Developing a framework for SMME survival based on events during Covid-19 in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Abstract

This study aims to comprehend how certain SMMEs managed to survive, and some even thrived during the Covid pandemic in the Western Cape of South Africa. The impact of the pandemic and the various levels of lockdown in South Africa, as determined by the National Government, affected some SMMEs' operating capability more than others, as some had essential status and some did not. The surviving skills of these SMMEs have to be studied to ascertain how they survived. These survival skills and actions will assist the researcher in developing a framework for SMME survival in future difficult economic circumstances, such as a pandemic. The methodology approach to be followed in this study is by applying a qualitative research method, using semi-structured interviews to collect the data and then following a manual qualitative data analysis process. Research limitations of this study included the restrictions placed on the researcher via the POPI Act being applicable in South Africa. Hence, the successful SMMEs in the Western Cape could only be accessed via snowball sampling. The findings of this study will contribute to the literature about the challenges experienced by the SMMEs before and during the Covid period, the mentorship role and motivational factors that convinced them to start their SMMEs and how these aspects contributed to their SMME survival during a pandemic. Furthermore, this study will clarify what these SMMEs saw as necessary personal skills, attributes and characteristics an entrepreneur requires to survive a pandemic. The leadership styles of the SMME owner as applied have contributed to their survival, and this study will indicate in which way. Their view on success pre-Covid and post-Covid have been analysed to ascertain how the pandemic impacted their idea of what constitutes a successful SMME. The majority reported that their perceptions of success have changed since the pandemic. Whether the Western Cape Government's interventions created an entrepreneurial ecosystem was investigated, and whether these SMMEs received sufficient assistance to contribute to their survival, with the overall feeling that the government did not supply adequate support to SMMEs in the province. Finally, the factors they employed, their actions to survive or thrive, and their advice and recommendations have been recorded to answer this study's primary and secondary objectives to comprehend fully how SMMEs could survive the pandemic. Further study is recommended on how digitalisation and "going online" affected SMME survival and whether this can be grounds for creating a new entrepreneurial theory.