Performance of Ghanaian women businesses community: the moderating role of social competence

Purpose - This paper aims to investigate the moderating dynamics of social competence in the relationship between intangible resources and the performance of women businesses from an emerging market context. Developed economy literature provides ample evidence of a positive relationship between intangible resources and the performance of women business ventures. Little is known of the complexity of this orthodoxy in developing markets such as Ghana. In particular, this paper investigates the moderating role of social competence in the relationship between intangible resources available to women entrepreneurs and performance. Design methodology approach - An exploratory sequential mixed method research design was used. First phase involved qualitative data collected through interviews, and the second phase was quantitative data collected from 264 participants. Content analysis and multiple regression analysis were used. Findings - Social competence is important to the success of women businesses as it influences the outcome of entrepreneurial interactions and communications. Also, it positively moderated the relationship between organisational reputational capital (RC) and women business growth. On the flip side, it negatively moderated the relationship between human capital, social capital, individual RC and women business growth. Practical implications - To sustainably grow their businesses, women entrepreneurs must ascertain the right level of social competence needed. The utilization of social competence at higher rather than lower levels could mean more costs and more training for which the business may not have immediate use. Originality value - This paper advocates the need to improve the content of entrepreneurial training packages to include the reinforcement of social competency skills in terms of relationship management as this may be the key to the facilitation of access to resources for innovation and growth.