Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (ETDs)
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Item Factors Influencing SME Performance of Incubation Beneficiaries in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mweli, Sibusisiwe; Venter, RobThe 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.Item Intrapreneurship as an enabler to improve performance in the video entertainment industry: A Pay-Tv African Context(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Ngwenya, Sibongile; Urban, BorisThis research study investigated the relationship between intrapreneurship and two internal factors within an organisation organisational that lead to improved business performance. The organisational internal factors that were investigated are management support and organisational culture. The theoretical background to the study was adopted and grounded on the theory of corporate entrepreneurship, while the study focuses on Pay-Tv within the African context for a giant media player MultiChoice Group. The study was based on a quantitative approach, implementing existing instruments and analysing a sample of two hundred and seventy-one (271) employees. The results presented a significant and positive relationship exists between the organisational culture and intrapreneurship and A positive relationship exists between management support and intrapreneurship. This study contributes to the research theory of corporate entrepreneurship by recognizing the influence and importance of the organisational internal factors in improving business performance within the Pay-Tv industry. The study Industry players, industry employees, and academic practitioners Intrapreneurship principles a practice that can be implemented to facilitate and encourage the adoption of intrapreneurship to drive overall improved business performance. The study is relevant to the industry players who seek to remain entrepreneurial, and competitive and contribute to the industry’s sustainability into the futureItem The impact of barriers to Inter-Company Innovation flows and Corporate Entrepreneurship at a Financial Services Organisation in Johannesburg(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Maseko, Buyisile; Matshabaphala, ManamelaBackground: Increasing stability and improving the quality of services are the main challenges facing the financial industry since the 2008 fiscal crisis. In this paper, we explored the barriers within large financial services firms that influence the effectiveness of disruptive and radical innovation. Providing quality services to customers is one of the pillars of financial services companies. It is imperative that they continuously innovate their services in order to sustain their revenue streams in tough macroeconomic times and amid rapid technological growth. Research Purpose: This paper investigated the barriers that impact the inter-company innovation flow in the financial service sector and corporate entrepreneurship. In simple terms, we examined the link between corporate entrepreneurship and financial innovation and how barriers to these flows can impact inter-company innovation. As part of this study, we examined the factors that predict service innovation in the financial services sector such as management support, work discretion, rewards and reinforcement, and organisational boundaries. Setting: A survey questionnaire was conducted with employees within a Financial Services Organisation in South Africa - across various designations. Research Method and Approach: In order to gather responses from all levels of employees within one of the country's leading banks, a case study approach was adopted. To gather quantitative data, an online survey was conducted using scales for corporate entrepreneurship and service innovation. The inferential statistics were based on multiple linear regressions and factor analysis. Main Findings: Several major barriers to innovation and change were identified in the emerging findings, including bureaucracy, poor communication, lack of engagement by employees, management challenges and risk aversion. Based on the study's findings, corporate entrepreneurship predicted certain dimensions of service innovation. There was a significant (p 0.05) correlation between rewards and recognition, management support, and time availability on the basis of service innovation. Service innovation was not significantly influenced by work discretion or organisational boundaries. Using employee perceptions of barriers to innovation and change, this study provides managers and practitioners with insight into how to improve the organizational conditions to support innovation and change. Based on the results of this study, further research can be conducted in this field. Value of Research: The insights gained from this study can help companies improve commercial services and build competitive advantage through corporate entrepreneurship and address inter-company innovation barriers. According to the results, the financial services industry is unable to innovate in response to society's demand for radical change. Identifying the internal barriers to potential disruptions and radical innovations in large financial services firms are the purpose of this studyItem The promotion of Corporate Entrepreneurship in the South African financial services organisations(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Nhlapo, Simon; Alovokpinhou, Sedjro AaronThere has been a growing interest in corporate entrepreneurship in the last four decades. Corporate entrepreneurship has therefore become a necessary attribute that organisations that wish to gain competitive advantage and be market leaders should possess. This study assesses the extent to which corporate entrepreneurship is promoted and encouraged in South African financial services organisations. The research study identifies and investigates organisational internal factors, which affect the promotion of corporate entrepreneurship in South African financial services organisations through administering Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment instrument (CEAI). The research results indicate that work discretion is the only construct that respondents perceived to be encouraged and promoted. This was further confirmed by higher positive responses on items relating to autonomy and freedom. Participants reflected a neutral sentiment regarding the promotion of corporate entrepreneurship irrespective of gender, age, organisational level, tenure, and overall employment tenure. The research results also suggests that management sentiment is low on time availability for the promoting entrepreneurial activities. Therefore, we conclude that the South African financial services industry still has an enormous task to create an environment conducive for corporate entrepreneurship.