The Role of Gender and Personal Traits in Determining Business Performance of Ghana’s Informal Slum Businesses

Abstract

Purpose: It has been established that most informal businesses in Ghana are performing well and earn incomes higher than the poverty line threshold. The current study, therefore, aims at ascertaining how one’s gender and personal traits (locus of control) affect business performance.

Design/methodology/approach: To this effect, cross sectional quantitative data was obtained from 344 participants in two informal settlements in Ghana using a structured interview. The independent sample T-test was used to analyse the data.

Findings: It was found out that there was no significant difference between the performances of male or female owned businesses. Furthermore, it was also discovered that there was a significant difference in the business performance of operators based on locus of control.