SME Performance – Results from a Longitudinal Study

Isaacs, Eslyn; Friedrich, Christian

doi:10.5367/000000010790877335

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…The dynamic nature of SMMEs enables them to thrive in even more dynamic times or economies (Quansah, Hartz & Salipante, 2022;Rashid & Ratten, 2021;Weaven, Quach, Thaichon, Frazer, Billot, & Grace, 2021). SMMEs have an innovative edge, creativity, competitiveness, and drive to succeed (Isaacs, Friedrich & Basardien, 2020;Takyi & Naidoo, 2020). They possess salient features that enhance their ability to contribute towards economic growth and improved living standards.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

AN EVALUATION OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT SERVICES FOR SMMEs IN THOHOYANDOU, SOUTH AFRICA

Kelly¹,

Shumba²,

Zindiye³

et al. 2022

JEI

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Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) possess attributes akin to entrepreneurship that make them indispensable tools for economic growth and development. While SMMEs have a direct impact on economic growth in advanced economies, these enterprises have a high failure rate due to a variety of reasons, especially during the start-up and growth phases. Government support schemes have been availed to SMMEs to assist them to survive the vulnerable phases of their existence. This study investigates the role of government support services towards the development and growth of SMMEs in South Africa. The quantitative research design used the survey method to collect data from a sample of one hundred (100) SMMEs in Thohoyandou, South Africa. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data, and presentation used descriptive analysis. The main study revealed that despite the government support schemes and initiatives, the failure rate of SMMEs remains high. The major factors affecting the uptake of government support schemes and initiatives included the lack of information and access to the financial assistance offered to most SMMEs through the government schemes. Despite the support schemes and initiatives, further challenges include the proliferating myriad of rules and regulations in the regulatory environment curtailing the operations and survival of SMMEs. Study findings indicated that despite the existence of the growth and development-oriented government support schemes, most SMMEs are unaware of their existence while other enterprises find them ineffective. The main conclusions point to the information deficit and needs analysis that would tailor-make and accommodate the specific requirements of different enterprises.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

AN EVALUATION OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT SERVICES FOR SMMEs IN THOHOYANDOU, SOUTH AFRICA

Kelly¹,

Shumba²,

Zindiye³

et al. 2022

JEI

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They are responsible for more than 50 per cent of the GDP and by far more than 50 per cent of the employment of these countries. A major problem, of course, is the high failure rate of SMEs (Isaacs & Friedrich, 2010). While large companies are not expanding employment in South Africa and the Civil Service is laying off people, SMEs are creating employment.…”

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confidence: 99%

Guest Editorial

Friedrich¹

2016

Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economie

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Africa is known as the lost continent. A reason for this is due to the lack of economic development in comparison to other parts of the world. Sadly, Africa is still the poorest region on earth. Given the importance of self-employment for the African economic development, entrepreneurship offers a great hope for changing the development, for the better, in many African countries. This also means there is a need for a higher degree of entrepreneurial activities. The Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) for countries in the southern African region is high, with the exception of South Africa (Herrington & Kelley, 2013). This gives optimism that the economic situation can improve in most of these countries over time, especially in reducing the high unemployment rate. The appeal of entrepreneurship is that everybody can become an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship starts with individuals who take responsibilities for themselves and make full use of the available resources in the best possible way for them. Governments can have a positive impact on entrepreneurship through, for example, education and training as well as privatisation and taxation. The role of governments in the formulation of policies is directed towards promoting entrepreneurship. It is not the function of government to create jobs directly, but they can definitely play a critical role in creating a climate that encourages and promotes new business start-ups. It is their job to make it easier, faster and less costly to start a new business. Compared to research on entrepreneurship elsewhere in the world, entrepreneurship research in Africa is relatively lacking (Kiggundu, 2002). It is of great importance to conduct good research in African countries, because we are unsure that Western models will be useful and successful in Africa. I am happy to say that it was possible to select five interesting and valuable academic articles for this special issue of the Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, dedicated to the issues of entrepreneurship in Africa. These articles were first presented as papers for the refereed 14th International Entrepreneurship Forum Conference, held in Cape Town, South Africa in September 2015. Subsequent developments have now produced this interesting and highly topical crop of articles for all to obtain useful insights into entrepreneurship in Africa. The following refereed articles are mainly on entrepreneurial activities in the southern African region, especially in South Africa. In his article 'Industrial Centres of Competence', Nawaz Mahomed gives an overview of centres of competence, which have already been proven to be successfully implemented in the Scandinavian countries. In his South African case study, in the agriculture and forestry sectors, he includes an assessment of innovation capabilities of regions, an analysis of supportive government development frameworks and the identification of technology platforms to support entrepreneurial activities. His case Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovati...

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SME Performance – Results from a Longitudinal Study

Cited by 2 publications

References 14 publications

AN EVALUATION OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT SERVICES FOR SMMEs IN THOHOYANDOU, SOUTH AFRICA

AN EVALUATION OF GOVERNMENT SUPPORT SERVICES FOR SMMEs IN THOHOYANDOU, SOUTH AFRICA

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