Marokoana, Lerato2019-11-272019-11-272018Marokoane, Lerato Samuel, (2018) A comparative study of entrepreneurial orientation in incubated and non-incubated SMMEs in South Africa, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, https://hdl.handle.net/10539/28594https://hdl.handle.net/10539/28594A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand, in fulfillment for the requirement of the degree of Masters in Management in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation submitted, March 2018South Africa is a standout amongst the world with regards to inequality. Small Medium and Micro-Sized Enterprises (SMMEs) are aimed at alleviating the inequality problem through job creation. Proactive individuals such as the unemployed, look for entrepreneurial opportunities as a means of generating income. SMME’s have gained tremendous attention since the dawn of democracy for a number of reasons. The underlying reason is that small businesses are a big driver for any economy. However, their failure rates are very high. It is thus necessary for government and the private sector to work together to ensure the success of start-ups. Incubations globally have been brought into the picture to remedy the appalling failure rates of these enterprises. Business incubators (BI) have succeeded in some part to remedy the failures of these SMME’s by providing a tailored and generic solutions. Studies on entrepreneurial orientation (EO) previously focused on performance. However previous work has failed to address the extent in which incubators affect the (EO) of a small business in relation to growth. The challenges faced in South Africa as a result of these failing SMME’s could be remedied by improving the level of entrepreneurship in the country, the reason the topic justifies research in the first place. A qualitative method was adopted to investigate whether EO and its dimensions can be analysed as a performance variable between incubated and non-incubated companies. 180 respondents completed they questionnaire. The study subsequently inferred that higher levels Pro-activeness in a non-incubated firm leads to growth while higher Risk-taking leads to a decline and Innovativeness had no impact on business growth in non-incubated businesses. Business incubators in South Africa play more of a sustainability role than a growth role for SMME’s.Online resource (iii, 104 leaves)enSmall businessEntrepreneurship--South AfricaBusiness enterprisesThesis