However, more recent investigations have focused on the process of entrepreneurial discovery, evaluation and the exploitation of opportunity, and why, when and how different modes of action are used to exploit entrepreneurial opportunities (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000). 2.5. Entrepreneurial heuristics Entrepreneurial heuristics are cognitive thumb-rules that guide the decisions involved in starting or managing a new venture (Scot and Shaver, 1991). Entrepreneurial heuristics can help explain entrepreneurial behavior/performance (Manimala, 1992; Wickham, 2004; 2006), and the reality of decision making is that entrepreneurs often do not have all necessary information or detailed cost-benet analysis before they make decisions (Mitchell et al., 2007). Most decisions are made without objective assessment, and the probability may be inconclusive (Tversky and Kahneman, 1973). The practical mindset to mobilize entrepreneurship is necessary to succeed, because simply removing environmental barriers will not reduce poverty (Farley, 2000). Also, because businesses cannot choose their operational environments, their adjustments to social, economic and business forces become a necessary evil; the ability to innovate through quality decisions keeps some businesses aoat and avoids extinction (Cole, 1946). For youths, opportunity recognition and positive entrepreneurial heuristics are therefore important business skills. 3. Methodology An interpretative approach is best for researching the entrepreneurial experience (Mitchell, 1996; Steyaert, 1997). Thus, the methodology for this study is interpretative, based around using a narrative approach enriched by the Critical Incident Technique (CIT): The critical incident technique consists of a set of procedures for collecting direct observations of human behavior in such a way as to facilitate their potential usefulness in solving practical problems and developing broad psychological principles (Flanagan, 1954).

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CIT is a useful way of studying entrepreneurial behavior and gathering discursive, cognitive, affective and behavioral inuential data. It can provide signicant insights into the practical nature of entrepreneurship (Chell and Pittaway, 1998). The narrative construction approach signicantly introduces enhanced conceptual, epistemological and methodological reection (Steyaert and Bouwen, 1997). Practical theories are developed from narrative life stories that are implicit, intuitive and tacit in situated resources of practice. They draw out what works, through practical examples of opportunity recognition, decision-making, venture creation and managing business growth (Rae, 2004). Given that narratives are straightforward accounts of past happenings (Bruner, 1991; Rubin and Rubin, 1995), the participants were asked questions that elicited insights regarding their background, why they chose to start a business, how they became entrepreneurs, their unique challenges and their view of their prospects. The respondents were requested to identify any critical incidents that inuenced their views. They were also asked to describe at least one positive and negative event experienced during the course of developing business. It is based on their narratives that critical incidents or common themes were developed and compared with entrepreneurial theory. Their incidents deal with various issues ranging from career motivation, business planning and operations. The critical incident technique has been utilized by various researchers (e.g. Chell et al., 1991; Chell and Pittaway, 1998; Flanagan, 1954), it avoids the breadth of cases that can get lost in translation, and instead provide more in-depth understanding of complex issues that at rst glance seem trivial; it also allows for practical issues to be uncovered, which adds to learning because the majority of people can be affected by similar situations. At times the true stories may even be stranger than ction and almost unbelievable (Hinkin, 1995). Narratives are stories of experiences rather than described events (Andrews et al., 2008). This is how the self is constructed and how the entrepreneurs make sense of their world (Bruner, 1991). An advantage of the CIT is that it provides complete data, as well as the rich details described; it provides insights into entrepreneurial heuristics and how they affect outcomes (Chell and Pittaway, 1998). A limitation is ensuring incidents are captured and represented sufciently. 3.1. The participants The four entrepreneurs involved in this pilot study operate in the same city, but come from three different sectors at different stages of their career experience from early stage to established enterprise. Two operate informally and two formally. Three are currently within the African youth range, while one is older but also started his enterprise young. All are educated to at least secondary school level. This exploratory limited participant group is a deliberate act to garner depth rather than breadth and will inform others of the research agenda and methodology to be used in a more extensive study. The entrepreneurs were identied through personal recommendations and networking. Narratives and critical incidents were gathered as the participants told stories about their entrepreneurship career. Ethical research procedures were followed. Below is a brief prole of the entrepreneurs; because of condentiality, their real names and those of rms and corporations have been changed.

