Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (ETDs)

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Dynamic Capabilities

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    Factors Influencing SME Performance of Incubation Beneficiaries in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mweli, Sibusisiwe; Venter, Rob
    The focus of the research study was to investigate the factors that have contributed to the performance of the SMEs after incubation, with a focus on their dynamic capabilities, innovation capabilities, and the role of incubator support. A descriptive, quantitative study was conducted, employing a structured questionnaire as the data collection tool to capture the factors impacting SME performance post-incubation. The study included 43 SMEs, identified from incubator organizations across South Africa, LinkedIn, and various entrepreneur WhatsApp groups, who had successfully completed an incubation program. The findings of the study revealed that SME dynamic capabilities and innovation significantly predict SME performance post-incubation. However, the study's results also showed that incubator support does not moderate the relationship between innovation and SME performance, implying that current incubator support efforts do not significantly influence SME performance after incubation. The study recommends that to maximize their influence on SMEs' performance after incubation, incubators should put in place programs that assist the growth of SME dynamic capabilities and creative ideas. It also emphasizes how important it is to learn more about the difficulties and obstacles preventing SMEs from performing well both during and after incubation. To validate these results, more research with larger samples is required because of the small sample size. In the future, researchers should also investigate the specific ways that small businesses' changing abilities affect their performance, as well as the outside factors that affect how well incubator support works for small business performance.
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    Leadership and digital transformation in the telecommunications industry in the South African context
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Malunga, Tshenolo
    The telecommunication industry is disrupted by digital transformation and needs to change its current business to a new paradigm of business. The legacy systems and the traditional business model are some of the barriers that challenge innovation in the telecommunication sector. Therefore, the study views organisational capabilities as digital transformation instruments for the telecommunication sectors. The study uses the three concepts emerging from the dynamic capability framework, namely sensing, seizing, and transforming, to determine the leadership competencies required for the digital era. A qualitative generic theory approach was employed, and interviews were conducted with ten senior leadership participants. The result highlighted that digital leaders have direct and indirect impact on digital transformation in their organisations. The findings of this study indicates that leadership in telecommunication must develop digital mindset and open-up their sensing capabilities to diverse value chains and integrate with other industries for sustainability and competitive advantage. The study further highlights that leadership in telecommunication need to create organisational structures and strategies to integrate and increase existing resources and skills while establishing primarily new capabilities. Furthermore, this study suggests that the leadership need to develop competencies that will enable them to continuously mobilise the organisations internal process, people, services, and develop business models that can adapt to rapid changes, foster agility, and create an environment that allows risks, proactiveness and quick decision making. In addition, leadership must foster digital culture that encourage the use of effective and efficient digital tools for customer knowledge exploitation and enablement of fast decision making across all departments in telecommunication companies.
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    Mobile network operator willingness to cannibalise as a dynamic capability
    (2021) Ramukumba, Ndivhuwo
    The purpose of this study is to explore a willingness to cannibalise as a dynamic capability within incumbent mobile network operator (MNO) firms to enable radical innovations. Radical innovation is imperative for firm performance, growth, and survival in a rapidly changing and uncertain business environment. MNOs are increasingly facing an environment of business defined by discontinuous changes in their competitiveness, such as regulatory pressures, increased competition and alternative technologies customers can use to access services. Therefore, a willingness to cannibalise will be a critical dynamic capability for MNOs facing such a challenging environment. The study proposed a conceptual framework for the strategic management of the innovation process within MNOs. The framework suggested that MNOs must be willing to sense (explore) and seize (exploit) opportunities whilst shifting resources towards opportunities that may lead to cannibalising their current investments to enable more radical innovations. The central proposition of this study was that having a willingness to cannibalise as a dynamic capability will enable incumbent MNOs to adequately respond to discontinuous change environments by enabling radical innovations through their firm-level innovation processes. The study used a qualitative research approach to investigate the validity of the proposed conceptual framework and research propositions. The study used semi-structured interviews with decision-makers within incumbent MNO firms in South Africa. The collected data were analysed to test the validity of the framework and determine the views of decision-makers on willingness to cannibalise as a dynamic capability that results in radical innovation. The study found that a willingness to cannibalise is an essential dynamic capability for MNOs faced with a VUCA environment and requires the strategic management of innovation to enable radical innovations. The study found that MNOs must develop robust internal markets with higher levels of autonomy for their business units if they are to seize on potentially cannibalistic opportunities. The study also found that the role of senior leaders in shaping the organisational structures and systems and creating an innovation-enabling culture is crucial for developing a willingness to cannibalise as a dynamic capability. The implications of these results are that traditional MNOs will need to fundamentally change their organisational structures and systems and adopt an innovation-enabling culture if they are to develop a willingness to cannibalise. Senior leaders within MNOs must set the direction by changing their attitudes towards innovations that cannibalise short-term investments. Innovation management practices will be essential in the ability of MNOs to effectively introduce innovations that could cannibalise