This study attempts to investigate the perceived problems and constraints facing small Indian owned businesses in the 'downtown' area of Pietermaritzburg. An attempt was further made to profile businesses in the area, to investigate the specific problems and constraints facing them, and to look at problems on the basis of business sector and type of business. Further, the study aimed to provide information to marketers in the area and to make recommendations from a management point of view. The problems facing SMME's were broadly divided into internal problems, external problems and those facing the firm at industry level. Internal problems are those over which the owner-manager has control and external problems are those over which the owner-manager has no control. The main problem facing SMME's at industry level appears to be competition from similar businesses. The profile of businesses in downtown Pietermaritzburg is as follows: • Owners • Retail businesses • Family owned • Sole proprietors • Male co-owners • Approximately 72% of the businesses in the sample exist for a period of longer than 10 years. The internal problems faced by the businesses include: • 24% have no business experience • Businesses do not offer credit facilities • 32% experience problems in recruiting skilled staff • Location is by far a major constraint in the business The external problems do not seem to be having a serious! very strong negative impact, however the common external problems faced by these businesses include • Business cycle • Exchange rates • Changes in distribution patterns • Social Cultural factors • Rentals Crime however appears to have the most serious negative impact on the businesses in this area. Medical practices in the area surprisingly do not appear to have stock control systems in place. Operating costs were high for clothing businesses and general dealers. Location appears to be a problem for general dealers, jewelers, medical practices and clothing businesses. Crime appears to be a problem especially for jewelers, medical practices, and general dealers. General dealers, hairdressers and clothing businesses are affected by competition from similar businesses. Clothing businesses are negatively impacted by changes in distribution patterns. There does not seem to be much difference between retail, service and other businesses with respect to internal and external problems. There also does not seem to be much difference between owners, managers and partners with respect to internal and external problems. / Thesis (M.B.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

Poverty alleviation through employment creation is the focus of the South African government and other developing economies. The SMME sector has been identified as the leading vehicle for the creation of employment opportunities. South Africa in particular went through a phase when economic growth did not translate into employment creation. Consequently the benefits of economic growth did not filter through to the unemployed. In South Africa there is a strong link between unemployment and poverty. Essentially the country experienced jobless growth and it is the poor who missed out on the possible benefits of economic growth. The challenge then for South Africa is to come up with a revolutionary approach to ensure that the country's poor are not excluded from the of benefits economic growth. Almost half of the South African population lives in poverty. Poverty and the consequences thereof are most pronounced among the African population. This is due to the South African history of apartheid which systematically excluded them from accessing economic opportunities. Bringing development to communities is the thinking behind local economic development (LED). The urgency for the country to address poverty lies in the fact that poverty is not a static phenomenon and if left unaddressed it may to lead more people being poor when the numbers are already overwhelming. Government has come up with various strategies for poverty alleviation, employment creation being the chief strategy. The SMME sector is the most prominent employer in South Africa, said to be responsible for over 61 % of all employment. Even given these figures of there are still high levels of unemployment in the country. Growing industries like the tourism sector present a lot of hope for the ambitions of employment creation and poverty alleviation in developing countries including South Africa. The focus of this study will be the South African tourism sector. / Thesis (M.Dev. Studies)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

The growth of the Small Medium and Micro Enterprise (SMMEs) has been phenomenal in the last 17 years since the advent of democracy in South Africa. Turbulant economic conditions have also led more people to seek opportunities for survival by participating in the economy as small entrepreneurs. Small entrepreneurs in townships lack sophistication to understand new development trends in business such as the emergence of shopping malls in townships, bringing along major national and international retailers. The study aims to determine the effects of the emergence of shopping malls on SMMEs in eThekwini; a case study of Umlazi. The Umlazi Mega City Mall is used as a point of reference. The challenges faced by small business owners after the emergence of Umlazi Mega City will be explored in detail in this study. A probability sample of 120 small businesses falling under the SMME sector were identified based on a population of approximately 500 SMMEs operating in and around Umlazi. It is important to highlight that from the above sample, 100 completed the questionnaire which was used for data analysis. Quantitative research method was used and a questionnaire with a total of 25 closed questions was used to collect data directly from participants. The questionnaire was distributed directly to respondents and that proved to be very effective but time consuming. The presentation of results has been covered using graphs, tables and statistical percentages. The analysis is accompanied by the researcher‟s interpretation and remarks to explain the salient features discovered in the findings. The respondents in this study ranged from street hawkers, chicken stalls, shoe repairs, butcheries and supermarket owners. The findings revealed that the majority of participants indicated a decrease in turnover after the emergence of Umlazi Mega City. One of the recommendations put forward was that, new developments of shopping malls should create an empowerment venture of not less than 10% that would be owned by a consortium of SMMEs. This arrangement has a potential to build loyalty of SMME tenants if they become part of that mall, and at the same time, remove resentment. The definition of the sizes “small business” and “medium business” will be covered during the course of the research. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

