The continued proliferation of foreign-owned spaza shops in South African townships presents intense competition between local and foreign owners, with evidence that foreign spaza shop owners are more likely to use marketing communication tools than local spaza shop owners.
The main purpose of this study was to compare the influence of selected demographic variables (education, age of business and owner’s experience) on the choice of marketing communication tools between foreigners and locals who own spaza shops in South Africa.
This study was motivated by a lack of insight in comparing the use of marketing communication tools between foreigners and local spaza shop owners.
A descriptive, cross-sectional comparative research design was adopted, where a convenience non-random sample of 236 spaza shops owners, both foreign and local ones in the Free State Province, was analysed using four-way analysis of variance.
The results of the study revealed that foreign spaza shop owners are more influenced by selected demographic factors to use marketing communication tools than South African spaza shop owners.
Given that foreign owners are more influenced by demographic factors to use marketing communication tools to outperform their counterparts, the study highlights the need to support local spaza shop owners for continued sustainability.
This study added knowledge by exploring untested comparison of demographic variables influencing the use of marketing communication tools in spaza shop businesses.
Marketing communication is one of the important activities any business should consider to remain competitive (Bangura
a collective term for all various types of planned messages used to build a brand. These include advertising, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, personal selling, packaging, events and sponsorships, customer service and product placement. (Ouwersloot & Duncan
Using marketing communication to achieve competitive advantage enables an organisation to engage with its various audiences (Fill
In South Africa, marketing communication is mostly used by established retail sectors such as the banking, automobile, legal services and large grocery stores (Gabrielli & Balboni
While the above evidence can be applauded, and given the important role that marketing communication plays in business growth as alluded to above, the fact that no study has been conducted to indicate that local spaza shop owners are also using marketing commutation tools and strategies in their businesses does not mean that they are not using any. Furthermore, there is no known research that has attempted to compare the choice of marketing communication tools between foreign and local spaza shop owners, especially in the South African context – with a view to providing solutions to the competition that seems to be common between these two groups.
Studies in small businesses in South Africa and other African countries show that small businesses use marketing communication for business performance, and that the choice of marketing communication is a function of, among many other factors, demographic factors such as age, gender, education and personality of the owner (Isaga
Given the above, the main objective of this study was to determine the influence of selected demographic factors (nationality, age, education level and business experience) on the choice of marketing communication tools between foreign and local spaza shop owners in South Africa.
Despite evidence of the usage of marketing communication tools in large retail businesses in South Africa (Joseph
Small grocery tuck-shops, or convenience stores, are also referred to as ‘spaza shops’ in South Africa (Liedeman et al.
The popularity of spaza shops in South Africa has risen over the years. Factors such as people’s search for ways to survive and the existence of relatively low barriers to enter this type of market account for this rise in popularity (Basardien et al.
The literature outlines the characteristics of spaza shops and their significance within the communities where they operate and on the larger national economy. For example, Moloi (
Since the advent of multiracial democracy, the South African government has encouraged more South Africans to start and own spaza shops – a move that has resulted in other nationalities also entering this sector to own and operate spaza shops all over the country (Basardien et al.
Despite the sporadic attacks on foreigners owning spaza shops, foreigners are currently dominating the ‘spaza shop sector’ in the country as per the Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation (
Furthermore, the Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation (
From the above, it is possible to suggest that there are differences between foreign and South African spaza shop owners because of a number of reasons that have resulted in foreign spaza shop owners dominating the market. It can also be inferred that the inability of South African spaza shop owners to learn the skills of trading and competing might be the cause of the xenophobic attacks on foreign businesses.
For the purpose of this study, foreigners are political and/or economic refugees who came into South Africa, like Pakistanis, Chinese, Zimbabweans and Somalis, and own spaza shops (Basardien et al.
