ETD Collection

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2016 - 20192

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    The influence of networking on small medium enterprise performance in Gauteng, South Africa
    (2019) Mlotshwa, Semukele Hellen
    SMEs are inherently more adventurous than big business. In South Africa, SMEs are very important as they have the potential to address the unemployment and poverty the country is experiencing. It is thus critical to study ways which can enhance the performance of SMEs. This study investigated the influence of networking on SME performance in Gauteng province, South Africa. The study mainly focused on three forms of networking, which are business networking, social networking and managerial networking. Networking has been recognised as a vital element for enhancing competitiveness among SMEs. Data was collected from SME owners in Gauteng province, South Africa, using a self-administered questionnaire and a total response of 304 was attained. In analysing the data, factor analysis was used to reduce several variables and the variables converged into two networking forms, which are business networking - importance and managerial networking - management and a regression analysis was performed on the variables. From the findings of the study, it was established that there are two factors responsible to motivate, influence or initiate networking activities in SMES. The factors were business networking- importance and managerial networkingmanagement which have an influence on business performance. Consequently, no findings were available to make conclusions on social networking as it was not a valid factor. The study recommended that SMEs should network more on business networking to gain access to information, resources and contact sharing as this will improve the performance of their SMEs.
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    Coalition formation in a virtual buying cooperative: a case for formal grammars
    (2016) Raborife, Mpho Ivy
    We report on a study that investigates the applicability of formal grammars in modelling coalition formation. This particular coalition formation is amongst a group of physically distributed enterprises intending to purchase items from a supplier as a single entity, termed a virtual buying cooperative (VBC). We investigate several grammars with regard to their appropriateness in modelling the interaction strategy amongst the enterprises during the formation of a VBC. A regular grammar, context-free grammars, a random permitting context grammar, random forbidding context grammars, and random context grammars are used to model the formation of a VBC in this study. The adequacy and limitations in modelling the formation of a VBC by these grammars is explored. The results demonstrate that random context grammars are adequate in modelling a VBC environment. In addition to generating the specified languages representing a formed coalition, the production rules of all the three random context grammars investigated in this study, at every derivation step, adhere to the interaction strategy of a VBC during its formation. The strategy excludes enterprises that have not been invited to join the coalition from participating in the coalition. Furthermore, if an enterprise has been invited to join the coalition by multiple enterprises, it can only accept one invitation. This study aims to bridge the gap between formal grammars and technological applications.