A Business Case For The Adoption Of A Knowledge Management Strategy And Government Policy As Precursors For Divapreneurship Development In Zimbabwe

This thesis showcases a business value proposition to policy makers for the adoption of a new business paradigm involving the infusion of knowledge management practices, strategic thinking and government policy intervention for divapreneurship development in Zimbabwe.  The significance of knowledge management (KM), in women entrepreneurial development arises from the fact that KM is considered as one of the most effective strategic toolsfor enterprise survival (Kim and Koh, 2011).  Notwithstanding the strategic role attached to KM, divapreneurs seemed to be irresponsive to the importance of adopting technological innovations for business success.

Furthermore, the government tended to use a policy of ‘give’ to support instead of empowering divas for their own development. The study also investigated the antecedents of bringing about the divatude (positive attitude) in women, as a new way of addressing the impediments to the development of women so that they could be united, driven, inspired, action oriented and victorious ensuring that divapreneurship development becomes a reality in Zimbabwe (Bbenkele, 2013).

The findings of the study showed that there was a positive interrelationship between KM strategies and government policy in divapreneurship development. The dimensions of this interrelatedness for divapreneurship development were: the formation of an enabling environment for sharing knowledge, networking, entrepreneurship education, innovation and creativity. The respondents consisted of women whose businesses had survived beyond three years as a measure of success in business ownership, as far less was known about this specific sector. Surprisingly, half of the study participants indicated that business knowledge was not a challenge. Skills, rather than business knowledge and readily accessible information eliminated the challenge. Participants alluded to the

‘lack of entrepreneurial spirit, lack of aggression, time limitation due to home responsibilities, lack of exposure to latest news and trends, lack of boldness, inability to change mind-set due to continued discrimination, lack of drive and inability to manoeuvre in the prevailing turbulent economic environment. It was clear from the study that those divas that had undergone formal entrepreneurial education or formal training tended to network better and mitigated business challenges in a holistic and systematic manner, thus leveraging on knowledge strategies which included combining strategic management and KM practices.

 The research adopted a pragmatic approach with both post-positivist and interpretivism philosophies underpinning the study. The mixed method research paradigm was adopted with both quantitative and qualitative data integrated in data collection. The rigorous exercise involved intensive triangulation of various data outputs. The quantitative data output were processed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) tool version 25.0. Results from focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews were processed using Micro-soft spreadsheet. The sequential explanatory method design was used in order to more accurately define interrelationship between knowledge management strategy and government policy intervention in divapreneurship development. The design afforded for a rigorous and integrative analysis of quantitative numeric data through regression, Kruskal-Wallis H test and descriptive statistical analysis, as well as textual and thematic analysis of primary data in order to triangulate and the two methods counter balanced each other. Consequently, basing on a purposive sample of 558 structured questionnaires, 538 were successfully recovered with a response rate of 94% and 510 survived data cleaning. For the qualitative aspects of the study, the target group were those women’s organisations that empower women entrepreneurs through education and training or financial resources. The qualitative aspects of the study were captured through focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews as well as face to face interviews. The study was carried out in Bulawayo and Harare Metropolitan Provinces as well as in Matabeleland North Province towns of Hwange and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. 

The study recommended a ten factor framework for divapreneurship development involving universities as the nerve centre in unrolling entrepreneurial education and training working in collaboration with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Community Development, and Small to Medium Enterprises. A sustainable divapreneurship development model was also recommended by the study in which the dependent variable of sustainable divapreneurship development was dependent on the independent variables of supportive government policy for the creation of an enabling environment and funding, and KM strategies for social communication infrastructure, with entrepreneurship learning and divatude embracement as intervening variables.