How Female-Owned SMEs in Uganda Maximise on Social Capital to Strengthen Their Businesses

The aim of this paper was to explore the extent to which female entrepreneurs in Uganda maximise on social capital by aligning with multiple stakeholders such as customers, government representatives, communities, higher education institutions (HEIs), and the wider public among others, to strengthen their businesses for long-term economic performance. A case study approach was adopted, during which semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate a sample of three socially oriented female-owned Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) operating in Uganda’s Central, Northern and Western regions. Findings suggest that social capital must be tackled holistically by engaging productively with both primary and secondary stakeholders within the wider entrepreneurial context to realise a broad range of benefits. The author contributes a comprehensive partnership framework populated with practical insights from the three female-owned SMEs and presents intricacies of how social capital externalities can be monitored and measured by existing and upcoming SMEs while demonstrating how innovative business-level collaborations contribute to sustained growth.