Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (ETDs)
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Item Entrepreneurial orientation and value sustenance of a South African firm during the Covid-19 pandemic(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Carim, Shakira; Murimbika, EdwardThis study's overall theoretical issues related to the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation adopted by organisations to survive the COVID-19 pandemic economically. As the world was economically thrown into upheaval and crisis, many organisations faced bankruptcy and stopped trading. The motivation of this study was to understand measures adopted by organisations by applying the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation to survive the COVID-19 crisis and whether it proved fruitful. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) that relate to innovation, proactiveness, risk-taking and autonomy had impacted and helped sustain firm value, measured through business financial performance, business retention, and moderated by financial reprieve received, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted in an emerging market context and focused on organisations operating within a South African context. The focus was placed on those industries that were negatively impacted by the crisis. In an organisational setting, a quantitative empirical study was conducted based on responses of 133 participants. Service, retail, and manufacturing enterprises were included in the sample, of which the retail and manufacturing enterprises housed dedicated IT departments. Through electronically distributed questionnaires, their organisational employees were invited to participate in the study. Regression analysis was used to support the hypotheses and literature read using the SPSS v27 tool. It was established that 72% of the responses were received from the manufacturing sector, 20% from the service sector, 5% from the IT sector, and 3% from the retail sector. The main results and findings of the study are summarised belowItem The Impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation on Market Performance in South African Commercial Banks(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Shandu, Thato Melisizwe; Urban, BorisHeterodox economics has been fundamental in shaping our understanding of the importance of entrepreneurial activity in contributing to economic growth both at a micro and macro level. A large part of facilitating this growth is through the intermediation functions of the financial services sector who like any profit maximising organisation relies on renewal strategies to create value for its customers and generate wealth for its shareholders. To this effect EO represents key entrepreneurial processes by which organisations continuously renew their strategic outlook intended to drive performance and achieve long-term economic value. However, it is difficult to drive renewal strategies for improved performance in the face of scarce information. The motivation of this study was driven by the need to contextually understand the dynamics of the EO-performance relationship in South African listed commercial banks. This study endeavoured to elaborate on and clarify the associative links between the presence of EO dimension (proactiveness, innovativeness and risk-taking) cues and their direct impact on market performance. Secondary textual data gathered from the annual integrated reports of the listed commercial banks was obtained through text analysis to extract the presence of EO cues. The presence of these cues was then assessed in relation to stock price movements which relied on the event-study methodology. Due to small sample challenges, findings from the analysis were not in-line with the priori expectation of the study across all variables and lack generalisability. The study’s finding also add contextual relevance considering the South African regulatory context and the current market dynamics of the financial services sectorItem The contribution of corporate entrepreneurial dimensions on firm performance in South African non-governmental organisations(2022-01) Naidoo, KeshanCorporate entrepreneurship (CE) has been suggested by various scholars as occurring when an individual or a group of individuals in an established company display behaviour that is typically practised by individual entrepreneurs. Literature supports the notion that corporate entrepreneurial practices can be implemented as a means to improve company’s performance, and that it may result in an organisation obtaining a competitive advantage. CE dimensions are specific characteristics that are evident in firms that embody the following: innovativeness; risk-taking; proactiveness; autonomy; and competitive aggressiveness. The purpose of this study was to investigate and empirically determine the contribution of CE dimensions on firm performance within South African non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the health industry, by also considering the moderating effects of the organisation’s climate on this relationship. Furthermore, this study sought to provide important findings that might aid NGOs and other policymakers to determine key interventions that could be included in particular policies, so as to assist such organisations to grow and to remain sustainable, so that they can address the much-needed socio-economic gaps in the South African health sector. A quantitative research technique was used, as the study proposed to measure relationships, as well as predictions, between two or more constructs. A sample size of 103 respondents was aimed for, based on a total target population of 288, with a total of 66 responses having been captured for analysis after the data screening and cleaning process, representing a response rate of 64% from the original targeted 103 sample size. With the exception of the CE dimension of autonomy and proactiveness, the other three dimensions, namely innovativeness, risk-taking and competitiveness were perceived to be key influencers in firm performance in terms of business growth, within South African NGOs that aid in HIV/AIDS research, treatment and care. Interestingly, although the autonomy dimension resulted in a negative influence in its relationship on firm performance, the empirical evidence suggests that, when this dimension is moderated by leadership factors, it changes to a positive outcome on firm performance, thereby confirming that, for positive firm performance to be experienced in South African NGOs, autonomy is a good influencer only if the leadership criteria govern the same. The study further demonstrated that leadership inversely influences the relationship between innovativeness, risk-taking and competitive aggressiveness. In the context of previous literature, such was to have been expected, as it was noted that, for leadership factors to influence relationships in a test positively, the interaction among the particular variables is important, including their moderating and mediating. The interaction terms and the type of leadership factors involved might influence a particular relationship. This study sought to provide empirical evidence suggesting that, by embodying CE in means of its various dimensions, firm performance will be positively influenced in terms of the growth of the business. Such, in turn, should allow such organisations to remain sustainable by means of obtaining a competitive edge, and perhaps even by discovering innovative ways of generating income to drive their socio-economic mission.Item Entrepreneurial orientation and performance of small-and medium-sized hotels in Gauteng, South Africa(2021) Sekoere, MaloelaEntrepreneurial orientation has been widely touted as an essential element for augmenting firm performance. The main purpose of the current research study, consequently, was to ascertain the influence of entrepreneurial orientation with its dimensional variables – innovativeness, risk-taking and proactiveness on the performance of small-and medium-sized hotels in Gauteng, South Africa. To measure performance, both financial and nonfinancial criteria was then utilised. Furthermore, the external environment, in terms of (a) dynamism, (b) hostility and (c) turbulence, were used as a contingent to exert the outcome of a moderating influence on the entrepreneurial orientation and performance relationship. The study adopted a quantitative and positivist research approach. A cross-sectional method was used to gather the data by means of a questionnaire. Altogether, 309 questionnaires were disseminated to the owners and managers of small-and medium-sized hotels, both online and manually distributing the questionnaires concerned through visits to the respondents in question. Only 128 respondents participated in the survey. Cronbach’s alpha was then employed as the appropriate measure for reliability. The entrepreneurial orientation dimensions diverged into two, instead of into three, dimensions. Therefore, the results indicated a significant and positive association between risk-taking and proactiveness in relation to performance. Of the two dimensions, proactiveness was found to be a more predictive dimension than was risk-taking in the variance explained. The hypothesis pertaining to the moderating influence of external environmental factors on performance was rejected. Based on the findings made in the current study, the hotel owners and managers surveyed should be able to drive a culture of risk-taking and proactiveness to drive the performance for their establishments to be able to survive. Ultimately, the present study’s contribution could be wide-ranging in providing evidence from an African emerging context that has received minimal attention to date