The purpose of this research was to investigate and analyse the factors that lead to the failure of SMMEs, especially the businesses owned by previously disadvantaged individuals in Durban. The study was motivated by the fact that SMMEs are not growing but instead there seems to be an increase in the failure rate of SMMEs. A range of literature was reviewed that included past research papers and journals on the subject of SMMEs, government papers and acts, information from NGOs, financial institutions and government agencies to help understand the role players in the SMME sector. Primary data was collected in the form of a questionnaire which was given to SMME owners to complete in order to get their views on the sector. The findings show that SMMEs owned by previously disadvantaged individuals are dealing with issues such as lack of finance, insufficient government support and lack of information on services available to them from government and NGOs, which if left unattended, can cause their businesses to fail. Among other things, it was recommended that business owners be mentored and trained in both financial and business management in order to be able to take advantage of the services available to them. It was also recommended that government assess its position on SMME policies in order to be readily available to the SMME sector. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.

Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) are considered to be the engines of growth of any economy. In the light of recent economic events and the recession that is surging rapidly across the globe, more and more attention is being focused on SMME development and support. Whilst there are a number of organisations (both public and private) which provide support to SMMEs within the eThekwini Municipality Area (EMA), the overall impacts of these initiatives on SMME growth and development is minimal and there is a dearth of studies that critically examine business support services for SMMEs which the public and private sectors provided. One of the major reasons for this minimal impact is the lack of communication and coordination between various service providers which often results in fragmentation and duplication of services. This study analyses the support measures offered to SMMEs not only from the perspective of the SMMEs themselves but also examines the perspectives of service providers from both the public and private sectors. This study is also placed within a multi-disciplinary conceptual framework which includes the political economy approach, neoliberalism, the public-private-sector debate and empowerment theories with specific reference to the South African context. This study is unique in that it analyses SMME development and support within the EMA from various perspectives within a single study. The objectives of this study were to investigate the awareness and experiences of SMMEs with regards to their support and development and also to critically examine the attitudes and perceptions of service providers (both public and private) towards SMME development and support. In addition, this study sought to assess the capacity of both the private and public sectors to provide effective support and development to SMMEs. An additional objective of this study was to determine the value placed on support measures by determining SMMEs’ willingness to pay for services provided, but more importantly to determine the attitudes of the public and private sectors towards the payment for services offered. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted. In terms of the latter, quantitative surveys were conducted with 250 SMMEs who attended various fairs and conferences held across the EMA. Semi-structured interviews (qualitative approach) were conducted with representatives from the private and public sectors that provide support or services to the SMMEs in the EMA. In this regard, 53 representatives from the public sector and 50 from the private sector were interviewed. The analysis was undertaken thematically and, where relevant, findings pertaining to the different stakeholders interviewed were compared and discussed. Some of the key findings indicate that SMME respondents were more aware of local government and the services they provide than any other tier of government. Furthermore, SMME respondents within the study did not fully grasp the concept of Business Development Services (BDS) and the associated benefits for their business. SMMEs rely heavily on government to provide services free of charge. The main finding is that private sector service providers are better qualified, positioned and trained to provide BDS than the public sector whose main roles should be that of regulator, facilitator and promoter. Whilst government has been a strong proponent of SMME development and support since 1994, this study presents a strong case for the increased role of the private sector. In addition, this study also motivates that local government through their Municipalities can play a significant role in SMME development and support in partnership with the private sector. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

