Thesis (PhD) -- AUT University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print ( xi, 268 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 658.022 YOU)

Thesis (M. Com.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-130). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Magister Commercii - MCom / The research identified Site C area of Khayelitsha, a township in the Western Cape province of South Africa, as the case study. Khayelitsha has an estimated population of 1.2 million people, and has about 22 sub-sections or areas. Khayelitsha is made up of old formal areas and new informal/formal areas. Site C, is an area which was built up around one of the old formal areas, and contains a high number of informal settlements, RDP houses, and informal backyard dwellers. The study’s primary objective is to identify what factors the business owners themselves regard as being critical for their own personal success, as well as that of the business they own. The secondary objectives were to determine what the make-up of these identified success factors were, and what their respective contribution was to the overall success of the business, as well as what interventions (if any) could make these identified success factors more effective. Qualitative data was requested from each of the participants over the various questionnaire development phases, to obtain a basic and detailed picture of each owner and their business, and to enable a detailed descriptive analysis of each participant. During the literature reviews of the Small Medium and Micro Enterprise (SMME) sector in South Africa, many sources identified the possible failure factors. These failure factors had extensive references to studies which focused primarily on the small and medium enterprises versus the micro enterprises component. The level of data available on micro enterprises indicated a significantly lower level of relevant data, than the data available on the small and medium enterprises component. The identification of the success factors is equally important as a valuable contributor to understanding the significant failure rate of start-up businesses within the SMME sector in South Africa. This thesis will consult literature studies that discuss these challenges. It will have an emphasis on the micro enterprise sub-sector within the broader SMME sector. The inequitable number of data between the micro enterprises and the small to medium enterprises is confirmed by the literature review. The core focus of the research is to hear from the established micro entrepreneurs themselves and what they identified over the course of their business existence, as being the key factors that enabled their success to date, as well as moving toward the future. The findings indicated that success factors are indeed identifiable from the entrepreneurs themselves. These factors included the education and training level of the entrepreneur, the entrepreneurial capacity of the entrepreneur, the access to financial resources, the specific business retail mix and the uniqueness of the specific business within its immediate locality. Whilst the owners’ success (and by default the business as well) is the priority of this research, the equally important failure rate of small business initiatives in South Africa is of concern, and are the proverbial other side of the coin. Small businesses are playing a vital part in our global economy and in particular in terms of job creation and poverty alleviation. The two pillars of the governments micro enterprise rollout is through the Department of Social Development via poverty alleviation programs which have at their core, essentially micro enterprise formation. The other pillar is via the Department of Trade and Industry in respect of job creation and empowerment as objectives. In South Africa much emphasis throughout the Integrated Small Business Strategy is placed by national, provincial and local governments on Small, Medium and Micro enterprises (SMMEs), to drive job creation and poverty alleviation. Therefore, an investigation into the factors contributing to the success of SMMEs is of vital importance. Recent changes in statistical data gathering methodologies have enabled greater understanding of the contribution of especially the smaller enterprises in the informal sector. The extensive literature consulted, put this figure as high as 80% of economic activity in developing countries. This by itself makes it critically important as an employment option for the retrenched, school leavers, graduates and the unemployed in general. Only willing participants were interviewed and were randomly selected based on the criterion of being in business continuously, for at least 5 years. This target population’s value is unique because they fall into the 20% category of small businesses who survive the first 3.5 years of business, as well as being in the even more elite and valuable niche of 2.10% of South Africans who are running firms older than 3.5 years. These two features are both exceptional and generates’ a unique further study opportunity. The opportunity is to identify why the other 80% of start-ups failed over the initial 12 - 48 month period since start-up. The specific focus area of this research is to identify the success factors of retail micro enterprises located within the case study area, being Site C Khayelitsha. The broad findings of the study of successful retail micro-enterprise owners in Site C Khayelitsha, indicate that their prior quality of education, the presence of role models in their social circle influenced their motivational aspect to start a business, their personal management skills levels were a significant feature in their success as well their exposure to, and understanding of business and how it works; were all crucial to their success.