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3.1.1. Gwen, female, micro mobile phone-call center and top-up cards retail Gwen is 23 years old and a sole trader. In 2009 she started and runs a micro mobile phonecall center at a single location in a central commercial area, under a large customized telecom giant umbrella, within close proximity of public sector ofces, shopping malls, restaurants and hotels. Her operations are simple; while some people come over and use her collection of mobile phones to make calls and pay for minutes used; others buy recharge cards (mobile top-up). In 2010 she expanded her operations and recently started selling bottled water and soft drinks.
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3.1.2. Alex, male, micro mobile phone-call center and top-up cards retail Alex is 32 years old and a sole trader. Similar to Gwen, he also runs a micro mobile phonecall center and sells mobile phone recharge cards (top-up). He is located at an area considered highbrow, next to the suburbs hospital with some restaurants in close proximity. Ten years ago, after an apprentice term at a building materials business, he started an identical business venture. Unfortunately, he lost everything in dire circumstances because of the retrospective enforcement of development planning control, which led to buildings being demolished. He had to start another venture all over again. 3.1.3. Tony, male, photographic and video studio Tony is 35 years old and the founder-owner of a photography and video studio. He started photography as a hobby while in vocational training. Subsequently, he gained professional experience in other established photo studios before he started his own studio 14 years ago. He has three permanent staff. 3.1.4. Terhide, male, interior designer Terhide is an interior designer who started his business at age 21 and is currently 50 years old. He is the founder-owner of an interior design rm, furniture manufacturing factory and indoor-outdoor display systems. He is highly creative, analytical and studied at a university in England. He later got some contracts and soon after relocated to Nigeria to start his own business. He has 27 permanent staff. Findings from the entrepreneurs are presented below. The interviewees were able to easily recount oral stories that included critical incidents. These are presented in themes that allow the integration of practice to theory. Discussion is used to evaluate the implications of the ndings.

4. Findings and Discussion This section presents the oral stories, the empirical investigation and an examination of the results regarding the career choice, decisions and key considerations from the selected entrepreneurs.

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4.1. Stories of opportunity recognition and career decision These present oral accounts of how the entrepreneurial identities of the participants were constructed. 4.1.1. Necessity push After my WAEC (West African Examination Council) I started computer studies but had nothing to do, no job, no school, so last year a friend introduced me to the business. I started with nothing, she loaned me a mobile phone handset, which I used in making calls, and two months later I raised enough money to refund her phone and buy my own phone. For the recharge cards (prepaid) the Mallams (Hausa term for Mr; trade supplier) owned the bulk of it and would drop them off in the morning and in the evening come back to collect what hasnt been sold and their money and then pay you your share (commission). I did this till I earned enough money to start buying my own cardsI started as a call center, and subsequently added selling of recharge cards. This year, I started selling water and soft drinks, my initial motivation was because sitting here I get thirsty, but now that side of trade is also growing (Gwen). I am the kind of person who in any business I do, I do more than expected. My boss (while on apprenticeship) for over two years gave me stock worth NGN 200,000 [USD 1NGN 150.53] paying for that back with NGN 300,000 worth of goods I generated stock worth over NGN 1,000,000 In 2003 I started my own shop and was selling building materials (zinc, cement and paint) when Wudu new market was demolished, they even put re and burnt everything. I didnt even recover anything, everything was damagedA lady called me to operate her call center for her, I did this for two years and in 2005, I started my own call business. I bought my own handset and started gradually (Alex). 4.1.2. Opportunity pull I am a trained technician, l trained as a plumber in college, while at school I started photography as a hobby and also to sustain myself around the school. After that I did casual work at Johns Images, a photo studio in Mayland. While there someone saw something good in me, picked interest and asked me to help set up his professional photo studio in AbujaAfter I was being blackmailed I left and worked at the best studio in Abuja, Photoshop, but I left after one year, because right from day one I always had the zeal to work for myself and myself alone. I became an ardent listener of the radio, I listened with passion this is how I got news and information about what was happening, I would hear about the conferences and appear there to snap picturesI had the

