Towards Achieving Corporate Entrepreneurship Competencies of Employees in Ghana: Background Characteristics in Perspective

Introduction: This study, sought to assess the effects of age, education, years of operation and gender on antecedents of corporate entrepreneurship (CE), self-efficacy and desirability, and corporate entrepreneurship competencies of employees.

Methods: This is a quantitative cross-sectional study among 400 employees of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis. Pretested questionnaires were used for the data collection. Independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA were employed to analyse the data. Statistical significance was declared at p<0.05.

Results: There was a statistically significant difference in the views of male and female employees in terms of competitive intensity. There were statistically significant differences in employees’ views regarding organisational factors. Also, there were statistically significant differences between the various levels of education with regard to employees self-efficacy and desirability. Again, the results show that the highest level of education of employees has statistically significant effect on their corporate entrepreneurship competencies regarding innovativeness, proactiveness, personal competence, personal initiative and risk-taking ability. In terms of years of operation, there was a statistically significant differences in relation to environmental factors.

Conclusion: It is recommended to owners/managers of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and policy makers in the sector to ensure that policies which involve promotion of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and intrapreneurial competencies are properly implemented devoid of gender and age biases to enable larger proportion of the population get employed in the sector and also have the opportunity to acquire the needed intrapreneurial knowledge, skills and competencies.