Entrepreneurial Orientation through Proactiveness and Its Role in Growth of Public Transport Enterprises in Kenya

Abstract

The public transport enterprises play a critical role in the country’s economy. The growth of these critical enterprises, however, has been minimal with many of the enterprises operating in urban areas and unable to expand to new routes across the country. As the transport industry continues to be unpredictable and highly competitive, it remains unclear on ability of entrepreneurs in the sector to proactively take advantage of emerging opportunities and become more resilient to continue expanding the enterprises. This study therefore sought to explore the extent to which entrepreneurs in the public transport sector have embraced entrepreneurial proactiveness towards enhancing growth of their enterprises. The study, through a descriptive-correlational research design, surveyed 261 public transport enterprises in Kenya; where the owners or managers of these enterprises were surveyed using a questionnaire. The results revealed that most of the public transport enterprises had not integrated entrepreneurial proactiveness, where the entrepreneurs were not proactive in identifying and implementing new opportunities, thus exposing the enterprises to loss of competitive advantage. It was established that entrepreneurial proactiveness had a significant impact on growth of public transport enterprises in Kenya. The study concluded that the evident stagnation of public transport enterprises was strongly associated with lack of entrepreneurial proactiveness among the entrepreneurs. It is therefore recommended that for public transport enterprises to be resilient and competitive and eventually grow, entrepreneurs ought to be proactive by steadily identifying new opportunities through continuous market research and implementing measures that robustly respond to changes in operating market.