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passion for photography, that is why I worked at Photoshop even though I had no denite salary. I was getting about NGN 1,600. Late 1996 when I left them I at least had minor business exposure. A young man needs exposure and understanding. These experiences make one not scared of larger work or the larger world anymoreWhen I left Photoshop I swore I would not work for anyone anymore, so I started Success Studios. I had saved below NGN 5,000 so I rented a camera and started attending conferences and snapping to take pictures. My kid brother and I came up with the name Success Studios while juggling through namesEventually I rented a shop for about NGN 2,000 which also served as my home. I was sleeping in the shop and developing the place. With NGN 500 I bought lm, I would print and sell, and I used about NGN 2,000 to register the business with the CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission) (Tony). I had always been artistic, good with both ne arts and everything to do with calculations; at one point I thought I would study statistics. I was advised to go study ne arts and I thought me, an artist? I got accepted to study textile design at university and not quite two weeks into the courseI went into the career management ofce, picked up a prospectus and saw interior design. I was impressed with the course content and job possibilities for interior design since it offered a wider area to fashion.I switched courses, right from the word go I really enjoyed the structure of the course, we would get the curriculum in advance and I would work on that nishing 3 to 5 months ahead of others. So I had much time on my own and started studying building technology, restructuring old buildings and so on. When I came back from England in 1981 there were no job opportunities for interior designers, they were not popular and were overshadowed by architects when it came to building and auxiliary services. Even though there were no job opportunities I knew that specialized interior designing services was needed in the country. While in England I was approached to design hotels and conference centers, I did other projects tooBasically I got into my current business while looking for a way to generate a job when I came out of university, plus I had a strong urge to practice what I went to school for, so I started introducing myself to people, sending write-ups and brochures of portfolio I developed from schoolWhen I started I wanted to take up only the professional services, not contract and furniture making. But I discovered that after I gave manufacturers designs of furniture to make they were not getting my designs right, I ventured into furniture making, designing and manufacturing myself (Terhide). From these oral stories, it is clear that opportunity recognition often occurs at the early stages (nascent) of venture formation with reoccurrence over the lifetime of the enterprise

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(Hills, 1995). An essential theme that has also emerged from these opportunity discovery, evaluation and exploitation (Shane and Venkataraman, 2000) is that in real life, career decisions are made with the help of happenstance, entrepreneurial alertness and a response to serendipitous opportunity (Bandura, 1977). Given the career choice argument in section 2.2, the narratives establish that the motivation for Gwen and Alex were negative external forces, the push or desperation effect (Thurik et al., 2008) because of unemployment (Gwen) and a tragedy (Alex) that occurred from inconsistent development control planning. Tony and Terhide were pulled into entrepreneurship seeking independence, selfactualization, wealth and other desired outcomes (Carter et al., 2003). But, one also may argue that Terhide may have been pushed into entrepreneurship; thus, the dichotomy between necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs may be oversimplied. Furthermore, it is also clear that a desire for autonomy (Manolova, Brush and Edelman, 2008), innovation (Schumpeter, 1947), technical knowledge (Kuratko, 2009), prior industry experience (Ardichvili et al., 2003; Marsden, 1992; Shane, 2003) both experiential (by doing) and vicarious (from others) learning (Shane, 2003), basic educational attainment (Reynolds and Curtain, 2008) and social networks (Dubini and Aldrich, 1991; Marsden, 1992) have been key ingredients for business venturing. Additionally, as Drucker (1985) points out, the new technology is now knowledge application, the higher expertise levels of Tony and Terhide increased their ability to engage in more specialized services. Thus, the more educated are found in knowledge based sectors (Delmar and Davidsson, 2000). 4.1.3. Social networks and role models Those who know self-employed people have greater propensity to also follow that path (Arenius and Minniti, 2005; Wagner, 2004). Self efcacy is the self-belief in personal ability to perform a task (Bandura, 1977) and role models have been known to enhance self-efcacy (Arenius and Minniti, 2005), because role models provide knowledge on the best ways of exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities (Shane, 2003). For Gwen, probably because of her poor background and cultural factors, her parents did not encourage her to become an entrepreneur. However, knowing other entrepreneurs does inuence entrepreneurship (Arenius and Minniti, 2005). It is evident that directly or indirectly all entrepreneurs had been inuenced by their social network; parents, friends, relatives (Gwen, Tony and Terhide) and apprentice boss (Alex). My parents sell foodstuffs in the market, but they didnt encourage us to help out; rather they wanted us to go to school (Gwen). Dad was a policeman I look very much like him. Mum was the selfemployed one, and the motivator she was selling tomatoes and pepper and I used to help her sell when I got back from school. I was the one closest to her and I can say that was where I learned buying and selling (Tony). Dad was a quantity surveyor who worked for the government, while mum was considered a full time housewife, but she ran a Mobil distributorship

