MBA & MM Theses

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    Factors affecting the implementation of Corporate Entrepreneurship in a South African Bank
    (2014-01-14) Okoko, Marie-Lou Dibwe
    The South African economy has undergone significant change over the past two decades, moving from an isolated state that bred inefficiencies through limited economies of scale and a lack of competition to a much more open environment that has helped reduce price pressures and improve productivity. Apart from significant trade liberalisation, the South African government has followed conservative fiscal policies, introduced inflation targeting, undertaken limited privatisation, eliminated capital controls for foreign investors and reduced exchange controls on residents. The South African economy – in line with many other economies – has become increasingly services orientated (Nedbank Business Review, 2011). Furthermore, the South African banking and financial services sector plays a critical role in the realisation of the developmental aspirations of any country; it is a catalyst for economic growth as it creates platforms for citizens to transact for goods and services. Following the aftermath of the most significant financial crisis the world has ever experienced in 2008, one of the insights gained by the South African financial services industry from the crisis is that it needs to take a holistic or system-wide view of the financial sector by considering both the soundness of the institutions within the system and the system as a whole in the process of providing products and services to its customer base. On the other hand, the competition within this industry is high and organisations need to continuously find new ways to adapt to the rapid changes in the business landscape. Corporate Entrepreneurship has therefore never been more important for any organisation operating in this sector. An exploratory or qualitative research methodology was employed based on semi-structured interviews with a non-probability sample of 16 respondents. All respondents were existing employees of Bank X operating at senior to middle iii management level. The respondents were from both the corporate and retail segment of Bank X and both male and female from all race groups. The research showed that although Corporate Entrepreneurship exists in Bank X, its translation from being a strategic aspiration of management into clear measurable goals within the organisation is not clear. In its efforts to engage its workforce, Bank X needs to ensure that its vision and strategic goals are clearly communicated throughout the organisation and each division needs to have clearly defined and measurable goals that link back to the vision and mission set out by executive management of Bank X. Both the literature and research are in agreement that Corporate Entrepreneurship is the way forward for any company operating in the 21st century that aims to remain competitive.
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    Employee choices for participating in corporate entrepreneurship in South Africa
    (2014-01-09) Nikolov, Kristo Nikolov
    Corporate entrepreneurship is identified as a means of achieving and sustaining long term company competitive advantage. Furthermore, academic literature suggests that corporate entrepreneurship leads to superior or increased company performance. In order to launch and implement corporate entrepreneurship ventures, employers require the participation of skilled, determined and passionate employees. To improve the understanding and further strengthen the theoretical foundations of corporate entrepreneurship incentive design, a conjoint choice analysis was modified and utilised, based on existing academic literature. A survey was carried out on 167 South African corporate employees, examining the effects of risk, reward, exerted effort and perceived probability of venture success as factors that influence employees’ willingness of participation in corporate entrepreneurship ventures. Using regression techniques, conjoint part-worth utilities were calculated, thus determining the effect of these factors. Furthermore, employee demographical characteristics were examined in order to determine whether employees’ gender, past entrepreneurial experience and years’ of work experience have an effect on the venture participation decision. The evidence from the study showed a significant relationship between the factors investigated and the employees’ decision to participate in a corporate venture. Moreover, employees’ past entrepreneurial experience and years of work experience were found to have an effect in the way that different employees perceive various factors pertaining to the participation decision.
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    CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS FOR INTRAPRENEURSHIP IN SOUTH AFRICA
    (2012-01-20) Speechly, Wayne
    Intrapreneurship or corporate entrepreneurship is the function within an established organisation that attempts to generate and execute on new business ideas. There are many varying definitions around intrapreneurship. In its purest form, any new idea which is conceptualised and operationalised into an existing organisation forms the basis for intrapreneurial activity. Organisations need to be well structured, managed and controlled in order to maximise short-term strategic objectives however this same operating structure does not align well to the objectives of intrapreneurial activities. Organisations need to consider the organisational design; environment; types of people and overarching organisational behaviours when ensuring a successful intrapreneurial function. Whilst many organisations do innovate, the factors that are considered most important need to be institutionalised in order to ensure and sustain successful intrapreneurship practices. This research utilised a qualitative methodology in order to identify the critical success factors for intrapreneurship in South Africa. More specifically, a semi-structured in-depth interview process was employed to engage business leaders from well-established and well known innovative brands as well as industry experts in South Africa. Their understanding and insights were used to identify, validate and clarify the critical success factors for intrapreneurship. The key findings of this research are predominantly aligned to the literature review given that similar factors were identified. However, there were other factors identified that were not revealed in the literature review. There was great value in understanding these and the identified factors and their associated relevance in a practical context. Critical success factors for intrapreneurship revolve around the following broad categories: people; leadership; organisational design including structure and processes; organisational culture and the ability for organisations to mobilise and engage in intrapreneurial initiatives
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    A PROCESS MODEL OF CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
    (2011-10-24) SEKHUKHUNE, BOITUMELO
    Making innovation happen is one of the most important issues currently facing most companies in understanding how best to unlock value. As important as it is, it remains a fairly elusive value for most organisations, which, while acknowledging its importance, lack the ability to leverage it for value creation, much the same way organisational culture is acknowledged to be an important factor in the success of organisations. Yet, despite all its proclaimed values, 70% of all corporate culture change efforts result in failure. The topic and practice of corporate entrepreneurship have attracted considerable interest from both corporate practitioners and academics alike. Much of the interest in this area is based on the acknowledgement that innovation is assumed to have critical importance for firms competing in rapidly evolving industries. Within this interest, a particularly promising area of research focus has been that of entrepreneurial cognition. However, the focus in the area has largely been on individual entrepreneurship, the way entrepreneurs think, the individual decision-making processes and heuristics adopted by entrepreneurs. In line with this focus, there is an increased awareness of the need for a greater understanding of the processes and strategies of corporate entrepreneurship, particularly in the manner in which culture affects these entrepreneurial cognitive processes. The purpose of this research is to develop a model that provides a description of the process of how culture affects corporate entrepreneurship. The rationale of the research is to help fill a gap in the literature by providing a model that describes corporate entrepreneurship as a process that is also affected by corporate culture.