Browsing by Author "Visser, Beryl Louise"
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- ItemWomen entrepreneurship development in South Africa : Towards transformative innovation(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-03) Visser, Beryl Louise; Nkontwana, Phumlani; Kelly, Candice; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Leadership.ENGLISH SUMMARY: Women entrepreneurs represent a largely untapped resource for social and economic growth, yet the gender gap in entrepreneurship persists to date. Arguably, women hold a strong connection to their social context, and contribute to particularly socially productive innovations. As such, women entrepreneurs have a unique role in producing developmental outcomes and welfare effects. In order for South Africa to reach its social and economic development potential, women entrepreneurs must be supported to start, grow and sustain their businesses. In developing contexts, the unique challenges women face when starting, operating and growing enterprises are poorly accounted for, and a systemic-level approach to entrenching women’s inclusion in entrepreneurship development is largely lacking. The main objective of this thesis is to make the case for the systemic inclusion of women in entrepreneurship development in South Africa. This will be done by uncovering the systemic level pain points in South Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. As such, it grapples with how South Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem supports women to start, grow and sustain their businesses. Moreover, it explores the extent to which an enabling environment for women entrepreneurs is created, and how entrepreneurship development interventions support women entrepreneurs. In doing so, it explores how and whether clear pathways to transformative innovation exist to systematically support women entrepreneurs. Employing a qualitative research approach, and guided by the entrepreneurial ecosystem framework, this thesis sheds light on the perspectives of women entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurship trainers and promoters in South Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to effectively contend with the Global-North bias in research in women entrepreneurship. The results of this thesis suggest that multiple pain points exist in South Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Particularly in regard to: (1) the financial environment; (2) government policy and support; (3) entrepreneurial education; and (4) social and cultural norms. The various pain points reveal that women entrepreneurs are not sufficiently supported to start, scale, and grow their businesses. Additionally, this thesis found that women entrepreneurship development poses a systemic level problem in South Africa. Briefly, the implications of this study are: (1) the immobile scale of support interventions; (2) lack of impact of approaches in support interventions; and (3) lack of communication and integration of the efforts of key entrepreneurial ecosystem stakeholders. As such, further research is needed to imagine and actualise robust pathways to transformative innovation for women entrepreneurship development.