Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) act as drivers of economic growth due to their positive impact in creating jobs and driving social change. However, their owner-managers (entrepreneurs) generally face a lot of stress in running a business through role conflicts, working long hours, high time pressure, coping with past failures and managing many economic demands. This project examines the impact of a psychosocial intervention on the business performance of female entrepreneurs in Nigeria. This project update shares the methodology used to address this research question and early insights that have emerged so far.

Entrepreneurs who lead innovative companies and spearhead transformative solutions are needed to address some of the world’s most pressing issues. Endeavor Insight offers in-depth research on innovation and entrepreneurship across agriculture, healthcare, and clean energy sectors, made possible with support from the Lemelson Foundation, and additional funding for agriculture-specific research by Small Foundation.

These studies evaluate the challenges and opportunities for founders creating positive impact in emerging markets, specifically sub-Saharan Africa and India. Based on data from more than 500 innovative companies and interviews with over 130 entrepreneurs, the research draws lessons from high-performing companies, identifies how they are addressing urgent needs, and analyzes the role of ecosystem actors such as support organizations in enabling their success.

"Entrepreneurship To the Point (eTTP) conducted research in South Africa on accelerating women-owned businesses in male-dominated sectors. To better understand the key barriers to entry and growth that women-owned businesses face in male-dominated sectors, they conducted surveys of 97 women and interviews with 17 women entrepreneurs in the male-dominated sectors in South Africa. The key findings of this report are 1) women’s participation in male-dominated sectors has increased, 2) the increase is driven by women entrepreneurs' passion, 3) but they still face multitudes of challenges in entering the sector and growing their businesses, 4) while the government has pushed for some policy frameworks to support women-owned businesses, 5) women entrepreneurs need both men and women mentors, and 6) there is more need for sector-focused accelerator/incubator programs"

"In recent decades, the number of female entrepreneurs has grown substantially, particularly in low and middle-income countries. However, the characteristics and performance of female-led ventures differ significantly from those of ventures led by men. A potential reason for this is the lack of clearly defined venture goals, including the profit margin that ventures target. We study the relationship between gender and target margins using a large dataset of ventures located in Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. We find that ventures led only by women are almost five percentage points less likely than male-led ventures to establish target margins, even after controlling for observable venture and founder characteristics. In addition, ventures with only female founders tend to set lower target margins than those with only male founders. These results suggest that policymakers, accelerators, and incubators, can play a major role in supporting female entrepreneurs as they grow their businesses by encouraging women to set clear and realistic target margins to be more successful at raising funds for their ventures."

"Après avoir vécu pendant plus de deux ans avec les défis majeurs de la pandémie du  COVID-19, le secteur des petites entreprises et de celles en croissance (PECs) est maintenant confronté à une réalité sur le long terme qui affecte non seulement les opérations commerciales mais aussi la façon dont ces entreprises mesurent et communiquent leur impact. Le secteur des PECs se trouve à un moment critique de la pandémie où les organisations doivent réfléchir à la manière dont leurs solutions de MGI élaborées à la hâte s’inscrivent ou non dans leur stratégie de MGI à plus long terme.

Pour toutes ces raisons, le but de ce rapport est de :

Mettre en évidence les défis MGI uniques auxquels sont confrontées les PECs d’Afrique subsaharienne en raison du COVID-19 ;
Guider les créateurs d’écosystèmes entrepreneuriaux dans l’adaptation de leurs systèmes de MGI dans le contexte de la nouvelle réalité du COVID-19 ; et
Fournir des ressources sur mesure pour permettre aux créateurs d’écosystèmes
entrepreneuriaux d’adapter davantage leurs systèmes de MGI afin de mieux soutenir les entrepreneurs dans la «nouvelle anormalité.»"