Temporal Effects on Perception of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose: The motivation for this study stemmed from inconsistent attribution of sources of business challenges by entrepreneurs at the beginning and the end of a 3-month entrepreneurship development programme. While the entrepreneurs' general perception was that Nigeria's business environment was not conducive to entrepreneurship, some opinions shifted from inadequate funding to A lack of entrepreneurial skills by the end of the training. This study uses Nigeria as a case study to investigate the role of temporal effects on entrepreneurs’ perception of entrepreneurial ecosystems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Methodology: Quantitative time series analysis was deployed to analyse variables that are representative of the elements of the entrepreneurship ecosystem within the frameworks of the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and mixed data sampling (MIDAS) models. Findings: The study provides evidence that temporal effects may confound entrepreneurs’ assessment of the impact of certain entrepreneurial ecosystem elements on entrepreneurial outcomes. Originality: The study contributes to the attribution theory of entrepreneurial learning by providing evidence that temporal effects have the potential to influence entrepreneurs’ attribution of business failure and the entrepreneurial learning that may arise from there.