Harshana Kasseeah

Access to Financing in a Small Island Economy: Evidence From Mauritius

This relationship between access to financing and firm characteristics was studied. The authors used data from a survey of small and medium-sized enterprises from Mauritius, an island economy that is part of the sub-Saharan African continent. They examined the factors that affect the ability of firms to gain access to financing. Using the principal component analysis, the authors group variables affecting access to financing in four main components including working capital constraint, the external constraint, the size constraint, and the age constraint. The authors show that these components are important factors that influence the ability of firms to gain access to financing.

Women in the informal sector in Mauritius: a survival mode

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the characteristics of women entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector in Mauritius and to investigate the impact of women entrepreneurship on their own livelihoods and that of their families. Design/methodology/approach – Using survey data on 158 women entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector, the authors analyse whether there has been an improvement in the standard of living of women entrepreneurs as a result of their informal entrepreneurial activities. Findings – Findings reveal that the informal sector has provided a self-employment outlet for unemployed and retrenched women in Mauritius. Even if for a majority, their earnings remain low, their informal activity has indeed helped to contribute to their livelihood and household earnings. Research limitations/implications – Research on informal sector businesses is fraught with limitations, given that these firms operate on the fringes of legality and data are thus a major issue. Hence interv...

Access to Financing as a Barrier to Trade: Evidence From Mauritius

Access to credit is essential for the development and growth of firms. For a small open economy like Mauritius, the ability of firms to enter export markets is essential for their growth and development, given that the size of the local market is quite limited. To increase sales and profitability, firms have to export. However, there are several costs that are involved when firms enter an export market. In many cases, finance becomes an essential factor that influences firms’ ability to export. These authors investigate whether the main constraint that firms in Mauritius face is access to finance and try to understand how firms overcome financial barriers. Given the limitations of existing methods to estimate financing constraints directly from firm-level accounting data, the results based on survey data are an important contribution in improving understanding of firms’ financing obstacles to exporting and how they overcome these barriers.

Innovation and performance in small- and medium-sized enterprises: evidence from Mauritius

This paper studies the relationship between innovation and firm performance in small- and medium-sized firms in Mauritius, given that these firms are important contributors to growth and employment in the economy. Innovation is proxied by the acquisition of technological developments, expenditure on research and development and the introduction of new or significantly improved products. Results obtained indicate that innovation affects the performance of firms in Mauritius even after controlling for factors such as experience of the owner-manager, age of the firm, size of the firm, region in which the firm is located and the sector in which the firm operates.

Is gender an impediment to firm performance? Evidence from small firms in Mauritius

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the female entrepreneurship underperformance hypothesis using a sample of small firms. The paper also attempts to explain why gender matters in entrepreneurship. The paper specifically investigates the differences in turnover of female and male entrepreneurs and also examines the reasons behind this differential performance by accounting for the gender factor. Design/methodology/approach This study uses survey data on 256 male and female entrepreneurs from the Island of Mauritius. The survey allows for the examination of the performance differential across male- and female-owned small businesses. The paper uses ordinary least squares and logistic estimation techniques to investigate the underperformance of female entrepreneurs. Sensitivity analyses are also undertaken to ensure robustness of the results. Findings The study finds evidence that gender matters when comparing the performance of male- and female-owned businesses. The results reveal that access to finance is an important hindrance to the performance of these small firms. Furthermore, the study also reveals that ethnicity plays a major role in influencing firm performance. Originality/value This paper is among the few studies, which investigates the female entrepreneurship underperformance hypothesis in a small developing state context and also attempts to explain the reasons why gender matters. The paper is an important empirical contribution to the literature in an African context.

Investigating the impact of entrepreneurship on economic development: a regional analysis

Purpose – This paper uses data on 125 countries to study whether entrepreneurship affects the level of economic development by taking a regional perspective. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether entrepreneurship leads to economic development by accounting for several other factors including the level of financial development, the business environment and governance and the quality of institutions. Design/methodology/approach – To investigate the impact of entrepreneurship on economic development, the paper uses data available from the World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey database. The data are augmented with variables from the World Development Indicators and various Doing Business Reports. These variables are used to capture for other factors that affect the level of economic development. Findings – The results indicate that economic development of the countries in the sample is affected by entrepreneurship even after controlling for regional variation. These results indi...

