“Oh no! all my money is gone”: the detrimental consequences of participating in stokvels among women entrepreneurs within the South African township economy

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the detrimental consequences of participating in stokvels among women entrepreneurs within the South African township economy. Design/methodology/approach The research used the Gioia methodology, involving the implementation of a qualitative inquiry with an inductive approach. Semi-structured interviews served as the primary method for data collection. The study had a sample comprising 20 women entrepreneurs located in Johannesburg, South Africa. Findings Narratives on the detrimental consequences of participating in stokvels among women entrepreneurs within the South African township economy included fraudsters, misunderstanding and dishonesty among stokvel partners, year-end robbery and theft, stokvels being dominated by men, operating outside of formal regulatory frameworks, exclusion and limited funding. Research limitations/implications Sample size challenges feature as a notable limitation, including the research being conducted in only one province of South Africa. Caution should be exercised when seeking to generalize the findings in other contexts. Originality/value While there is an array of literature on the impact of stokvels on entrepreneurship, there are deficiencies in studies that have looked at the detrimental consequences of stokvels on women entrepreneurs. As a result, the goal of this research is to add to the present corpus of African entrepreneurship literature, specifically in the context of South Africa.