Bolarinde, M. Akinbinu, Germinah, E. Chiloane-Phetla and Collins, C, Ngwakwe
Previous scholars have examined the influence of knowledge and experience on the entrepreneurs' decision-making process and behaviours independently, yet no confirmed studies on how similar factors influenced the nexus between the decisions and the behaviours in the transition from intrapreneurship into entrepreneurship in South Africa. This paper examined the impact of knowledge and experience on the nexus between decisions and the behaviours of the entrepreneurs who had an intrapreneurial background in South Africa, and on the entrepreneur's reaction time to the decisions made. In adopting a mixed-methods for data collection and analysis, questionnaires and interview was administered to the entrepreneurs in the finance and business services sector in Gauteng province. The findings through Chi-square test confirmed that knowledge and experience are statistically significant to entrepreneurship which was represented as vision, independence and achievement in this study as well as the responsiveness of the entrepreneurs to decisions made. The Principal Component Analysis showed that the nexus of decisions and entrepreneurial behaviours, knowledge and experience formed a cluster of items leading to a construct with a loading factor. Qualitatively, most entrepreneurs agreed that knowledge and experience played a role in their own transitioning as well as how they respond to decisions made. The paper triggered the awareness of the impact that delayed or timeous action on a decision made had on their business growth. This paper recommended in-house workshop for the business owner and their team on how to be responsive once a decision is made on a broad scale using their knowledge and experience.