Wits Business School (ETDs)
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37941
Browse
Search Results
Item Redesigning and applying the open innovation contest model to a South African financial firm(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Singh, Ameeth; Ahwireng-Obeng, F.Firms have been experimenting with various forms of innovation in order to overcome the challenges brought about by technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). One particular 4IR approach, Open Innovation (OI), allows firms to access a large crowd of individuals outside the firm and has recorded significant innovations in this way. OI has been used extensively, but some firms have used it differently to others. The Land Bank, for example, opted for internal rather than external OI, by tapping into the creativity of its employees. But, they were not as successful as those firms that used external OI. This is because employee innovation is not straightforward. It requires a different management style to managing external individuals or normal everyday employee working environments. Moreover, there is a lack of research on Open Innovation Contests (OICs) and innovation management practices to assist managers in navigating the complexities of employee innovation. This study has combined these research strands to provide management practices that are best for managing employee innovation. To do this, a qualitative study was undertaken where an interview was used to investigate employee’s experiences and expectations of innovation management. The interview was developed from theory on OICs and innovation management practices and eight employees of the Land Bank were interviewed. The research findings indicated that managing employees for innovation is quite challenging because employees view innovation as something that is out of the ordinary and they expect the firm to use specialized management techniques to inspire and motivate them. Five important themes emerged from the data collected, namely a) Role of leadership in innovation, b) Role of management in innovation, c) Learning and development for innovation, d) Rewarding innovation, and e) Robust innovation process. In the eyes of employees, the leadership team has the most amount of influence and power to make changes and must use these attributes to create a culture of innovation that will encourage creativity and risk taking among employees. Managers, on the other hand, were found to also have an important role to play in innovation. Employees want them to follow a contemporary approach to managing innovation by establishing a work environment that grants employees’ flexibility, autonomy, trust, and respect. Employees are enthusiastic about learning from their mistakes in innovation because it increases their knowledge base and motivates them to continue innovating. Receiving feedback is therefore important to them but they expect to receive feedback in a form that they can understand and incorporate into future innovations. Rewarding employees for their innovation is important to them but they do not always expect to be financially rewarded, especially if firms are experiencing financial constraintsItem Does capital market development influence capital structure choices of firms?(2021) Selatitsana, PhatsisiThis study investigated on the influence of capital market development on capital structure choices of selected non-financial firms in emerging as well as in frontier markets from period 2010 to 2017. To measure capital market development, stock market turnover ratio and ratio of domestic credit to private sector by commercial banks to GDP were used. The study finds that beside firm specific factors and other country-level factors which are used to explain financing choices of firms, capital market development as well affects the financing decisions of listed firms. This study generally, discovers that the development of equity and debt markets are both significant in increasing access to funding by firms and therefore, inform the choice of debt ratios employed by firms both in emerging and frontier markets. The findings of this thesis found that emerging markets enterprises use equity markets as a substitute for debt funding, but the preferable source of finance for firms is long-term debt with the highest positive coefficient. Conversely, in frontier markets, firms are using stock market as a complementary to debt financing, but the most preferred source of financing is short-term debt having highest coefficient