Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (ETDs)

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Absorptive Capacity

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    Entrepreneurial orientation and financial performance in the South African construction and materials sector: a focus on bricolage capability and absorptive capacity
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Date of Issue *, 2024) Kanguwe, David Fikile; Urban, Boris
    This thesis investigates the relationship between the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and the sustainable financial performance of the South African construction and materials sector during the 2008-2019 period. In addition, it respectively investigates the moderating effects of environmental hostility on this relationship. Furthermore, in the context of environmental hostility, it investigates the respective moderating effects of the bricolage capability and the absorptive capacity on the same relationship. Moreover, it respectively investigates the moderating effects of organisational identity on the bricolage capability and absorptive capacity as well as the respective moderating effects of the bricolage capability- organisational identity and absorptive capacity-organisational identity interactions on this relationship. This research used a two-study approach to investigate this relationship and its moderating effects. The primary study collected survey data from 126 randomly selected firms in this sector. The secondary study collected secondary sustainable financial performance data from a purposively selected significant group of publicly listed firms. In both cases, data underwent analysis of variance and hierarchical regression. Post hoc analyses using the Tukey honest significance difference (HSD) test, slope analysis, and effect sizes were also used to complement these techniques. The results of the primary study indicate that the EO-sustainable financial performance relationship of this sector exhibited nonlinear, J-shaped behaviour. Furthermore, consistent with the EO-As-Experimentation perspective, the RBV and contingency theory, the results for the moderating effects do not support the hypotheses but rather indicate that all the moderating effects on this relationship were nonlinear suggesting that different configurations of these interactions, yielded different sustainable financial performance outcomes for different levels of EO. The results of the secondary study affirm those of the primary study. By using the theoretical framework of the resource-based and contingency theories, this thesis advances knowledge about the EO-firm performance relationship in the largely under- researched EO-As-Experimentation perspective by contributing a novel conceptual model. Through this conceptual model, this study contributes a unique managerial orientation to the persisting EO-ambidexterity debate in strategic entrepreneurship as well as to the South African construction and materials literature.
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    Innovation capability building by the TVET sector for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Mngomezulu, Thulani Proffessor
    This is a qualitative research report on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system capability building for the fourth industrial revolution in South Africa. The study evaluated the level of complementarity amongst the main components and key role players within the Centres of Specialisation (CoS) program in relation to capability building. The foundational theories that guided this study include the Sectoral Systems of Innovation and Technological Relatedness. An embedded case study involving welding and boilermaking CoS cases was used. Data were collected through scholarly and grey literature review, semi- structured and unstructured interviews of participants representing colleges, employer-partners and students that were on the verge of completing their program. A thematic analysis approach was used for analyzing the collected data, with guiding themes emerging from both the literature survey and primary data. Despite employer-partners being one of the key role players for the learner development process, the study finds that past interventions and research efforts have largely been directed to colleges with little attention paid to industry firms. Even though some colleges have taken initial steps, none of the cases studied has fully integrated industry 4.0 (i4.0) technologies with their training programs. Employer-partners either are in the same position or have achieved partial integration. The study highlights complementarities that exists within the sector. Potential improvements are also outlined with regard to interaction and interdependency structures within the TVET sector. These offer possibilities for maximizing synergies among various 4IR capability building projects and capabilities that may exist within the whole TVET sector