Date of Conferral

8-1-2026

Date of Award

August 2026

Degree

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.)

School

Management

Advisor

Theresa Neal

Abstract

Limited access to capital is a significant barrier to market entry and long term sustainability in the agricultural industry. Agricultural business owners consistently identify capital constraints as the leading predictor of startup failure. Grounded in institutional theory, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to identify and explore effective strategies that agricultural startup business owners used to access capital for market entry and business sustainability. The participants were six agricultural startup entrepreneurs in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) who used effective strategies to access capital for market entry and sustained business operations for at least 2 years. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of publicly available government and agricultural agency reports. Through thematic analysis, five themes were identified: (a) personal financing as adaptive necessity, (b) institutional barriers to formal capital access, (c) informal networks as capital resources, (d) knowledge and institutional literacy as capital, and (e) adaptive strategies and entrepreneurial resilience. A key recommendation is for agricultural entrepreneurs to build institutional literacy by pursuing training in financial management and grant writing, and by researching existing credit guarantee products before approaching formal lenders. The implications for positive social change include the potential to strengthen financial stability for agricultural entrepreneurs and their families and to support food security within SVG's rural communities.

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