Post-pandemic business model adaptation among female entrepreneurs in South Africa’s service sector

The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted service businesses in South Africa, where women entrepreneurs were among those hardest hits. This study examines how these entrepreneurs adapted their business models in the wake of the pandemic, with the main aim of identifying the changes they adopted. Adopting a qualitative, phenomenological design grounded in an interpretivist paradigm, data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with fifteen purposively selected women operating across the beauty, tourism, education, transport, events planning, appliance repair and fitness and health industries and analysed it using a six- phase thematic analysis. Although participants faced interlocking difficulties during and after lockdown, the study focuses on their business model responses. Participants made durable adaptations, adopting digital and social media platforms, diversifying their offerings and income streams, introducing house-call and appointment-based delivery, deepening supplier and customer relationships and tightening financial management and these changes strengthened survival, competitiveness and growth. The study contributes to business model adaptation theory by showing how women-owned service businesses in a resource-constrained, institutionally weak context reconfigure the value proposition, value delivery and revenue mechanisms of their business models under crisis, extending adaptation frameworks developed largely in high-income settings. The findings offer implications for entrepreneurship theory, business support ecosystems and the design of more inclusive and gender-responsive policy interventions.