Shiba, Nokuthula Audrey2024-09-112024-09-112023Shiba, Nokuthula Audrey. (2023). Sustainable business model (SBM) theory of SMMEs for black youth within the South African context [Master’s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace.https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40727https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40727A research article submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration Johannesburg, June 2023Orientation: The purpose of the study is to use SBM theory to understand how SMMEs can invest in innovation and adopt sustainability to reduce youth unemployment among South Africa’s black youth and achieve economic growth. The South African unemployment rate of 34.5% is the highest in history of SA with the youth being the majority. There are 2.4 million SMMEs contributing to the SA’s economic growth by providing approximately 10 million jobs. Research purpose: To establish whether SBM theory explains how SMMEs can invest in innovation and adopt sustainability to reduce youth unemployment and drive economic growth among South Africa’s black youth. Motivation for the study: SMMEs located in Johannesburg, Gauteng do not have sustainable business models that can overcome the SA challenges of youth unemployment and lack of economic growth which affects the majority of South African being the black youth. Research design, approach, and method: A quantitative approach was selected, whereby a questionnaire was used to characterize the perceptions, viewpoints, habits, observations, or other representativeness of the sample, which is SMMEs in the Gauteng province in the City of Johannesburg. The variables are defined in the Qualtrics XM used to collect observations from respondents, and SPSS used to analyse the database from Qualtrics XM. The sample size was 103 respondents from out of the population size of 1 050 SMMEs in Johannesburg. According to Conroy (2016), a population size of 1 000 requires a sample size of 88 to achieve an acceptable margin of error of 10% thus achieving a confidence level of 90%. Therefore, the sample size of 103 has a 10% acceptable margin of error and 90% confidence level with regards to representation of the sample size on the total population defined in this research. Main results: The results demonstrate that SBM theory, which focuses on developing a conceptual model, explain the relationship between the investment in innovation and the adoption of sustainability by South African SMMEs. Further, that SMMEs with SBMs can achieve a reduction in youth unemployment and drive economic growth. In conclusion, the results of this research indicate that the SBM theory explains how SMMEs can invest in innovation and adopt sustainability to reduce youth unemployment and drive economic growth among South Africa’s black youth. Recommendations: Further research should be done on how SMMEs can be up skilled and educated on the SBM theory. To enable SMMEs to invest in innovation and adopt sustainability to reduce youth unemployment among South Africa’s black youth and achieve economic growthen© 2023 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.Business modelsBusiness model innovationSustainability innovationSustainable business modelsSustainable value creationTriple bottom lineProduct-Service SystemsUCTDSDG-8: Decent work and economic growthDissertationUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg