Purpose

This study aims to propose a model of entrepreneurial microcredit support that could address the problem of entrepreneurial support provided by microfinance institutions. This objective is justified by the need to produce scientific knowledge that could be of use to practitioners and political decision-makers who formulate and implement strategies of social inclusion and poverty reduction.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopts a socio-constructivist research perspective. Social constructivism is a theoretical approach that posits that all social reality is constructed. In other words, individuals construct their knowledge of reality relative to their social setting. This justifies the use of the focus group to supplement and validate the data gathered in an individual interview. The socio-constructivist perspective allows us to better understand and develop knowledge based on the meaning that interviewees attribute to their experience. This perspective also justifies the choice of qualitative data collection method. The data were collected during semi-structured interviews.

Findings

Entrepreneurial microcredit support is distinguished from classic entrepreneurial support because it places the individual at the center of the process by emphasizing soft skills in the development of the entrepreneurial spirit. This approach engenders an efficient support process that comprises three main steps: determination of entrepreneurial potential, empowerment and reinforcement of autonomy and acquisition of managerial skills. The efficiency stems from the fact that the time factor is not a constraint in the entrepreneurial microcredit support process and from the relationship of proximity and trust between the credit agent and the micro-entrepreneur.

Originality/value

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to deal with the entrepreneurial microcredit support, which is completely different from the classical entrepreneurial support because of the uniqueness of microfinance and micro-entrepreneurs. The model clearly reveals that the support for the development of the skills required to successfully run a microenterprise is provided based on a socio-constructivist approach in which the micro-entrepreneur is the main actor in the construction of “mobilized knowledge” required to nurture promoters’ entrepreneurial spirit. Consideration of soft skills in a socio-constructivist perspective is, therefore, indispensable for entrepreneurial development.

中文翻译：

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企业家小额信贷支持：微型企业成功的灵丹妙药。魁北克资金毛里求斯案

目的

这项研究旨在提出一种企业家小额信贷支持模型，该模型可以解决小额信贷机构提供的企业家支持问题。该目标的理由是需要产生科学知识，这些科学知识可能对制定和实施社会包容和减贫战略的从业者和政治决策者有用。

设计/方法/方法

该研究采用了社会建构主义的研究视角。社会建构主义是一种假定所有社会现实都被建构的理论方法。换句话说，个人构建了相对于其社会环境的关于现实的知识。这证明了使用焦点小组来补充和验证在单个访谈中收集的数据的合理性。社会建构主义者的观点使我们能够基于受访者认为自己的经历的含义来更好地理解和发展知识。这种观点也证明了选择定性数据收集方法的合理性。数据是在半结构化访谈中收集的。

发现

企业家小额信贷支持与传统的企业家支持不同，因为它通过在企业家精神的发展中强调软技能，将个人置于过程的中心。这种方法产生了一个有效的支持过程，该过程包括三个主要步骤：确定创业潜力，授权和加强自主权以及获得管理技能。效率源于以下事实：时间因素不是企业家小额信贷支持过程中的约束，并且源于信贷代理人与小企业家之间的亲近度和信任关系。

创意/价值

就作者所知，这是第一篇涉及企业家小额信贷支持的论文，由于小额信贷和微型企业家的独特性，它与传统的企业家支持完全不同。该模型清楚地表明，成功发展微型企业所需技能的支持是基于社会建构主义方法提供的，在这种方法中，微型企业家是培养推动者所需的“动员知识”的主要参与者' 企业精神。因此，从社会建构主义者的角度考虑软技能对于企业家的发展是必不可少的。