Beyond Finance: Rethinking Small Business Development Support in Emerging Economies
Michael Cant ORCID ↗
International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science · 2026 · Vol. 15 / Issue 6 · 01-08
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Abstract
This article examines financial and non-financial constraints reported by township small businesses and considers their implications for enterprise support in emerging economies. A descriptive secondary analysis uses reported survey results from a research project commissioned by the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), comprising 521 completed responses across ten broader city regions in South Africa. Results are organised into finance, business capability, market access and the operating environment. Lack of finance was reported by 55.9% and inadequate training by 55.7%; infrastructure deficiencies, staffing and service provision were also prominent. Obtaining funding was regarded as difficult by 88.4%, while 49.0% regarded market access as very difficult. These aggregate results identify prominent constraints across the sample but do not establish their co-occurrence within individual enterprises or their effects on performance. The contribution is an organising framework for interpreting township evidence and developing an enterprise diagnostic approach. Coordinated, needs-based support is proposed for future evaluation; its effectiveness is not tested in this study. Coverage of registered businesses in the SEDA database, non-response and unverified item response bases limit wider applicability.
Keywords: {'name': 'MSMEs,'}, {'name': 'small business development'}, {'name': 'access to finance'}, {'name': 'emerging economies'}, {'name': 'business capability'}, {'name': 'market access'}
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Michael Cant
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