The term ‘marketing communication’ has no universal definition. Marketing communications are a representation of the business’s voice and its products, and they are means by which a business can create a dialogue and build relationships (Todorova
a combination of elements, activities and techniques an organisation employs to connect with and persuade the target market to engage in a particular action or response, such as buying a product, using a service or accepting an idea. (p. 5)
These definitions entail that marketing communication is an interaction between a business and its customers, with the ultimate goal of enabling consumers to make purchasing decisions. In addition, the above definitions mean that marketing communication tools are promotion-orientated and incorporate efforts seeking to persuade audiences to make purchasing decisions.
Various authors outline the different ways that make marketing communication an important aspect of any organisation (Laitinen
The need to expose a business to a large group of customers through marketing communication is emphasised by Mahyari (
Laitinen (
Studies conducted in South Africa revealed that spaza shops utilise marketing communication tools differently to other countries on the African continent (Tsikirayi, Muchenje & Katsidzira
In view of the above, an important question to ask then is are these marketing communication strategies different for foreign owners and local spaza shop owners? Various authors opine that foreigners use marketing communication tools and other strategies to outperform local business owners (Liedeman et al.
The above evidence suggests that foreigners seem to be using marketing communication as part of their strategies to outperform local business owners, and that, unfortunately, evidence on whether specific marketing communications tools are used by South African spaza shop owners is still not available in the literature.
Previous studies in South Africa have identified a set of demographic characteristics – gender, age, education level or background, experience, religion, family background and income – as contributing to the success of entrepreneurship (Isaga
Gender is one of the demographic factors that is found to have an impact on entrepreneurial success (Vallabh & Mhlanga
In trying to establish the relationship between gender and the adoption of marketing communication strategies, the studies by Kepler and Shane (
With regard to age, Sajilan et al. (
Education, among other factors, acts as a source of knowledge, skills, discipline, motivation and self-confidence for business owners (Isaga
The pivotal role of education in small businesses is more significant for foreign entrepreneurs than local ones as postulated by Radipere (
Prior business experience is considered a major influence on entrepreneurial success (Isaga
Vinogradov and Elam (
This study adopted a comparative research design with the primary goal of searching for similarities and variances between two groups of small spaza shop owners. Specifically, the comparative design was used to compare demographic factors that influence the choice of marketing communication tools between foreign and local tuck-shop owners. A quantitative approach was used because the analysis involved generation of hypotheses, quantifying data and using statistical analysis in the comparison of demographic factors influencing the choice of marketing communication tools by the two groups that participated in this study.
The study was conducted in the Free State Province of South Africa. The population comprised spaza shop owners from six selected municipalities with high concentrations of spaza shop owners (South African Spaza and Tuck-shop Association [SASTA]
Data were collected over a period of 3 months from the six selected municipalities using a self-administered structured questionnaire with Likert scaled items, developed by the researcher. The researcher randomly distributed the questionnaires among the spaza shop owners, who were available and willing to participate in the study from the selected municipalities. Before leaving the questionnaires, the researcher explained the purpose of the study and the associated ethical issues.
Data were cleaned and captured using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21. Descriptive statistics, such as frequency distributions, averages and percentages, were used to analyse the response rate and demographic distribution of the sample, while inferential statistics, specifically factor analysis and two- and four-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), were used to test the hypotheses. The results of the analysis are presented below.
The Faculty Research and Innovation Committee (FRIC) of the Faculty of Management Sciences, Central University of Technology, Free State, ethically approved the study (approval number 02/16).
The average response rate was 60%. This response rate is regarded as high, considering that most studies in small businesses have reported similar response rates (Chipunza
Response rate for each municipality.
Municipality | Population = 464 | Determined sample size | No. of questionnaires administered | Response rate |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number | Percentage (%) | ||||
Mangaung | 135 | 100 | 120 | 91 | 76 |
Matjhabeng | 209 | 136 | 150 | 115 | 77 |
Masilonyane | 15 | 14 | 20 | 3 | 15 |
Moqhaka | 40 | 36 | 40 | 13 | 33 |
Kopanong | 20 | 19 | 25 | 6 | 24 |
Dihlabeng | 45 | 40 | 50 | 15 | 30 |
Demographic characteristics of respondents.
