Developing a framework for entrepreneurial talent recycling to ensure the sustainability of SMMEs in Botswana

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a framework of entrepreneurial talent recycling that will ensure the sustainability of SMMEs in Botswana. Entrepreneurial talent recycling involves entrepreneurs who have exited various companies for various reasons and have gone on to conduct other successful business activities as a function of knowledge and skills gained in previous employment. The study centred on investigating the knowledge and skills they employed to ensure the sustainability of their enterprises. The primary objective of this study was to explore and analyse the experiences and knowledge of 12 recycled entrepreneurs to identify the knowledge and skills that can be employed to ensure the sustainability of Botswana SMMEs. The research adopted the induction approach complemented by a qualitative descriptive design that permitted successful entrepreneurs to reveal their experiences and knowledge. Semi-structured interviews were used in the discussions involving the 12 participants, and the discussions were recorded, transcribed and analysed. Data analysis was guided by the data analysis spiral by Creswell and Poth (2018). The steps in the spiral involved data management, reading the transcripts to find codes and memoing, describing and classifying codes into themes, developing and assessing interpretations, and representing and visualising the data. The developed framework demonstrated how SMMEs can achieve sustainability in Botswana through employing sustainability measures and leveraging ecosystem actors and resources as well as decisions made by the entrepreneur. The measures for sustainability were customer service, social sustainability, operational skills, personal resilience, and economic sustainability. In addition, the continued sustainability of SMMEs depended on observing the recommendations made by the recycled entrepreneurs to existing recycled entrepreneurs, prospective recycled entrepreneurs, policymakers, corporate leaders, and the education system. However, the main constraints to sustainability were noted as financial, resource, employee, and management inadequacies.