Makerere University Business School Articles

5.0 Micro Enterprises - What are they?: Entrepreneurship and Small Business Enterprise Growth in Uganda - Click To Read Article
Discussion of small enterprises has a definite reference to micro enterprises. What are they? Are they different from small enterprises?

6.0 Constraints to small business growth: Entrepreneurship and Small Business Enterprise Growth in Uganda - Click To Read Article
We recognise that small business has an important role to play in many economies. We must therefore understand what constrains them to be able to support them. Various studies (Kibera and Kibera, 1997; Thembe et al, 1997; Alila and McCormick, 1994) have enumerated the factors that are generally agreed on as the constraints to the growth of small business especially in the African setting. These include lack of market opportunity, access to finance, enabling environment, market information, and managerial skills. We have submitted that these are important, but probably not the only ones. We think entrepreneurship and culture are more important. We discuss some below.

7.0 Entrepreneurship and Small Business Success: Entrepreneurship and Small Business Enterprise Growth in Uganda - Click To Read Article
Common day definition of entrepreneurs tend to equate it with those who start small business (Drucker, 1993). This is a fallacy. Entrepreneurship is a dynamic process of creating wealth whether in small organisations or large organisations. Entrepreneurship is a continuous search for change, responding to it and exploiting it as an opportunity (Drucker, 1993). Most successful organisations are successful because of the entrepreneurial behaviour of their leaders and the entrepreneurial culture prevalent in the organisation. The key entrepreneurial behaviours include the following :

8.0 Culture and Small Business Success: Entrepreneurship and Small Business Enterprise Growth in Uganda - Click To Read Article
It is possible that in the study of business, especially small business, there has been no attention to the subject of culture and its impact on business success. We appear to be taken for granted that the concept of business, which is a cultural pattern in different societies, is understood the same way everywhere. Discussing entrepreneurship we conclude that successful entrepreneurship entails certain behavioural patterns. That behaviour is shaped in a cultural setting. We also appear to take it for granted that the concept of profit, the end result of a business activity, as a common meaning in different cultures.

9.0 Conclusions: Entrepreneurship and Small Business Enterprise Growth in Uganda - Click To Read Article
As the world turns global, many countries are emerging out of the abject poverty into wealth. South Korea and Singapore are classical examples. In the 1960's, South Korea's per capital GDP was similar to that of Uganda. South Korea is now among the developed countries. Uganda is still characterised by massive poverty. The only way to transform Uganda and many African countries is to fuel growth through business development. Given the global competition, Africa may not be able to position herself competitively as a world class competition but must foster the growth of businesses through micro and small enterprises. Many donor funding agencies have identified this and have focused their attention to this sector.

1.0 Abstract: Entrepreneurship and Small Business Enterprise Growth in Uganda - Click To Read Article
It is now generally agreed that small businesses are one of the key engines of growth in many developing countries by contributing to employment creation. In this paper, it is argued that micro and small businesses cannot grow or suceed unless they are entrepreneurial. It is with this view in mind that this paper proposed that effort must be placed on the development of entrepreneurial behaviour in small businesses if growth in Africa is to be achieved.

2.0 Background: Entrepreneurship and Small Business Enterprise Growth in Uganda - Click To Read Article
Small scale enterprises worldwide have been recognized as engines of growth and development (Harper, 1984; et al, 1997; Ba-el and Felsenstein, 1990) and in many countries there has been some considerable effort to support them so as to create the necessary employment opportunities, incomes and productive capacity.

3.0 The Growth of Small Enterprises - the Problem: Entrepreneurship and Small Business Enterprise Growth in Uganda - Click To Read Article
Because of the importance that has been attached to these enterprises, there has been a lot of effort directed towards promoting these units. In many countries especially India, there has been affirmative and positive action towards promoting SSEs. A lot of literature is available on the success and failures of these enterprises. Many countries and indeed multilateral institutions have set up agendas and strategies for the development of these units. In Kenya, for instance, the Jua Kalis have been supported by the Kenyan government (Alila and McCormick, 1994) as avenues of industrialising and developing the country.

4.0 What are Small Scale Enterprises?: Entrepreneurship and Small Business Enterprise Growth in Uganda - Click To Read Article
To be able to understand the problem at hand, it is important that we articulate the issue we are discussing. SSEs are defined differently in different countries. It is true that a SSE in the United States may be a large enterprise in India and a very large enterprise in Uganda. While the absolute figures involved in the definition of these enterprises may differ, there are some underlying similarities in the concept used in the definitions. The following are common measures of defining SSE.


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