Modeling of Spaza Shop Operations

Globalization has transformed the world into a big village in which the rich are becoming richer and the poor getting poorer. Yet it is arguable that small businesses have assisted in providing much needed services to small communities that occupy informal settlements and exist on or below the poverty datum line. This book is about an application framework of soft and hard operational research (OR) techniques used to address the performance of micro-enterprises with Spaza shops in Western Cape as a specific case study. The techniques include Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA) using Causal mapping and Soft System Methodology (SSM). These were chosen because of their suitability to understand performance problems faced by Spaza shops owners and find ways of improving the current situation by modelling the intervention of stakeholders. Statistical analysis came into account to enable us to capture the seasonality and bring up clustering patterns. We highlight the usefulness of combining the two approaches (soft and hard) when addressing business performance problem in the developing world.