Human, social and financial capital influences on the internationalisation of women-owned SMMEs in Gauteng
Date
2019
Authors
Appeaning, Michael
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Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate human, social and financial capital influences on the internationalisation of women-owned SMMEs in Gauteng. According to the World Bank, South Africa is an emerging market and viewed as a middle-income economy which has tremendous amounts of natural resources, together with well-developed financial, energy, transport and communication sectors (World Bank, 2018). The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2016) states that Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) are essential in driving the economic growth and development of South Africa, and have the power to change the dynamics of the employment rate. This is due to their ability to make use of innovation to create jobs and contribute to the country’s GDP (OECD, 2016). Rivas (2012a, 2012b) states that women entrepreneurs have become a major force in South Africa, due to their tendency to create jobs and contribute to the incomes of many families. With internationalisation in mind, a section of women entrepreneurs has expanded their businesses to other geographical locations and this has afforded them the opportunity to expand their businesses; whilst at the same time ensuring that they have access to new resources and acquiring valuable knowledge.
The study made use of a cross-sectional quantitative study and 192 women-owned SMMEs which were the valid responses were used. Data collection was conducted by way of an online survey and hard copies of the questionnaires. This tested the relationships between human, social and financial capital and the internationalisation of women-owned SMMEs in Gauteng. A bivariate correlation analysis was adopted to test the hypotheses. The study employed the use of Pearson’s and Spearman test to ascertain the level of significance of the correlations, visual tests (histograms) and descriptive statistics (skewness and kurtosis) assessed the normality of variables. The study also tested the reliability and validity of the data before hypothesis testing was carried out.
The empirical findings revealed that women entrepreneurs in South Africa viewed human capital as moderately vital for the internationalisation of women-owned SMMEs in Gauteng. They viewed educational background, knowledge and work experience as vital for SMME expansion to other places. On the other hand, they viewed social
and financial capital as not so important for the internationalisation of women-owned SMMEs in Gauteng. This was in line with research that was conducted in South Africa which showed that women regarded social capital as less important in the expansion of SMMEs. There was however a deviation on the part of financial capital theories that stated that SMMEs internationalise to gain access to entrepreneurial capitals. This was however not the case in this study since women entrepreneurs viewed financial capital as not so important in the internationalisation process.
Keywords: Human Capital (HC), Social Capital (SC) Financial Capital (FC), Internationalisation and Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMMEs)
Description
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation
Wits Business School
Johannesburg, 2019