Entrepreneurial Competencies and Involvement in Decision-Making of Women in Family Poultry Businesses in San Jose, Batangas

Date

5-2017

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness Management

College

College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Adviser/Committee Chair

Dinah Pura T. Depositario

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the link between the personal entrepreneurial competencies and the involvement in decision-making of women to family poultry businesses in the municipality of San Jose, in the province of Batangas. The poultry industry plays a big role in the economy of the town. These poultry businesses were mainly family business led by entrepreneurial couples, which are composed of the husband and the wife. The women who had a share in the responsibility of the success or failure of their business, which eventually affects the economy of the town, was the focus of the study; and their personal entrepreneurial competencies (PECs) and roles in decision-making of different areas in their business.

The municipality of San Jose was chosen as the focus in the study since it is dubbed as the Egg Basket of the Philippines, showing growth in its economy due to the successful poultry industry.

Primary data like the enterprise and socio-demograhic profile were obtained from personal interviews and questionnaires provided during the interview sessions. On the other hand, secondary data like the poultry performance report and lists of the poultry enterprises registered, were obtained from journals and special problem reports found in the CEM Library, UPLB Main Library, websites online and from different institutions such as World Bank, Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS), Department of Agriculture (DA), Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics, and Philippine Commission on Women.

The researcher interviewed and provided questionnaires to 30 women poultry business owners to gather information about the enterprise profile of family poultry businesses, the socio-demographic and entrepreneurial profile of the women involved in the study, the decisions made by these women across all areas of their poultry business, and the PEC ratings of the women entrepreneurs. These 30 women poultry owners were identified through convenience sampling. The tool for analysis used was measures of central tendency – mean and mode, frequency to see if there is a frequent response from the respondents and one-way ANOVA test to determine if there is a significant difference between the three groups (husband and wife, husband, and wife) in each competency for various nature of business decisions.

Results showed that majority of the family poultry business involved in the study were established for more than 30 years and that most of them were solely egg-type of business. Source of initial capitalization of the enterprises were mainly from the practice of profession of the married woman and their husbands, and earnings from the poultry business for the current capitalization.

As for the profile of the women entrepreneurs, most of the women entrepreneurs who finished college had business-related degrees. More than one-third of the women entrepreneurs were either the eldest or the second in the family.

In general, the PEC analysis showed that the women respondents did not rate strong in any competency. They were weak in the areas of risk-taking, opportunity-seeking and persistence. In the roles between the husband and wife related to the various business decisions, the women tended to make decisions in the areas of finance and marketing. Meanwhile, the respondents jointly made decisions with their husbands in strategic formulation, conceptualization of major innovations in business and operations.

The lowest average scores were posted by the women who depended totally on their husbands for decision-making related to the area of finance, specifically on PECs of persistence, risk-taking, opportunity-seeking, commitment to work contract, and persuasion and networking. Moreover, the women entrepreneurs who claimed that they were dependent on their husbands for strategic formulation were noted to be weak in terms of risk-taking, opportunity-seeking, persuasion and networking, commitment to work contract, and persistence. In addition, the women who claimed that they were the ones who made operations-related decisions cored high in goal setting, self-confidence, and systematic planning and monitoring.

The women entrepreneurs reported mostly problems related to access to finance such as start-up finance, working capital and finance for business growth as the major problems they encountered in starting and running the business. Moreover, they also cited two problems in relation to managing human resources and technical difficulties in handling of the poultry.

From the results of the one-way ANOVA test used in relation to the various areas of decision-making, Cluster 1 PECs and Cluster 2 PECs were the PECS where the women who solely made decisions in the various business functions were high compared to the two other groups.

The ANOVA test results also suggest that improving the women entrepreneurs’ Cluster 1 PECs were more important to enhance strategic formulation, conceptualization of major innovations in business, finance, and marketing. Meanwhile, Cluster 2 PECs seem to be more significantly related to operations, while all PEC clusters could be considered as important to enhance human resource management-related decision-making.

In summary, Achieving Behaviors (Cluster 1) and Organizational and Planning Behaviors (Cluster 2) competencies are important factors that can lead to more effective decision–making in the areas of strategic formulation, conceptualizations of major innovation in business, human resource management, finance, and marketing. Thus, it appears that in trainings that aim to enhance the competencies of women entrepreneurs, the trainors should focus on these two clusters.

Recommendations were made to help increase the participation in decision-making of women entrepreneurs in their family businesses. These can be helpful to government or private organizations and/or local government units (LGUs) which would want to support the growth of women enterprises. It involves conducting seminars or trainings that will help the entrepreneurs to strengthen the decision-making competencies which hinder their participation in their decision-making.

The women entrepreneurs that will attend the trainings will be grouped into PEC clusters based on the competencies where they are weak. Cluster 1 consists of women who have posted weak PEC ratings in opportunity-seeking, risk-taking, persistence, commitment to work contract, and demand for quality and efficiency. Cluster 2 will be comprised of women who have posted weak PEC ratings for information seeking, goal setting, and systematic planning and monitoring. Lastly, cluster 3 will be those who have posted weak PEC ratings for self-confidence and persuasion and networking.

The PECs can be enhanced through activities such as business projects, experiential exercises, team building exercises, networking exercises, and business and technical mentoring. Focus trainings will be offered to develop the business decision capabilities of the women across business functions. Depending on the functional area that women entrepreneurs have to improve on, educational and training institutions should design their trainings to emphasize certain groups of clusters. It is expected that the women will learn from the specialized training they have undergone and apply it to their business.

Language

English

LC Subject

Poultry industry--Philippines, Businesswomen--Attitudes

Location

UPLB College of Economics and Management (CEM)

Call Number

LG 993 2017 M17 H86

Notes

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Document Type

Thesis

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