While entrepreneurship is frequently touted as an engine for macroeconomic growth, and there is increasing policy interest in promoting entrepreneurship in lower-income countries, aspiring entrepreneurs in developing regions face unique constraints on their ability to grow successful businesses. This dissertation contains three empirical essays studying the factors that enable and constrain entrepreneurial growth in low-income contexts, drawing on data from a randomized field experiment studying an entrepreneurial training program in Zimbabwe. The first essay examines how entrepreneurial training impacts key hinge decisions on whether to continue pursuing an initial business idea, or to pivot to a new opportunity. The second essay studies how entrepreneurial training impacts subjective well-being, and the reasons why it might not track neatly with economic outcomes. The third essay studies innovation in the context of small informal enterprises, using text-based machine learning methods.

A research report submitted to Wits Business School May 2017 / Low levels of entrepreneurial activity and success have led to calls for mentorship as a support mechanism to increase the success rate of entrepreneurial ventures in South Africa’s economic landscape. Mentoring is a crucial aspect of entrepreneurial training and education (Sullivan, 2000; Regis, Falk, & Dias, 2007) and it is entrepreneurial education that is perceived as the solution that will transform South Africans from job seekers into job creators (North, 2002). It is also hoped that entrepreneurship education will contribute to the ideal of empowering as many people as possible in order to unleash the previously stifled human potential of all South Africans (Hanekom, 1995). Unfortunately, South Africans suffer from a ‘dearth of entrepreneurial acumen’, and this has resulted in the frequent lack of growth and high failure rates of businesses (Nieman, 2006; van Aardt & van Aardt, 1997). A two-phase qualitative research approach was utilised with semi-structured mentor and mentee interviews. This study found that mentorship was mutually beneficial to both the mentors and mentees. The latter experienced immense personal benefits on a business and emotional level whereas an increase in revenue and improved operational systems were identified as being positive impacts on business growth. Previous entrepreneurial experience, trust and empathy were stipulated as vital factors in the establishment of a successful relationship. / MT 2018

Military veteran entrepreneurs, also known as vetrepreneurs, form a unique entrepreneurial community based in part on their military-related skills and life experiences, the financial endowments derived from their service, and external influences like professional mentors and government-provided training programs. However, a research gap exists in the examination of the degree to which these factors meaningfully influence successful outcomes for military veterans who become small business entrepreneurs. Therefore, the research question for this project was: what experiences, endowments, and external influences impact successful entrepreneurial outcomes for small business vetrepreneurs? This exploratory research consisted of a mixed-methods approach involving a quantitative pilot study that included a survey of 70 veteran small business entrepreneurs (Study 1), and a qualitative case method study that included detailed interviews with 6 additional veteran entrepreneurs (Study 2). Among the findings in Study 1 were that military service is an advantage to vetrepreneurs, but traits such as education, military rank, job held in the military, and financial endowments were not. As discovered in Study 2, however, things like networking, passion for one’s business, and understanding administrative aspects of business are important contributors to successful outcomes. The implications for this research include potential updates to military pre-separation training programs, as well as providing useful data for both researchers and current or future vetrepreneurs. Keywords: Veteran Entrepreneurship, Vetrepreneur, Military Entrepreneurship / Business Administration/Entrepreneurship

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Existing studies on the relationship between culture, gender and entrepreneurial identity of immigrant entrepreneurs have tended to focus exclusively on women. I set out to understand how Chinese immigrant men and women entrepreneurs construct their entrepreneurial identities based on cultural and gendered experiences. I asked: How do Chinese immigrant men and women entrepreneurs construct entrepreneurial identities based on their cultural and gender experiences? How are these experiences related to entrepreneurial endeavours and views of entrepreneurial success? Through a qualitative study of 20 in-depth interviews with 10 men and 10 women, I explored similarities and differences within and between the two groups. The findings show that both men and women narrated entrepreneurial identities as coming from nothing, reflecting the notion of “zero mindset” proposed in the literature. My study contributes by connecting coming-from-nothing to entrepreneurial endeavours and perceptions of success. I also show that there is a spectrum of cultural identities ranging from identifying strongly as Chinese to identifying as Chinese Canadian, and that positioning on this spectrum can influence business endeavours. The study also contributes by presenting a direct comparison between men and women immigrant entrepreneurs from the same home and host countries. It does so by showing that: women associated with the idea of “learning entrepreneurship”, whereas men associated with the concept of innately “being entrepreneur”; women tended to prioritize the gender role of mother and wife over the entrepreneurial role and to define success as stability in the business and balance between work and family, more so than men did.

