3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Measuring entrepreneurial intensity in the automotive industry in the Gauteng Province(2016) Ngomane, BonganeThis study is based on the investigation of the level at which the entrepreneurial dimensions are prevalent and are practised in the automotive industry in the Gauteng province. The entrepreneurial grid was used as a point of reference, to determine the level of entrepreneurial intensity by reflecting on frequency and degree of entrepreneurship in the automotive sector. The sample focused on the entrepreneurial intensity sectors of the industry, such as original equipment manufacturing, automotive components manufacture, sales, after sales, statutory bodies, based in the Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni regions of the province, entrepreneurs in the automotive sector. A quantitative study was used as the researcher was measuring entrepreneurship and also conducting tests on the interplay that exists between the different dimensions of entrepreneurial intensity in terms of how they influence each other. The results of the study found that entrepreneurial intensity is prevalent in the sector and its components of innovation, risk taking and proactiveness are practised. However, there are other key elements, such as the degree and frequency of entrepreneurial activities that could enhance entrepreneurial intensity on which firms in the automotive industry are currently performing poorly and would still need to put in place.Item A focus on human capital in commercial and social entrepreneurship(2019) Chauke, Matthews J.Orientation: Critical reading on the aspects of human capital literature receives limited contributions to truly comprehend their effect on entrepreneurship activity, especially in a developing country, like South Africa. Although human capital theory is a key theme in entrepreneurship research, it has been acknowledged that the domain requires more attention to fully understand it. Research purpose: The purpose of this study is to establish the influence of human capital across various occupational preferences. Motivation for the study: Many from individual level to firm level in developing countries do not understand the effect of human capital aspects on entrepreneurship activity. Research design, approach and method: The empirical analysis of the study is cross-sectional, based on the data from the primary survey. Correlation and regression analysis was used for hypothesis testing. Main findings: The results indicated that human capital aspects have no significant relationship with entrepreneurial activity. Implication of the study: This empirical study extends the current knowledge on the effect of human capital aspects on entrepreneurship activities in a unique, culturally diverse country. like South Africa.Item Impact of operational risk events on market value of South Africa banks(2018) Kutumela, Jessica TshepoWith the increase in operational risk related events that has seen some of the major international banks going under we investigate the South African market reaction to public announcement of operational risk related loss events by analysing the financial impacts and possible spillover effects of announcement on the market value of the four biggest banks in South Africa. The objective of this thesis is to expose the hidden costs to banks for not having adequate operational risk management practices. The event study approached was used to estimate the cumulative abnormal returns and the following were observations from the analysis: • Evidence of significant negative abnormal returns in the announcing bank, following an announcement of a large operational loss event were found, which implies that the market value of announcing banks in South Africa is particularly sensitive to the announcement of operational risk events of an announcing bank. • Further evidence indicated that the market value decline or erosion of the announcing bank exceeded the actual operational risk event loss amount. • While transmission of announcing bank’s negative impacts to other non-announcing banks (negative intra-spillover effects - that the announcement of operational risk event losses in one bank causes contagion within the banking industry) were detected, the negative impacts were not necessarily applicable to all non-announcing banks. • On the other hand, while evidence of announcing bank’s negative impacts providing a competitive advantage to other non-announcing banks was detected, the positive reaction was found to not be the case in all banks analysed. The variation of results in the spillover effects on non-announcing banks could be attributed to the markets sensitivity to perceived risk exposure of other non-announcing bank (in a case of negative spillover effect) and perceived robustness, resilient and sustainable control environment of non-announcing banks (in a case of a positive spillover effect), to announcing banks’ operational risk loss event.Item Comparative study of EO in incubated and no-incubated SMME's in South Africa(2018) Marokoana, LeratoSouth Africa is a standout amongst the world with regards to inequality. Small Medium and Micro-Sized Enterprises (SMMEs) are aimed at alleviating the inequality problem through job creation. Proactive individuals such as the unemployed, look for entrepreneurial opportunities as a means of generating income. SMME’s have gained tremendous attention since the dawn of democracy for a number of reasons. The underlying reason is that small businesses are a big driver for any economy. However, their failure rates are very high. It is thus necessary for government and the private sector to work together to ensure the success of start-ups. Incubations globally have been brought into the picture to remedy the appalling failure rates of these enterprises. Business incubators (BI) have succeeded in some part to remedy the failures of these SMME’s by providing a tailored and generic solutions. Studies on entrepreneurial orientation (EO) previously focused on performance. However previous work has failed to address the extent in which incubators affect the (EO) of a small business in relation to growth. The challenges faced in South Africa as a result of these failing SMME’s could be remedied by improving the level of entrepreneurship in the country, the reason the topic justifies research in the first place. A qualitative method was adopted to investigate whether EO and its dimensions can be analysed as a performance variable between incubated and non-incubated companies. 180 respondents completed they questionnaire. The study subsequently inferred that higher levels Pro-activeness in a non-incubated firm leads to growth while higher Risk-taking leads to a decline and Innovativeness had no impact on business growth in non-incubated businesses. Business incubators in South Africa play more of a sustainability role than a growth role for SMME’s.Item Cultural values and entrepreneurial growth motivation: a focus on township enterprises in Tshwane.(2019) Kgapola, TshepisoThis research is rooted in the theory of basic human values as postulated by Schwartz (1992). The theory puts forth dimensions of basic human values; self-enhancement, self-transcendence, openness to change and conservation. The study also explores the theory of achievement motivation by McClelland (1961) in exploring how cultural values influence entrepreneurial growth motivation. The research is undertaken to explore specifically how cultural values impact growth motivation of township entrepreneurs in Tshwane. The research takes a quantitative cross-sectional design with township entrepreneurs as the unit of analysis. Basic human values differ in their influence on entrepreneurial growth motivation. The township economic landscape in South Africa is one characterised by stagnation, lack of innovation and is mostly necessity driven. Self-enhancement values were found to have an inverse relationship with entrepreneurial growth motivation. Self-transcendence values were correlated with a small effect whilst conservation values showed significant correlation though their influence could not be statistically measured. No evidence was found of a relationship between openness to change values and entrepreneurial growth motivation. There needs to be more culture specific policies for township entrepreneurs and cultural values can be investigated on how they influence businesses in South African townships.Item Defining high-growth firms in South Africa(2017) Mamburu, MulaloItem Coalition formation in a virtual buying cooperative: a case for formal grammars(2016) Raborife, Mpho IvyWe 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.Item Challenges faced by SEDA in providing training and mentoring support services to SMME's(2014-01-02) Maluleke, Lucinda AmukelaniIncreasingly, literature suggests that there is a causal link between the development of the Small, Medium and Micro-enterprise (SMME) sector and economic and social development, especially in developing countries. It is for this reason that many countries are pursuing SMME development policies as part of their growth and social development strategies, including South Africa. To this effect, the South African government has also developed policies and established institutions to support SMME development. However, the development of the SMME sector in South Africa is still lagging behind that of many developing countries and the failure rate of SMME remains very high. Research has predominantly attempted to find reasons for SMME failure by focusing on challenges faced by SMMEs. However, literature now suggests that the problem also lies within the institutions that are meant to provide support to the SMMEs. The purpose of the study was to investigate short-comings in the provision of support services by Seda to SMMEs, particularly training and mentoring. In this regard, the study found that the main challenge faced by Seda is with regards to its poor accessibility. Other challenges include poor quality of trainers and mentors skills; training programmes that fail to respond to SMMEs‟ needs; lack of resources; poor monitoring and evaluation. The study concluded that the challenges faced by Seda have contributed, to some extent, to the slow progress in the development of SMMEs.