Academic literature on the topic 'Entrepreneurship – Social aspects – South Africa'

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to the lack of research on female social entrepreneurs and their social and contextual embeddedness, promoting women’s social entrepreneurial activity as promising, specifically in the South African context. Design/methodology/approach By analyzing the founding process and networks of 11 female social entrepreneurs in South Africa using a mixed-method approach consisting of semi-structured interviews, media analysis and egocentric network analysis, this paper seeks to discover the idea-fruition process of female social entrepreneurs. This approach enables us to analyze contextual factors with a focus on personal networks and their influence on the processes of idea-generation and development. Findings The results indicate that social networks are an important part of the personal context which influences the idea-fruition process of female social entrepreneurs. The paper identifies specific actors as well as group outcomes as particular relevant within this context. Research limitations/implications While the results enable the generation of a structure based on the authors’ first insights into how social relational networks influence female social entrepreneurship, it remains unclear if these results can be specifically traced to women or social entrepreneurial aspects, which suggests that further attention is needed in future studies. Practical implications Practical implications can be derived from the results concerning the support of female social entrepreneurs by, for example, optimizing or using their (social entrepreneurial) environment. Contrary to studies on business idea-generation, the results stress that women can make use of certain network constructions that are often considered to be obstructive. Originality/value This study introduces an innovative gender perspective on social entrepreneurship in South Africa and offers new directions for future research on the opportunity recognition process of female social entrepreneurs.

In addition to the contributions and relevance of entrepreneurship activities to economic growth and development of countries, various factors have equally been advanced as responsible for the success stories of entrepreneurship sustainability worldwide. However, the influence of success factors on gender ownership of entrepreneurship activities is a relatively new aspect in the field of research that has not gained much academic attention in the literature especially in South Africa. This debate is so important in the face of the various agitations for equal participation of women and the inconclusive debate that women are better managers of business enterprises. In this article, using the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) technique, we examined the extent to which sustainable entrepreneurship indicators (finance, social and environmental) account for any disparity in gender ownership and management of business enterprises in South Africa. A stratified sampling method was adopted for the survey. Our analytical technique (MANOVA) created a new summary dependent variable, which is a linear combination of each of our original dependent variables. Confidence intervals of 95% and margins of error (3%) were used to validate the results. Findings indicate that the only difference that exists as per gender ownership disparity is around financial resources. There is therefore a need to realign programmes and policies to reduce this gendered inequality.

The knowledge economy is driven by entrepreneurship, and the entrepreneurial university takes on the role of an important catalyst for regional economic and social development. Academics represent key agents of knowledge and technology transfer from university to society. Previous research suggests that academics’ successful engagement in entrepreneurial activities can positively contribute to the development of local society and economy. However, evidence on the antecedents of academic engagement and commercialisation is scarce. This study examines whether aspects related to academics’ human, physical and organisational capital resources influence their engagement in consulting, sponsored research, licensing/assignment of intellectual property (IP) and spin-off creation with industry, government and civil society. The analysis is based on a new and unique data set of 398 individual academic researchers affiliated to South African universities who were awarded a quality rating by South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) and covers the full spectrum of academic disciplines. Data analysis employed generalised linear models (GLMs) and demonstrated that the availability of human, physical and organisational resources relate to the four entrepreneurial activities in different ways. The findings support the concept that individual factors are more significant than institutional factors in determining entrepreneurial activities. A key finding is that academics’ engagement in entrepreneurial activities is primarily influenced by their prior entrepreneurial experiences. The study provides scholars investigating academic entrepreneurship, policy makers and university administrators with the key resource drivers of entrepreneurial activities and may assist them in establishing the appropriate role of institutions and organisations in promoting entrepreneurial activities of academics.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the promotion and development of entrepreneurship in South Africa. The objective was to develop and test a model which could be used in the development and training of entrepreneurs. Officially, 27.7% of South Africans are unemployed. This is especially important in that, the South African economy is battling to recover from the world economic crisis of 2009/10, putting pressure on government to alleviate growing unemployment and curtail social unrest. The study comprised of a literature review as to how globally entrepreneurs are developed, culminating in the perceived success factors for entrepreneurship. These factors were then tested on small business owners operating in South Africa. The authors argue that, in order to successfully develop entrepreneurs: 1) 99% of entrepreneurs will need to have the required socio-emotional skills; 2) 99% of entrepreneurs will require mentorship; and 3) 95% of entrepreneurs will require access to start-up capital.

In its broadest context, ‘social entrepreneurship’ refers to individuals and organizations that engage in entrepreneurial activities with social objectives. Whereas this concept and its constituent elements are well-researched and acknowledged in industrialized countries (such as the USA and UK) (Thompson, Alvy and Lees, 2000, p 328) and to some extent in developing economies (for example, in Bangladesh and Venezuela) (Mair and Martí, 2006, p 36), its prevalence and impact in South Africa (and in Africa for that matter) are not contextualized. This article presents an overview of social entrepreneurship in South Africa by analyzing why it has become important and popular, and assesses the role, relevance and extent of social entrepreneurship in a developing economy, concluding with the challenges and the way forward for social entrepreneurship in developing economies.

