PhDRDV / Institute for Rural Development / In South Africa, various government and private sector-led initiatives have been directed
towards promoting youth involvement in small retail businesses. This was designed to counter
the high unemployment and poverty rates among youth. However, high failure rates of the
initiatives consistently frustrate these noble efforts. Even though this is the case, neither
attributes of youth-run small retail business resilience nor the factors that predispose them to
the high failure rates are well-known. This situation demands taking urgent action to foster
resilience in the youth-run small retail business sector. Thus, the current study focused on
identifying the major threats and strengths to business and determining a set of objective
criteria and indices for use in measuring resilience. Potential resilience strategies were also
sought. The study was conducted in Vhembe District of Limpopo Province in South Africa. An
explorative mixed research approach was employed. Participants were selected using both
snowball and cluster sampling procedures. Data were collected using semi-structured
interview guides and questionnaires. Qualitative data were analysed using Atlas ti version 8
software techniques such as network diagrams and code primary document tables. For each
objective, in-depth results were obtained, further interrogated in a survey and analysed using
the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (IBM SPSS; version 25) in the
subsequent phase. The main statistical techniques utilised were Principal Component
Analysis (PCA) and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Significance was determined at P< 0.5.
Results from PCA test reviewed three major threats to small retail business resilience that
included poor infrastructure (28.54 %), financial infrastructure (20.97 %) and competition
(14.94 %). The three factor structure accounted for a total variance of 64.46 %. Poor
infrastructure and financial inadequacy threats did not vary with distance from the urban area
(P > 0.05) while competition significantly varied with distance from the urban area (P< 0.05).
With regard to strengths, PCA analysis produced a four factor structure that explained a total
variance of 54.59 %. The four major strengths included marketing ability (16.97 %), good
customer care (14.42 %), business knowledge (12.08 %) and commitment (11.13 %).
A six dimension criteria for measuring small retail business resilience was established using
PCA. The six dimensions encompassed security measures (18.01 %), outsourcing abilities
(13. 70 %), marketing strategies (10.07), risk management (8.54 %), financial management
(8.43 %) and innovation (7.89 %). The six factor structure explained a total variance of 66.67
%. These resilience pillars were related to threat detection, prevention and adaptation
business mechanisms. Four resilience dimensions (security measures, marketing abilities,
risk management and innovation) were similar across distance variations from the urban area
(P> 0.05). However, significant differences between urban and rural areas were observed in
two variables, that is, joining business alliances (P=0.012) linked to outsourcing abilities and
keeping money away from the business premise (P=0.034) associated with financial
management.
Resilience indices were further developed utilising the six building blocks of the criteria. The
indices for measuring small retail business resilience were expressed in the formula: R1= ƒ
(SM1, OA1, MS1, RM1, FM1, I1, S1) + e where SM=Security Measures; OA= Outsourcing
Abilities; MS= Marketing Strategies; OM=Risk Management; FM= Financial Management; I=
Innovation; S= Subjective resilience dimensions and 1= particular time; e= error. The
assumption underpinning these indices was that, small retail business resilience is not
observable and thus it can be measured through assessing each dimension separately at a
particular time. The outcomes reflected that, measuring youth-owned small retail businesses
resilience encompasses a clear understanding of area specific threats and the subsequent
customised performance measures. Resilience dimensions may change with time due to
socio-economic changes, government policies and local conditions. As such, it is crucial to
constantly assess youth small retail businesses in order to determine their current status and
changes in resilience components. Current strategies and potential interventions for promoting
small business resilience were also reviewed. Small retailers were currently utilising strategies
such as business collaboration, specialisation and stock diversification. To, address the
weaknesses associated with presently utilised strategies, potential interventions that
encompassed financial support, provision of cheap stands, need for financial assistance and
provision of business training and infrastructure upgrades were proposed.
The present study provided a criteria and resilience indices that can be used by policy
implementers, development agencies and funders to determine resilience drivers, monitor
changes in resilience attributes over time and identify necessary interventions in the small
retail sector. This assists decision makers to make pre-informed decisions before providing
support to youth small retailers. The use of participatory research methods in the present study
helped to ground the work in the youth small retail sector and thus, contributing to community
engagement practices. The use of mixed study approaches has been consistently
recommended in studies related to resilience measurement methods. As a result, the mixed
research methods utilised in the present study provides directions for future replication in
studies aimed at developing approaches for measuring resilience in the small business sector.
Lastly, the simplicity of the criteria and indices make it easier for small retail business owners
and other practitioners to use in future. / NRF
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:univen/oai:univendspace.univen.ac.za:11602/1289 |
| Date | 16 May 2019 |
| Creators | Kativhu, Simbarashe |
| Contributors | Mwale, M., Francis, J. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xvii, 176 leaves : color illustrations, color maps) |
| Rights | University of Venda |
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