Background: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa and Uganda suffer from lack of finance for their survival and growth. This liquidity emergency motivated start-ups struggling to find alternative financing sources different from conventional bank lending. Venture capital financing evolved as viable financial mechanisms to revive SMEs’ performance.Aim: This article analysed the impact of venture capital financing on SMEs’ performance in Uganda. This is the first empirical study that related and brought together the understanding of business entrepreneurs with those of venture capitalists.Setting: The rate of start-up business failure in Africa remains high, triggering an enormous threat to policy-makers and international development partners. Besides, the literature is diminutive, intermittent and fragmented to document venture capital performance.Methods: The study adopted a mixed-method and used survey questionnaires administered to 90 SMEs and complemented with data from semi-structured interviews. We used multiple regression analysis and correlation coefficient for data analysis generated from the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.Results: Empirical evidence exhibited tremendous growth of venture-capital-backed companies in sales turnover, profitability and return on assets matched to the non-venture-capital-backed firms.Conclusion: This article presented the first extensive empirical study confirming evidence of venture capital financing for the enhancement of SMEs’ performance and development in Uganda regarding revenue growth, profitability and return on assets. This study recommended to policy-makers and the business fraternity to develop policy frameworks tailored to the enhancement of the venture capital landscape growth.

In recent times, venture capital (VC) financing has evolved as an alternative feasible funding model for young innovative companies. Existing studies focus on whether VC enhances profitability. While helpful, this body of work does not address a critical question: whether VC firms are more profitable than non-VC firms. The co-existence of both VC and non VC firms in Africa provides an opportunity to address this question. Accordingly, this paper sought to extend the understanding of the relationship between VC financing and the profitability of portfolio companies in Uganda, a rapidly growing VC market. We utilised a mixed methods approach, which involved quantitative data collected from 68 key VC stakeholders, and qualitative data collected from 16 semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The results confirm the superior performance of VC-financed enterprises when compared to non-VC-financed enterprises. The study makes a vital contribution by offering a diversified framework for enterprise success. The framework will assist VC firms in evaluating and customising funding programmes that can propel early-stage firms’ success in Uganda, and in similar emerging economies. Secondly, our results contribute to extant knowledge about recent developments in Uganda’s VC industry and how it influences the profitability trends of SMEs, also in similar emerging economies.

In recent times, there has been growing popularity and importance of supply chain management (SCM) among academics and the business fraternity in emerging economies. At present, every company's long-term survival, prosperity, and value chain creation are at risk since they rely on an enterprise's level of supply chain growth. The increasing demand for sustainable development of large companies in emerging economies indeed entails an inclusive array of SCM practices beyond mere logistics enhancement and automation so that these companies can overcome the persistent concerns in the current supply chain ecosystem. Therefore, this study attempts to fill these gaps by examining how sustainable supply chain management strategies can assist firms in emerging economies, especially South Africa, to achieve sustainable growth and a competitive advantage in the global market. The study used a mixed method approach and surveyed 100 JSE-listed companies, supplemented with in-depth interviews from 46 respondent companies. The findings expose a significant positive impact of SCM practices in achieving success and sustainable growth for multinational companies. These results suggest that firms operating within emerging markets should adopt SCM practices in their business processes with a broader consideration of environmental sustainability issues and production cost implications. This study contributes significantly to the literature to assist in planning supply chain practices linked with the UN SDGs. The paper also offers robust insight and an excellent understanding of the implications of the SCM strategies on promoting opportunities for sustainable growth in an emerging economy context.

For more than three decades, private venture capital (VC) firms have been recognised for their pivotal role in advancing valuecreation and innovation in high-growth enterprises. Recent studies have found VC as a viable driver for the economic growth of developed nations. Research shows that many technological global companies today started as small venture capital (VC) funded companies. However, less evidence is available in emerging economies to support value creation and innovation capacity provided by the VC companies in Uganda. Consequently, how and when venture capitalists (VCs) can give significant oversight and add value to their ventures beyond VC funding has remained unresolved. Therefore, we use survey data from 77 VC firms expounded by interview data from key respondents from the VC industry. Our study finds that VCs' role is essential for nurturing value-added skills in VC-financed firms. Evidence was predictable in improved financial management, sales turnover, profitability, strategic planning, innovation capacity, recruitment, sound BOD, and a broad network for future funding opportunities. Our study contributes to the under-studied space of VC performance, especially in Uganda, where there is limited academic literature in this field. These results may support entrepreneurs/governments to engage in lucrative partnerships with experienced VC firms that can bridge the SMEs' equity financing gap early. Finally, this study offers a foundation for future research direction.

PurposeThis paper empirically examined the relationship between Venture capital Financing and the profitability of portfolio companies in Uganda. Several empirical works paint an intriguing picture that VC financing is a reality in fostering economic growth of the early-stage enterprisesDesign/methodology/approachThe paper embraced a mixed-method wherein quantitative data were collected from 68 key VC stakeholders and statistical data was analysed using a multiple regression model by generating the results from the SPSS. This was supplemented by 16 semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Qualitative data were transcribed and analysed using Altas-ti.Findings The key findings from this study suggest superior performance of VC-financed enterprises following VC financing when compared to non-VC financed enterprises. The VC-financed enterprises realised tremendous growth in terms of: Return on Equity - 42.3%; profitability - 30% - 50%; Return on Assets - 44.5%. In addition, 63% of the respondents confirmed a positive impact of government regulatory policy in enhancing the development of the early-stage firms. The higher the percentage of growth the better for the growth of the company. Research limitations/implicationsThis study may assist the policymakers and business fraternity to develop policy frameworks tailored to enhancing a vibrant venture capital market in Uganda. Contribution/value-addThis study makes a vital contribution to knowledge by offering a diversified framework for enterprise success, to benefit the VC stakeholders in customizing funding programs that can propel the early-stage enterprise success in Uganda and similar emerging economies.