Selected Key External Factors Influencing the Success of Rural Small and Medium Enterprises in South Africa

Lekhanya, Lawrence Mpele; Mason, Roger

doi:10.1142/s0218495814500149

Cited by 26 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Access to finance is considered to be a challenge for many start-up businesses (Seed Academy, 2016), including established SMEs (Lekhanya and Mason, 2014;Jere et al, 2015). The latter is disconcerting (as mentioned above), since it is highly probable that limited access to financing opportunities may have a direct influence on the sustainability of South African SMEs.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Access to finance problems for small retail businesses in South Africa: comparative views from finance seekers (retailers) and finance providers (banks)

Schmidt

Mason

Bruwer

et al. 2017

Banks and Bank Systems

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Small retail businesses are essential for the growth of the South African economy. Though many of these business entities need more assets to seize business opportunities, previous research studies suggest that their overall access to finance through banks and other finance providers seems to be limited. In general, small retail businesses are usually managed by entrepreneurs who lack financial knowledge, but banks, when deciding on credit applications, rely heavily on financial information, which is provided by these entrepreneurs. Notwithstanding the aforementioned, this study aimed to explore barriers that limit access to finance for South African small retailers, from the perspectives of finance providers (banking institutions) and finance seekers (small retailers). Additionally, measures were highlighted to show how those hurdles could be overcome. Qualitative research was conducted, whereby data were collected via semi-structured interviews with management personnel at banks and other financial institutions, as well as independent experts and small retail business owners and managers. The findings show that many financing opportunities are available to small retail businesses, but access to these opportunities is limited mainly owing to, inter alia, strict bank regulations and factors that are inherent to small retail business owners.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Access to finance problems for small retail businesses in South Africa: comparative views from finance seekers (retailers) and finance providers (banks)

Schmidt

Mason

Bruwer

et al. 2017

Banks and Bank Systems

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“…Venezuela: (Zimmerman and Chu, 2013). South Africa: (Ganyaupfu, 2013;Lekhanya and Mason, 2014;Garg and Makukule, 2015). Libya: (Abdesamed and Wahab, 2014).…”

Section: Previous Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lekhanya and Mason (2014) examined factors that influence the success of SMEs in rural areas in South Africa.…”

Section: Previous Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Determine Small Businesses (SBS) Success in Kuwait

AL‐Mutairi

Naser²,

Fayez

2017

Asian Economic and Financial Review

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Article HistoryThe current study is set out to identify factors that determine Small Businesses (SBs) success in Kuwait. SBs success reduces the risk of failure and ensures SBs role in creating job opportunities and achieving sustainable economic development. The article used a questionnaire survey to identify the factors affecting SBs success in Kuwait. Questionnaires were distributed to 300 small businesses in services, industry, retail, and other industries. Owners, managers, managers' owners and others within the small businesses were requested to express their opinion on a set of internal and external factors expected to determine SBs success in Kuwait. 240 took part in the survey, resulting in 80% usable response rate. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the most important internal and external factors that determine SBs success. Kruskal Wallis test was performed to detect possible variations in the participants' opinions regarding the importance of the factors due to their characteristics. The results of the analysis revealed that internal factors such as entrepreneur's experience, marketing factors as sales promotion, quality of the product/ service offered by SBs, financial incentives offered by the organization to its personnel and hard work are the most important factors that determine SBs success in Kuwait. The participants further indicated that the academic qualifications of the entrepreneur and academic qualifications of the SBs personnel are the least important factors that impact SBs success. As for the external factors, the participants pointed to business location, attractive legal and regulatory framework and availability of trained employees as the most important external factors to the success of SBs in Kuwait. Contribution/ Originality:The study provides empirical testing to factors underpinning small businesses success in a new environmental context of country, time and industry. This is expected to enhance our understanding and adds a new dimension to the current body of the literature.

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“…The gulf between the SMME financing literature (Falkena et al, 2001;International Finance Corporation 2011;Mahembe, 2011;Timm, 2012, Fatoki, 2014 and SMME human resourcing (Horwitz, 2013;Almeida et al, 2015;Davis & Luiz, 2015;Nyamubarwa, 2016) stems from the varied foci of these discourses. The literature on SMME financing has foregrounded: SMMEs' limited awareness of external funding opportunities, nascence of the African financial systems and high cost of borrowing (Beck et al, 2009); SMMEs' bureaucracy which complicates their capacity to capitalise on available funding opportunities (Lekhanya & Mason, 2014), the complexities in meeting loaning requirements (Chimucheka & Mandipaka, 2015) and limited access to financing opportunities (Schmidt, Mason, Bruwer & Aspeling, 2016). This foci on funding can be contrasted with the research on SMME human resourcing that is pre-occupied with the significance and challenge of the adoption of human resources in SMME development (Hung, Cant & Wiid, 2016); the low human resource and technological capabilities of SMMEs (Hussain, Si & Wang, 2010), and the influence of human resource management (HRM) practices on SMMEs' financial and non-financial performance (Din, Bibi, Karim & Bano, 2014).…”

Section: Problem Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Private Financing and Human Resource Practices of Small Local and Foreign-Owned Cosmetological Businesses

Rambe

2017

JEBS

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There exists a growing body of empirical studies that explore both the sources of small, micro and medium enterprises (SMME) funding, and the quality of their human resource practices. However, there is paucity of literature that interrogates the impact of private funding of local and foreign SMMEs on the quality of human resources. Nevertheless, the wide recognition of the economic significance of SMMEs in emerging economies and the pivotal role that funding plays in the growth of such firms suggest that the nexus between SMME private funding and human resourcing is integral to this condition and growth. As a result, the current study examined the influence of private financing of local and foreign-owned hair salon SMMEs on the quality of their human resources, in an attempt to bridge the aforementioned research gap. The study, which drew on a quantitative approach, is based on a survey conducted on 150 South African and foreign immigrant-owned hair salon businesses. The findings suggest that the private financing structure was dominated by a combination of debt and equity financing, followed by debt financing, with equity financing as the least employed funding model. The study established the significant impact that access to private equity financing has on recruitment, selection and compensation. However, the level of private debt financing, attractiveness of interest rates for private debt financing and financial value of funding from private institutions (banks) do not have any impact on human resources management practices. A major observation from the results is that, some aspects of private financing impact negatively on human resources management albeit a small effect size, which somehow raises critical questions about the popular claims that financing, contributes positively to the quality of human resources of firms.

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Selected Key External Factors Influencing the Success of Rural Small and Medium Enterprises in South Africa

Cited by 26 publications

References 22 publications

Access to finance problems for small retail businesses in South Africa: comparative views from finance seekers (retailers) and finance providers (banks)

Access to finance problems for small retail businesses in South Africa: comparative views from finance seekers (retailers) and finance providers (banks)

Factors Determine Small Businesses (SBS) Success in Kuwait

Private Financing and Human Resource Practices of Small Local and Foreign-Owned Cosmetological Businesses

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