3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Women and the city: the urban experiences of women entrepreneurs, self-employed women and women-led business in Twist street and surrounds, Hillbrow, Johannesburg.(2019-10-31) Soudien, Carla ThandiThis dissertation reviews the role of the urban environment in facilitating the economic empowerment of women, looking, particularly at women entrepreneurs. The study is framed conceptually using a feminist, post-colonial lens and acknowledges complexity in relation people’s experiences based on their gender, locality, citizenry, race and class. The literature review portion of the study considers scholars’ work in the fields of gender, urbanism and entrepreneurship. The study interrogates overlapping themes in relation to gendered social hierarchies in the realms of urbanism and entrepreneurship, reviewing both opportunities and constraints during all phases of the research. The empirical portion of the study comprises twenty interviews with women business owners in and around Twist Street in Hillbrow. The interviews included a mapping exercise in which the respondents depicted their daily movements graphically. In addition to the interviews, I carried out a mapping audit of the streetscape of three blocks of Twist Street, between Pretoria and Kapteijn streets. This mapping audit has assisted with understanding what the range of businesses are being run in this street, how many are run or owned by women and how many are run or owned by men. The fieldwork study sought to explore the respondents’ everyday experiences related to housing, transportation, support networks, domestic care work, agglomeration and clustering of business types and perceptions of women’s work.Item Social capital in a digital age: greater access to networks for female entrepreneurs(2019) Moetse, PhumzileOrientation – It has been suggested that female entrepreneurs are critical to economic growth, yet fail to develop strategic networks to gain access to embedded social capital resources required to provide a competitive edge in business. The difference between male and female social networks is key issue affecting financial resources and ultimately firm performance Motivation for the study – The digital era has created uncertainty by transforming and disrupting the entrepreneurial process, digital technologies allow entrepreneurs to pursue entrepreneurial activities in new ways. This study examines the use of digital technologies to gain social capital resources. Research purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine social capital in the digital age. The manifestation of social capital on online platforms and technologies by female entrepreneurs and access gained to embedded resources necessary to enhance firm performance of women owned firms. Research design, approach and method – Insight was derived through a quantitative study. A survey was administered to owners and founders, a total of 93 female entrepreneurs or female entrepreneurs partnering with males operating in various industries in South Africa participated. Main findings – Aspects examined include bonding and bridging social capital; offline networks; and digital platforms and technologies. The results indicate that female entrepreneurs are using digital platforms and technologies to pursue entrepreneurial activities, needed to promote firm growth. Practical/managerial implications – There is an increasing use of social media, digital platforms and digital technologies. The traditional way of pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities will fundamentally change and will require entrepreneurs find new ways of doing business in the digital era therefore removing some barrier experienced by female entrepreneurs. Contribution/value-add – In exploring social capital and issues experienced by female entrepreneurs in a developing country, this study explores the impact of digitalisation to social capital theory and female entrepreneurship adding to both literature.Item Internationalisation of South African women-owned SMMEs: the role of human, social and financial capital(2016) Dayile, Siyabulela PaschalThe main thrust of this study was to investigate and explain the influence of human, social and financial capital on the internationalisation of SMMEs in South Africa in the context of women entrepreneurs. A cross-sectional quantitative study was employed on a sample of 135 women-owned SMMEs, by way of an online survey. This tested the association between social, human and financial capital, and the degree of internationalisation of women-owned SMMEs. This study revealed that women entrepreneurs in South Africa do not view international social ties and business networks, and financial capital availability as significant barriers to determining the degree of internationalisation. On the other hand, the study showed that women within this context believe that international education, knowledge and experience all play key roles in inducing the degree of internationalisation. The study suggests that the results may have deviated from widely accepted theories, due to emerging markets being different from developed economies, in which the majority of empirical studies have thus far been conducted. The findings strengthened the emerging, but sparsely researched second approach to the resource-based theory, which suggest that SMMEs internationalise to gain access to entrepreneurial capitals. The study further revealed that women entrepreneurs that had internationalised did so, through industries in which women are typically under-represented. Although not pervasive in literature, women entrepreneurs within South Africa were motivated to internationalise mainly due to external growth prospects and not by poor domestic demand.Item Human capital as a determinant to access finance for South African women entrepreneurs(2016-10-10) Kowo, KumbiraiThe purpose of this research is to investigate human capital and social capital as determinants to access to finance for women SMME owners in South Africa. The study focuses on Human capital which encompasses social capital and looks at access to finance within the South African context. It does not include all other factors discussed in entrepreneurship theory. The major theories underlying this research are Social Network theory and Human capital theory. Human capital theory is viewed as formal education, skills attained and knowledge gained through informal knowledge such as prior work experience, industry experience and apprenticeship opportunities. These variables are assessed to see if they determine access to finance; which is a barrier to entrepreneurship in South Africa for SMME owners. This constraint is stressed in all The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) reports from 2009 to 2014. This paper focuses on a single gender; females and assesses these capital factors as determinants to access finance for their entrepreneurial activity. Social capital as a factor is studied as a component of Human capital and two variables are assessed: strong ties and weak ties. Access to finance is evaluated as both debt and equity for entrepreneurs. Bivariate analysis was used to test the theories for results. The results showed an importance of human and social capital for entrepreneurs in running their businesses however not all human and social capital factors were confirmed to entirely determine access to finance for the women entrepreneurs. This study can potentially assist SMME owners within South Africa, financial institutions, policy makers and support organisations for women-owned businesses with insight into what determines accessing finance for business.