Document: Can the inner cities be engines for small business growth: Business owner's perceptions and attitudes of doing business in Albert Park, Durban, South Africa

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and attitudes of business owners in Albert Park, Durban. The study was situated in the broader context of business environments and their impact on small businesses. In this regard, the study sought also to identify factors that attract and discourage investors to operate their businesses in Albert Park, at the sametime explore solutions to the challenges identified by the business owners. For the purposes of this study, a business environment referred to the functioning pattern of actors, institutions, organizations and policies, which are interlinked through complex feedback mechanism, together defining an economic system. While SMME was defined as a small business which conducted its business operations either for commercial or subsistence purposes.