Gender nuances in tourism-related entrepreneurship in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract

Previous studies have found that the number of women entrepreneurs is increasing, though many of them fail to sustain their businesses, compared to their male counterparts. This study explored gender nuances in the performances of tourism-related businesses in the Durban Central Business District, KwaZulu-Natal, with particular emphases on traditional societal perceptions and access to capital. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 150 purposively selected (75 females and 75 males) tourism-related entrepreneurs. We employed descriptive, bivariate and multivariate data analyses to address the research objectives. This study did not make a conclusive finding that gender plays a strong role in differentiating business success or performance. However, the study found that it is somewhat easier for female entrepreneurs to find business start-up capital. This study recommends that entrepreneurial training and mentorship programmes should emphasise that gender has no role in determining entrepreneurial success, and also increase the awareness level of entrepreneurs regarding business funding.

Nuanced Gender Perceptions: Tourism Business Capabilities in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa

“…Research also reports that the performance of female-owned businesses have been lower and very constrained compared to male-owned businesses (Marlow and McAdam, 2013), as they are likely to close down and less likely to make sustained profit (Fairlie and Robb, 2009). Literature on women entrepreneurship posits that there are many challenges (such as unfavourable societal perception, inadequate financial capital, lack of management capabilities, weak entrepreneurial networking) faced by South African women in business (Nxopo and Iwu, 2016;Nzama and Ezeuduji, 2020a;Nzama and Ezeuduji, 2020b;Tshabalala and Ezeuduji, 2016). Reports emanating from the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC) region show that men dominate management positions in the tourism industry (Nyaruwata and Nyaruwata, 2013;Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), 2012https://www.gemconsortium.org/report/gem-2012-womens-report).…”