Business resilience strategies for informal traders in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era in Gweru, Zimbabwe

https://doi.org/10.35912/ijfam.v6i1.1681
Published: Jun 28, 2024

Abstract:

Purpose: The informal trading business is a springboard for employment and poverty reduction, even during disruptions, such as those brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, this study examines the business resilience strategies adopted by informal traders to improve their livelihoods in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era in Gweru, Zimbabwe.

Research methodology: An exploratory research design underpinned this study’s data collection and thematic analysis approaches. Thirteen purposively sampled participants participated in face-to-face in-depth interviews.

Findings: Participants identified social networking, consignment sale agreements, business analysis, and financial capital boost as some of the business resilience strategies used by both male and female traders to improve their livelihoods in the post-COVID-19 pandemic period.

Limitations: The study used a qualitative approach, whose findings could not unravel all resilience strategies adopted in the post-COVID-19 era in the whole country, as a study using a quantitative methodology could have. Accordingly, the study’s results are limited as they cannot be generalized to other cities.

Contribution: This study incorporates informal traders’ business resilience strategies adopted in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era to sustain livelihoods and fight poverty and hunger. These strategies have not yet been used to explain the sustainability of livelihoods in post-pandemic disruptions.

Novelty: Despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruptions, the resilience strategies adopted by informal traders enabled them to sustain their livelihoods and mitigate poverty and hunger. Consequently, the applicability of the sustainable livelihood approach has broadened in emerging economies.

Keywords:
1. Sustainable livelihoods
2. informal traders
3. resilience strategies
4. smallholder farmers
5. Zimbabwe
Authors:
Wilson Mabhanda
Midlands State University, Zimbabwe
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How to Cite
Mabhanda, W. (2024). Business resilience strategies for informal traders in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era in Gweru, Zimbabwe. International Journal of Financial, Accounting, and Management, 6(1), 75–91. https://doi.org/10.35912/ijfam.v6i1.1681
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Vol. 6 No. 1 (2024): June
Articles
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  2. Belitski, M., Guenther, C., Kritikos, A. S. & Thurik, R. (2022). Economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on entrepreneurship and small businesses. Small Business Economics, 58(1), 1-17.
  3. Belton, B., Rosen, L., Middleton, L., Ghazali, S., Mamun, A. A., Shieh, J. & Thilsted, S. H. (2021). COVID-19 impacts and adaptations in Asia and Africa’s aquatic food value chains. Marine Policy, 129, 104523.
  4. Bryce, C., Ring, P., Ashby, S., & Wardman, J. K. (2022). Resilience in the face of uncertainty: Early lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Risk Research 23, 48-55.
  5. Buheji, M., da Costa Cunha, K., Beka, G., Mavric, B., De Souza, Y. L., da Costa Silva, S. S. & Yein, T. C. (2020). The extent of Covid-19 pandemic socio-economic impact on global poverty. A global integrative multidisciplinary review. American Journal of Economics, 10(4), 213-224.
  6. Carlos, M. 2003. Building networks: An experiment in support to small urban procedures in Benin. International Labour Review. London: CEPR Press, ECIV ODX.
  7. The Center for Development and Enterprise (2020). South Africa’s informal sector in the time of COVID-19. South Africa.
  8. Chaudhuri, K., Sasidharan, S. & Raj, R. S. N. (2020). Gender, small firm ownership, and credit access: Some insights from India. Small Business Economics, 54, 1165-1181.
  9. Chipenda, C. (2017). Livelihood resilience and diversity in the face of socio-economic challenges: Exploring the experiences of urban youth in Harare (Zimbabwe). Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology, 14(1). 97-109.
  10. Chirisa, I. (2013). Peri-urban informal trading in Zimbabwe: A study of women in the sector (WIIS) in Ruwa. Journal Global and Science, 1(1), 23-39.
  11. Clara, A. C. (2020). Informal sector and Nigerian economic prospects: The Covid–19 experience. European Journal of Business and Management Research, 5(4), 397-401.
  12. Connor, T. K. & Charway, F. (2020). Ambiguities of xenophobia in a border town: Inner city informal traders and Ekasi shopkeepers in the city of East London, South Africa. Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 38(2), 257-273.
  13. Creswell, J.W. (2014), Research Design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method approaches. (4th Ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
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  16. Duri, F. & Marongwe, N. (2017). The paradox of borders, borderlands and diasporic spaces: Contested enclaves, restrictive mechanisms and corridors of opportunity. Consumerism and the global politics of biotechnology: Rethinking food, bodies and identities in Africa’s 21st century. Langaa
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  18. Dzawanda, B., Nicolau, M. D., Matsa, M. & Kusena, W. (2023). Livelihood outcomes of informal cross border traders prior to the rise of the virtual cash economy in Gweru, Zimbabwe. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 38(1), 75-94.
  19. Eton, M., Sunday, A., & Nkamusiima, D. (2023). Budget implementations in local governments in Uganda; reflections from Kiruhura and Mbarara. International Journal of Financial, Accounting, and Management, 5(2), 235-249.
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  22. Gerald, E., Obianuju, A., & Chukwunonso, N. (2020). Strategic agility and performance of small and medium enterprises in the phase of Covid-19 pandemic. International Journal of Financial, Accounting, and Management, 2(1), 41-50.
  23. Guo Q, Zheng Y, Shi J, Wang J, Li G, and Li C. (2020). Immediate psychological distress in quarantined patients with COVID-19 and its association with peripheral inflammation: a mixed-method study. Brain, Behav. Immun. S0889-1591(20)30618-8.
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  28. International Trade Center (ITC) (2020). Assessing the COVID-19 impact on SME’s and preparing for a new normal. ITC's 2020 SME Competitive Outlook report, 22 June 2020.
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  30. Kahiya, E. & Kadirov, D. (2020). Informal cross border trade as a substratum marketing system: a review and conceptual framework. Journal of Macromarketing, 40(1), 88-109.
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  63. Sahoo, P. & Ashwani. (2020). COVID-19 and Indian economy: Impact on growth, manufacturing, trade and MSME sector. Global Business Review, 21(5), 1159-1183.
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