Résumé
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has enormous natural resources in soil and subsoil to such an extent that it is described as a « geological and mining scandal ». Unfortunately it is placed among the poorest countries in the world with 73% of its population living in extreme poverty as a result, in particular, of political issues. With an area of 2,345,409 km2 and 95 million inhabitants, it has only 77,108 formal SMEs, i.e. a business density of 10,992 inhabitants for an SME. Thus, according to the World Bank, 90% of its active population is in the informal sector.Congolese SMEs evolve in a risky environment, stressful, very rough, ruthless to the management errors and characterized by the intensity of competition, the scarcity of resources, the decline and restrictions imposed by the markets. Faced with this almost structural hostile environment and in view of the country’s enormous potential, this research aims to identify and explain the resilience mechanisms developed by certain SMEs, to apprehend the internal and external forces of the company in order to understand, how in this environment, some owner-managers obtain better results.Some research shows that the adaptation of the SME to its environment is one of the major problems that the owner-manager must solve. Also, through the theory of contingencies (internal and external) and the concept of Business Model, the particularity of this research is that of analyzing the interactions between the elements of the hostile environment, the components of the Canvas Business Model and the sustainability of the SME while putting the skills, attitude and motivation of its owner-manager at the center of the action. The study ends by proposing Business Models that would suit SMEs (from southern countries) operating in a hostile environment.
Source: http://www.theses.fr/2022HESAC014
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