TITLE:
Motivated Survival Entrepreneurship and Youth Enterprise Growth: A Qualitative COM-B Study from Eastern Province, Zambia
AUTHORS:
Bridget Phiri, Mpundu Mubanga, Chipeta Eleanor Meda
KEYWORDS:
Youth Entrepreneurship, COM-B Model, Motivated Survival Entrepreneurship, Enterprise Growth, Zambia
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.14 No.5,
August
26,
2026
ABSTRACT: Youth entrepreneurship is widely promoted as a response to unemployment, underemployment and livelihood insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet many youth-owned enterprises remain active without becoming growth-oriented. This qualitative study examines why motivated young entrepreneurs in Eastern Province, Zambia, often struggle to turn business participation into enterprise growth. Guided by the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation and Behaviour (COM-B) model, the study draws on 84 unique participants: 50 youth entrepreneurs interviewed individually, 24 separate youth entrepreneurs who participated in three focus group discussions (eight in each district), and 10 key informants in Chipata, Petauke and Lundazi. The focus group participants did not overlap with the interviewees. Thematic analysis shows that young entrepreneurs were persistent, adaptive and strongly motivated by income needs, independence and family responsibility. However, growth-oriented behaviour was constrained by weak record-keeping, limited pricing and planning skills, restricted finance, narrow markets, uneven institutional support and weak growth-oriented networks. The paper contributes to entrepreneurship theory by introducing motivated survival entrepreneurship, a condition in which high entrepreneurial motivation is converted mainly into survival behaviour because practical capability and accessible opportunity remain insufficient. It also proposes the capability-opportunity conversion threshold to explain why enterprise entry does not automatically become enterprise growth. The study recommends integrated support that combines practical training, finance readiness, market linkages, mentorship and follow-up support.