Creative start-up capital raising for inclusive sustainable development: A case study of Boswa ba Rona Development Corporation's self-reliance

Abstract

Abstract This research set out to study a revelatory case of an indigenous entrepreneurial initiative which is fostering inclusive sustainable development in South Africa through a company called Boswa ba Rona Development Corporation (Boswa). Founded in a rural South African village called Mogopa, Boswa represents a revelatory case because the community members creatively came up with the means to raise their own start-up capital endogenously through a unique self-funding model. Using qualitative case-study research, this article set out to describe this funding model and to determine its underlying rationale. The study drew on antenarrative, agential storytelling and creativity theory to illumine the discursive practices which fostered the unprecedented developmental change experienced by this community. The case study found that two antenarrative agential stories served as powerful rationales for action, namely; the story of self-reliance and the story of equitable inclusiveness. These stories resulted in a unique context-based creativity which enabled this relatively poor community to raise enough funds to get their commercial venture off the ground. The contribution of this article is threefold. First, it reveals how organizational creativity can foster inclusive sustainable development in constrained contexts such as impoverished, rural and under-resourced villages. Second, the article applied antenarrative agential storytelling theory which revealed how stories can foster transformational change for inclusive sustainable development. Third, the article applied an augmented version of the Enhancing Audio Recorded Research (EARR) model; a novel method of qualitative data presentation which has not been applied in this domain of study before. This article argues that inclusive sustainable development can be fostered by organizational creativity and antenarrative agential storytelling, especially in contexts that may otherwise pose insurmountable barriers to the innovative entrepreneurship required to realize inclusive sustainable development.