This paper reports the findings of a study whose purpose sought to identify strategies to addressing the discord and disharmony between entrepreneurial policy and practice in developing countries ...such as South Africa. Beginning in the early days of its democracy in 1994, the South African government identified entrepreneurship as an all-encompassing strategy to address a plethora of socioeconomic challenges including unemployment and economic growth. In line with this agenda, the government has developed various policies aimed at both developing and growing small enterprises. Despite this, the small to medium enterprise sector has not developed as intended. Characteristically, small businesses are battling to survive amid intensifying competition from large scale enterprises (LSEs). Ironically, the latter is one example where practice does not necessarily follow the dictates of policy. To fully develop an in-depth understanding of this phenomenon, a qualitative case study involving 15 tourism small-scale businesses as well as five government departments in Mpumalanga Province was designed. Data were collected by means of in-depth interviews. ATLAS.ti was used to analyse data. Results revealed a gap between policy and practice. Interestingly, political rhetoric was observed as exacerbating an already dire situation by injecting confusion in the entrepreneurship discourse. Furthermore, the study proposes a conceptual framework, the POEE, which attempts to harmonise policy and entrepreneurial actions. Recommendations are made within the context of the POEE framework.
The aim of the study was to identify types of small-scale businesses used by households for self-employment, the challenges they face, and the type of support received from government and ...non-governmental organisations. Two independent studies were conducted: a mixed-method approach was applied to obtain information from 200 respondents in two rural districts of Limpopo province of South Africa. A qualitative case study was also conducted in an urban setting in the Gauteng province of South Africa to explore the business operations of 13 small-scale clothing manufacturers. Businesses were related to agriculture, various artisan and consumer-related fields. Problems experienced included limited production/financial business resources and management skills. Incubation hub entrepreneurs were resourceful and used creativity for business survival. The findings underscore the need for skills training and support for small-scale clothing manufacturing business owners.
Purpose
Broom production and marketing is a local business industry operated by women in Nigeria. This activity serves not only as a source of livelihood to women but also has created job ...opportunities for the teeming unemployed persons in the rural areas. This paper aims to examine socioeconomic effects of small-scale women businesses in broom production and marketing industry in Nigeria with a view to analyze small-scale women businesses in Igbo Eze North District of Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
New economic theory was used to guide the study. The study adopted a quantitative research design comprising of semi-structured interviews, field observations, reference to relevant literature and a questionnaire survey of 340 female households engaged in broom production and marketing from fifteen villages. This sample size was selected using purposive sampling technique and Yamane formula. Frequencies and Spearman rank correlation were used to analyze the data.
Findings
The study found that broom production and marketing have an effect on the socioeconomic development of the people. The study found a positive relationship between broom production and marketing and income generated, education and occupation in the study area. This study concluded by suggesting that broom production in the study area should be mechanized to improve the quality and quantity of broom produced in the area.
Practical implications
This study has shown that Nigerian women have good potentials for entrepreneurship. Both the society and the government authorities should work together in supporting female ventures in Nigeria.
Originality/value
The paper empirically has shown the socioeconomic effects of small-scale women businesses in broom production and marketing on local household of Igbo Eze North District of Nigeria. This study stands as the first in Nigeria to consider the effects of broom production and marketing and how women in this part of Nigeria have used it to create job opportunities and opportunities of income for themselves and their families.
Much work has considered the practicalities and affordability of solar systems for domestic energy supplies in remote rural areas. There is less understanding of its utility for small-scale business ...enterprises in such areas. We examined the patterns of use of two 12
V and one 24
V systems for small-scale enterprises housed in transportable containers. Monitoring of load shed and top of charge indicated that the 12
V systems were inadequate to meet the requirements of the enterprises. The 24
V operation performed a lot better. Despite some technical limitations the system offered a number of social, economic and environmental positives; primarily the offering of business products not otherwise available in the area, incomes to the entrepreneurs and greater connectivity with regional centres through office services such as cell-phone charging and faxing. Customers of the small-scale enterprises felt that their presence in the area saved them some money because they no longer had to travel as frequently to regional urban centres.
Electricity supply in Nigeria is often erratic. Consumers of electricity (residential, commercial and industrial consumers) suffer untold hardships as the State Owned Enterprise; the Power Holding ...Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has been unable to supply reliable power. This is despite massive injections of funds by the Federal Government into the operations of the company over recent years. The failure has significantly impacted negatively on the operations of the business sector especially the small scale subsector that operates with little capital and are thus in most cases unable to afford a back-up facility to ensure un-interrupted power supply for their operations. The study examined the impact of deficient electric power supply on the operations of small scale businesses operating in north east of Nigeria. From the population of small scale businesses, a sample was selected through the use of stratified random sampling to ensure the effective representation of the population of small scale businesses in north east Nigeria. Results from data analysis indicates the severity of electricity supply outages and the costs imposed by power supply outages on the operation of this class of businesses in the region. The paper therefore recommends the need for policy attention towards revitalizing the electricity sector of Nigeria for enhanced supply of electricity to the national economy. When this is achieved, the small business sub-sector will be in a position to effectively lead in the drive towards industrializing the Nigerian economy.
The dynamics of intra-household economics among sedentary farmers in rural Kenya suggest that women, whether or not they have a male household head, are responsible for providing basic resources to ...insure the daily survival of household members. Many rural Kenyan women operate small businesses in rural market centers in order to meet these obligations, and many of these women are also heads of their households. This paper examines women's resource bases for establishing and maintaining small-scale businesses. Compared to women who are associated with male-headed households, women who head households have fewer resources for establishing businesses which in turn generate lower earnings. At the same time, these women are almost completely dependent on their businesses for meeting the household's needs.
In Japan, there is an urgent need to promote waste paper recycling at business establishments. Particularly in Tokyo's 23 wards, the recovery rate of waste paper from large-scale businesses is ...sufficiently high. On the contrary, the rate from medium and small-scale businesses is low. The objective of this study is to make a cost analysis of waste paper collection systems for medium and small-scale businesses considering collection efficiency and“indirect cost”. Costs of waste paper collection systems are analyzed by using GIS software, which can detect the shortest route. 3 kinds of“shadow costs” are also analyzed, such as“carrying work cost”, “occupation cost of floor space”, and“sorting work cost”. In case of“1F collection”, total costs of the waste paper collection system and carrying work are higher than the waste disposal fee regardless of the number of participating businesses. In the case of“floor collection”, costs of waste paper collection systems are higher than those of 1F collection because of lower collection efficiency, but the difference decreased according to the increase of the number of participating businesses. The container's cost and the occupation cost of floor space also decreased according to the increase in the amount of collected waste paper from each business.
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