Perceived Usefulness of Business Coaching on the Relationship between Entrepreneurial Competencies and Business Success

The present study aims to investigate the perceived usefulness of business coaching as a moderator between the association of entrepreneurial competencies and business success of women micro-entrepreneurs. This study employs a stratified random sampling technique to collect data from women micro-entrepreneurs who attended business coaching sessions. In total, 261 questionnaires were distributed and collected. This study has divided the moderator (i.e., perceived usefulness of business coaching) into two groups, namely, group 1 (with a low mean) and group 2 (with a high mean) for moderation analysis. By using a comparative analysis of the path coefficient for groups 1 and 2, the path is moderated by the perceived usefulness of business coaching if the beta value for group 1 is significant, and the beta value for group 2 is non-significant. The results show that eight out of a total of sixteen hypotheses were supported, while the remaining hypotheses were rejected. The findings of the study suggest that the domains of entrepreneurial competencies for women micro-entrepreneurs, including strategic, commitment, conceptual, opportunity, and relationship competencies, together with the perceived usefulness of business coaching, are vital for the business success and should remain the principal focus of future research in women entrepreneurship.