Entrepreneurship

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Browsing Entrepreneurship by Subject "Women-owned business enterprises"

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    Building women’s businesses in South African township economies a view on intersectional approaches to entrepreneurial support
    (Value For Women, 2021) Hunter, Renée
    In November 2021, ANDE published its South Africa Township Economy Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Snapshot (Ecosystem Snapshot). This publication provides an entrepreneurial ecosystem mapping of the financial and non-financial support available to township-based entrepreneurs, as at November 2021. The publication covers research on the townships of the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and Gauteng provinces regarding, among other information, the types of support and investment instruments available, and the types of stakeholder interest. This Gender Deep Dive takes a closer look specifically at the support provided to women entrepreneurs in township economies. It is based on desktop research, data from the Ecosystem Snapshot, and 15 in-depth key informant interviews with entrepreneurial support organisations (ESOs) that intentionally seek to improve the lives of women— either as consumers, employees, business leaders, or suppliers and distributors. We asked them about their reasons for focusing on women, their approaches used in doing so, and which approaches have worked particularly well. This report finds that women entrepreneurs in township economies face a double set of intersecting— and mutually reinforcing —challenges. On the one hand, there are challenges due to them being women. This includes the multiple competing demands on women’s time, various prejudices and biases against women business owners, and the challenges inherent in women-dominated sectors, which are often less high growth than men-dominated sectors. On the other hand, there are the challenges inherent in being based in a township economy, with lower levels of infrastructure and service provision, higher levels of insecurity and crime, and the business challenges of operating in a relatively low-income context.
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    Promoting effective entry and participation of women entrepreneurs in the South African economy : pro-competitive principles for government and non-government stakeholders
    (Competition Commission South Africa, 2023-06)
    Competitive markets allow consumers to benefit from low prices, better quality of goods and services, innovation and more choice. For markets to be competitive they need to be accessible to all players that wish to participate in the markets. Barriers to entry and expansion are a significant hinderance to competitive markets. Barriers can arise from systematic issues, inequality, regulatory requirements, anticompetitive conduct and lack of access to key resources and markets to support firms seeking to enter markets and compete. These barriers ultimately result in reduced competition in markets, which in turn adversely impacts consumers. For women entrepreneurs, these barriers are further compounded by gender inequality. Women entrepreneurs face gender-based barriers that hinder their ability to enter and effectively compete in high income generating markets. Women entrepreneurs often find themselves operating businesses in low value generating sectors or informal sectors due to these gender-based barriers. Studies on entrepreneurship shows that women are starting businesses at a faster rate than men, especially in emerging economies. These studies show that women entrepreneurs play a critical role in job creation, income generation and revenue growth in many economies and that their entrepreneurial ventures also contribute to the reduction of the existing wealth inequalities between women and men. Although more women are taking the entrepreneurial plunge, research shows that there are existing gender-based barriers which restrict the ability of women entrepreneurs to start-up, enter markets and sustain successful businesses, especially in high value generating sectors of the economy. This is specially the case in South Africa, where women entrepreneurs are largely concentrated in areas of crafts, hawking, personal services and retail. The South African context is further complicated by issues relating to the intersectionality between gender and racial inequality, which compounds the barriers that are faced by black women entrepreneurs.6 These barriers affect the ability of women entrepreneurs to participate effectively and meaningfully in the economy and consequently have significant adverse effects for competitiveness of markets and inclusive economic growth.