Over the last decade, African immigrants have been met with and exposed to severe manifestations of hostility to their presence in South Africa. A significant number of these migrants have successfully applied their entrepreneurial flair in establishing small enterprises and employing workers, often to the envy of their local counterparts. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study conducted in 2007 on job creation for South Africans by African immigrant entrepreneurs, including face-to-face interviews with 120 African immigrant entrepreneurs. These findings were triangulated with 7 non-governmental organisations that interact with immigrants in Cape Town. A review of the literature on migration, entrepreneurship and immigrant entrepreneurs formed the basis for the study. The findings indicate that more than 80 per cent of African immigrant entrepreneurs interviewed employ South Africans in their businesses. Despite a generally negative national perception of immigrants, this study has also revealed that entrepreneurial skills are transferred from immigrant entrepreneurs to their South African employees. While the study was conducted only in the suburban areas of Cape Town, the researcher believes that the results represent the general trend in South Africa. Further, the study involved only migrants from the African continent. The overall result is an acknowledgement of the contribution that non-citizens are making to the country's growth and development. The findings include recommendations relevant to policy changes on South African immigration law, to inclusive research on the role of immigrants in job creation in South Africa, and to the need for consideration of immigrant entrepreneurs in the allocation of financial support.
This article deals with Triple Helix (university, industry and government cooperation) from an institutional theory perspective. The empirical context is the Western Cape Region in South Africa and the focus is entrepreneurship development. The purpose is two-fold: first, the existing Triple Helix model is adapted to the South African context; and second, facilities and impediments for working according to Triple Helix in South Africa are identified. The empirical material consists of a survey and three longitudinal case studies illustrating the degree of cooperation between the three parties. The article contributes to knowledge about how the Triple Helix model works on a regional level in a developing country. The study draws the following conclusions: when cooperation is to be identified between the three actors, only two of the three are involved; one missing link in the Triple Helix model is the focus on the entrepreneur; cooperation between the three parties are incidental rather than planned and there is lack of structure. In turn, some of these conclusions may be an effect of institutional changes on a national level. For a normative legacy, the article proposes a set of suggestions for incorporating all relevant parties on a practical level.
Eritrea, a relatively young African nation, is one of the least developed countries in the world. Its economy is predominantly dependent on subsistence agriculture and the level and magnitude of poverty is more severe in rural areas. The formal financial sector is underdeveloped, state-owned, far from being competitive, and limited in terms of depth and breadth as measured by the relevant financial sector development indicators. To address the limitations of the formal banking sector and to help fill the financing gap, and improve the general livelihood of those at the lower income group, the Government of Eritrea introduced a Saving and Microcredit Programme (SMCP) in 1996 for which no scientific study measuring its impact has been done at the household level. The study was conducted in rural areas to find out whether the SMCP as a microfinance institution has improved the livelihood of its clients. The specific objectives of the study were to describe the characteristic feature of rural livelihoods in terms of the resources owned, the strategies pursued and outcomes achieved, identify and examine the determinants of household participation in the SMCP and finally assess the impact of participation in SMCP on household livelihoods. The study employed a quasi-experimental cross-sectional survey design involving structured and semistructured questionnaire administered to 500 respondents of whom 200 represented the treated group and 300 the controlled group. Logit regression was employed to identify the factors that determine household participation in the SMCP. In regard to this, age of the client household, household size, marital status, level of education of the client household, the size of first round loan, entrepreneurial experience, type of loan product offered by the institution, ownership of livestock and microenterprise, the perception of the client on involuntary deposits, the occurrence of a negative events (shock) to the household and village access to electricity were found to have statistically significant effect on the household"s probability to participate in the SMCP. Furthermore, the marginal effects were also computed to evaluate the contribution of each of these factors to the likelihood of participating in the SMCP. A propensity score matching model was applied to assess the impact of the programme on the livelihood of its clients. The findings reveal that participation in the SMCP has a significantly higher average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) households.Profits generated from off-farm and small microenterprises, the values of household and livestock assets, food and non-food consumption expenditures and nutrition quality, were ii found to be on average higher for the treated households than for the controlled households.
The economic environment and associated constraints have significant and unequal effects on Small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Constraints have been used, among other growth factors, to understand why some SMEs fail to grow while others foster. However, beyond knowing the effects or constraints, it is important entrepreneurs know how they can avoid constraints. The study provides an important contribution by showing that South-African SMEs that face constraints because of competition, government rules and regulations, financing gaps and corruption, can navigate away from these constraints by going international. The evidence shows a positive moderating effect of internationalization on the relationship between local constraints and SME growth. However, the results also reveal that lack of government support is a significant constraint to growth when SMEs export internationally.
Cape Town's CBD, as well as many of its suburbs, is a location that hosts many immigrant entrepreneurs. An empirical research was conducted in these areas
This paper examines risks and critical factors contributing to the rural entrepreneurial orientation growth of businesses. The concept of entrepreneurial orientation and various factors influencing the rural entrepreneurial orientation growth are still not well known. The study aimed to assess risks and critical factors affecting rural entrepreneurial orientation growth of businesses. Questionnaire was developed and used to collect primary data from 127 rural entrepreneurs. The sample was made with small and medium entrepreneurs operating in rural places. They were selected using quota sampling, with respondents completing a questionnaire with the assistance of an interviewer. The study used quantitative technique for data collection. SPSS (23.0) version was used for data analysis and scientific statistical significance level found to be (.000*) at the Cronbach’s alpha (.791*) reliability. Results of the survey reveal that majority indicates competition as a big challenge for them. Findings further indicate that competitor is due to the small market and lack of products differentiation. This study introduces an additional literature in the field of entrepreneurship with specific reference to rural entrepreneurship. The paper will benefit rural entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial marketing managers, potential young entrepreneurs, business consultants, policymakers, financial institutions, government agencies and all affiliated stakeholders by introducing a new understanding of risks and various critical factors causative into rural entrepreneurial orientation growth of business in an emerging economy. Most work on the entrepreneurship development has concentrated in the urban areas with little emphasis on the rural places. The findings of this study limited by study’s exploratory, small sample and quantitative nature. Therefore, generalisation of results should be done with care and further research is encouraged and should aim at the development of technical skills that will empower and encourage entrepreneurial orientation growth culture among rural and young entrepreneurship in the developing and emerging economies countries.
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