Abstract
This study evaluated the impact of an entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the Gabonese and South African national parks tourism industry. An entrepreneurial ecosystem is an influencing concept that has recently gained popularity as regards understanding how it can be optimised for business venture success and for its ability to create a favourable environment for the birth, growth and functionality of new ventures or businesses run by enterprises such as SMEs. SMEs are considered business ventures that significantly contribute to the alleviation of socio-economic challenges such as poverty and unemployment in a region.
However, the literature mostly emphasises the consideration of an EE for the generation of SMEs to foster employment creation. It does not emphasise the characteristics or the formulation of an EE in a specific region, or for specific industries such as tourism, an industry dominated by a galaxy of SMEs. In other words, there is a limited body of knowledge on what an African EE may look like or how it may operate. There is a lack of research that shows the particular characteristics of an African EE industry. Moreover, the current academic literature reflects that the effects of an EE on SME strategy and viability are largely conceptual, with very little empirical research carried out. Thus, this study aimed to develop a conceptual framework that adds to the body of knowledge of EE in general, but more particularly, regarding the ability of a national parks tourism EE to facilitate the creation of tourism SMEs. The primary research question was: To what extent does the EE environment of a national park affect SMEs in South Africa and Gabon wanting to conduct primary business (direct provision of tourism products and services) and secondary business (supplying the tourism SMEs) by using areas of conservation such as national parks as business opportunities? The main objective of this study was to explore the extent to which the EE of South Africa and Gabon supports SME growth in terms of primary and secondary tourism business around national parks.
A qualitative multi-methodological approach was employed based on two sequential primary data collection phases. Phase 1 involved the application of two rounds of Delphi techniques with the use of an online Google Forms questionnaire that was distributed to a purposive
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sample composed of a panel of 15 experts in round 1, and then 10 experts in round 2. These experts had relevant knowledge and experience in the fields of entrepreneurship and national parks tourism in Gabon and South Africa. Consensus was the method used to obtain and finalise the findings from Delphi, which in turn helped to construct the data collection instrument applied in phase 2.
Phase 2 consisted of a mixture of one-on-one semi-structured, face-to-face interviews and online interviews with a total of 26 participants, from which 12 were national parks tourism SME owners or managers in Gabon, and 14 in South Africa. The 12 participants from Gabon had businesses that focused primarily or secondarily on tourism around Lope National Park, and the 14 participants from South Africa had businesses that focused primarily or secondarily on tourism around Kruger National Park. Face-to-face interviews were done with 6 participants from South Africa that had businesses around Kruger national park tourism from the White River side near the Numbi gate of Kruger National Park (Mpumalanga province/South Africa). Face-to-face interviews were conducted with these participants due to their closer proximity with the researcher’s location at White River.
In addition to face-to-face interviews, online interviews on the South African side were done with 8 more participants that had businesses near the Phalaborwa gate of Kruger national park (Limpopo province/South Africa). Online interviews were also undertaken with all the 12 participants from Gabon from which, 9 had businesses that were located in Libreville (capital city), and 3 of them had businesses that were located within Lopé National Park. Online interviews were used due to the long distance between the researcher and the participants. Snowball sampling was the technique used to identify these participants due to the challenge involved in getting hold of participants. The findings were interpreted and analysed using thematic content analysis, after which the themes were compared to literature, in such a way that these findings confirm or contradict findings from previous studies.
The findings reveal that national parks tourism EE is characterised by 15 EE components, some of which are endemic to national parks tourism EEs only. The findings further reveal that all 15 EE components are important, but some of them are more important as they play a primary role in the EE, and others are less important as they play a secondary role in supporting the most important components. However, this study also reveals that there is no universal formulation for a national parks tourism EE. The importance of each component is relative and based on the region or the type of EE in which it operates. The outcome of this research cannot
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be generalised due to the small sample size of this study, which was not fully representative of the African national parks tourism EE.
The two national parks surveyed are just two among a network of several other national parks in Gabon and South Africa, and on a bigger scale across Africa. Nevertheless, this study can serve as a starting point to portray the characteristics of what a national parks tourism EE may look like. The theoretical contribution of this study helped to identify all the components that are necessary for an EE in general, and for the national park tourism EE in particular. The practical contribution of this study, on the other hand, helped to confirm the viability of each EE component for entrepreneurial ventures in Lope and Kruger national parks tourism. In addition, the practical contribution of this study assisted in proposing a prototype of what a national park tourism EE may resemble.