The use of innovation by SMMEs to tackle social challenges in South Africa
Date
2018
Authors
Lukhele, Nokuthula
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Abstract
Innovation has become a critical point of discussion due to factors such as slow
economic growth, commodisation and global competition. The national system of
innovation (NSI) approach has been largely adopted by policy-makers, including
those in South Africa, to understand and describe the structure of the innovation
process. The NSI is defined as, the network of institutions in the public and private
sectors within a nation whose activities and interactions initiate, import, and
diffuse new technologies.
There are two distinct and complementary modes of innovation: (1) Science,
technology and innovation (STI), which focuses on promoting research and
development (R&D), utilising and creating access to explicit codified knowledge;
and (2) Doing, using and interacting (DUI), which focuses on innovation strategies
typically involving organisational frameworks, improving knowledge sharing
among employees and promoting interactive learning. Due to the 10-Year
Innovation Plan of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), a number
of legislations and policies have been introduced to remove obstacles that
weaken South Africa’s NSI and obstruct growth in South Africa’s STI capacity.
The research problem is to analyse the modes of innovation used by small,
medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa and to identify the
potential for SMMEs to use their business innovations to tackle social challenges
faced in South Africa. The method used in this study was a quantitative analysis
by means of an online survey questionnaire sent to SMMEs in South Africa.
The results indicated that 85% of the SMMEs used DUI-modes of innovation
compared to the 15% who used STI-modes of innovation. Furthermore, 65% of
the firms indicated that their business activities could be used to tackle at least
one of the social challenges outlined in the National Development Plan (NDP) to
a high extent, with 49% indicating that their innovations could tackle more than
one social challenge. Policy-makers need to direct more effort into increasing
STI-modes of innovation within South African SMMEs and using the innovation
activities within SMMEs to tackle social challenges faced in South Africa.
Description
MBA Thesis
Keywords
Small business -- South Africa. Diffusion of innovations -- South Africa.