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SME's - does protectionism help
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| Guest post by: Dr. Rob Smorfitt |
Article Overview: Is protectionism necessary in the African context fro SME's
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Free Download - SMEs – SMEs struggling in South Africa. Why? By Dr. Rob Smorfitt |
SME's - does protectionism help
African countries at times perceive that other African countries produce citizens who are more entrepreneurial than their own. However, do these three countries really produce more entrepreneurs than others? Is this based upon reality or sound research?
Not that I am aware of! I believe that these people as emigrants or economic refugees are perhaps just a little more desperate than the local communities. They also cannot fall back on the local government, so they have to create opportunities.
Africa on the whole tends to lack entrepreneurial spirit. The locals in every country resent other Africans, perceiving them to be better at entrepreneurial activities. I think it is closely linked to collectivism among all African people. Even comparing white Afrikaners to whites of British descent highlights this. The Afrikaners too have a strong collectivism within their culture, and they too lag the English whites in entrepreneurial drive. This is based upon my own anecdotal evidence and not solid research. Therefore a Nigerian, or any emigrant for that matter, in South Africa, tends to not be able to act in a collective manner as he is not part of the local collective and therefore is obliged to act in an individualist manner.
We need to drive the individualism approach within all our communities in order to break away from collectivism, and thereby hopefully create strong communities within which the entrepreneurs can flourish.
Rob Smorfitt
Article Tags: Africa, culture, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, protectionism, SME, SMME, Smorfitt
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About the Author: Dr. Rob Smorfitt RSS for Dr. Rob's articles - Visit Dr. Rob's website Have an MBA and a PhD in entrepreneurship. Three key areas of ongoing research are entrepreneurship and innovation in large business strategy, the impact of legislation on SME development and SME finance. Run my own SME blog at http://sme-smb-smme.blogspot.com as well as an entrepreneurship and innovation for large businesses blog at http://innoveur.blogspot.com I have been self-employed since 1982. I have started or purchased in excess of 50 businesses since then. Most were sold again and a few were shut down because of a lack of profitability. Many were run by staff or family while I worked full time in my bigger businesses. Author of 6 books. Written articles for various magazines, newspapers and websites. Experienced in research within developing countries.
Click here to visit Dr. Rob's website SMEs SMEs and labour rigidity SMEs a wish list for Africa SMEs entrepreneurs sourcing start up finance SMEs the problem with development capital in South Africa SMEs the impact of corruption has deep roots |
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