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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Towards the Sociology of Zimbabwean Indigenous Entrepreneurship |
Author: | Maphosa, France |
Year: | 1998 |
Periodical: | Zambezia (ISSN 0379-0622) |
Volume: | 25 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 173-190 |
Language: | English |
Notes: | biblio. refs. |
Geographic terms: | Zimbabwe Southern Africa |
Subjects: | small enterprises business Africanization Economics and Trade Labor and Employment Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) sociology Entrepreneurship indigenous peoples government policy Economic and social development socialization |
External link: | https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/AJA03790622_489 |
Abstract: | Based on data collected mainly through in-depth, unstructured interviews with ten small-scale businesses in Zimbabwe, the author indicates a number of the social factors that impact on the development of Zimbabwean indigenous entrepreneurship. These include socialization, availability of capital, economic factors (infrastructure, taxation, technology, product demand, availability of supplies), cultural factors (gender, kinship relations), and the regulatory environment (government policies and legislation). Lack of access to finance, attributed to lack of collateral security and 'institutional racism', is seen as the main factor inhibiting the development of viable indigenous businesses. During the colonial era, small indigenous black entrepreneurs were restricted by racially motivated laws and regulations. After independence in 1980 they continued to be marginalized as a result of the government's professed Marxist ideology. Nor did the introduction of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) in 1991 help small-scale businesses. The State has failed to develop a clear policy on indigenization, while indigenization pressure groups, such as the Indigenous Business Development Centre (IBDC) and the Affirmative Action Group (AAG), have used nationalist and racist propaganda to further enrich a minority black elite, whose extensive social and political connections are the key to their business success. Bibliogr., sum. |