After decades of optimistic theories of development, increasing global poverty and inequities remain at troublingly high levels. By the close of the twentieth century the development enterprise was accused of having “…reached an impasse, trapped within its own meta-narratives and unable to capture the diversity of the third world in any relevant and constructive manner” (Abrahamsen, 2000: ix). Similar observations have been made by Binns and Nel, (1999), McMichael (1996), Rivero (2001) and Rihani (2002) among others. These observations raise fundamental suspicions on the traditional approaches to development. The emerging consensus tends to favor bottom up approaches to development, anticipating that these might be better equipped to address underdevelopment. Thus the concepts of democratization and decentralization feature centrally in the prevailing literature. Literature seems to suggest that these emergent discourses have absorbed assumptions and contradictions. This in turn has rendered these discourses potentially deficient of meaningful impact. The specific task of this dissertation is to investigate participation issues in integrated planning. This will be achieved through assessing small businesses related LED in eThekwini municipality. Integrated Development Planning is a process through which South African municipalities prepare a strategic development plan, for a five year period. The Integrated Development Plan (IDP) is a product of the integrated development planning process. The IDP is a principal strategic planning instrument which guides and informs all planning, budgeting, management and decision-making in a municipality. Since the IDP involves participation of a number of stakeholders, it is crucial for the municipality to adopt an appropriate approach and also put in place appropriate structures to ensure effective participation. Here are some principles on participation: · The elected council is the ultimate decision-making forum on IDPs. · The role of participatory democracy is to inform, negotiate and comment on those decisions, in the course of the planning/ decision-making process. · Public participation has to be institutionalised in order to ensure that all residents of the country have an equal right to participate.” (Republic of South Africa, undated). Cornwall (2006:63) has already expressed serious worries on the way participation has navigated the development industry. For its part, she argues, “…contemporary participation discourse represents a reflux of strikingly similar policies, sentiments and pronouncements from a barely-remembered colonial past. Alongside the significant continuities in discourse and practice that span the colonial and post-colonial eras, the genealogy of participation in development reveals discontinuities and dissonances, broken records and broken promises” Within Cornwall’s concerns, this research project sought to understand the degree in which tendencies of top down approaches might still thrive in South Africa’s Local Economic Development discourse in regards to small businesses, despite policy commitments to participatory planning and governance. The findings suggest an urgent need to revisit the conceptualization of participation mechanisms. They further suggest this would impact on the approach to LED programs, and in particular those relating to small business development. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impediments to the expansion of small black owned businesses in Durban. The study was based on the assumption that small black owned businesses are not expanding in Durban despite the support from eThekwini Municipality, Government and Black Economic Empowerment policies. Participation in seminars, conferences and meetings in which barriers to the expansion of SMMEs were discussed also helped in data collection, and the questionnaires were also given to the small black owned businesses. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the small black business owners who have experience as small entrepreneurs. Websites of SMMEs like Khula and Ntsika were visited to establish the direction of SMMEs in Durban. Visits to eThekwini Municipality and South African Chamber of Commerce helped in gathering the information about the impediments to the expansion of small black entrepreneurs. The finding was that small black owned businesses are facing serious impediments such as lack of capital, lack of training and lack of government support. It was recommended that the UKZN-Graduate School of Business should provide small businesses development courses interpreted in both English and Zulu. It was also recommended that Government establish one central office for entrepreneurs to sort out licenses, tax and service contracts. It is recommended that South African Revenue Service to be a right place for sorting out licenses, tax and service contracts. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2008.

This study investigated the internal and external constraints facing small business owners in the Pietermaritzburg (PMB) region. An attempt was further made to determine: whether the internal constraints or external factors constitute a greater burden on growth; whether policy focus should concentrate more on the internal constraints or external factors and determine the association between average growth (in terms of the number of employees) and the educational level and training of the owner/ manager, gender, ethnicity, business activity, legal status of the business and sources of start-up capital. Knowledge of the relative role of personal and environmental factors of this study in bringing about growth and expansion provides directions for government policy on Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) development. By means of factor analysis the numerous internal and external environmental variables affecting business growth in PMB were reduced to a set of three factors, classified as management, financial and external. Collectively they accounted for 59.21% of the total variance of the model. The internal factors (management and finance) accounted for 48.95% of variance and it was concluded that internal factors are more burdensome to growth than external factors. As a result government support should focus more on the internal constraints facing the small business sector. Further, multiple regression analysis was used to arrive at a parsimonious model that 'best' explained the regression model which accounted for 45.4% of variance with average growth. Average growth, in terms of the number of employees, was found to be a function of, the level of education of the owner / manager, legal status of the business, source of start-up capital, exposure to training and business support. Internal factors such as obtaining finance, cash flow, recruiting and retaining staff, shortage of managerial skills/ business expertise and lack of financial understanding prevent growth of the business. External factors such as the economy, taxation, regulation and laws, technology, competition, lack of business support and crime were found to inhibit the growth of the business. A significant difference was found to exist between average growth and gender, legal status, business activity, source of start-up capital and the educational level and training of the entrepreneur/owner. These results also have implications for the management of the SME's as well as business networks such as the Chamber of Commerce and financial institutions. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

The objective of this research was to assess the role of entrepreneurship in the success of small businesses using the factors based on the Burch continuum to measure the levels of entrepreneurial activity. The term entrepreneurship is often used inappropriately in respect of all small businesses, and yet in actual fact this term only refers to businesses that have growth and development as sustainable and achievable objectives (Ligthelm, 2008:368). This study used growth in staff numbers as the measure of success. Growth in staff numbers was used because small business owners are generally not willing to give out their financial records or to disclose their firms’ financial standing. The law of diminishing returns states that the business faces rising costs as it undertakes to expand or grow. The cause of this being that some fixed factors of production limit profitable growth (Teece, 2000:49). This therefore implies that businesses would not unnecessarily increase their employee numbers unless they were growing and had an increased need for labour. Using emailed questionnaires to collect the data needed for the research, a simple random sample of 252 SMEs was generated from a pool of 678 companies registered with the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business. The data collected was both qualitative and quantitative. SPSS was used to analyse the data. The information showed that an increase in the level of entrepreneurial activity has a positive impact on the success of a small business. Nearly all the businesses that were successful actively practiced a number of variables that Burch used to measure entrepreneurial activity in his continuum and engaged in more strategic roles as compared to the unsuccessful businesses. A clear differentiation was found using the roles played by the entrepreneur. The successful businesses were run by entrepreneurs who employed more strategic roles in businesses. The researcher would suggest that further study be done on the relevance of older business theories in relation to business success considering the impact of advanced technology in the present day. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

