The study involved nine Focus Group Discussions with altogether forty participants in three countries - Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Six people were invited and confirmed participation for each Focus Group Discussion. Knowing that the entrepreneurs might cancel on short notice due to reasons beyond their control, our expectation was to have five persons in each focus group. The groups ended up having four to six people. They were told in advance that the meetings would take roughly two hours. Only one case discussion actually finished in two hours. Most case discussions, with the consent of the participants, went on for three hours or more.
Growth-oriented enterprises were identified through consultants contracted in each of the three countries. The consultants were instructed to find enterprises in various kinds of activity and of various sizes. More precisely, they were asked to identify manufacturers, service providers, and merchandisers in each of the following three categories. Enterprises that:
a) employed 5-15 people, and were about to embark on a growth path; b) were presently in the process of growing and employed 10 to 30 people; c) had recently gone through the growth process, and employed at least 30 people, but no more than 60.
These three categories were chosen for various reasons. Category a) enterprises were expected to provide the researchers with an idea of what constraints the enterprises expected to encounter as they were about to grow. Category b) enterprises were to provide the researchers with insights into what constraints they were actually experiencing as they were growing. Enterprises in Category c) would provide the researchers with additional information about constraints experienced in the growth process and with insights of how such constraints could be overcome.
Due to last minute cancellations the number of manufacturers in the final sample was somewhat larger than the number of service providers and traders. However, as no major differences were found among the constraints identified by these three groups of enterprises, this situation is not likely to have had any impact on the results of the study.
Using a brief questionnaire developed by the regional project office, the researchers collected profiles of the enterprises. The office used these profiles to decide whether a business would fit into any of the categories mentioned above. For example, for a company to be categorized as being "about to embark on a growth path", the questionnaire would have to indicate that they intended to expand their business within the next year and provide a rough, but credible plan of how this was to be achieved. For those that did fit into the categories outlined above, an invitation was extended to take part in a Focus Group Discussion. The focus group discussions were held with representatives of enterprises in the same category. Only the top managers, who had been with the company for a substantial period of time, were invited to these discussions. In most cases, as it turned out, the participants were also the founders.
Constraints of growth-oriented enterprises in the southern and eastern African region Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, Oct 2002 by Trulsson, Per
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