Entrepreneurship in agricultural professional service providers in the state of Campeche, Mexico

Abstract

Entrepreneurship, defined as the ability or competence to generate and create new business initiatives, is relevant to territorial and economic development. Therefore, state governments seek to support agricultural producers in the development of their entrepreneurial skills based on a network of professional service providers (PSP). The objective of the article was to analyze the construction of the concept of entrepreneurship derived from self-perceptions (positive attitudes) and characteristics of PSPs in the agricultural sector (age and years as providers). A questionnaire with 60 statements evaluated on a Likert scale from 0 to 6 was applied to 105 PSPs in the state of Campeche, Mexico; of which only 71 complete and valid observations were retained and with which an entrepreneurship index was generated. The index was obtained as the sum of the individual values ​​of each reagent, where 0 was the minimum and 360 the maximum possible (M= 279.23, DS= 35.30, Min= 62, Max= 339). In order to reduce the number of variables, phrases that reflected positive attitudes and explained the entrepreneurship index, a factor analysis was performed, obtaining 14 constructs. Two independent phrases were retained, as well as age and number of years as PSP, to be used in a hierarchical regression analysis. The results show that the variables of persistence, innovation, self-esteem, independence, commitment, and preferring to be alone, as well as other characteristics, are positively and significantly associated with higher levels of entrepreneurship (p<0.001), while the variables that did not explain it were risk and taking the initiative. Age and years of experience were not significantly associated with higher levels of entrepreneurship. Therefore, it is concluded that positive attitudes are important to explain the self-perception of entrepreneurship, while the latter does not depend on the age of the subjects. The consequence of the study for state governments lies in promoting productive projects that involve the development of competencies related to being an entrepreneur, since positive attitudes are achieved in local actors that will have an impact on greater competitiveness.