Motivations for business start-up: are there any differences between disabled and non-disabled people?

Abstract

This master‟s thesis seeks to investigate whether motivations for business start-up between persons with and without disabilities differ. The motivation for this study is that, disabled entrepreneurs may have unique reasons which need the attention of all stakeholders who advocate for equal human rights. The study uses a unique sample of 273 from Ecuadorian micro-bank. The findings indicate that persons without disabilities are more materialistic than persons with disabilities. Materialism relates to opportunity-driven entrepreneurship where individuals start business as a result of available market opportunities. The results also evident that, persons with disabilities start business largely because of push factors. The explanation for this difference is probably because of discrimination against persons with disabilities in the labour market and job environment as some researchers argue. These empirical findings show that, persons with disabilities more likely to be necessity entrepreneurs but less likely to be opportunity-driven entrepreneurs than those without disabilities. Thus, it can be concluded that, persons with and without disabilities are necessity and opportunity entrepreneurs respectively. Based on the findings, it is recommended that governments should re-enforce/introduce labour laws and regulations to ensure that persons with disabilities get formal employment. Incentives could be given in the form of corporate tax rebate for companies that employ people with disabilities. Helping persons with disabilities to get formal jobs will lead to economic growth since they will no longer resort to self-employment based on necessity (less profitable as literature reveals) but due to opportunity entrepreneurship (more profitable).