Characteristics | Category | Frequency | Valid percentage |
---|---|---|---|
Gender | |||
Female | 52 | 22.0 | |
Male | 184 | 78.0 | |
Total | 236 | 100.0 | |
Age group | |||
21–30 years | 33 | 14.0 | |
31–40 years | 106 | 44.9 | |
41–50 years | 79 | 33.5 | |
51 and above | 18 | 7.6 | |
Total | 236 | 100.0 | |
Nationality | |||
South African | 100 | 42.4 | |
Somalis | 39 | 16.5 | |
Pakistanis | 50 | 21.2 | |
Bangladeshis | 40 | 16.9 | |
Other | 7 | 3.0 | |
Total | 236 | 100.0 | |
Education level | |||
No formal education | 37 | 15.7 | |
Primary level | 76 | 32.2 | |
Matric level | 96 | 40.7 | |
College or university | 27 | 11.4 | |
Total | 236 | 100.0 | |
Number of years business has been operating | |||
Below 1 year | 16 | 6.8 | |
2–5 years | 123 | 52.3 | |
6–10 years | 81 | 34.5 | |
11–15 years | 14 | 6.0 | |
Above 15 years | 1 | 0.4 | |
Total | 235 | 100.0 | |
Marketing experience | |||
Yes | 14 | 5.9 | |
No | 222 | 94.1 | |
Total | 236 | 100.0 |
Exploratory factor analysis was done to the data set that represented the marketing communication tools choices to identify items that load or do not load satisfactorily on items that they intent to reflect. A total of nine single factors, which represented the broad marketing tool choices, were extracted using the oblique method. The items with loadings of >0.50 were considered for each factor. The extracted factors were broadcast media, print media, business and product visibility, discounting, competitor repackaging, customer service and price, customer assistance, market research and charity work. These derived factors or constructs and their reliability are shown in
Reliability coefficients of factors representing marketing communication tools.
Factors or construct | Cronbach’s alpha | |
---|---|---|
Broadcast | 0.89 | 4 |
0.89 | 4 | |
Visibility | 0.85 | 3 |
Discounting | 0.77 | 4 |
Fair dealing | 0.64 | 4 |
Marketing events | 0.16 |
2 |
Product sampling | 0.02 |
2 |
Competition responsive repackaging | 0.81 | 4 |
Service and price | 0.73 | 2 |
Customer assistance | 0.95 | 4 |
Market research | 0.80 | 2 |
Charity work | 0.70 | 3 |
, alpha level < 0.5.
Results in
Two-way interaction model (to obtain the
Interaction model results and coefficient of determination for marketing communication tools.
Marketing communications tools | Mean | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Print media | 7.74 | < 0.0001 | 0.24 | 1.6 |
Broadcast media |
1.01 | 0.4320 | 0.04 | 1.1 |
Business and product visibility | 4.48 | < 0.0001 | 0.15 | 4.2 |
Discounting | 22.1 | < 0.0001 | 0.47 | 3.7 |
Competitor repackaging | 9.77 | < 0.0001 | 0.28 | 3.0 |
Customer service and price | 3.39 | 0.0006 | 0.12 | 4.9 |
Customer assistance | 3.48 | 0.0005 | 0.12 | 4.9 |
Market research | 2.22 | 0.0215 | 0.08 | 1.5 |
Charity work | 6.02 | < 0.0001 | 0.19 | 1.3 |
, item with low coefficient determination value.
For the purpose of parameter estimates analyses, the demographic variables were re-defined as follows: age was re-defined into ‘less than or equal to 40 years’ and ‘over 40 years’ (two levels); for education, the category ‘no formal education’ was incorporated into ‘primary, secondary’ and ‘post-secondary’ (three levels); years in business (survival) was re-defined into ‘less or equal to 5 years’ and ‘more than 5 years’ (two levels) and origin of owner (group) was re-defined into ‘non-South African’ (foreigners) and ‘South African’ (two levels).
