Title: Novice entrepreneurs' experiences with business coaching: the case of Nigeria

Authors: Onyeka Uche Ofili

Addresses: International School of Management, 17 Boulevard Raspail, 75007, Paris, France

Abstract: Novice entrepreneurs in Nigeria face the risk of failure if they fail to engage the services of a business coach during the start-up stages of the business as they may not have the requisite managerial and technical skills to sustain the venture. This qualitative multiple case study described and documented the perceptions and experiences of novice entrepreneurs in Nigeria regarding business coaching at the start-up stages of their entrepreneurial venture. Seven owners of small businesses registered in Nigeria who had undergone business coaching during the start-up stages of their businesses were selected for this research. The findings underline that for a coaching programme to be successful, the structure of the programme, quality and experience of the coaches, duration and frequency of coach-protégé meetings, nature of the coach-protégé relationship, and desire and commitment of the protégés must be appropriate.

Keywords: novice entrepreneurs; coach-protégé relationship; business coaching; mentoring; developing economies; Nigeria.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTCS.2019.101506

International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 2019 Vol.10 No.2, pp.157 - 176

Received: 26 Nov 2018
Accepted: 12 Jan 2019
Published online: 11 Aug 2019 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article