ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND TOURIST BEHAVIOUR: A CASE STUDY OF BROOKLYN TOURIST CENTER

ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND TOURIST BEHAVIOR: A CASE STUDY OF BROOKLYN TOURIST CENTER

ABSTRACT: Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world enhancing many economies; entrepreneurs need to take advantage of tourism opportunities. This paper examined entrepreneurial orientation and tourist behavior, the findings of this paper will give entrepreneurs tested information on how to plan and take a calculated risk. Pro-activeness and risk-taking are two of the orientation that the entrepreneur’s need to survive. One of the major challenges of Tourist patronage is the lack of Entrepreneurial Orientation in the tourism industry. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Entrepreneurial Orientation on tourist behavior. However, the main objective of this study is to determine the relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation and Tourist behavior using the dimensions of Entrepreneurial Orientation (risk-taking and pro-activeness) and the measures of Tourist behavior (repeat visit and tourist patronage). Four research questions and hypotheses were adopted in this study. This study was conducted in Brooklyn Tourist center, Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The accessible population of the study was 65 after the sample size of 65 was determined; the total number of questionnaires was evenly shared with the respondent. The data used in this study were collected from both primary (questionnaire administration) and secondary sources (document). Descriptive statistics and simple percentage method was used in analyzing the demographic data of respondent while the mean score was used for the univariate analysis. Pearson correlation was used in the testing of the hypothesis, it was concluded that there is a positive relationship between service Entrepreneurial Orientation and Tourist Behavior. The researcher recommends that; Owners/managers of tourism and hospitality firms should develop entrepreneurial skills, institutions in the country should make the teaching of entrepreneurship in the University to have practical relevance; Owners of tourism organizations should employ graduates of hospitality management and tourism that are entrepreneurially oriented.

OTHER RELATED RESEARCH

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1 Background to the Study

Tourist behavior involves the study of how people either individually or in groups acquire or discard and make decisions about goods, services or even lifestyle practice. The understanding of tourist behavior will help firms and organizations improve their marketing strategies and how tourists select products which will in turn yield insights into how tourists make a decision and what they look for. (Lars, 1999).Unilever suggests, that there is evidence that consumer does not evaluate all products independently in this way, but make a comparison between products when deciding which to purchase (Meyer&Johnson, 1995). Kotler and Keller (2006) defined Tourist behavior as the study of how individuals, groups and organizations select, buy, use and dispose of goods, services, idea or experiences to satisfy their needs and want. Tourist behavior is the actions and decision processes of people who purchase goods and services for personal consumption. The nature of tourist behavior is influenced by; market factors, personal factors, psychological factors, and cultural factors. All tourist do not behave in the same manner, different tourist behave differently. The difference in tourist behavior is due to individual factors such as the nature of the tourist, lifestyle, and culture. (Engel, Blackwell and mansard, 2001).Most governments owned establishments suffer neglect and in turn, the intention of their establishment are defeated hence the opportunity falls at the doorstep of private investors who have the means and entrepreneurial mindset to leverage of the shortcomings of public-owned establishment and deliver the goods.

Miller (1983), defined entrepreneurial orientation as the ability of an individual or firm to employ technological innovation, undertaking of risk and pursuit of an opportunity pro-actively Miller(1983). Covin et al (2006) in their study of innovation, risk-taking, and pro-activeness of entrepreneurs asserts that entrepreneurial orientation has become a central concept in the domain of entrepreneurship that has received a substantial amount of theoretical attention.

Entrepreneurial orientation has its roots in the strategic marketing process literature. Strategy marketing is an organization-wide phenomenon that incorporates planning, analysts, decision making and many aspects of organizational culture, value system and mission. (Hart, 1992)

Vishal (2015) in his research titled, “Entrepreneurial orientation and firms performance”, the scholar opined that it is expected that entrepreneurial orientation relationships among small and medium-sized enterprises have a strong positive linkage between entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance. Herman frank et al. (2010), also did a research that is similar to this study ‘entrepreneurial orientation and business performance”, the study showed that it is expected that there should be a positive connection between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance only in cases in which a dynamic environment is combined with high access to financial capital and when a stable environment is combined with low access to financial capital. Similarly, in the work of Paul Taylor, “The effect of entrepreneurial orientation on the internationalization of SME underdeveloped countries,” in (2013), and the result of the findings were to moderate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and export performance of SME”s.

These studies cited above by different scholars have shown that there is a strong positive relationship with entrepreneur orientation and the performance of firms or business organizations. However, these studies were conducted outside Rivers State; as much their findings might not apply to the Rivers State business environment or tourist destinations. Therefore, is being conducted to evaluate entrepreneurial orientation and tourist behavior in Rivers State using Brooklyn tourist center as a case study.