Small businesses represent over 99% of all United States businesses and are engines of economic growth and job creation. In 2018, the Small Business Administration estimated that a total of 30.2 million small businesses employed over 58.9 million workers. Small businesses are known to face significant challenges, and most fail within 5 years of startup. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that owners of small accounting businesses used to sustain their organizations for longer than 5 years. The population in this study consisted of 5 owners of small accounting businesses in Michigan. The conceptual framework for the study was human capital theory. Data were collected through face-to-face, semistructured interviews and review of documents. The analysis of collected data yielded themes that included market research and competitive analysis, excellent customer service, passion for accounting and arduous work, and retention of skilled and competent employees. The findings of this study may be applied to bringing about positive social change by enhancing small business owners' competence and promoting business growth. Additionally, the use of the results of this study may promote economic activities and sustainability by stimulating job creation and reducing unemployment.

Micro and small enterprise (MSE) owners in Kenya are faced with a myriad of constraints that affect their survival for longer than the first 5 years. Owners of MSEs who are unable to identify and implement strategies may not succeed in sustaining their businesses. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies owners of MSEs in Nairobi, Kenya, used to sustain their businesses for longer than 5 years. The conceptual framework for the study was the theory of constraints. Data were collected from 4 purposefully selected MSE owners in Nairobi, Kenya, through face-to-face, semistructured interviews, and review of field notes and company documents. Using thematic data analysis, the major themes that emerged were customer service, access to capital, and nearness to market. The implications of this study for positive social change include strategies for MSE owners to generate stable income for employees, new employment opportunities for job seekers, improved standards of healthcare and education for the community, and a positive lifestyle for the residents of Kenya.

Most small new firms face problems in surviving the gestation process and achieving a viable performance thereafter because of the very fact of their smallness and newness. Due to a lack of internal resources, entrepreneurs of small new firms find it necessary to seek resources from outside the firm through their external social network. The theory of social capital that prescribes valuable resources are embedded in social relations is, thus, particularly relevant to the small business start-up situation. The embedded resources within an external network are hypothesized to have a positive impact on the business performance of these new firms. The main objective of the present study is to empirically investigate the impact of external networks, and in particular the initial social network of entrepreneurs, to the success of small firm start-up in Hong Kong. The second objective is to determine whether there is any interaction effect of the entrepreneur’s networking capability with the external network structure on the start-up success of small Hong Kong firms. / To carry out the research, this study offers a conceptual model linking initial network start-up success to initial network structure of start-up, and including an interaction effect from the entrepreneur’s networking capability. The study operationalizes social capital in four types of network constructs: network size, trustworthiness, network support and network diversity. A series of hypotheses relating to these four dimensions asserting external network determinants of the start-up success of small firms is posited. Other hypotheses which assert the interaction effect between an entrepreneur’s networking capability and the initial network structure on the success of small firm start-up, are also posited. A field survey, administered to 1,000 small Hong Kong firms of various industries, is used to gather the data. The questionnaire survey was developed in two languages – Chinese and English – to ensure a good level of understanding in the bilingual business environment of Hong Kong. Of the 1,000 questionnaires dispatched, a final sample of 89 small firms was used to empirically test the hypotheses using multiple regression analysis and multiple hierarchical regression analysis. Control variables such as entrepreneurs’ experiences and education prior to the firm start-up are included. / Empirical results indicate that the verification of social capital theory’s prescription for start-up success cannot be supported unequivocally. The results suggest that some initial network conditions such as initial size of strong tie network, network support and network diversity are positively associated with some measures of start-up success, but trustworthiness of network ties and the size of weak tie network do not figure among them. No evidence is found to support that entrepreneurs’ networking capability can positively enhance the effect of the initial network structure on start-up success. Overall, the study raises some questions on the positive linear relationship of certain operationalized constructs such as network size and trustworthiness of social capital with start-up success. Following the findings of this research, future studies may choose to further investigate social capital theory on small start-up success by refining the operationalization of social capital, and verify other interaction effects of entrepreneurs’ networking capabilities.

