Entrepreneurial Dynamics and the Sustainability of Very Small Enterprises: The Case of Networking in a Sub-Saharan African Context

Abstract

Abstract

In a Cameroonian context marked by the structural fragility of very small enterprises (VSEs) and a high mortality rate during their first years of existence, this study examines the effect of networking, understood as the mobilisation of formal, informal and coopetitive ties, on the sustainability of these economic units. Grounded in social capital theory (Coleman, 1988; Granovetter, 1973, 1985; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998) and in the entrepreneurial ecosystem framework (Isenberg, 2010, 2011; Stam, 2015), the study relies on a questionnaire survey administered to thirty VSEs in the city of Douala, selected through non-probability purposive sampling. Data were processed with SPSS version 20 using principal component analysis, a reliability test (Cronbach's alpha) and simple linear regression. Results show that networking has a positive and highly significant effect on the sustainability of the VSEs studied (standardised beta of 0.988; R² of 0.977; p below .001), confirming the research hypothesis. The discussion situates this finding within recent international literature on entrepreneurial social capital and new venture survival, and highlights the particular role played, in the Cameroonian context, by informal networks such as tontines and family, ethnic or religious solidarities, alongside formal and coopetitive networks. The article also discusses, with due caution, the unusually large magnitude of the relationship observed given the very small sample size, and offers managerial recommendations and avenues for future research based on replication at a larger scale.

Keywords: networking, social capital, sustainability, very small enterprise, entrepreneurial ecosystem, Cameroon.