Creating as an entrepreneurial competence, innovation and performance of value-system actors in Kenya's leather industry

The purpose of this paper was to explore creating as a behavioural attribute of entrepreneurship and its relationship with innovation and performance outcomes from an industry ecosystem perspective. A mixed design approach was adopted which involved exploration of the creating, innovation and performance constructs as adapted from previous studies, and a diagnosis of their hypothesized relationship. Quantitative data was collected in a mixed sampling of fifty-eight Nairobi-based Leather Articles Entrepreneurs Association (LAEA) members and ten industry support organizations. A seventy-six percent response rate was achieved from leaders as key informants of a representative sample of the leather value-system actors in Kenya. Instrument reliability was established using the Delphi Technique and a pilot study (Cronbach's Alpha 0.717 – 0.761). Principal Component Analysis was used to explore the constructs before inferential analysis.The study showed creating, innovation and performance as valid constructs. Creating and innovation had a significant and positive causal relationship with performance of value-system actors in Kenya's leather industry (R2=0.135 p