Abstract
Small businesses are widely regarded by national and international bodies, including the South African government, as an engine of economic growth. However, much available evidence suggests that establishing a new small business in South Africa is difficult because of a lack of appropriate support. The research reported here sets out to examine the actual support that has been available, and the viewpoints of both the support service providers and the intended beneficiaries - small business owners and managers. It was found that government-based support services were predominant in the minds of small businesses and other involved parties, and that much of the interest in these services was based on accessibility via the Internet, a form of electronic government service. However, despite claims of success by e-government service providers, it is found that many small businesses are not aware of available support services, and that, where they are known, there is scepticism about the benefits of engaging with them. As the problems have been found to be centred around a lack of awareness of available services, this article reports on a possible solution, based on a concept referred to here as Servicing Advocacy.
Highlights
Small businesses are widely regarded by national and international bodies, including the South African government, as an “engine of economic growth”
It became clear that this significant difference of opinion arose from the different perspectives of the two role players: service providers were primarily concerned with measuring success the african journal of information and communication issue 11 2010/2011 according to outputs, whereas the intended beneficiaries were only concerned with outcomes
At the start of this paper a solution to the problem of making electronic government support services work well was promised, and this has been achieved through the development of a hierarchy of concepts, starting with Adequacy, progressing through Awareness and culminating in an examination of what Advocacy means and how it can be realised as a key to achieving support services for small business development
Summary
Small businesses are widely regarded by national and international bodies, including the South African government, as an “engine of economic growth”. An organised effort to support small businesses began in 1995, when the new South African government introduced a White Paper on national strategy for the development and promotion of small business (DTI, 1995), acknowledging the importance of this sector and committing itself to the establishment of a number of supportive mechanisms. Since it has been found (Mitrovic, 2009) that a variety of potential sources of support exist for small businesses, principally based upon:. There is a rising level of interest in “e-government”, within which small business support services and other initiatives are to be found (HPG, 2000; Hägglund, 2001; Heeks, 2002; CEC, 2002; OECD, 2003)
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