“Oh no! all my money is gone”: the detrimental consequences of participating in stokvels among women entrepreneurs within the South African township economy
Tafadzwa Clementine Maramura is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Administration and Management at the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein, South Africa. She teaches courses to undergraduate and postgraduate students. She has also successfully supervised 35 Honors and 10 Masters students. She is also a Brightest Young Minds in Africa Alumni (BYM2017). She has published over 40 peer-reviewed research articles in locally and internationally accredited journals, with findings that have been recommended to countries such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda. She graduated with her PhD in Public Management and Water Governance from North-West University in South Africa.
Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy
ISSN: 1750-6204
Article publication date: 28 August 2024
Issue publication date: 28 October 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate the detrimental consequences of participating in stokvels among women entrepreneurs within the South African township economy.
Design/methodology/approach
The research used the Gioia methodology, involving the implementation of a qualitative inquiry with an inductive approach. Semi-structured interviews served as the primary method for data collection. The study had a sample comprising 20 women entrepreneurs located in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Findings
Narratives on the detrimental consequences of participating in stokvels among women entrepreneurs within the South African township economy included fraudsters, misunderstanding and dishonesty among stokvel partners, year-end robbery and theft, stokvels being dominated by men, operating outside of formal regulatory frameworks, exclusion and limited funding.
Research limitations/implications
Sample size challenges feature as a notable limitation, including the research being conducted in only one province of South Africa. Caution should be exercised when seeking to generalize the findings in other contexts.
Originality/value
While there is an array of literature on the impact of stokvels on entrepreneurship, there are deficiencies in studies that have looked at the detrimental consequences of stokvels on women entrepreneurs. As a result, the goal of this research is to add to the present corpus of African entrepreneurship literature, specifically in the context of South Africa.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Gratitude is given to the respondents who participated in the current study interviews.
Declaration of interest statement: The researchers declare that the research was conducted without any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Funding: This research received no specific grant from public, commercial or not-for-profit funding agencies.
Citation
Maziriri, E.T., Nyagadza, B. and Maramura, T.C. (2024), "“Oh no! all my money is gone”: the detrimental consequences of participating in stokvels among women entrepreneurs within the South African township economy", Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Vol. 18 No. 5, pp. 1193-1219. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEC-05-2023-0081
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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