Validation and testing of a measurement model for the assessment of agripreneurial competencies

Purpose - This article aims to develop a measurement scale for assessing agripreneurial competencies relevant to emerging economies in alignment with the SDG2 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Design/methodology/approach - The scale development procedure includes item development and refinement, data collection, reliability and validity tests and scale purification with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Findings - The validated scale carries eight dimensions of competencies: Agreeableness (AG), Technological Competency (TC), Competitive Spirit (CS), Innovativeness (IN), Self-Confidence (SC), Social Responsibility (SR), Conscientiousness (CO) and Leadership (LS). The analysis puts forth a good and fit model, and the new scale reports sufficient convergent and discriminant validity. Research limitations/implications - This study is focused on the agripreneurial competencies of individual agripreneurs; institutional agripreneurs are excluded from the study. Social implications - Identifying prominent agripreneurs using the scale developed from this study will aid in allocating various government and non-governmental organisations' assistance to agripreneurs. Since developing economies rely heavily on agriculture, any positive contribution can help alleviate poor economic growth, end hunger, and promote sustainable agriculture (SDG 2 of 2030). Originality/value - Though several scales for measuring entrepreneurial competencies are available, there is no standard scale to measure agripreneurial competencies. This article presents the development and validation of a measurement scale to assess the major competencies of agripreneurs that influence agripreneurship performance.