Small business owners generate jobs within the local community, but half of new business owners often fail to sustain operations for the first five years. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore strategies that small business owners in central Texas used to sustain their businesses beyond the first 5 years. Schumpeter's theory of economic development grounded the study. Data collection included semistructured face-to-face interviews with a purposeful sample of 20 small business owners due to their success in creating strategies resulting in sustaining their businesses beyond 5 years in a postrecession business environment. All interpretations from the interview data included member checking to validate the credibility of the findings. Using the van Kamm method for thematic analysis, four themes emerged that included conducting business near federal and state organizations, having a business mentor, improving competitive positioning by focusing on improving both the quality of goods and services as well as innovating the customer experience, and adapting to rapidly changing economic conditions and destabilizing events with optimism and perseverance. Of these, the two most successful strategies entrepreneurs employed to improve survivability was conducting business near federal and state organizations with concentrated levels of workforce employees for sustained levels of returning business, as well as having one or more business mentors as an external source of entrepreneurial mentorship or information. Social change implications for small business owners include the potential to provide new strategies for small business sustainability, reductions in local unemployment rates, and improved community-based networks.

In Nigeria, many small businesses fail before their 5th anniversary. Small businesses make up a major percentage of the businesses in Nigeria and provide jobs for 50% of the populace. The purpose of this qualitative multi-unit case study was to explore the factors required by small businesses in Nigeria to sustain operations beyond the first 5 years. The conceptual framework grounding this study was general systems theory. A review of the literature focused on small business failure and factors required to sustain a business longer than 5 years. Data collection occurred through semistructured interviews of a purposeful sample of 3 successful business owners in Port Harcourt, who described their experiences. Data analysis strategies consisted of using qualitative software, key words, phrases, and codes, which contributed to identifying the following themes: (a) effective strategizing, (b) flexible financial capital management, (c) human capital development, (d) market positioning and sales, and (e) stable power supply. The findings indicated that these 3 small business owners were passionate about starting up their businesses and had the necessary skills to strategize effectively and manage capital, thus sustaining their business beyond 5 years. Information derived from this study may assist small business owners in starting successful companies, that support employees, other companies, communities, and families, contributing to the development of the Nigerian economy.

Owners of small business restaurants experience a high failure rate. Many small business restaurants fail within 5 years of inception because of inadequate business plans, ineffective strategies for changing markets, and a lack of financial capital to achieve profitability, growth, and long-term survivability. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the financial strategies that some owners of small business restaurants used to sustain operations for longer than 5 years. The resource-based view was the conceptual framework for this study. Participants in this study consisted of 5 owners of small business restaurants in northern California who implemented successful strategies to survive in business longer than 5 years. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with participants, member checking, and a review of company documents. Using Yin's 5-phase data analysis process of compiling, disassembling, reassembling, interpreting, and concluding the data, 3 emergent themes were identified: financing strategy, cash-flow-management strategy, and customer-retention strategy. The implications of this study for positive social change include the potential for owners of small business restaurants to reduce the failure rate of small restaurants, decrease local unemployment rates, and increase economic stability for local families and organizations through the implementation of effective financial strategies.

A failure of a small business has a negative impact on the economic health of the community where the small business operates. Small businesses are significant entities in economies around the world, but small businesses have a high failure rate. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore what financial strategies small business manufacturing leaders use to increase productivity and profitability to sustain the business for longer than 5 years. The population for this study was three small manufacturing business owners in Pennsylvania who have been in business over 5 years and have used financial strategies to increase productivity and profitability. The theory of planned behavior was the conceptual framework for the study. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and direct observation. Methodological triangulation was used to analyze the data. Four themes emerged after the data was coded in NVivo: the importance of company data, planning for a sustainable future using capital expenditures, cash flow management, and owner/employee collaboration in decision-making. The potential for positive social change includes increasing the survival rates of small businesses. The increase in small business survivals may potentially contribute to increases in employment rates in the community of small manufacturing businesses, leading to increased family incomes and improved overall economic health of the community.