Informal Entrepreneurship: A Focus on South African Township Entrepreneurs

Urban, Boris; Ndou, Brian

doi:10.1142/s1084946719500213

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…South Africans experience high rates of violent crime, chronic stress, violence against women, racism and trauma, which perhaps could only be rivalled by some South American countries (Lamb, 2019 ; Peltzer, 2000 ). Prior to COVID-19, the focus of the South African government was developing entrepreneurship and the informal and small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) sector as means of job creation, skills development and the economy (Urban & Ndou, 2019 ). COVID-19 has devastated up to 60% of this sector (Kalidas, Magwentshu, & Rajagopaul, 2020 ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A temperature reading of COVID-19 pandemic employee agility and resilience in South Africa

Leask

Ruggunan

2021

SA Journal of Industrial Psychology

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Orientation: Employee agility and resilience are central to the flourishing of employee and organisational life. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic amplified stressors and added new challenges for employees in South Africa. The study reported here provides a temperature reading of the agility and resilience of South African employees in the context of the pandemic.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to engage in a temperature reading of South African employees’ agility and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.Motivation for the study: The study was motivated by the need to understand how South African employees fare in terms of their agility and resilience levels in the context of profound social and economic disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.Research approach/design and method: A cross-sectional survey design was used employing quantitative methodologies. A total of 185 permanently employed respondents from South Africa were conveniently sampled. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data.Main findings: Whilst respondents reported high resilience and agility capacity, the findings also suggest that respondents’ gender, age, upskilling intentions, size of employer, organisational communication and individual renewal strategies influence their resilience and agility behaviours.Practical/managerial implications: The study prompts a discussion on how practitioners can better serve the wellness agenda of organisational life during sustained periods of organisational stress.Contribution/value-add: This study extends the theoretical and practical debate on employee agility and resilience in South African context.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A temperature reading of COVID-19 pandemic employee agility and resilience in South Africa

Leask

Ruggunan

2021

SA Journal of Industrial Psychology

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Personal traits and formalization of entrepreneurial ventures: insights from a developing country

Sendawula,

Najjinda,

Nanyanzi

et al. 2024

NEJE

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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore how the personal traits of the informal entrepreneurs influence their formalization decisions.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a qualitative approach using a multicase design in which 28 informal entrepreneurs situated in Kampala district, Uganda, were engaged. An interview guide, recorders and note books were used in data collection.FindingsThe results indicate that the traits of informal and semiformal entrepreneurs are distinct. Informal entrepreneurs have been noted to be more courageous and resilient, while their semiformal counterparts have greater passion for their businesses. It is thus observed that the formalization prospects are higher for the semiformal entrepreneurs than for their informal counterparts. Entrepreneurs that would be willing to formalize their businesses are discouraged by distance, technology and the cost of involving middlemen. Whereas the resilient entrepreneurs are noted to work through these challenges, the passive ones in both the informal and semiformal categories will not formalize their businesses by giving such excuses.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the extant literature on informal entrepreneurship by providing initial empirical evidence on how the personal traits of the entrepreneurs influence their formalization decisions specifically.

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Preparing for a Day that May Never Come: Venturing in Limbo

Fathallah,

Williams,

McMullen

2024

J Management Studies

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The new venture creation process is a central phenomenon in entrepreneurship research. Typically, scholarship has sought to identify common, linear stages of development in this process in pursuit of a sustained, growing venture. In contrast to this theory, this study reveals dynamic, non‐linear venturing processes that allowed for venture persistence despite failing to ‘progress’ toward traditional outcomes. We generate these insights from qualitative data on Syrian refugee entrepreneurs seeking to create and sustain ventures in Lebanon while living in a state of limbo – a precarious situation where the future is unknown and unknowable. We organize our findings in a model of venturing in limbo, which explains why and how entrepreneurs persist in venture creation practices despite experiencing repeated and significant setbacks that return them ‘to square one’. We reveal dynamic venture creation processes that allow for adaptive responses to erratic environmental shifts by producing entrepreneurial readiness, which consists of behavioural, cognitive, and psychological/emotional capabilities. Entrepreneurial readiness enables persistence of venturing efforts in the face of chronic precarity. Our study contributes to theory on new venture creation in entrepreneurship and organizational liminality.

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Informal Entrepreneurship: A Focus on South African Township Entrepreneurs

Cited by 3 publications

References 35 publications

A temperature reading of COVID-19 pandemic employee agility and resilience in South Africa

A temperature reading of COVID-19 pandemic employee agility and resilience in South Africa

Personal traits and formalization of entrepreneurial ventures: insights from a developing country

Preparing for a Day that May Never Come: Venturing in Limbo

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