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SME's - protectionism does it help?
Written by: Dr. Rob SmorfittArticle Overview: Does protectionism help entrepreneurs?
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Free Download - SMEs – SMEs struggling in South Africa. Why? By Dr. Rob Smorfitt |
SME's - protectionism does it help?
African governments, together with other developing nations, have a strong tendency to lean towards protectionism, and yet does it achieve anything? This is often perceived to be a form of xenophobia in the African context.
Entrepreneurs thrive in a market economy where the competitiveness of the market stimulates innovation and entrepreneurship. Clusters and countries become more competitive the more competition they have. Prof Michael Porter of Harvard is a strong proponent of competition.
While xenophobia is alive and very well in many parts of Africa, I believe it is first and foremost a poor misguided attempt, to try and and correct for a lack of entrepreneurial spirit which is not always at the economic forefront in developing countries.
I would simply love to see developing countries learning from other countries' experience and stop wasting valuable time and financial resources chasing a strategy that is most unlikely to succeed.
Rob Smorfitt
Article Tags: competition, competitiveness, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, protectionism, SME, SMME, Smorfitt, xenophobia
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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 surviving the recession in Africa SMEs entrepreneurs sourcing start up finance SMEs in Africa is capitalism really dead SMES is government spending good for them SMEs are African governments doing it right |
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