The problem this study addresses is the key factors which have played an important role in the growth of small Indian retailers situated in some of the previous Group Areas of Pietermaritzburg. More particularly, the intention was to examine what role marketing played in this growth. The main reason for undertaking this study is that it seems that many small Indian retailers appeared to have exhibited growth despite having been affected by Apartheid and other problems commonly associated with being small. This study is unique in that it studies growth ie. a positive phenomenon amidst difficult situations ie. Apartheid and problems that are inherent in being small. This problem is explored by firstly analysing literature on the history of small Indian retailers in South Africa with the intention of identifying possible factors which may have played an important role in their growth. Stemming from this exploratory study into the history of small Indian trade in South Africa were the following factors which seemed to have played an important role in their growth: a. business experience and skills, b. hard work and support especially from family members, c. good knowledge of the needs of Indian customers, d. superior service, e. competitive prices, f. keeping overheads low, g. adequate capital possessed particularly by small Passenger Indian retailers, h. effectively identifying and exploiting opportunities. Secondly, the literature was once again explored to ascertain and examine factors which have been known to play an important role in business and more specifically small business growth. Having examined the literature, it was found that such growth factors could be grouped under six broad headings viz. Personal, Marketing, Financial, Technical, Management, and General. Relating what seemed to have played an important role historically in South Africa in the growth of small Indian retailers to what has been known to play an important role in small business growth generally, it was found that there were a number of common associations. Hence, this allowed for the generation of the following hypotheses: The growth of small Indian retailers in some of the previous Group Areas of Pietermaritzburg was because of: Hypothesis I (HI) - Personal Factors, Hypothesis 2 (H2) - Financial Factors, Hypothesis 3 (H3) - Marketing Factors, Hypothesis 4 (H4) - Management Factors, Hypothesis 5 (H5) - Technical Factors, Hypothesis 6 (H6) - General Factors. A survey was conducted in two areas which were part of the previous Group Areas of Pietermaritzburg and are often referred to as the 'hub' of Indian retailer activity in Pietermaritzburg with a high concentration of small Indian retailers. The areas in question were the 'bottom end of town' which included all those businesses in Church Street between East and Retief Streets; the other area included businesses in Old Greytown Road between Naidoo and Allandale Roads. A total of 67 small retailers were interviewed who survived for at least three years, were in business during the Apartheid era, and exhibited some form of growth during this period. Cluster/area samples were chosen on the basis of convenience and judgement to suit the financial and time constraints of the study; and elements were included in the sample randomly but in proportion to the size of their clusters/areas in the total cluster/area population. The 67 businesses studied were classified as low, medium, and high growth using Hatten's (1997) and Walker's (1988) growth models. There were 31 low growth, 32 medium growth, and 4 high growth businesses. The most important factors in this study were found to be in order of importance: personal, financial, marketing, management, and technical. In addition, the results of the qualitative study revealed that Culture and Religion, Group Areas, and past business experience also played an important role in business growth, in this study. The 'top ten' sub factors in this study were found to be: Honesty, Hard Work, Commitment, Involvement, Common Sense, A belief in Superior Quality and Service, Learning from Failure, Knowledge of Business and Market, Adequate Capital, Price. In testing the hypotheses, using the Chi-squared test, it was found that there were significant relationships between business growth and personal, financial, marketing, management, and technical factors, at the 95% confidence level. For all factors, using the Chi-squared test, significant differences, and high frequency counts were apparent at levels of importance thus suggesting that all factors studied were at least important in the growth of small Indian retailers situated in some of the previous Group Areas of Pietermaritzburg. The results of this study may be useful to: a. prospective small business people wanting to increase their chances of growth, b. those small businesses that want to increase their growth, c. those small businesses experiencing growth problems, d. small business operators from disadvantaged backgrounds, e. organisations involved in small business development, support, and training. The limitations of this study include: a. the lack of a pre-prepared sampling frame, b. unique results which may not be applicable to other small businesses, c. lack of literature on small business growth and the history of Indian trade in South Africa, d. inapplicability of the chi-square test for businesses in the high growth category due to a small cell size, e. restricted response from the Likert scale measurement used. / Thesis (M.Comm.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.