South African business incubators and reducing the SME failure rate – A literature review

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on SMEs in Georgia, identify the challenges of SMEs in pandemic conditions, and analyze government economic policy measures. For this purpose, 102 small and medium entrepreneurs from different regions of Georgia were interviewed. The survey was conducted by sending a questionnaire through digital channels. The results were processed using data analysis, quantitative and qualitative research methods, and presented graphically. As a result, key challenges and development directions that are typical for SMEs operations in Georgia during the pandemic were identified. For 60.8% of surveyed SME owners, lockdown is the main challenge. Sales volume of 45.1% of SMEs decreased. In addition, 39.3% of the surveyed SME owners increased the innovative capabilities of a company and 37.2% increased the sales volume of a company through digital channels. The main challenge of the pandemic, lockdown, gave impetus to a change in entrepreneurial behavior. In a pandemic, entrepreneurial activity has become more favorable through digital channels. During the pandemic, there is a need to continue the government’s program of tax incentives and subsidies for SMEs. In addition, the government should promote education in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology.

Researchers have emphasized the role of e-commerce for small enterprises in improving their performance. However, there is limited evidence on the use of e-commerce by small enterprises, and e-commerce adopters and non-adopters dealing with COVID-19. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in the impact of COVID-19 on income between small enterprises that are adopters and non-adopters of e-commerce. This study also explored the impact of restrictions on community activities, the intention to adopt e-commerce, and the types of assistance required by small enterprises due to the pandemic. Data were collected through an online questionnaire survey among small enterprises that operate in the culinary field (1,024 small enterprises in Indonesia). The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, cross-tabulation, and the Mann-Whitney test. This study finds that non-adoption of e-commerce caused small enterprises to experience a decline in income, which worsened due to restrictions of community activities, compared to adopters of e-commerce. Therefore, to overcome this negativity, small enterprises were pushed to adopt e-commerce. Finally, working capital assistance is the main assistance required due to the pandemic both by e-commerce adopters and non-adopters. This study has significant implications for how small enterprises and governments may benefit from e-commerce dealing with extreme disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Acknowledgment
We are grateful to Mulawarman University for providing us with the funding necessary to gather the necessary data for the study and complete this empirical investigation. We also would like to thank two anonymous reviewers and seminar participants at Mulawarman University for their helpful feedback.

This paper deals with relationships between puritanism, management and entrepreneurship. As this is an on-going debate among economic historians, it focuses on the period from the early 1800s until present times, where Norwegian high profile puritan entrepreneurship serves as the case.
The theoretical framework is that entrepreneurship is seen as an important liaison factor representing multifactor productivity in a Solow growth model. The paper provides new insight within different areas on the basis of utilization of available sources. Firstly, it gives new estimates of the entrepreneurship of the puritan leader, Hans Nielsen Hauge (1771–1824).
Secondly, it organizes his followers in three generations. The first is those who directly took up his heritage, i.e. Haugeans. Their heydays lasted until the middle of the 19th century. The second generation is characterized as Haugean descendants. These were highly influenced by the movement’s values. They dominated the scene from the late 1800s to the late 1900s. The third generation is called Neo-Haugeans, largely a fruit of the revival of Haugean values during the last decades.
Thirdly, the paper maps attributes and motivation of this puritan entrepreneurship during generations. The authors conclude that it was guided by high degree of innovation, family ownership, wide portfolios, and continuity, when stewardship seems to be an important motivational factor.