Black economic empowerment within the SME engineering sector

Abstract

Black economic empowerment has transformed the South African economic environment, and continues to be one of the most important issues a company has to deal with. In the past research into Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has been qualitative in nature and been very generic in its focus, this research analysed BEE issues quantitatively and focused on the small medium enterprises (SMEs) within the engineering manufacturing sector. The research set out to identify the issues which were considered to be important for the successful implementation of BEE, and found that some issues considered important by general industry were not considered important by the SMEs in the engineering manufacturing sector. A significant finding was the importance of upfront planning and setting of objectives prior to implementation of BEE initiatives. The research also found a very low level of satisfaction with the outcomes of BEE initiatives. The findings of this research can prove to be valuable for policy makers and government officials as they review the progress made towards achieving the broader objectives of BEE.