1.2 Statement of the Problem.

Nigeria is a country blessed with natural, manmade and human capital resources in which if harnessed and tapped into can bring a lot of prosperity to her teeming and lively minds. Tony Elumelu is one of his programs designed for young entrepreneurs in 2010 opined that with the population of Nigeria and with the level of technological advancement in the country, Nigeria can truly become the living giant of Africa and the sleeping one as we are witnessing; A leading entrepreneur in Nigeria affirmed that in his program. One of the problems facing entrepreneurs in Nigeria is the lack of basic social amenities such as electricity, accessibility of soft loans, and again the half-baked graduates the educational institutions in Nigeria are producing in mass every year due to the slack and rot in the education sector. The get rich quick syndrome is also another problem because the citizens no longer have the patience to articulate their business plans, develop them and grow them and turn it into a booming business venture. Even when one succeeds in building up a business, some government policies make it almost impossible for the business to survive. For a business as tourism, insecurity challenges frequent communal clashes, kidnapping, armed robbery around Rumuosi, Rumuekini axis where Brooklyn tourist center is located poses a big challenge as no tourist will want to visit an unsafe environment and this has caused many tourists who will like to visit the tourist attractions. All these stated challenges to a very large extent affect entrepreneurial orientation; and by extension, the behavior of tourists.
The extent to which the entrepreneur contributes to tourist behavior at Brooklyn tourist center, which comes with the inconsistency of reports and findings as some scholars are rather extremely limited or myopic in their research. However, enabling infrastructure is crucial to thriving entrepreneurship. It is the base to exercising entrepreneurial knowledge and harnessing the state of innovation to the organization (World energy outlook 2014) without good infrastructure tourists will have a negative perception towards that destination. According to Shane (2003), the entrepreneur should be competent enough to demonstrate an intimate knowledge of his/her firm. An entrepreneur needs to have the skills in used to sell, bargain, led, plan, make decisions, solve problems, organize and communicate. So that, without this entrepreneurial orientation, tourists will not be enticed to revisit to the destination. Lack of finance also contributes to the challenge of entrepreneur and by extension, it influences tourist behavior. In fact, without adequate financing, the destination will not function and the growth of the destination will not be ascertained. Compared to large firms, the intensity of structural changes in the tourism market is viewed through the prism of tourism demand (Hall and Weller.1992),

Due to the challenges stated above, this study is intended to show the relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation and tourist Behavior using Brooklyn Tourist Centre as a case study. The independent variable of the study is entrepreneurial orientation with the following dimensions: Risk-taking and pro-activeness, the dependent variable in which tourist behavior is measured alongside Tourist Patronage and Re-visit Intentions.

1.3 Conceptual Framework

Figure 1: The Conceptual Framework showing the link between Entrepreneurial Orientation and Tourist Behavior in Rivers State.

Source: Researcher’s conceptualization, 2018. Based on dimensions adopted from Jeffrey G. Covin (2012) and measures adopted from S.A Cohen et al (2001).

1.4 Aim and Objectives

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate entrepreneurial orientation and tourist behavior with the following specific objectives;

1. To examine the relationship between risk-taking and tourist patronage
2. To determine the relationship between risk-taking and repeat visit

• To examine the relationship between pro-activeness and tourist patronage

1. To determine the relationship between pro-activeness and repeat visits.

1.5 Research Question

1. What is the relationship between risk-taking and repeat visits?
2. What is the relationship between risk-taking and tourist patronage?
3. What is the relationship between pro-activeness and repeat visits?
4. What is the relationship between pro-activeness and tourist patronage?

1.6 Statement of Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were formulated;

Ho₁: There is no significant relationship between risk taken and repeat visit

Ho₂: There is no significant relationship between risk is taken and tourist patronage

Ho₃: There is no significant relationship between pro-activeness and repeat visit

Ho₄: There is no significant relationship between pro-activeness and tourist patronage

1.7 Significant of the Study

This study at the end will showcase some important information need by tourism practitioners on how to develop tourist sites, and to potential entrepreneurs who nurse the ambition to invest in attraction, this study will widen their horizon and give them tested information on how to plan, develop and run a successful attraction site and also avail them the needed knowledge on how tourist behave towards a particular service delivery or product to satisfy their customers. To the scholars, this study will give them tested data to build on incase of further study.

1.8. Scope of the Study

The scope of the study is at three-level the content scope which covers Entrepreneurial Orientation and Tourist Behavior, and secondly geographical scope which covers the area that  I am studying ‘’ Brooklyn tourist center’’. Thirdly unit of analysis which covers the managers, staff and the customers met at the time of the visit.

1.9 Limitation of the study

This study was limited to the entrepreneurial orientation of the Brooklyn tourist center in Port Harcourt. The period of years 2012 – 2018 for data gathering are focused on, as such results can vary if another period is considered, as well as other dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation, judgmental sampling technique and accidental sampling technique was used for the sampling size determination.

1.10 Operational Definitions of Terms

Tourist Behavior: This is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and all the activities associated with the purchase, use, and disposal of goods and services, including the tourist emotional.

Entrepreneurial Orientation: It is defined as the multidimensional construct, applied to the organizational levels which characterizes firm entrepreneurial behavior and includes one or several of these three dimensions: risk-taking, innovation, and pro-activeness.

Organization: An organization is an entity comprising multiple people such as an institution or an association, that has a collective goal and it is linked to an external environment.

Tourist: A person who is supposed to leave his or her town to visit a different area for pleasure, entertainment, cultural and historical attraction, visiting, shopping, on the condition of not staying more than 12 months.

Behavior: How one acts or conducts oneself especially towards a thing, individual and organization.

Finance: It is defined as the science of money management

Risk-Taking: It is the act or fact of doing something that involves danger or risk to achieve a goal.

Pro-activeness: It is a process that affects a subsequent or it is the act to initiate change rather than reacting to an event.

Repeat Visit: It is the measure of the number of visit activities during a reporting period.

Tourist Patronage: It is the support encouragement or financial aid that a tourist bestows to a destination product.

Entrepreneur: It is a person who takes the risk and profit of his/her organization, and makes all effective decision towards the improvement of his business.

1.11 Organization of This Study

This study is divided into five chapters. The first chapter provides the background of the subject matter justifying the need for the study, statement of the study, conceptual framework purpose of the need for the study, statement of the study, the purpose of the study, research questions, research hypotheses and significant of the study. Chapter two presents literature concerning the subject matter. Chapter three presents the research methodology, which includes the research design, population of the study, sample and sampling techniques, instrument for data collection, validity and reliability of the study and method of data analysis while data presentation and analysis were made up of Chapter four. Chapter five reflects on the discussion of findings, conclusion, and recommendation of the work.