IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/adi/ijbess/v7y2025i1p57-66.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who is not truthful? Discrepancies between SMMEs and their support programmes in responding to the same question

Author

Listed:
  • Gosiame Eulenda Molope

    (UNISA)

  • Solomon Seeletse
  • Mmboswobeni Watson Ladzani

    (University of South Africa)

Abstract

The small, micro, and medium enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa were found to be failing at exceedingly high rates. Some government support programmes were established in certain institutions of government to improve the SMME situation. Discrepancies seemed to show that while support programmes offered aid to the SMMEs, SMMEs showed no significant improvement. The support structures claimed that their aid was effective, and the SMMEs were saying they were not being enhanced. The aim of this paper was to analyze and understand the reasons behind any differences in responses or actions between SMMEs and the support programmes meant to aid them. A qualitative study was conducted, where both parties were interviewed, and their results compared. The study showed that the support programmes were not empowered to extend their services beyond offering aid, so they could not even monitor and evaluate their programmes’ effectiveness. When they said they were effective, it meant up to their scope. On the other hand, SMMEs expected the support institutions to visit and support them. Hence, the problem was mainly a misunderstanding. For the success of the support programmes, however, the study recommended that policies of the support structures should be extended, and activities extended to satisfy the SMMEs. Key Words: Customization, Government support agency, One-size-fits-all, Training

Suggested Citation

  • Gosiame Eulenda Molope & Solomon Seeletse & Mmboswobeni Watson Ladzani, 2025. "Who is not truthful? Discrepancies between SMMEs and their support programmes in responding to the same question," International Journal of Business Ecosystem & Strategy (2687-2293), Bussecon International Academy, vol. 7(1), pages 57-66, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:adi:ijbess:v:7:y:2025:i:1:p:57-66
    DOI: 10.36096/ijbes.v7i1.541
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bussecon.com/ojs/index.php/ijbes/article/view/541/399
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.36096/ijbes.v7i1.541
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.36096/ijbes.v7i1.541?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:adi:ijbess:v:7:y:2025:i:1:p:57-66. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Umit Hacioglu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ibihutr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.