Abstract
Background: Entrepreneurship has most often been studied in the context of developed economies and results extrapolated to apply universally. This tells us little about entrepreneurship in other contexts, including in developing economy situations. In the developing world, entrepreneurship has been explored as a means of reducing poverty, but there has been little inspection of it from other perspectives. Aim: This article explores the motives and experiences of arts and crafts traders in rural Zimbabwe and provides information about the purposes of the business for financial and social life from the perspectives of our research participants. Method: The study used a qualitative methodology, conducting interviews with 12 rural arts and crafts traders. Results: The research identifies drivers, experiences and outcomes of entrepreneurship that are explained by the unique structural and sociocultural context, and the value ascribed to business refers both to financial income and the dissemination of culture and heritage. Evidence of specific sub-Saharan modes of conducting business, reflecting the collectivity, reciprocity and strong ethnic identity characteristics of sub-Saharan African societies also emerges. Conclusion: The article illustrates that western models of business and entrepreneurship may be limited in terms of informing us about the experiences in other contexts. We argue that research on entrepreneurship, and any policy on it in sub-Saharan Africa, takes cognisance of the non-western context and the potential for unique contextual business orientation and outcomes.
Highlights
Entrepreneurship is defined in this article as self-employment and independent business, as per studies such as the international Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) (e.g. Herrington & Kew 2017)
While the GEM compares rates of new entrepreneurship in countries across the world, there is a lack of study of the experiences of entrepreneurship in countries outside the western developed nation context (Rivera-Santos et al 2015; Terjesen, Hessels & Li 2016)
The experiences and drivers of entrepreneurship in non-western economies diverge from those in developed nations – by definition, the conditions for trade vary as a consequence of variation in institutional environments
Summary
Entrepreneurship is defined in this article as self-employment and independent business, as per studies such as the international Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) (e.g. Herrington & Kew 2017). While the GEM compares rates of new entrepreneurship in countries across the world, there is a lack of study of the experiences of entrepreneurship in countries outside the western developed nation context (Rivera-Santos et al 2015; Terjesen, Hessels & Li 2016). Our understanding of entrepreneurship is almost entirely based on western experiences of it in developed nations. In sub-Saharan Africa, rates of both poverty and entrepreneurship are amongst the highest in the world, and in Zimbabwe – which is the context of this article – entrepreneurship is the largest employer and that has averted economic collapse (Chidoko et al 2011). Entrepreneurship has most often been studied in the context of developed economies and results extrapolated to apply universally. Entrepreneurship has been explored as a means of reducing poverty, but there has been little inspection of it from other perspectives
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