scholarly journals What characterises high-growth firms in South Africa? Evidence from World Bank Enterprise Survey

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 71-81
Author(s):  
A. Mthimkhulu ◽  
M. Aziakpono
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
High Growth ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Growth Firms ◽  
Medium Enterprises ◽  
World Bank Enterprise Survey ◽  
Enterprise Survey ◽  
New Jobs

In the past two decades, considerable efforts have been made to promote small and medium enterprises as a catalyst for job creation in many countries, including South Africa. However, globally a growing body of evidence shows that only a small segment of small and medium enterprises in an economy accounts for 50 to 70% of net new jobs. Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey and logit and quantile regressions, this paper empirically explores the characteristics of high growthfirms in South Africa. The study finds that firms that are less than 6 years create more jobs than the average firm in the sample. The results further suggest that the typical high-growth firms are black-owned.

scholarly journals What impedes micro, small and medium firms’ growth the most in South Africa? Evidence from World Bank Enterprise Surveys

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. Mthimkhulu ◽  
M. J. Aziakpono
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Access To Finance ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Enterprise Surveys ◽  
Medium Enterprises ◽  
Medium Firms ◽  
Simple Count

The growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) is often regarded as a solution to persistent unemployment in developing countries. Studies have shown that access to finance is the most serious obstacle to MSMEs’ growth. This paper investigates key obstacles to the growth of MSMEs in South Africa using the World Bank Enterprise Surveys of 2003 and 2007. Two approaches are used to determine the key obstacles. The first improves on the simple count-of-ratings method used by many researchers. The second estimates the effects of obstacles on growth through sequential multivariate regressions based on the Growth Diagnostics framework by Hausmann, Rodrik & Velasco (2005) and identifies two levels of obstacles’ intensities: binding constraints with negative and significant effects and constraints with notable effects whose negative effects are significant but less than the binding. From both count- and regression-based analyses, access to finance is a relatively less important obstacle. The count-based analysis finds crime to be the top obstacle. In the regressions, ‘courts’, which refers to the efficacy of the legal system and thus related to crime, is binding. Electricity and transportation of goods are the constraints with notable effects.

Major obstacles facing business enterprises in an emerging economy: the case of Ghana using the World Bank Enterprise Survey

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-487
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Mohammed ◽  
Alhassan Bunyaminu
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Emerging Economy ◽  
Probit Regression ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Business Enterprises ◽  
World Bank Enterprise Survey ◽  
Enterprise Survey

PurposeThis paper aims at identifying the major obstacles to business enterprise in an emerging economy and how these obstacles are associated with different characteristics of the enterprises.Design/methodology/approachThe study relied on the World Bank Enterprise Survey data on Ghana and applied binary and ordinal probit regression techniques to estimate the associations between the characteristics of the enterprises and the identified obstacles. Significance testing of the associations is also conducted.FindingsThe five main obstacles perceived by most of the enterprises in the study are access to finance, electricity, access to land, customs and trade regulations and tax rates. These obstacles are associated in different ways to growth rate (high vs low growth), scale (small and medium vs large), age, size of employees, the experience of the top manager and ownership (wholly domestic vs foreign ownership).Research limitations/implicationsAs a cross-sectional study focusing on Ghana, the findings are informative about the major obstacles facing business enterprises in an emerging economy; however, the ecological validity of these findings may be limited to factors specific to Ghana.Originality/valueGiven the representativeness of the Enterprise Survey, policymakers can rely on these findings to formulate useful policies to promote the operations of business enterprises.

scholarly journals South African firm-level evidence of the links between finance and efficiency

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 271-286
Author(s):  
Waldo Krugell ◽  
Marianne Matthee
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Access To Finance ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Using Data ◽  
World Bank Enterprise Survey ◽  
Enterprise Survey ◽  
Lower Capacity ◽  
Different Sources

Small and medium-sized enterprises are often seen as drivers of economic growth and development by generating employment opportunities. However, for SMEs to be successful they need finance. Access to finance has been found to be a major obstacle to SMEs’ ability to do business in South Africa. This paper takes a closer look at firms, their access to finance and output per worker in South Africa, by using data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey 2007. The results show that firms that are financially constrained are more vulnerable to shocks and competition, and are weaker contributors to employment creation and growth. These firms are typically small and less established. They hold less inventory, have lower capacity utilisation and are unlikely to be exporters or to introduce new products in response to competition. The results from the regression model confirm that access to finance and different sources of finance are drivers of productivity at firm level.

scholarly journals Employment Growth of Small, Medium, and Large Firms: Evidence from Zambia

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Yordanos Gebremeskel
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Employment Growth ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Manufacturing Sectors ◽  
World Bank Enterprise Survey ◽  
Enterprise Survey ◽  
The Relationship

We have used the World Bank Enterprise Survey data and examined the relationship between size, age and employment growth of 720 small, medium and large firms from four cities in Zambia. These firms have between 1-2010 full-time employees and operate in services, retail, and manufacturing sectors. The employment growth is defined as a difference in logarithm of full-time employees between two years and divided by the age of the firm. Our estimation shows that there is a strong relationship between employment growth, size, and age of firms. We find that younger firms but not smaller size are more important in creating employment growth.

MSMEs Productivity in Nigeria

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
Oluseye Samuel Ajuwon ◽  
Sylvanus Ikhide ◽  
Joseph Oscar Akotey
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Product Customization ◽  
World Bank Enterprise Survey ◽  
Enterprise Survey

This study uses the World bank enterprise survey data for Nigeria to examines Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) productivity rate in the Nigerian economy. The study explores factors that constrain MSMES output growth in Nigeria. Some of the factors identified include huge infrastructural gap, inadequate institutional support and low access to credit. The resultant effect is a low investment commitment amongst MSMEs thus hampering the productivity of MSMEs in the Nigerian economy. The MSMEs productivity growth rate was measured using annual sales of firms from the World bank enterprise survey data for Nigeria. This research employs the non-parametric variance estimation using the locally-weighted scatterplot smoothing (LOWESS) method on three sets of two-points data (2006 and 2003, 2008 and 2002, and finally 2012 and 2009) of annual fiscal sales for each category of firms comprising micro, small, medium and large firms. The result shows that the small businesses have a negative productivity growth rate in Nigeria. This in line with IFC (2013) which found that small businesses have the least productivity growth rate amongst firms of all sizes. However, this study departs from IFC findings which states that small businesses’ low productivity growth rate is tenable across all the sectors of the economy. The study found that small businesses actually recorded high productivity growth rate in some subsectors of the economy that specializes in product customization such as garment and furniture. Therefore, this study validates the flexible specialization theory that emphases the economic importance of MSMEs in the post-industrial era where product customization is the new order of production. The policy implication of this study is that any targeted intervention in the MSMEs sub-sector of the economy designed to increase productivity, should be channeled into the subsector with the most employee specialization as well as product customization.Keyword(s): MSMEs, small business, Output, Productivity, JEL Classifications: P42 M13 O55

Determinants of credit access of small and medium enterprises in emerging economies: evidence from the World Bank enterprise surveys

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Rafael De Freitas Souza ◽  
Patrícia Belfiore ◽  
Nuno Manoel Martins Dias Fouto ◽  
Marco Aurélio Dos Santos ◽  
Luiz Paulo Fávero
Keyword(s):  
World Bank ◽  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Credit Access ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Enterprise Surveys ◽  
Medium Enterprises
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