Abstract

THE INFLUENCE OF GENDER ON ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION OF COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS

S. G. Jolaosho* and M. O. Afolabi

ABSTRACT

Community pharmacists encounter several challenges in the course of practice but these are perceived by some as opportunities which can be converted to economic gains based on entrepreneurial orientations. The study seeks to explore gender variation in entrepreneurial orientations of community pharmacists in Lagos State and to determine the significance of such orientations in community pharmacy practice. The study is a cross-sectional descriptive survey of 203 randomly selected community pharmacies across the twenty local government areas of Lagos state. Pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from the pharmacists on business survival strategies and entrepreneurial activities in their premises based on their level of autonomy, innovativeness, proactiveness, risk-aversiveness and competitive aggressiveness. The data obtained were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The respondents were mostly (107, 53%) male and about half (98, 48%) were within the age group of 30 to 49 years. The t- test conducted yielded significant differences in the level of proactiveness (ms = 7.25, t = 2.32, p = .02) and competitive aggressiveness (ms = 7.83, t = -3.67, p = .00) between the male and female gender. However, there are no significant differences in the level of autonomy, innovativeness and risk-aversiveness of community pharmacists based on gender. The study concluded that the female community pharmacists were more aggressive in nature compared to the male in handling their business ventures. On the contrary, the males were more proactive in anticipation of future events. Both measures of proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness are relevant orientations for business survival in community pharmacy practice.

Keywords: entrepreneurial orientation, gender, community pharmacy, community pharmacists.