Positive deviant unemployed individuals: Survivalist entrepreneurs in marginalised communities

Abstract

Purpose: This exploratory study aimed to provide a description of the experiences and perceptions of survivalist entrepreneurs in under-resourced communities. These survivalist entrepreneurs perceived themselves as ‘temporary’ entrepreneurs. They engaged in entrepreneurial ventures, whilst actively searching for secure formal employment.Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative interviews were conducted with four informal survivalist microenterprise entrepreneurs (ISM-E entrepreneurs). Narratives relating to their experiences and perceptions of their environment, community and government support and their experience of owning a microenterprise in an impoverished community were analysed inductively.Findings/results: Fourteen themes were identified and were grouped under two broad topics, namely the characterisation of the entrepreneur and the surrounding setting of the ISM-E entrepreneur. The discussion of the findings was presented in a positive deviance framework.Practical implications: It was proposed that the ingenuity and strengths of these ISM-E entrepreneurs be acknowledged and that their positive discourses be cultivated and encouraged in order to inspire unemployed people around them. These ISM-E entrepreneurs could, ideally, point social scientists to possible context-appropriate solutions to the huge unemployment challenge experienced in disadvantaged communities.Originality/value: This study addresses a knowledge gap pertaining to the exploration of micro-entrepreneurship in under-resourced communities within a positive deviance framework.

Embracing Survivalist Entrepreneurship: How African American Men Leverage Business Ownership out of Economic Necessity

“…This comparison also sheds light on another distinction. While Toit et al [73] treated the survivalist entrepreneurs they interviewed as "informal entrepreneurs", paralleling the initial thoughts we started with, based on Boyd [7], the results of our study found that informal entrepreneurship was only one of many reasons why African Americans turned to entrepreneurship. Informal entrepreneurship is about avoiding registering a new business with governmental agencies [74].…”

“…Comparing our results with "under-resourced communities" in South African townships [73] is telling in view of the short-term emphasis of those interviewed in those townships. Unlike in the US, the informal entrepreneurial sector in those townships is often just "a buffer against starvation" and, therefore, much less developed.…”

“…This distinction between South African and African American entrepreneurs might be related to observations that better financial development as well as better governance increase formal entrepreneurship but decrease informal entrepreneurship, and more so when they are both high [75]. The US being very high in terms of both financial development and governance might be the reason why the African American entrepreneurs we interviewed chose a formal entrepreneurship route, with its long-term worldview, rather than the short-term hunger-prevention route taken by the informal entrepreneurs who du Toit et al [73] interviewed. Indeed, Ault and Spicer [76] have reported that the conditions created by governance and formal institutional structures play a central role in determining the nature of informal entrepreneurship in each country.…”

“…The latter dealt with family or associate support, the fact that the township space was not conductive because of poverty, crime, and drugs, the lack of social cohesion in the township, and an "extremely ineffective" government. Presenting these results in a positive deviance framework (i.e., strategies employed by some individuals who prosper despite a harsh and unconducive situations), Toit et al [73] concluded that what made the survivalist entrepreneurs successful was their being actively involved in changing their own lives.…”

Informal township businesses and socio-economic challenges: a case of South Africa.

“…This highlights how important it is for INK informal businesses to be investment-oriented as it may improve earnings over time. This becomes more important for informal businesses, which have been found in the literature to be more survivalist (De Witte, 2020).…”