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1. Introduction
Entrepreneurship is a process of identifying, evaluating and exploiting opportunities through organised efforts that have not previously existed (Carree and Thurik, 2010; Shane, 2003). For any economy, this contributes to employment generation, promotes innovation and competition through increased consumer choices (Hessels and van Stel, 2011; de Wit and de Kok, 2014). Therefore, there is a need for every country to continuously consider how to promote entrepreneurship. In Zambia, micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) represent 97 per cent of all firms and offer 82 per cent of the jobs in the country (CSO, 2013; Peters, 2014). Like many other governments, the Zambian Government has taken many actions over the last two decades to promote and support entrepreneurship. Yet, despite some improvements in ease of starting and doing business, a number of challenges still exist.
First, based on the only three reports (i.e. 2010, 2012 and 2013) in which Zambia has been included, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) indicates that only 67 per cent of Zambians view entrepreneurship as a good career choice, lower than the Sub-Saharan Africa average of 77 per cent (Amorós and Bosma, 2013; Kew, 2015). While the entrepreneurial intention (EI) at 45 per cent in the adult population is slightly lower than the regional average of 47 per cent, the country performs dismally compared to other African countries like Uganda (61 per cent), Malawi (67 per cent) and Botswana (59 per cent). Third, when it comes to the rate of ownership of established businesses (businesses older than 42 months) among the 2,000 individuals surveyed in Zambia, research indicates 17 per cent compared to Uganda (36 per cent), Ghana (26 per cent), Nigeria (18 per cent) and the regional average of 15 per cent (Amorós and Bosma, 2013; Herrington and Kelley, 2012; Kelley et al., 2011, 2012). This observation resonates with the World Bank’s new business density index showing the number of new businesses per 1,000 working age adults in a country. In 2010, 2011 and 2012, the index in Zambia was dismal at 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4, respectively (World Bank, 2014a). Based on the 2013 data, Zambia’s new business density index was a paltry 1.36 compared to New Zealand’s 15.07, South Africa’s 6.5 and Botswana’s 12.3 (World Bank, 2014a, b)....