International Journal of Innovative Research and Development

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of entrepreneurship ecosystem for sustainable growth on the rural small and micro retail businesses in selected Outer West areas of the eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.  It examines whether the internal and external entrepreneurship ecosystem factors influence rural small and micro retailers for sustainable growth.  The entrepreneurship ecosystem is narrowly defined as the individuals, organisations or institutions outside the individual entrepreneur that are conducive to, or inhibitive of, the choice of a person to become an entrepreneur, and the probabilities of his or her success following the launch. 

Sixty-four private rural small and micro retailers that were managing their businesses in the selected municipal wards of the Outer West region of the eThekwini Municipality participated in the study.  It should be noted that almost 50 per cent of the Outer West region is covered by traditional authorities whilst the other 50 per cent is under the authority of local ward municipalities.  The local ward councilors assisted in providing the sample frame of the rural small and micro retail businesses.  The participants comprised small grocery shops, fruit and vegetable outlets, liquor shops, hardware shops, saloons and others. 

The paper recommends that the rural small and micro retailers should be skilled in both business and financial management for business’ sustainable growth.  The provincial government, local ward municipalities as well as the traditional leaders in the rural areas should provide the necessary entrepreneurship ecosystem support to small and micro businesses operating within their areas.  This includes infrastructure.  This paper provides valuable data relating to the significance of providing value-added government and private sector services to rural businesses for sustainable growth.  It also provides initial baseline data upon which to base future studies.  

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Abstract

The small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) play a pivotal role in the South African economy through job creation and development.  Hence, SMMEs should operate efficiently and run their businesses effectively in order to grow within their respective sectors.  One of their challenges is access to different methods of finance in order to improve their operations.  As a result, this paper examines the influence of the financial incentive schemes (GFIS) on small and micro enterprises’ (SMEs’) operational performance in the textile and clothing manufacturing sector in the eThekwini District Municipality.

Of the 94 SMEs that were identified, 80 participated in the study.  The owners of SMEs were the target population.  Descriptive and one-sample statistics were used to analyse the three objectives.  That is, to examine SME awareness of government financial incentive schemes; to establish SME knowledge of accessing government financial incentive schemes; and to determine the influence of GFIS for SMEs’ operational performance.  The results indicate that the majority of SMEs are not aware of GFIS.  They are less knowledgeable as to where to access government’s finance assistance.  However, those that have accessed the government financial schemes indicate that such schemes help achieve their operational performance objectives for growth. 

The original value of this paper is its approach in uncovering strengths and weaknesses of government’s financial incentive scheme for SMEs’ operational performance in the eThekwini District Municipality.  It provides the initial baseline data upon which to base future work.  

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