Ex-garment female workers: a new entrepreneurial community in Mauritius

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of the ex-garment workers that have turned to self-employment either in the formal or informal sector in the wake of the termination of the multi-fibre arrangement, which led to job losses. This move has given rise to a new community of entrepreneurs in the Mauritian landscape. Hence, this paper tells a story of women empowerment to disempowerment and finally the struggle for them to get re-empowered. This study also shows that there has been a limit to which self-employment led to empowerment for these women as their incomes are low, and they remain in vulnerable positions. Design/methodology/approach - – The study analyses the transformation of a sample of ex-garment workers into new entrepreneurs. The analysis in this paper rests on survey data collected from 92 ex-garment female workers, who are presently self-employed in either the formal or informal sectors, in different parts of Mauritius. Findings - – The findings reveal that the self-employed women in the sample, who are also ex-garment female workers, are essentially necessity-driven entrepreneurs. Most of them have only basic primary education and seem to have no other choice than to engage either formally or informally in similar activities, given their prior knowledge and experience in the textile and clothing industries. The authors also find evidence of statistically significant differences across age, marital status and household size between those women in the informal sector compared to those engaged in the formal sector. Research limitations/implications - – Resource constraints aside, this study could benefit from a larger sample cutting across many other sub-sectors. So far, the results of this study are only applicable to the specific sample studied. In terms of implications, the study finds that the relevant authorities should come up with targeted policies to help these women and address and alleviate the barriers that they face. Practical implications - – This study provides an insight to help explain why a large group of women have gone into self-employment in Mauritius in the past 10 years. The authors find that self-employment has provided an empowerment outlet for these women so that they can financially contribute to their household income. From the policy-making perspective, this implies that it is important for the government to support the activities of these self-employed women with conducive policies. Originality/value - – The study helps to advance knowledge on self-employed women in a small vulnerable island economy context. Given that the transition from being employed to unemployed and then the move to self-employment happened in a rather short span of time for these women, the contribution of this study is also to put at the forefront the industrial changes and the individual coping strategies.

Surviving Chinese Competition in a Post-Multi-Fibre Arrangement World: Experience of Clothing Exporters from Mauritius

Mauritius is a small island economy where textile and clothing firms were previously benefiting from preferential access to the EU and the US markets under the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) which imposed limits on the exports of big exporters. With the phasing out of the MFA, Mauritian textile and clothing firms now have to compete with Asian drivers, especially China, without any artificial support. This article studies post-MFA stabilization in a sample of clothing firms in Mauritius. Data are collected by means of face-to-face interviews with the senior management of 20 firms. Findings indicate that the firms have been involved in a series of changes after the phase out of the MFA. These changes include investment in technology, marketing strategies, production reorganization, rationalizing and closing down units of production, and increased specialization. Evidence also indicates that the competitive edge of Mauritian firms lies in their ability to accept small orders with short lead times, and delivering good quality on time. Institutions have also played a major role in ensuring the survival of the clothing industry through industrial policy and relevant support structures.

The performance of small firms: Does formality matter?

Abstract The private sector in most countries comprises mainly of small firms. The objective of this paper is to investigate whether formality has an impact on the performance of small firms operating in Mauritius. It is very difficult to measure informality as in emerging and less developed economies, the line between formality and informality is often blurred. Different interpretations of formality are used to examine the link between firm performance and formality. This paper uses rich survey data from Mauritius on 3341 small firms consisting of both formal and informal firms to investigate the relationship between firm performance and formality. The paper finds that, broadly, formality has a positive and significant impact on the performance of small firms but the results seem to depend on which measure of performance one is looking at.

An empirical analysis of the determinants of expenditure on alcohol by alcohol dependent individuals in Mauritius

Purpose – Without an understanding of the factors that influence the expenditure of alcohol-dependent individuals on alcohol, it is unclear whether policies to control excessive consumption of alcohol can be effective. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the factors that affect the expenditure of alcohol-dependent individuals on alcohol. Design/methodology/approach – The main contribution of this paper is that it relies on a survey consisting exclusively of 300 alcohol-dependent individuals to capture the variables influencing their expenditure on alcohol. The survey was carried out by fieldworkers in the year 2012. The respondents come from varied socio-economic backgrounds and consist of both male and female alcohol-dependent individuals living in various geographical parts of the island of Mauritius. Findings – The results obtained indicate that expenditure on alcohol by alcohol-dependent individuals increases as income increases. Given that the coefficient on the income variable is...