An assessment of the entrepreneurial orientation of pharmacists in Gauteng
Abstract
Pharmacy in South Africa changed dramatically the past decade. Legislative
changes include the amendment of The Pharmacy Act in 2003 allowing for non-pharmacists to own pharmacies. This opened the door for national chain stores to
change their business model by including a dispensary in their retail service offerings. The regulation of medicine prices impacted the profitability of the pharmacy industry. This caused a double edge sword to retail pharmacy – not only do they need to compete with national supermarkets on front shop products, their products, namely scheduled medication also are regulated in dispensaries. In an environment of rapid change and shortened product and business model life-cycles, the future profit streams from existing operations are uncertain. Businesses need to consistently seek out new opportunities and therefore firms may benefit from adopting an entrepreneurial orientation. Entrepreneurial orientation of retail pharmacists operating in corporate and independent pharmacies’ might play a role in survival of pharmacy business as a professional services provider for which a fee may be charged. The entrepreneurial orientation of retail pharmacists in independent and corporate pharmacies is explored. A literature study on the field of
Entrepreneurship is conducted. The term entrepreneurial orientation, consisting of
five constructs, namely autonomy, innovation, pro-activeness, risk-taking and
competitive aggressiveness is defined. Perceived success of the industry is defined
in terms of growth and development. An entrepreneurial orientation questionnaire
was distributed among retail pharmacists operating in corporate and independent
environments. Both ratings of the constructs and their evaluation of the perceived
success of the industry has been measured, analysed and reported. The results
obtained from the questionnaire and the in-depth interviews in conjunction with the
literature review are used to draw conclusions and make recommendations.