Beyond Godisa: critical success factors for business incubators in South Africa
Date
2015-02-20
Authors
Kavhumbura, Vimbainashe O.
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Abstract
This study examined the critical success factors of small business
development organisations and business incubators in South Africa. Toplevel
managers and directors of these organisations were surveyed both
on the characteristics of their organisations and on their perceptions of
critical success factors as identified by Buys and Mbewana (2007) in a
previous study of a similar nature.
The researcher sought to establish whether these pre-defined antecedents
of incubator success were still relevant to the current South African context
and if the business model of the organisation had any bearing on
performance outcomes. Some critical success factors, namely Access to
Technical Expertise, Supportive Government Policy, Availability of Funding
and Management Competencies were found to have no significant
relationship with incubator performance, while Networking, Stakeholder
Support, Financial Sustainability and Stringent Selection Criteria were
positively correlated to the performance of the organisation. These
outcomes of the quantitative survey were then explored in more detail
through three in-depth interviews with directors of organisations with
different priority goals and different small business development models.
Description
Thesis (M.M. (Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2014.