Exploring How Hope-Driven Decision-Making Influences Entrepreneurial Performance in A Precarious Ghanaian Fashion Industry: The Role of Personal and Sociocultural Factors

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine how precarious work environment influence the use of hope in decision-making and its consequentially effect on entrepreneurs’ performance. Specifically, the study explores the role of hope in navigating uncertain working conditions and decision-making among Ghanaian fashion entrepreneurs, drawing on Neo-institutional theory and the theory of practice. The study collected qualitative and quantitative data from fashion entrepreneurs to gain a comprehensive understanding of their decision-making processes and entrepreneurial performance. As none of the research methods are without weakness it is argued that their integration offset the weaknesses of each, thereby offering a deeper understanding of the factors underpinning decision-making and performance of Ghanaian fashion entrepreneurs. The findings highlight nine key factors significantly influencing decision-making and entrepreneurial performance namely: perceived uncertainty, intuition, taste, experience, resilience, cultural intermediaries, cultural values, social networks, and strife. The results revealed that perceived uncertainty, taste, experience, cultural intermediaries, competition, and cultural values did not significantly influence the relationship between decision-making and entrepreneurial performance. However, decision-making itself directly and significantly impacted performance, with resilience emerging as a key mediating factor in this relationship. These include deliberate strategies and subtle practices that emerge from industry dynamics, such as hope, trend-following, leveraging relational infrastructure, and adherence to institutional pressures. Based on the findings, the study recommends that policymakers recognise and leverage context-specific resources—particularly hope and resilience—as strategic assets that enable entrepreneurs to persevere, adapt, and thrive amidst limited institutional support, informality, and precarity. These internal capabilities should be integrated into entrepreneurship support programmes, training initiatives, and policy frameworks to strengthen entrepreneurial capacity in resource-constrained environments.