Title: From Entrepreneurial Ambition to Employment Outcomes: How Strategic Human Resource Planning Mediates the Job Creation Impact of SMEs
Authors: Sunday Paul Etuh, Samuel Unekwu Elias, Emmanuel Yusuf Attah
Volume: 10
Issue: 6
Pages: 56-67
Publication Date: 2026/06/28
Abstract:
Entrepreneurial ambition, defined as the growth intention of small and medium enterprise (SME) founders, is widely assumed to translate directly into job creation. However, empirical evidence reveals a significant gap between growth intentions and actual employment outcomes. This study investigates whether strategic human resource planning mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial ambition and realized job creation. Drawing on goal-setting theory and the resource-based view of the firm, we propose that ambition alone is insufficient; structured HR planning, including workforce forecasting, skill gap analysis, and recruitment strategy, serves as the critical mechanism through which intent converts into sustained employment. A quantitative survey design collected data from 312 SME founders and their HR managers across manufacturing and service sectors. Structural equation modeling confirmed that strategic HR planning fully mediates the ambition-employment relationship. Ventures with high ambition but low HR planning generated no more jobs than low-ambition ventures. Conversely, ventures that institutionalized annual workforce planning created significantly more jobs over a three-year period. These findings reframe policy narratives from promoting entrepreneurship generically to promoting HR-capable entrepreneurship. For practitioners, the study provides a clear mandate: ambition requires infrastructure. Strategic HR planning is not an administrative overhead but a direct driver of employment growth.