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 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 Entrepreneurial Orientation and Performance within the South African Minibus Taxi Industry(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Kier, Jessica; Urban, BorisThe primary purpose of this research is to understand the relationship between the three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation within the South African minibus taxi industry. This industry is pivotal to the South African economic structure and landscape as a whole. The taxi industry serves as the main mode of public transport in South Africa. A survey was used to conduct an empirical research study. A sample size of 120 participants was originally selected; however, of those 120, only 95 surveys were valid and used due to missing values in the data provided in the others. This sample size is representative of the population concerning the taxi industry. The research instrument included a 7-point Likert scale. Further, the instrument included demographic coverage and sections covering the three entrepreneurial orientations’ dimensions. The aim of this study is to understand the extent to which entrepreneurial orientation enables small- to medium-enterprise growth performance within the South African taxi industry. Empirical data to support research suppositions is difficult to access within the public domain, but this research identified and provided an analysis extracted from private enterprise which fills the gap in the current research literature space. The results indicated a weak positive influence between the three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation and growth performance within the industry. Due to the significance of the findings, the results are not strong enough for generalising the same findings for the entire South African minibus taxi population. This industry is the main source of public transport within the country and needs to increase its literature in order to grow and further improve. Further findings can contribute to the understanding of the complexity that surrounds the industry’s atmosphere. The value of working to formulate constructive information on the taxi industry will allow for further engagement within the fieldItem Adoption of lean startup principles by product teams in South African Fintechs(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Bohloa, ReemePurpose – This study examines the factors influencing the adoption of lean startup principles by product teams in South African Fintechs Design/methodology/approach – Leveraging literature, the research proposes a conceptual framework that suggests six hypotheses. The hypotheses are empirically validated by applying partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on survey data obtained from a survey that had 52 responses. Findings – The results partially support the hypotheses and supports that Relative advantage has a positive relationship to Usefulness and that the Influence of Industry Peers has a positive relationship to Attitude. Originality/value – The study is contributing towards research in a relatively new but rapidly growing industry in South Africa (Fintech). Keywords - Lean startup, Fintechs, Product teams, Innovation, Build-measure- learn, Partial least squares Paper type – Research paperItem Strategies of fibre network operators to address increasing competition and decreasing investment output in the South African fibre to the home market(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Tsoana, Molefe Donald; Bulbulia, ZunaidThe deployment of high-speed networks and connectivity technologies has evolved quickly from the past. From Copper infrastructure, Digital Subscriber Line (“x”DSL) technologies, namely; Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), Very-high-bit- rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL), and High-speed Digital Subscriber Line (HDSL) (Jenkinson, 2000). The “x”DSL face out started in about 2007 when Telkom South Africa (SA) started rolling out optical fibre distribution network (ODN) in SA. Passive Optical Network (PON) infrastructure is the most popular and adopted optical distribution network, globally. It is through this technology that the household broadband connectivity, fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) is enabled (Keiser, 2006). While there is still an existing concern of the considerable digital divide in SA. The FTTH connectivity is one of the basic utility needs for most families. It is considered a potential driver for micro and macro-economic growth in Africa. As this seems an opportunity for infrastructure investment, the number of FNOs in the SA FTTH market has recently risen to over 38 while the cream of the crop areas are almost fibre saturated, making the FTTH market share competition very stiff. The motivation for this research from an academic perspective, is to add on to the existing body of knowledge regarding FTTH broadband service in SA. To study strategies of FNOs to address increasing competition and decreasing investment output in the SA FTTH market. This research also aims to study the; value-added services, customer value propositions (CVPs) and innovations implemented by these FNOs to stay competitive and sustainable, as well as to better their FTTH investment output. The evolution of the FTTH service is SA has proven to be challenging to most FNOs, and it has been evident post Covid-19 pandemic that pricing can never be a dependable differentiator thus the need for innovative offerings in order to combat an increasing market competition, to better their investment outputItem Impediments to the Adoption of Business Process Automation (BPA) in a South African Investment Bank(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Malope, Matete Elias; Latridis, GoergeThis research study aimed to investigate factors that impede the adoption of automation in business processes in the South African investment bank situated in Johannesburg. The study was grounded by the theory of constraints (TOC) to address the research questions and objectives. The qualitative research study employed the interpretivism philosophical orientation to develop an understanding of participants’ dynamic responsibilities and understand how individuals construct meaning out of different contexts. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with IT leaders and professionals in the investment bank. Thematic data analysis was employed to analyse the data and derive insights. Findings were presented using the technology, organisation, and environments (TOE) approach. Key findings were around technical and integration incompatibilities, legacy systems, lack of research and development facilities, and lack of technical knowledge sharing. Moreover, organisational impediments were around decentralised centre of excellence (CoE), job insecurity, lack of advanced automation skills, and lack of formal logging process for new projects. Management implications recommended that IT system users be included in all phases of projects to manage job insecurity. Develop a research and development facility where users can explore new technologies and solutions in real-life use cases. Embed the CoE team in business units to equip them with depth business and system understanding. Lastly, implement measuring and monitoring processes to track the development and benefits of each automation. Future research should investigate the impediment of business process automation in a different industry, such as manufacturing which is a leader in automation. Secondly, conduct a comparative study in developed countries such as China which is a leader in technological innovation