The above-mentioned demographic variables were treated as independent variables in the analysis. To obtain parameter estimates for the demographic independent variables, they were parameterised in such a way that the estimate for one of the levels of each of the independent variables is set to zero. In this analysis, the estimates for non-South African, under 40 years of age, secondary education and under 5 years business survival were set to zero. The resultant parameter estimates are shown in the tables below, and those set to zero and the interaction terms involving them are not shown in the table of results. This is because any interaction with a level whose parameter is already set to zero would yield a parameter estimate of zero. Using a four-way ANOVA model, the parameter estimates models are shown in
Parameter estimates for two-way interaction analysis of variance model of use of print media.
Parameter | SE( |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|
Intercept | 2.12 | 0.114 | 18.6 | < 0.0001 |
GROUP SA | −0.90 | 0.207 | −4.3 | < 0.0001 |
SURVIVAL Over5 | −0.29 | 0.189 | −1.6 | 0.1230 |
EDUCATION Post-Sec | 0.01 | 0.216 | 0.0 | 0.9707 |
EDUCATION Primary | −0.28 | 0.147 | −1.9 | 0.0603 |
AGE Over40 | −0.06 | 0.184 | −0.4 | 0.7258 |
GROUP × SURVIVAL SA Over5 | 0.24 | 0.328 | 0.7 | 0.4661 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Post-Sec | −0.16 | 0.363 | −0.5 | 0.6533 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Primary | 0.26 | 0.222 | 1.2 | 0.2521 |
GROUP × AGE SA Over40 | −0.01 | 0.323 | 0.0 | 0.9806 |
As shown in
The model parameter estimates show that the group, which represents origin of owner, has the only statistically significant effect on choice of print media (
The two-way interaction model on the use of broadcast media is shown in
Parameter estimates for two-way interaction analysis of variance model of use of broadcast media.
Parameter | SE( |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|
Intercept | 1.09 | 0.048 | 22.5 | < 0.0001 |
GROUP SA | 0.07 | 0.088 | 0.8 | 0.4293 |
SURVIVAL Over5 | 0.01 | 0.080 | 0.1 | 0.8858 |
EDUCATION Post-Sec | 0.15 | 0.092 | 1.6 | 0.1125 |
EDUCATION Primary | 0.02 | 0.062 | 0.4 | 0.7114 |
AGE Over40 | 0.08 | 0.078 | 1.0 | 0.3125 |
GROUP × SURVIVAL SA Over5 | −0.17 | 0.139 | −1.2 | 0.2275 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Post-Sec | −0.27 | 0.154 | −1.8 | 0.0804 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Primary | −0.05 | 0.094 | −0.5 | 0.6168 |
GROUP × AGE SA Over40 | −0.01 | 0.137 | −0.1 | 0.9363 |
Parameter estimates for two-way interaction analysis of variance model of business and product visibility.
Parameter | SE( |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|
Intercept | 4.43 | 0.113 | 39.1 | < 0.0001 |
GROUP SA | −0.61 | 0.206 | −2.9 | 0.0036 |
SURVIVAL Over5 | 0.42 | 0.188 | 2.3 | 0.0254 |
EDUCATION Post-Sec | 0.05 | 0.214 | 0.2 | 0.8115 |
EDUCATION Primary | −0.25 | 0.146 | −1.7 | 0.0925 |
AGE Over40 | −0.08 | 0.183 | −0.4 | 0.6753 |
GROUP × SURVIVAL SA Over5 | −0.34 | 0.325 | −1.1 | 0.2955 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Post-Sec | 0.23 | 0.360 | 0.6 | 0.5320 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Primary | 0.18 | 0.221 | 0.8 | 0.4128 |
GROUP × AGE SA Over40 | 0.04 | 0.321 | 0.1 | 0.9091 |
The ANOVA model showed statistical significance (
The interaction model for use of discounting score on the demographic variables and their interactions with origin of owner was statistically significant (
Parameter estimates for two-way interaction analysis of variance model of use of discounting.
