Entrepreneurial competencies as indicators of business success: Case from Turkey

In the last few decades, the importance of entrepreneurial competencies has increased because of the strategic role employed by entrepreneurs. Consequently, the purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of owner entrepreneurial competencies on business success and the relationship among demographic variables (training, experience, education) and entrepreneurial competencies. Primary data were gathered in businesses in Ankara, Turkey. The sample involves 44 private sector business owners. Entrepreneurial competencies were operationalized as strategic, commitment, conceptual, opportunity, organizing and leading, relationship, learning, personal, ethical and social responsibility competencies. Data were analyzed by using simple regression analysis method. It was found that entrepreneurial competencies influence positively self-reported satisfaction with business' financial and non-financial success of entrepreneurs. It was also concluded that found that demographic variables: training, experience and education of entrepreneurs do not have impact on the development of entrepreneurial competencies except master's degree that has positive effect on the development of learning competency. Therefore, findings of this research would be beneficial for entrepreneurs and policy makers. This thesis also, gives some informative suggestions for future researches on the related topic.