Developing a management framework for sustainable retail SMMEs in Limpopo

Abstract

Retail small, medium, and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) are supposed to sustain themselves without any subsidies and contribute to the economy by decreasing national unemployment and alleviating poverty. Native rural retail SMMEs in South Africa cannot support themselves or contribute to a national call to reduce unemployment and poverty levels since immigrant retail SMMEs have become the dominant competitive force in the market. Research on retail SMMEs focuses mainly on how immigrant retailers outcompete retail SMMEs and does not provide any meaningful solutions for native retailers to sustain their businesses. The primary objective of this study is to develop a management framework for sustainable retail SMMEs in the Limpopo province, South Africa using business models. The secondary objectives aid in achieving the primary objective. Secondary literature in chapter 2 provides a background on retail and business model concepts to support the empirical study. The study follows a qualitative research approach using a multiple case study as a research method. Semi-structured interviews were used as a data collection tool from 12 participants. These 12 participants are rural retailers in the two local municipalities in the Limpopo Province. Creswell's data analysis spiral was used to analyse data. Fourteen themes were identified, seven themes related to entrepreneurship ecosystem, and seven were business model canvas. The study concluded with a summary of research and recommendation for rural retailers to improve businesses competitiveness and sustainability. A management framework for sustainable rural retail was also developed in this chapter. The chapter also provided recommendations for future research to improve the current study further.