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SME's - protectionism does it help?

Written by: Dr. Rob Smorfitt

Article Overview: Does protectionism help entrepreneurs?

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

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Article Tags: competition, competitiveness, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, protectionism, SME, SMME, Smorfitt, xenophobia



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Re: In-House or Outsource? - Unfortunately, in the South African context, very few SMEs see outsourcing as an option. They believe it is too expensive, and they are paranoid that someone will "steal their ideas". I believe that the three main functions that cannot be outsourced are marketing, sales and strategy. These must be done in house I believe. If you do not have the marketing skills then get them. Hire a consultant or attend a course, but get the skills. Even if you use a consultant, you need to understand what marketing is about, as no one knows your market like you do. Marketing is made to seem difficult and complex, but everyone who really understands their markets, can easily learn to do their own marketing. In South Africa, labour legislation is extremely inflexibile, and consequently labour broking is a large industry. This is an ideal starting point for SMEs in South Africa, as it is a legally complex area, whih comes with severe penalties. I say do it! Rob Smorfitt
How Well Protected Are The Patent Holders? - Intellectual property laws vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. And it is such that the acquisition, registration or enforcement of the rights must be pursued or obtained separately in each territory of interest. Intellectual property in law is a general term for various legal entitlements. The holder of this legal entitlement is generally entitled to exercise various exclusive rights. Intellectual property laws are designed to protect different forms of subject matter, in this case a Patent. A patent may be granted for a new, useful, and non-obvious invention, and gives the patent holder an exclusive right to commercially exploit the invention for a certain period of time, typically 20 years from the filing date of a patent application. Patents, trademarks, and designs rights are sometimes collectively known as industrial property, as they are typically created and used for industrial or commercial purposes. Various schools of thought are critical of the term “intellectual property”. Some characterise it as intellectual protectionism. From the perspective of economics, intellectual property is a temporary monopoly on the use or exploitation of that Patent, supported by legal enforcement mechanisms. There is a debate going on every where that intellectual property laws truly operate to confer the stated public benefits, and whether the protection they are said to provide is appropriate in the context of innovation derived from such things as traditional knowledge and folklore, and patents for software and business methods. Manifestations of this controversy can be seen in the way different jurisdictions decide whether to grant intellectual property protection in relation to subject matter of this kind, and the divide on issues of the role and scope of intellectual property laws. Most exclusive rights are the right to sue an infringer, which has the effect that people will approach the patent holder for permission to perform the acts to which the patent holder has exclusive right
Re: Women and Financing - It's Difficult! - I found this paragraph of interest (in the article from Nana's link: [quote="Nana":3r7womqv]Other studies show that women operate more service and retail establishments than men, which might explain their difficulty in getting financing since financial institutions often consider these two sectors more risky. However, although women are generally less inclined than men to apply for financing, when they do, they are more likely to get it. According to a study by Industry Canada on SME financing in Canada, in 2000 majority female-owned SMEs obtained a loan approval rate of 82%, which is slightly higher than the approval rate for majority male-owned businesses (80%). This suggests that when they do apply for financing, businesswomen submit excellent applications. [/quote:3r7womqv] They say, "Women are more likely to get [financing]." But the difference is only 2 percentage points! Big deal! And, that was only for one year, 2000. I'd like to know what the 10-year average is. Numbers can be manipulated to mean anything you want them to mean...it all depends on what you want to show.


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