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business, we would go to her shop then and interact with customersMy aunties were really into big time buy and sell; they would go to Beirut and Rome and buy all kinds of apparels and jewelry to sell. I followed them for about one year before I started university, buying and selling mens shoes and shirts, then I resumed university. I really wasnt looking for money then or thought much of it; it was just something to do (Terhide). 4.2. Individual characteristics
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As theory conrms, the participants believe an entrepreneurial career is feasible based on their individual assessment of personal abilities and interpretation of the environment (Delmar, 2000). Essentially, their individual characteristics reveal their personality traits, attributes and entrepreneurial heuristics. 4.2.1. Personality traits and attributes Personality traits have been a subject of debate for so long (Gartner, 1988). Yet studies have proven that personalities lead and shape rms (Chell, Hedberg-Jalonen and Miettinen, 1997). Traits and attributes offer important predictions regarding entrepreneurial behavior, the most common being achievement motivation, creativity, risk-taking propensity, determination, initiative, self-condence, need for autonomy, locus of control and coping with the fear of failure (Arenius and Minniti, 2005; Kuratko, 2009; Shane, 2003; Wagner, 2004). The entrepreneurs certainly from all their accounts exhibit some of these. Furthermore, Tony and Terhide offered self-actualization, creativity and anticipation of challenges as the basis for entrepreneurship; their motives appear not to be money, but it is accepted as a measure of success (Bridge, Oneill and Cromie, 2003). For Gwen and Alex, their present desires appear to be personal or family survival, economic security (Arenius and Minniti, 2005). In addition, Alex has shown determination and the ability to bounce back from a near death experience. At the moment I can pay my bills with this business (Gwen). After my shop and then house were demolished, I almost diedI left for the village but four months later I was back because there was nothing to do there except if I decided to become a farmer. There are so many relatives depending on me. I cant sit idleWhen I came back the option was between hawking on the streets, or pounding Garri and Akpu in restaurants for NGN 300 per month. I want to avoid embarrassment so I declined that work. It is better than I start small and come into my own (Alex). My decision to start a business had to do with self-actualization. I am very passionate about my goals and actualizing my dreams. I am a resource that I wish for people would tap into. When you have positive dreams they turn into money, if you feel your dreams are tough, then go

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get people to buy into your ideas and actualize it, when you achieve that you make money. Selsh people say that money is their motivator, but ideas are superior (Tony). Self-actualization is denitely why I became and entrepreneur. I nd what I do intellectually stimulating and physically challenging. When an idea is in my head, I put it down quickly and seeing what I envisioned being brought to life gives satisfaction (Terhide).
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4.2.2. Entrepreneurial heuristics During new venture creation, heuristic behavior of entrepreneurs is an attribute that leads them to perceive low risk (Simon, Houghton and Aquino, 2000). This approach is used by resource starved entrepreneurs to start a successful business. The entrepreneurial decisions made by the entrepreneurs were made under uncertainty. They did not wait to gather all information before making decisions, thus using their mental capacity to construe meaning and simplify to effect actions (Holcombe et al., 2009; Tversky and Kahneman, 1973). All the narratives throughout this paper have shown elements of decision simplication, it is important to note that none of the entrepreneurs actually felt they did not have the required business skills. For example, most entrepreneurs embark on ventures without formal knowledge of business creation strategies (Wickham, 2006). Apart from Terhide, none of the entrepreneurs started their businesses with a feasibility study. When Tony was asked to move from one state to another and startup a photo business for someone he said This was a big acid test; I jumped at the chance and surmounted the challengesThe vision was all from my head. I had no formal business plan drawn (Tony). 5. Negative Incidences and Challenges Regarding challenges, the entrepreneurs seemed to have high risk tolerance and the psychological make-up to cope with failure (Bridge, Oneill and Cromie, 1998). Selfefcacy makes it possible for these participants to keep going. It is said that entrepreneurs may be overcondent when it comes to accessing risk, and this can be because they are simply relying on cognitive biases, or sometimes their actions may be a result of an illusion of control (Simon, Houghton and Aquino, 2000). It is deduced that these African entrepreneurs are of the opinion that once you understand the environment and its inherent issues, they stop being a problem; rather you can learn to overcome the challenges and grow in business. This pilot study tentatively suggests these entrepreneurs know and perceive high levels of risk, yet still choose to engage in entrepreneurial activity because they believe in their ability to overcome obstacles. Some feel the risks are high and so are the benets, even though it is undisputed they can negatively impact margins. When the public sector contracts, when the civil servants are involved at the initial stage they will fast track it, but when they are not they

