Validation and testing of a measurement model for the assessment of agripreneurial competencies

PurposeThis article aims to develop a measurement scale for assessing agripreneurial competencies relevant to emerging economies in alignment with the SDG2 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030.Design/methodology/approachThe scale development procedure includes item development and refinement, data collection, reliability and validity tests and scale purification with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).FindingsThe validated scale carries eight dimensions of competencies: Agreeableness (AG), Technological Competency (TC), Competitive Spirit (CS), Innovativeness (IN), Self-Confidence (SC), Social Responsibility (SR), Conscientiousness (CO) and Leadership (LS). The analysis puts forth a good and fit model, and the new scale reports sufficient convergent and discriminant validity.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is focused on the agripreneurial competencies of individual agripreneurs; institutional agripreneurs are excluded from the study.Social implicationsIdentifying prominent agripreneurs using the scale developed from this study will aid in allocating various government and non-governmental organisations' assistance to agripreneurs. Since developing economies rely heavily on agriculture, any positive contribution can help alleviate poor economic growth, end hunger, and promote sustainable agriculture (SDG 2 of 2030).Originality/valueThough several scales for measuring entrepreneurial competencies are available, there is no standard scale to measure agripreneurial competencies. This article presents the development and validation of a measurement scale to assess the major competencies of agripreneurs that influence agripreneurship performance.