Business Relationships as a Driver of Success for Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa

Successful businesses develop and sustain relationships amongst their network of stakeholders. Stakeholders have the potential to assist in development, survival, and growth of any business. This conceptual paper was inspired by the philosophy that the success of SMMEs depends on new and established relationships. The paper relied on an extensive review of literature. It has immense value in that it has managed to bring together a conglomerate of factors under a common platform to enable a discussion of the elements that necessitate an acceleration of positive relationships in businesses. This extensive review of literature has empowered the authors to extend confidence in the suitability of the different elements, thus allowing for the utilization of a selfdeveloped relationship management paradigm as the locus of the discussion.Faculty of Business, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa E-mail: 1<xeshad@gmail.com>, 2<iwuc@cput.ac.za>, 3