Work

Small Community Businesses in Slums: A Perspective on Kenyan Slum Networks

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT Despite extensive research on networks, the relational dimensions and structures cocreated by small community businesses and cooperative societies through everyday entrepreneurship in slum neighborhoods remain undertheorized. Drawing upon 1166 small community businesses, we conceptualize the relational dimensions and structures underlying their slum networks in Kenya. Network analysis suggests that these small community businesses, characterized by their distinct focus on the everyday entrepreneurship involving slum essentials—firewood, food, labor, fish, water, and farm produce—coalesce into a complex geometric axis of slum networks. Their geographical reach extends across Kenya's slum neighborhoods, but the cooperative societies they are affiliated with are confined by their immediate surroundings. Thus, extending network theories of closeness, centrality, and betweenness to incorporate the relational dimensions and structures inherent in Kenya's slums, where small community businesses and cooperative societies are the heartbeat. With over a billion people in slums, this understanding establishes a baseline for social, policy, and academic applications.

Source: Strategic Change

DOI: 10.1002/jsc.70126

Authors: Amon Simba, Yun He, Preethi Misha, Yan Wang

Institutions: University of the Witwatersrand, Nottingham Trent University, University of Reading

Language: English

Topic: Innovation and Socioeconomic Development

Subfield: Business and International Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: No poverty, Decent work and economic growth, Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,460