ENTERPRISING IN THE FACE OF DEATH: SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN AFRICAN BURIAL SOCIETIES

Gift Dafuleya ()
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Gift Dafuleya: Department of Economics, University of Venda, Bag X5050, Thohoyandou, South Africa

Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), 2012, vol. 20, issue 03, 357-378

Abstract: African households prioritize funeral rites, with important consequences on their welfare. Poor workers with no savings have one investment — their burial society. This article uses the transformation taking place in burial societies to make three arguments. First, social relationships do not only make and help entrepreneurs, but they can also transform and be the threshold of social entrepreneurship. Second, burial societies' innovation in pro-poor products is local-demand specific but lacks adequate and sustainable capital back-up. Finally, meaningful entrepreneurial returns demand scaling down the membership size of clubs which unfortunately limit venture capitalization and cause network failures — a trade-off that seemingly maintains the social entrepreneurship in African Burial Societies.

Keywords: Burial societies; capitalization; social entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1142/S021849581250015X

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