Parameter | SE( |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|
Intercept | 4.70 | 0.126 | 37.3 | < 0.0001 |
GROUP SA | −1.60 | 0.229 | −7.0 | < 0.0001 |
SURVIVAL Over5 | −0.04 | 0.209 | −0.2 | 0.8650 |
EDUCATION Post-Sec | 0.03 | 0.239 | 0.1 | 0.9163 |
EDUCATION Primary | −0.56 | 0.162 | −3.4 | 0.0007 |
AGE Over40 | −0.42 | 0.203 | −2.0 | 0.0423 |
GROUP × SURVIVAL SA Over5 | −0.08 | 0.362 | −0.2 | 0.8255 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Post-Sec | −0.35 | 0.400 | −0.9 | 0.3877 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Primary | 0.64 | 0.245 | 2.6 | 0.0098 |
GROUP × AGE SA Over40 | 0.16 | 0.357 | 0.5 | 0.6462 |
The parameter estimates for the two-way interaction model of competitor-driven packages are indicated in
Parameter estimates for two-way interaction analysis of variance model of competitor-driven repackaging.
Parameter | SE( |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|
Intercept | 3.11 | 0.171 | 18.2 | < 0.0001 |
GROUP SA | −0.62 | 0.310 | −2.0 | 0.0480 |
SURVIVAL Over5 | 0.69 | 0.283 | 2.4 | 0.0163 |
EDUCATION Post-Sec | 0.50 | 0.324 | 1.5 | 0.1265 |
EDUCATION Primary | 0.25 | 0.220 | 1.1 | 0.2661 |
AGE Over40 | 0.41 | 0.276 | 1.5 | 0.1364 |
GROUP × SURVIVAL SA Over5 | −0.48 | 0.491 | −1.0 | 0.3340 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Post-Sec | −0.66 | 0.543 | −1.2 | 0.2224 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Primary | −0.75 | 0.333 | −2.3 | 0.0251 |
GROUP × AGE SA Over40 | −0.63 | 0.484 | −1.3 | 0.1913 |
The model for competitor-driven repackaging score on the demographic variables and their interactions with origin of owner was found to be statistically significant (
Below are the parameter estimates on the use of the customer service and pricing (
Parameter estimates for two-way interaction analysis of variance model of use of customer service and pricing.
Parameter | SE( |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|
Intercept | 4.99 | 0.045 | 111.8 | < 0.0001 |
GROUP SA | −0.31 | 0.081 | −3.8 | 0.0002 |
SURVIVAL Over5 | 0.10 | 0.074 | 1.3 | 0.1904 |
EDUCATION Post-Sec | −0.08 | 0.085 | −1.0 | 0.3281 |
EDUCATION Primary | −0.05 | 0.057 | −0.8 | 0.4277 |
AGE Over40 | −0.16 | 0.072 | −2.2 | 0.0304 |
GROUP × SURVIVAL SA Over5 | 0.10 | 0.128 | 0.8 | 0.4179 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Post-Sec | −0.03 | 0.142 | −0.2 | 0.8331 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Primary | 0.18 | 0.087 | 2.0 | 0.0423 |
GROUP × AGE SA Over40 | 0.08 | 0.126 | 0.6 | 0.5238 |
The ANOVA model showed statistical significance (
For customer assistance, the parameter estimation model is shown in
Parameter estimates for two-way interaction analysis of variance model of customer assistance.
Parameter | SE( |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|
Intercept | 5.02 | 0.045 | 111.1 | < 0.0001 |
GROUP SA | −0.27 | 0.082 | −3.2 | 0.0014 |
SURVIVAL Over5 | 0.01 | 0.075 | 0.1 | 0.9108 |
EDUCATION Post-Sec | −0.17 | 0.086 | −2.0 | 0.0506 |
EDUCATION Primary | −0.06 | 0.058 | −1.0 | 0.3248 |
AGE Over40 | −0.13 | 0.073 | −1.8 | 0.0669 |
GROUP × SURVIVAL SA Over5 | 0.19 | 0.130 | 1.5 | 0.1409 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Post-Sec | −0.03 | 0.144 | −0.2 | 0.8273 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Primary | 0.15 | 0.088 | 1.7 | 0.0947 |
GROUP × AGE SA Over40 | −0.03 | 0.128 | −0.2 | 0.8426 |
The interaction model for customer assistance use score on the demographic variables and their interactions with origin of owner was statistically significant (
The value of the parameter estimate for GROUP SA is −0.27, which shows that South African spaza shop owners have a lower customer assistance use score than non-South Africans. From this evidence, it can be suggested that South African spaza shop owners have a lower customer assistance use score than non-South African spaza shop owners. The hypothesis that South Africans use less customer assistance as a communication tool than foreigners is not rejected.
