Potential entrepreneurs’ assessment of opportunities through the rendering of a business plan

dc.contributor.authorBotha, Melodi
dc.contributor.authorRobertson, Claire Leanne
dc.date.accessioned2014-08-01T10:55:29Z
dc.date.available2014-08-01T10:55:29Z
dc.date.issued2014
dc.description.abstractIn the field of entrepreneurship and especially during start up, much emphasis is placed on the business plan with regard to entrepreneurship education and training, funding from external investors, business plan competitions and government development agencies in the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise (SMME) sector. In many earlier studies of well-known entrepreneurship educators, the formulation of a business plan was identified as being the most important feature of any entrepreneurship programme or course. However, the relevance of a business plan has been a topic of intense and unresolved debates in more recent literature. This paper contributes to the literature with regard to the value a business plan adds to potential entrepreneurs. Furthermore it increases the understanding of how a detailed business plan (such as the approved business plan template of the University of Pretoria) can enable a potential entrepreneur to assess opportunities. The paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of business plans and the methods of assessing opportunities, in order to reveal similarities between the business plan and opportunity assessment. Based on descriptive statistics and inferential statistics such as ANOVA, and Kruskal-Wallis tests, the findings support the hypotheses that potential entrepreneurs distinguish between ideas and opportunities and develop opportunities through the formulation of a detailed business plan. The pertinent academic and practical significance of this paper is that it highlights statistically significant differences proving that a detailed business plan is a tool that enables potential entrepreneurs to assess opportunities. From a practical point of view, this should help potential entrepreneurs to establish more viable business ventures; however, this would have to be statistically tested in further research. Finally, the study reestablishes the importance and purpose of a business plan in the field of entrepreneurship.en_US
dc.description.librarianam2014en_US
dc.description.urihttp://www.sajems.org/en_US
dc.identifier.citationBotha, M & Robertson, CL 2014, 'Potential entrepreneurs’ assessment of opportunities through the rendering of a business plan', South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 249-265.en_US
dc.identifier.issn1015-8812 (print)
dc.identifier.issn2222-3436 (online)
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/41056
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherDepartment of Economics, University of Pretoriaen_US
dc.rights© 2014 The Authorsen_US
dc.subjectEntrepreneurshipen_US
dc.subjectPotential entrepreneursen_US
dc.subjectBusiness planen_US
dc.subjectOpportunity assessmenten_US
dc.titlePotential entrepreneurs’ assessment of opportunities through the rendering of a business planen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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