<p> Small business owners often do not possess the financial literacy to implement invoice factoring to fund their business. Despite that lack of knowledge, an increasing number of small business owners are using invoice factoring as their primary source of funding. Guided by a systems thinking approach, the purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was to understand the effect of invoice factoring of 5 small business owners, 5 small business finance managers, and 5 factoring program managers, all of whom managed factoring programs and technical services companies with less than $3 million in annual revenues. Participants were located in 6 states with data collected through semi-structured Skype and telephone interviews. Data were analyzed according to the Krippendorff method. Member checking and transcript review established trustworthiness and credibility of interpretations. Three themes emerged from interviews: owner eligibility for traditional capital sources, profit margins, and third-party relationships. The small business owners were not eligible for traditional funding options. Factoring administrators and small business owners cited that companies with better profit margins implemented invoice factoring successfully. Finance managers mentioned that factoring companies acted as a third-party to the invoicing and collection processes. Social implications include a contribution to the advancement of small business success rates and to an entrepreneur&rsquo;s preparation to launch a business venture properly. </p>

<p> Over the past 35 years, Great Depression era regulatory restrictions on the geographic area of operation and the scope of financial services banks can offer have change significantly. These changes fueled a surge of merger activity and resulted in a 70% decrease in the number of bank charters by 2015. Currently, community banks hold only 14% of bank assets in the US; nonetheless, they play an important role in the US economy because they continue to provide the majority of funding to small businesses. This study finds that over 83% of bank failures occurred in metropolitan areas despite the distribution of community banks being almost equal at 49.5% rural and 50.5% metropolitan. An analysis of FDIC data from 2000 through 2014 indicates that rural and community banks do differ significantly on variables related to bank profitability and loan portfolio risk. Metropolitan banks have lower ratios on pre-tax return on assets, and return on equity. On average, metropolitan banks are approximately 30% less profitable than their rural counterparts. Since the 2007 financial crisis, on average, metropolitan banks have higher ratios on variables related to loan portfolio risk and since 2010 they have lower capital to asset ratios. The higher bank failure rates, riskier loan portfolios, and lower capital to asset ratios associated with metropolitan community banks provides support for the competition-fragility view that increased competition in banking leads to more bank failures. The nationwide survey in this study indicates that metropolitan community bankers perceive the competitive environment to be more intense and that their marketing capabilities are inferior to the large nationwide and regional banks that they compete against. Community bankers perceive that the merger and acquisition activity will continue and that it is driven by the need to achieve economies of scale in technology and regulatory compliance. Based on previous research that larger banks extend less credit to small businesses, this will further restrict the availability of bank credit to new businesses and existing microenterprises. Given that microenterprises employ the majority of people and contribute to new job creation, there are serious economic implications.</p>

This study examines the contributions of SMMEs to employment creation in Botswana, specifically in Gaborone. My own data survey of October/November (2010) and secondary data have been used. It has been revealed that SMME indeed contribute significantly to the employment of the urban population of Gaborone and this helps in the reduction of poverty, unemployment, crime reduction and also to improve government revenue, gross domestic product and the general well being of a society hence overly economic development. Since Gaborone is the major city in Botswana and forms the proxy of the role of SMMEs in employment creation in Botswana. The policy implications and recommendations are as follows. With the realisation of the fact that SMMEs contribute significantly to employment creation, there is need to provide a conducive environment that ensures the growth of SMMEs in the country. To ensure the growth of SMMEs, there is need to develop the culture of entrepreneurship in the nation, business owners also need training on management issues and the monitoring of such programmes is critical SMMEs because of their small sizes, cannot win in the competitive environment in which they operate, they are therefore encouraged to form cooperative groups and pool resources together and work together, to make stronger units that can compete efficiently on the global market. / Thesis (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2011

<p> This study is important for individuals to investigate the actions that entrepreneurs take to facilitate successful business results that meet its goals and objectives. This research identifies the importance of leadership skills on the effectiveness of business and society overall. The purpose of this study is to describe the actions effective leaders take to articulate a successful vision, establish an industry through financial support, understand different cultures, deal with global industries, and make employees more efficient. The research questions addressed in this study are focused on issues that entrepreneurs face while building an organization and the implications of the actions and decisions of leaders in entrepreneurial companies. Data were gathered through interviews with successful entrepreneurial leaders. The outcome of the study showed that there were several ways to build and improve a business and help entrepreneurs to obtain financial support through many resources. </p>