The Motives for Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries; the Case of Nairobi

Abstract: Entrepreneurship is on the rise in Africa. The Kenyan government is focusing on entrepreneurship and the digital scene for the future growth of the country. The digital startup ecosystem is growing as well as the number of entrepreneurs is rising which has further increased the discussion of business opportunities in the region. This raises the question why the entrepreneurs themselves want to pursue entrepreneurship as an active career. Past research show that entrepreneurial motivations may differ due to geographical regions, and may differ due to the economical condition of the country. The authors see that more emphasize must be put on entrepreneurial motives in developing countries to further understand why people want to pursue entrepreneurship. Since there is little research on entrepreneurial motivations in developing countries, where on region is Nairobi, Kenya, the authors aim to add knowledge in this field to further understand entrepreneurial motivations across the world. This is a qualitative research where the authors aim to explore the entrepreneurial motives behind going into entrepreneurship in Nairobi, Kenya. 18 participants have been interviewed through a semi-structured interview format in Nairobi for 2 weeks in March 2017. The results show that there are three main motives present in Nairobi. The findings have been compared to, according to the inductive reasoning approach, a theory of entrepreneurial motivations and have found that there are different motives present in Nairobi than in other regions in the world. Some entrepreneurial motives that are less common in developed countries are more common in Nairobi, which confirm that entrepreneurial motives differ due to geographical regions.