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frustrate you. Things dont work the way they should; with one project, we came up with the ideas for the government but since they were not forthcoming we converted it to BOT (Build Operate and Transfer), only when a foreign rm comes in will they stand up and call it PPP (Public-Private Partnership). But the fact is that doing business in Nigeria is riskier but the benets are always higher, thats why you see the expatriates staying back in the country when their contracts expireThe general aspects, when you do a government contract are that they pay percentages but dont want to pay the balance, most cases when you eventually get paid, it eventually amounts to nothing. In a situation where you had to borrow money to complete the project, what is left after paying bank charges will never meet your projected prot. Its just not a normal situation (Terhide). Nigeria has a population of about 149 million people (CIA, 2010) and the telecom industry is booming; by January 2010 there were 66,738,944 active GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) lines in Nigeria (Nigerian Communications Commission, 2010). The call center business in Nigeria is ubiquitous; these micro sole traders can be seen everywhere. This is the most particular retail side of the telecom business; mobile phone calls, sim card and recharge card (top-up) sales. The trade has low barriers to entry, all the telecom giants are actively encouraging call center/recharge card sales business, this is one of their sales strategies, which they also say helps to enhance the economic status of the unemployed in Nigeria (Grage, 2008). Yet, almost every day the AEPB (Abuja Environmental Protection Board) does not relent in harassing these sole traders, who are informal because of low entry but probably also to minimize their risk and protect their low returns. The reasons Gwen and Alex cited for remaining informal were: There is no need for CAC registration. We were asked to acquire one of the M telecom boxes (Kiosk) and the environmental people will leave us alone. I paid about NGN 20,000 for mine but nothing happened, that is money gone (Gwen). We registered with M telecoms with NGN 35,000 but the politics that M had stopped paying money to government caused the task force to come and took mine (Kiosk) away; even if I collect it back I dont know where I will keep it so I left it with themMy younger sister came to visit and unfortunately she was caught by the task force and locked up, it was embarrassing back in the village. For myself I just laugh at them. Life is trouble on its own, when you reach the village your only option is to become a farmer, one day things will be better so I shall stay and manage. You get many knocks but keep going because you have no option (Alex). Regarding challenges, Tony and Terhide said (Laughs) Sometimes you fool yourself that you see no challenges. But Nigeria is such a complex place you just have to understand how to

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operate in a complex placethere are so much nancial barriers, but then again some break those barriers while others tryIt is all about working hard and getting connected, it is not about money. Go after the connections and with that you get what you need to operateWhen people appreciate what you do, do it very well and then when you need capital intensive investments you can meet people. But you need to work on yourself invest in your eldThe little you make, how you utilize it tells about your future. When I was starting out as a young man I could have used the NGN 4,000 I had to buy the reigning loafers (shoes) and then squat but instead I invested it into NGN 3,000 rent, NGN 200 transport, NGN 300 introducer, NGN 500 landlordWith NGN 500 I went out and started a photo business, now I have a camera worth NGN 600,000 so the challenges depend on your situation and where you have kept yourself and where you have been, the challenges are not the same for everyoneAbout the problems of doing business in Nigeria, all excuses about the challenges in Africa are surmountable; if it is power problem then save towards an inverter. In some situations you dont look for who to blame, you just handle it yourself. I see challenges not problems everywhere I stepYour dreams determine your immediate challenges, for it to last long you require knowledge to drive from A to B, youd think you know but there is always room to know better (Tony). When Giant Hotel wanted to renovate some wings, they put out a tender and nine of us appeared on the day claiming to be interior designers. There were about four abandoned oors and we were being taken around to see the extent of the work required. Floor by oor people started backing out, by the time we got to the last oor I was the only person left since I had been the one asking all the technical questions before approval came for the job there was a military coup.We all need to make ends meet, its survival, because of challenges you wont run away, you have to master and fashion out a way by which you can survive. You dont run away from challenges you devise a method to smoothen our own way e.g. when the challenge is power, do it alternatively, get a generator, backup etcetera. In the factory we ensure we always have diesel and you factor those into your costs. But most importantly one must always plan, however small a project is start with a feasibility report, I have always done this (Terhide). All entrepreneurs said they had the capacity to handle all aspects of their business, so rather than talking about their business skills or internal operational challenges, they emphasized the challenges from the external environment. However, the incidents show the enterprises with the most educated owners were better at adapting to the business environment (Mead and Liedholm, 1998).