With regard to use or market research, the parameter estimation model is depicted in
Parameter estimates for two-way interaction analysis of variance model of market research.
Parameter | SE( |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|
Intercept | 1.20 | 0.154 | 7.8 | < 0.0001 |
GROUP SA | 0.18 | 0.279 | 0.6 | 0.5252 |
SURVIVAL Over5 | 0.30 | 0.255 | 1.2 | 0.2341 |
EDUCATION Post-Sec | 0.42 | 0.291 | 1.4 | 0.1542 |
EDUCATION Primary | 0.35 | 0.198 | 1.8 | 0.0781 |
AGE Over40 | 0.59 | 0.248 | 2.4 | 0.0174 |
GROUP × SURVIVAL SA Over5 | −0.23 | 0.441 | −0.5 | 0.6106 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Post-Sec | −0.30 | 0.488 | −0.6 | 0.5334 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Primary | −0.73 | 0.299 | −2.4 | 0.0156 |
GROUP × AGE SA Over40 | −0.34 | 0.435 | −0.8 | 0.4386 |
The ANOVA model showed statistical significance (
The last parameter estimation model considered was for charitable work, as shown in
Parameter estimates for two-way interaction analysis of variance model of charitable work.
Parameter | SE( |
|||
---|---|---|---|---|
Intercept | 1.41 | 0.087 | 16.3 | < 0.0001 |
GROUP SA | −0.15 | 0.157 | −1.0 | 0.3446 |
SURVIVAL Over5 | 0.60 | 0.144 | 4.2 | < 0.0001 |
EDUCATION Post-Sec | 0.29 | 0.164 | 1.8 | 0.0787 |
EDUCATION Primary | −0.29 | 0.111 | −2.6 | 0.0109 |
AGE Over40 | −0.14 | 0.140 | −1.0 | 0.3012 |
GROUP × SURVIVAL SA Over5 | −0.72 | 0.249 | −2.9 | 0.0040 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Post-Sec | −0.32 | 0.275 | −1.2 | 0.2495 |
GROUP × EDUCATION SA Primary | 0.14 | 0.169 | 0.8 | 0.4049 |
GROUP × AGE SA Over40 | 0.23 | 0.245 | 0.9 | 0.3545 |
The interaction model for charitable work score on the demographic variables and their interactions with origin of owner was statistically significant (
The results of the study showed that group, which represents origin of owner, had the only statistically significant effect on the use of print media, with South African spaza shop owners having a lower print media use score than non-South Africans. Although there is scant literature highlighting the dominance of spaza shops in terms of nationality and its influence on adopting marketing communication tools, specifically the use of print media, this study has shown that nationality plays a significant role in influencing the choice of marketing communication (print media). This is consistent with Mgayi (
The results of the study showed that there was no interaction between demographic characteristics and the origin of the spaza shop owners in the use of broadcast media. This indicates that broadcast media was not a popular marketing channel for spaza shop owners, regardless of their origin. From mere general observation, one can easily concur with the finding because the use of broadcast media in spaza shop businesses is questionable, especially because one has to invest a lot of resources for this kind of marketing communication. Chebelyon-Dalizu et al. (
This study indicated that South African spaza shop owners do less business and product visibility activities than foreign spaza shop owners, and also that if the spaza shop owner was South African, business age (5 years or over) had an effect on business and product visibility – allowing the rejection of the hypothesis that the South African group does not influence the choice of the marketing communication tools. This finding supports the views of Isaga (
The results further showed discounting as a popular marketing choice among spaza shop owners and this is supported by the literature, which indicated that discounting is used on a daily basis in spaza shops (Chiliya et al.
