Abstract
This study aimed to investigate entrepreneurship from the South African perspective, as well as how local consumers respond to local businesses' products and services. This study therefore constitutes an inter-disciplinary approach between consumer psychology, entrepreneurship and local economic development (LED). In this study, local entrepreneurship was examined through trust, knowledge, skills and innovative techniques. These factors were influenced by how entrepreneurship is perceived by local consumers through consumers’ personal experiences when interacting with local businesses and/or entrepreneurs. On the other hand, consumer psychology was examined through consumers’ perceptions, attitudes, and motivations. The three internal factors were identified as sufficient psychological factors to examine to understand the mind of the consumer.
LED served as a central link to merge the two domains mentioned above (consumer psychology and entrepreneurship). Nonetheless, the crux of this study was to understand the reasons why local consumers do not readily support or buy locally produced products. Accordingly, the main research question became: How can psychological factors that represent the consumers’ consumption behaviour towards local luxury clothing products, be improved? To answer the main research question in detail, a mixed methodology approach was used. This approach was necessary to first understand what the reasons for the lack of support were and equally important, to understand why such reasons exist and how they can potentially be changed for the benefit of local businesses. The results were first analysed separately and later converged for a holistic analysis and interpretation.
In summary, the findings imply that local entrepreneurs need assistance regarding how to connect with the business world in the 21st century to capture the attention and support of local consumers. Local consumers indicated their willingness to support local businesses, provided various measures are taken to change the status quo of how business is currently conducted locally and about putting the consumer first.
Although this study was conducted from consumers’ perspective, future research can focus on local entrepreneurs as participants to provide further and/or different insights that may be merged (both side perspectives) with what is already known from or brought forward by the results of this study, for a better and more holistic understanding of the problem.