The regional entrepreneurial lens: an ASEAN 5 developing country perspective

As a discourse on entrepreneurial traits, this article focuses on factors that describe and drive new business ownership in five major economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). This study examines the characteristics of entrepreneurs along several constructs: the short- and long-term mental models, market perceptions, motivations for undertaking startup activities, and perceptions of business acumen. Within these constructs, a series of variables drawn from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) database for the Adult Population Survey (APS) from 2014 and 2015 were analysed using Sparsity Generalised Canonical Correlation Analysis (SGCCA) and hierarchal logistic regression. Despite the anterior state of the 2014 and 2015 data, its value toward understanding the underpinnings of ASEAN entrepreneurship contextualises more recent trends and circumstances. Findings from the analyses indicate that opportunity identification, network connections with the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and practical business skills are strongly related to new business ownership. An ASEAN entrepreneur is characterised by motivation for business ownership as a combination of pursuing the opportunity in economic necessity or employment circumstances and inclination toward self-employment. Most importantly, the ASEAN entrepreneur is found to have the practical skills necessary to operate a business. Implications from these findings call for regional entrepreneurship education to emphasise market research and consumer behaviour processes and practice practical skills to fortify opportunity identification and option pursuit. Policy implications for governments in the trade bloc are to take more inclusive positions with entrepreneurship by cultivating an ecosystem of integration, idea exchange, and streamlined transaction processes.