An interaction effect between group and education was found to be statistically significant. The individual effects of group and education described above may be misleading because there is evidence of their interaction. This means the interpretation of the group effect is not complete if it is not given in terms of educational level and vice versa. The interaction effect found is such that the difference in discounting score between primary education and secondary education among South African owners is higher than the same difference among non-South African owners. This means South African spaza shop owners with primary and secondary education use discounting more than foreign spaza shop owners with the same primary and secondary education. Given this, the finding reveals that in spaza shops, the use of discounting is more influenced by nationality and the educational level of South African spaza shop owner than foreign spaza shop owners. Although the finding contradicts most literature, which states that foreign spaza shop owners use marketing communication tools more than South African spaza shop owners (Liedeman et al.
An interaction effect between demographic characteristics and the origin of the spaza shop owner was found to be statistically significant for competitor-driven repackaging, with South African spaza shop owners having a lower use score of competitor-driven packaging than non-South African spaza shop owners. The finding is consistent with a study by Isaga (
The findings revealed that if a spaza shop owner was South African, the use of customer services and pricing was lower than if the business owner was a foreigner. This is consistent with what Chiliya et al. (
An interaction effect between group and education was found to be statistically significant, showing that South African spaza shop owners with primary and secondary education used customer services and pricing more than foreign spaza shop owners with the same primary and secondary education. The finding is in variance with various studies, such as the study by the Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation (
The interaction model for customer assistance use score on the demographic variables and their interactions with origin of owner was statistically significant, showing that South African spaza shop owners have a lower customer assistance use score than non-South African spaza shop owners. The finding is supported by Mgayi (
The results showing significant interaction between demographic characteristics and the origin of the spaza shop owner for the use of market research indicated that spaza shop owners over the age of 40 years, regardless of origin, were more likely to use or do market research than those below 40 years. Authors such as Woldie et al. (
The study showed a significant interaction effect between group and business age. The interaction effect is such that the difference in charitable work scores between businesses over 5 and under 5 years old among South African owners is significantly lower than the same difference among non-South African owners. This means that South African spaza shop owners who have been in business for under 5 years and those who have been operating for over 5 years are less likely to adopt charitable work in their businesses than foreign nationals who have been in the business less than 5 years and those who have been operating over 5 years. The finding, however, contradicts Rani (2015), who states that most foreign spaza shop owners are not involved in any community development programmes where they contribute to the community and where they support community causes such as charity events and fund education and entrepreneurship programmes. Conversely, the finding is consistent with Charman et al. (
This study highlights the need to support local spaza shop owners for continued sustainability because the age of a business helps in understanding the use of marketing communication tools. The capacity building of spaza shop owners is recommended because the results of this study have indicated that education (knowledge) influences the choice of marketing communication tools. This capacity building could be sponsored by the relevant government ministry, where foreigner spaza shop owners could also be funded to train or share with locals specific best spaza shop related business practices.
This creation of a symbiotic business relationship by both foreign and local tuck-shop owners of different educational levels and business experiences could also result in locals understanding the importance of using marketing communication tools for their businesses.
This study was only conducted in one geographical area, and results could be different if it is extended to other areas within the country. In addition, the use of qualitative information to corroborate findings from more spaza shop owners and their customers could have added more depth to the study.
The findings of this study indicate differences between foreigners who own spaza shops and their local counterparts in terms of the influences of age of the business and the level of educational of the owner with respect to the choice of marketing communication tools. Although not hypothesised, this study also indicates that both foreign and local spaza shop owners regard broadcast media not as an important marketing communication tool.
The authors acknowledge Central University of Technology, Free State and the National Research Foundation for providing the grant for the study, as well as all SMMEs that voluntarily participated in the study.
The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
B.C.P. conceptualised the study and collected the data, and was responsible for literature review. C.C. focused on methodology, analysis of data, writing of results and some language editing.
The Central University of Technology, Free State, and the National Research Foundation provided funding for this research.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors.