3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Technological innovations--South Africa

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    The use of online text based technologies as a medium for employee counselling: perceptions of online counsellors
    (2017) Magogodi, Precious Priscilla Salamina
    Technology is ubiquitous and presents an opportunity for the psychosocial profession to explore and expand the platforms through which counselling and support for employees is offered. The aim of the research study was to explore the perceptions of counsellors regarding the use of online text technologies as a medium for intervention in the workplace environment. Mobile technology globally and in South Africa is growing rapidly, people are connected to information and services more than ever before. More services are being offered and marketed through the use of online technology mediums; these include professional services for mental wellbeing counselling support. Recognising that this is a relatively new field of study, it is valuable to gain insight from experienced counsellors regarding the use of online text based technologies for counselling specifically for workplace environments. Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is used as a framework that it explains how the object of study being text based counselling technologies are used currently characterised by highly mobile social media use. This study employed a qualitative approach and was contextualised to a specific organisation, the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) because it offers online counselling interventions which include specific programmes for workplace environments on mental health. Purposive sampling was used to select a total of eight counsellors with experience using online text based mediums and two key informants representing management of the organisation. Individual face-to-face interviews were conducted using two semi- structured interview schedules. Thematic content analysis was used for interpretation of the data. The findings show that counsellors do not prefer to use text based online counselling technologies for serious mental health issues. Results indicate that though online text based technologies are relevant as part of employee wellness services in the workplace, the platforms are more suitable for containment, information and referral purposes. Recommendations from the study are for further research to inform standards of practise and formalised and structured training is required for counsellors.
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    Evaluability assessment of the Gauteng science park incubation programme
    (2016) Pangwa, Kutala Helen
    Generally, we can trace the Science Park idea to the 1950s when Silicon Valley, with the support of Stanford University, transformed an agricultural valley into a semiconductor industry. Science parks offer infrastructure and incubation support to entrepreneurs for the development of new technology based companies (Lindelöf & Löfsten, 2002; Durão et al., 2005). Specifically, The Innovation Hub project in Gauteng province is an economic development intervention, modelled on the science park idea with the aim of promoting socioeconomic development and competitiveness of the province through innovation. The Innovation Hub project delivers its services through the incubation programme whose purpose is to provide a catalytic incubator that facilitates commercialisation of research and technology ideas into new business ventures. Similar to any other development intervention, it is important to determine whether the Gauteng science park incubation programme is delivering on its objectives of creating jobs and promoting small and medium enterprises, as mandated by the Gauteng government. This study examines the evaluability of the incubation programme based on the theory of change and results chain framework to determine if the programme can achieve its desired outcomes and if the programme has adequate information to enable a credible and meaningful evaluation of the programme. A qualitative study is undertaken to clarify a theory of change for the incubation programme based on the understanding of the programme stakeholders from the Department of Economic Development and the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency as well as the perspectives of The Innovation Hub Management Company’s internal managements. The study reveals that results-based management is not used within the incubation programme. The study tests if the theory of change of the programme is plausible, do-able and testable and we find that these conditions are currently not in place. The evaluability assessment recommends that the incubation programme improve by adapting results based management planning techniques to redesign as well as determine performance information for the programme. Programme implementation should improve with emphasis on providing a capacitated management team for the entrepreneurs and improving the services rendered in the programme. Author: Kutala Pangwa Thesis title: Evaluability assessment of the Gauteng science park incubation programme
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    Human capital investment and innovation success in the telecoms sector in South Africa
    (2017) Tshabuse, Abraham Takalani
    Innovation is one of the core and key characteristics of entrepreneurship, which stimulates operational and financial success of a firm. Innovation is ambidextrous in nature, characterised by exploration and exploitation. This report is concerned with exploitative innovation, which is characterised by new; products, services, and processes. This Research Report investigates how human capital investments (years of schooling and years of work experience of telecoms firms’ senior managers and executives) relate to innovation performance. This paper uses the human capital theory and the resource base theory to understand the perceived impact of human capital investments on performance and also its perceived moderation effect on the nexus between innovation and performance. Research findings from 81 senior management and executives of four major telecoms firms in South Africa indicate that innovation has a perceived direct impact on the perceived success of the firm. However, a counterintuitive relationship of human capital investments with performance is observed. Furthermore, human capital investments have a counterintuitive moderating effect on the nexus between innovation and performance. Therefore, this research report discusses human capital variable configurations that are more likely to have a perceived impact on a telecoms firm performance, and human capital variable configuration that are likely to have a moderating effect on the nexus between innovation and performance.
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    Technological opportunism and firm performance: moderating and mediating contexts of strategic entrepreneurship
    (2017) Maphumulo, Mandlenkosi W
    The underlying problem of the empirical study is with the perceived influential relationship between technological opportunism and firm performance in a context of the banking institution in South Africa. The study combines the resource based view theory and dynamic capabilities perspective to investigate the mediating and moderating roles of strategic entrepreneurship in the influence of technological opportunism on firm performance. Quantitative data for the research was collected from the employees of the banking institution through an online research survey. The researcher adopted multiple regression models to study the data of 347 respondents. The study demonstrates that the banking institution is perceived to hold a positive relationship between technological opportunism and firm performance through mediating and moderating effects of strategic entrepreneurship. However, the higher levels of strategic entrepreneurship weaken the relationship between technological opportunism and firm performance. Firm performance was measured based on a collective indicators of new product success rates, return on investment (RoI), revenue growth rates, market share and profitability. Overall, the research provides fresh theoretical and practical insights. Firstly, the study is fundamental to academic research advancement and refinement of existing theories in technology, strategic management and entrepreneurship in a context of an emerging economy. Secondly, the development of technology sensing and responding resources and capabilities to leverage technological opportunities has to be viewed as a strategic enabler to organizational business performance, competitive advantage and this bodes well for the objectives of national economic developments. Thirdly, the study of an interdependence of strategic management and entrepreneurial orientation to technological opportunism is imperative to understanding how could these innovative practices be leveraged within an existing organizational ecosystem.
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    How does the Technology Innovation Agency( TIA) evaluate the relationship between universities of technology and SMMEs for technology transfer: a case study of the Technology Stations Programme
    (2016) Molebatsi, Palesa
    Increasingly, innovation through technology transfer is seen as a mechanism through which economic growth can be spurred. The South African National Innovation System (NIS) is built on this premise, leading to the emergence of Technology Transfer Organizations (TTOs) such as the Technology Innovation Agency’s (TIA’s) Technology Stations Programme. The Technology Stations Programme addresses, and attempts to alleviate, the slow overall decline of South African industrial sectors through innovation work for industrialization. It is not clear, however, how the TIA monitors and evaluates, and hence measures the economic and socio-economic outcomes of the Technology Stations Programme. This is because the relationship between the strategic objectives of the programme, and the performance indicators used for impact assessment is not clear. This study identifies the use of the Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation (SETI) Scorecard of indicators as the framework for performance reporting at the Technology Stations Programme. The study describes the SETI framework and then evaluates it, finding that it is not well defined and lacks the properties required of a framework of indicators to make it an adequate tool for performance reporting. Other problems compromising the reporting on the Technology Stations Programme have to do with the seemingly incomplete nature of reports, occasional incoherence and seeming carelessness where there are graphic errors in the reporting. This inadequate monitoring and evaluation, and performance reporting is concerning because interview work suggests that the Technology Stations Programme is highly successful in supporting SMMEs and offering them technology related services that contribute to industrial policy through innovation work. The failure to have a SETI Scorecard of indicators that is functional enough to make these outcomes in the Technology Stations Programme visible in formal reporting is concerning as programme evaluation should make known the effects of policies. In the case of the Technology Stations Programme these effects are crucial as the technology transfer taking place in the programme is anticipated to achieve grand objectives in the way of economic value adding and industrial expansion. This necessitates the need to capture the outcomes related to these objectives, and make future decisions on the Technology Stations Programme as well as other technology transfer programmes.
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    Applying the Systems of Innovation approach to neighbourhood planning : assessing local development analysis through an appreciative study of two South African townships
    (2015-05-05) Karuri-Sebina, JoAnne Wangechi
    This thesis presents an appreciative application of the Systems of Innovation (SoI) approach to local development analysis (LDA) practice as applied in the context of a transformative approach to neighbourhood planning. The study’s point of departure is in interrogating what “lenses” conventional planning applies in making sense of neighbourhood-level realities in the first place, and therefore to recognise what it is that planning might “see” or fail to see in its analyses and prescripts. The researcher proposed to test this by undertaking an appreciative application of the Systems of Innovation (SoI) approach to neighbourhood planning to explore whether SoI contributes any additional perspective or insight beyond what conventional practice may have seen or found. The research undertaken was exploratory and inductive, involving data collection through intensive local observation and interviewing in two South African township neighbourhoods: T-Section in Mamelodi Township, and Saulsville node in Atteridgeville Township. The data was then analysed using an SoI model. The study found that the application of the SoI model identified additional key development considerations which were not previously recognised by conventional plans. Specifically, the findings highlight key social, economic and institutional factors which distinguish the two neighbourhoods from each other, and suggest different development intervention opportunities. The study also in addition identified an enhancement to the SoI model by introducing a spatial dimension which would strengthen the model’s application for planning and neighbourhood analysis. At the same time, however, the study also demonstrated the difficulty of applying the SoI framework to relatively deprived neighbourhood contexts, such as those in South African townships (or of describing these places as “systems of innovation” in the conventional sense) due to characteristic gaps and weaknesses, particularly their low technology base. The results of this study suggest that there are possible gaps in how conventional planning practices see local development contexts. It concludes that consideration should be given to what planning could glean from other disciplines which are grappling with similar transformational challenges, and adopting a transdisciplinary approach is motivated. Further research to support this continued exploration would have to address the main limitations of this study, which include the lack of generalizability, and limited interrogation of the limitations of SoI itself. Keywords: Local development analysis, System of Innovation, planning and transformation, neighbourhood development, township economy, transdisciplinarity
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