The influence of environment on social entrepreneurship requires more concerted examination. This article contributes to emerging discussions in this area through consideration of social entrepreneurship in South Africa. Drawing upon qualitative case study research with six social enterprises, and examined through a framework of new institutional theories and writing on new venture creation, this research explores the significance of environment for the process of social entrepreneurship, for social enterprises, and for social entrepreneurs. Our findings provide insights on institutional environments, social entrepreneurship, and the interplay between them in the South African context, with implications for wider social entrepreneurship scholarship.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the business education curricula in South Africa in relation to social entrepreneurship and to ascertain pre-service teachers’ perspectives of the reasons for social entrepreneurship not being included in these curricula as observed in classroom teaching practices. Design/methodology/approach Through interpretivist inquiry, third-year pre-service teachers’ (n=92) comments on online group blogs were analysed to clarify a range of meanings and understandings of their responses. Findings Social entrepreneurship as a concept and as an ideal as well as certain fundamental concept is not adequately integrated in the business education curricula in secondary schools in South Africa. Furthermore, the schools where the pre-service teachers conducted their teaching practice were failing to integrate activities associated with social entrepreneurship in their business education curricula. Research limitations/implications The study was limited to a single tertiary institution. Similar studies in both developing and developed contexts in schools could be initiated as a means of teaching social entrepreneurship for social justice as a subject efficaciously. Practical implications The study recommends that social entrepreneurship should be implemented earlier in the secondary education system as a means of enhancing the social entrepreneurial capacities of school learners. Originality/value This is the first study examining the secondary education curricula in a developing economy, such as South Africa, in relation to the absence of the emerging concept of social entrepreneurship.

Social entrepreneurship can help to reduce socio-economic problems facing many countries including South Africa. Also it can be used as a strategic tool in building social cohesion in country. This paper aimed to examine the role of Universities in promoting social entrepreneurship in South Africa. The study also look assess the support that universities are providing to social entrepreneurship and to evaluate the extend of the support. The paper also analyses most strategies used by South African universities to help the development of social entrepreneurship. Mix approaches of qualitative and quantitative techniques were employed for data collection. The primary data was collected from six universities in South Africa where two comprehensive universities, two universities of Technologies from KwaZulu -Natal province and two comprehensive universities in Gauteng province were chosen for sample for this study. The sample consisted of 40 respondents made up of deans of faculties, heads of departments, and director of social entrepreneurship and head of social entrepreneurship department respectively according to structure of each university. Combination of structured qualitative and five –point Likert scale questionnaire were emailed to the respondents to complete. The results reveal that most of respondents are not involved in social entrepreneurship activities, or any entrepreneurship development programs. The findings also indicate that some respondents they had no clue about social entrepreneurship that their universities are involved in. the study was limited by exploratory nature. Therefore, generalization must be done with care. Further research should aim to target large sample and include other academic staff rather than focusing only on the deans and heads of departments.

Subject area This case study focuses on social entrepreneurship in emerging markets, looking at what is social entrepreneurship, theories of market failure, opportunity generation through effectuation, social franchising and funding. Study level/applicability Students of social entrepreneurship, development studies, sustainable livelihoods and asset-based development. It is useful for customised or short programmes or for students with a background in business (e.g. Diploma in Business Administration/MBA/custom programmes) wanting to understand social enterprise and blended theories of social and economic change. Case overview The case tells the story of Unjani container clinics which are providing affordable, quality access to people who struggle to access South Africa’s crumbling public health system. Dr Iain Barton recognised the role that nurses can play to relieve pressure on the system, by providing primary healthcare. He piloted Unjani using shipping containers as clinics with support from his company, Imperial Health Sciences. The story of Unjani is therefore one of startup and sustainable growth, partnership and building independent, self-sustaining social enterprises in a franchising system. The theory explored includes the importance of context, the role of market failure in spotting opportunity, developing opportunity through effectuation, defining social entrepreneurship and funding and growing the organisation. Expected learning outcomes The teaching objectives are framed by Mair (2010) who finds that where social entrepreneurs operate affects what they do and how they do it. Objective 1: Explores the influence of context on social entrepreneurship helping students frame a definition of social entrepreneurship. Objective 2: Students are able to connect the theory of market failure to opportunity identification and effectuation for social entrepreneurs. Objective 3: Students apply the definition of social entrepreneurship based on Santos’ (2010) Positive Theory. Objective 4: Students will be able to apply knowledge of social franchising models, as an approach to scaling. Objective 5: Students understand the principles of resource dependency theory and are able to use the funding spectrum as a tool to identify funding types. Supplementary materials Links to two videos are provided in the case. Recommendations are also made for materials to be used in the class, e.g. Global Competitiveness Index and Gapminder World, which are excellent tools to demonstrate the social and economic growth divide. Subject code CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.