The influence of entrepreneurship ecosystem for sustainable growth on the rural small and micro retail businesses : case study

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.