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6. Positive Incidences and Ambitions All the entrepreneurs have plans on sustaining their operations and for future growth. Terhides plans involved various innovative patents and joint ventures that touched on creativity, knowledge and education. Terhides responses indicated a sense of higher purpose. He said You keep praying to God asking for things and when they come you dont realize it immediately. Even though so many of the projects he dreamt of as a young entrepreneur had been actualized, he still had many to go. All the entrepreneurs are expecting to advance in the future, and have a strong desire to succeed. For two of the entrepreneurs, recounts of their positive events and prospects were tied to what they could do for their families, then career achievements. Characteristics that have emerged with the positive incidents are the need for achievement, creativity and the anticipation of constant challenge, being optimistic, making tough decisions, importance of staying positive, navigating challenges and the desire to succeed. I would like to go to university and study accounting, which will improve me and my future business (Gwen). If not for the task force disturbing us now the business was quite good when I started this, I built a three-bedroom house in the village with my earnings. With NGN 20,000 one can start this business. But if you start as a dealer distributor its about NGN 500 million you will be operating with. It is my plan that in future I can become a distributor. At that level you are making a lot of money and gaining a lot too, as a distributor you are given the authority to print cards, for example DeneTel just buy the pin numbers, the rest of the paper and cover they do themselves (Alex). Snapping the President of the Federal Republic, providing the rst ofcial portrait of the then E boss, taking various portraits and passports for those considered who is who in Nigeria. These are so many I cant say which is best. Also, I trained my younger ones to graduate (university) level, and for the past fteen years they have never had to live in squalor at least going by the average Nigerians standards I have been able to provide accommodation for all my relatives Nigeria is a virgin market, there are so many opportunitiesI know how to work comfortably in Nigeria; I need a bigger challenge I would like to expand my horizon. I would like to interact with the best in the world. I would like to collaborate with others and have a wonderful exhibition on culture showing the beauty of photography (Tony).

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7. Limitations and Further Research This research was based on a pilot study of four entrepreneurs. Further research should incorporate more participants to extend the research agenda and provide more generalized ndings. Also, the narrative approach has been criticized, in that the reasons entrepreneurs

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give for starting a business in retrospect are subject to signicant self-justication bias (Carter et al., 2003). Nevertheless, as said before these narratives are the participants learning episodes, and thus the meanings they derive from their entrepreneurial experience. Furthermore, this exploratory research does not include any interviews from institutional experts, who can, through better policy implementation, ease some of the bottlenecks encountered by African youth entrepreneurs, and foster more positive attitudes toward institutional support, so extended dimensions to the research are called for. African entrepreneurs have been described as pioneers of development because they do ourish with institutional support and still manage to thrive in harsh environments (Marsden, 1992). Africas youth entrepreneurs can be agents of change, but they need more support if they are to accomplish this mission (Steel, 1994). 8. Conclusion As each entrepreneur told their story of exploring reasons, consequences and outcomes, signicant themes emerged, which gave meaning to entrepreneurship as a viable career option for them. Undoubtedly, this methodology of gathering critical incidents about the entrepreneurial career of African youths has drawn out practical examples of opportunity recognition, decision-making, venture creation and managing business growth (Rae, 2004). These entrepreneurs were condent in their ability to start and run business ventures, based on subjective perceptions developed from an alertness to opportunities inuenced by both push and pull causal factors, and facilitated by the presence of role models, their networks, great condence in their ability to overcome obstacles, high risk tolerance and making decisions on their feet. For these entrepreneurs the push/pull argument appears more complex than a simple unemployed/employed situation; they may have been both pushed and pulled into entrepreneurship. The more educated went for the registered limited liability structure, while the least educated started in the informal sector. A Gallup poll found that access to credit, the ling process and other indicators were perceived obstacles that explained the decision to remain informal (Rheault and Tortora, 2008). All entrepreneurs experienced difculties dealing with regulatory issues and inconsistent public service institutions (Rheault and Tortora, 2008; Rogerson, 2001). Africas development agenda has identied the small business sector as valuable for employment creation, poverty alleviation and economic development (Rogerson, 2001). However, it is imperative that African governments do more to create a better enabling environment for enterprise development. These narratives show that, even with resource constraints, the entrepreneur can be central to economic development (Schumpeter, 1947). These entrepreneurs have created employment in the economy, thus reducing unemployment. The two more developed entrepreneurs had expertise that lowered their barriers to entry into more specialized business sectors. The two phone center retailers chose to operate in low barrier to entry businesses; however, their entrepreneurial characteristics enabled them to ourish, even though they were more vulnerable to environmental shifts. This pilot study nds that mindset heuristics was much more important than formal business plans

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when making the decision to start a business; being streetwise and having a can-do attitude enabled these entrepreneurs to take advantage of business opportunities and handle obstacles. These are the lessons that can contribute to African youth entrepreneurship; these pragmatic lessons add to entrepreneurial training and development (Manimala, 1992).

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