Entrepreneurial competencies among rural entrepreneurs towards business performance

Involvement in rural entrepreneurs in the national economic sector is one of the essences that has been considered through the National Development Plan. Various policies and strategies haves been planned to ensure that rural people receive due attention in line with the national development flows, particularly through the business sector. A case study on qualitative exposures with a total of eight research participants has been conducted to investigate the extent of entrepreneurial competence among Kelantan rural entrepreneurs that is practiced to propel in business performance. The goal is to create behavior that illustrates efficiency, and thus enable the identification of entrepreneurial competence that is contextual and relevant in the current business environment. The analysis is based on the data obtained through semi-structural interviews for rural entrepreneurs that are actively engaged in business activities in four districts in Kelantan (ie, Bachok, Tumpat, Jeli, Gua Musang). The results of the study have been analysed through Computer Aided Qualitative Data Analysis (CAQDAS NVivo). A total of thirteen competency domains have been identified; opportunity, relationship, knowledge, organizing, conceptual, commitment, personal strength, strategic, learning, discovery, evaluation, decision and autonomy. Most importantly, twelve of these categories were well represented in existing models of entrepreneurial competencies, therefore providing evidence that these models offer a reasonable degree of business performance. However, a new category has been found, namely; autonomy, is broadly concerned with the role of rural entrepreneurs towards business performance. This study concludes that the improvement on business performance among Kelantan rural entrepreneurs to venture into business must be supported by entrepreneurial competence. In implication, the effectiveness of practicing high entrepreneurial competence enables the rural entrepreneurs to empower their business performance as well as to increase the current business development opportunities.