Small businesses contribute towards the Gross National Product of the country and also provide jobs. More and more people are leaving schools and universities with the hope of finding jobs but this is not always possible. The best solution for these people is that they should start their own small businesses in their communities. Different businesses start because people have identified a need in their community. Good things about small businesses are that some of them become successful and eventually turned into franchise. Franchise is one way of starting a business. People are sceptical of new products, they want the tried and tested products because they can identify with them. However, the franchisee will always be provided with support from Head office to ensure that they succeed. The government has set-up organisations such as Ntsika and Khula that help the SMMEs with things such as business plans and finance. These organisations help entrepreneurs free of charge. This project seek to evaluate those aspects that make some small businesses succeed and others fail in Mafikeng and Mmabatho area and also to what extend does management skills affect small skills affect small businesses. The report also looks at how entrepreneurs use technology in their businesses. / (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2006

Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMMEs) are often perceived as the backbone of an economy. There is widespread consensus on their significant contribution to economic growth, employment creation, poverty alleviation and local and regional development. In South Africa, a lack of access to funding, especially to the Previously Disadvantaged Individuals (PDIs), often hinders small businesses from developing their full potential. Funding limitation of SMMEs is mainly due to the high risk attributed to small businesses and their lack of collateral. The fact that SMMEs often receive inadequate financial support or the total lack of it puts them at a competitive disadvantage and tend to harm their long-term growth and development, a waste of entrepreneurial resources and edge, a reduction of productivity and a lower economic growth rate. Restricted access to funding is one of the main problems faced by tourism-related SMMEs in the North West Province, and can ultimately have an adverse effect on economic growth and overall welfare of the people. This research study presents a sociological evaluation of SMME access and participation in the North West Province, South Africa, tourism industry. The study appeals to an outcome-based evaluation approach of measuring and assessing the degrees and levels to which tourism SMMEs, since the all-inclusive 1994 democratic elections in South Africa, have benefitted . or otherwise from the provincial tourism industry. The study reveals that, ten years after the fall of apartheid, black entrepreneurs' access and participation in the provincial tourism industry, is still limited due to stringent qualification criteria that serve as barriers to accessing financial and developmental support needed to enhance and fast-track meaningful participation in the tourism industry, particularly in the North West Province. The virtual failure to help small business entrepreneurs creates a great controversy about their very existence and effectiveness of such financial institutions with the task of helping up-and-coming black entrepreneurs. This thesis stresses the need for comprehensive evaluation of such institutions so that their existence would have a meaning, more importantly to the PDIS within the tourism industry. The criticisms levelled against these financial support institutions are extensively explored in this study. In conclusion, the study recommends that, in order to make use of the full potential of small business entrepreneurs in the provincial tourism industry, thereby participating meaningfully in the industry, there is the need to provide them with an enabling environment, which encompasses the access to capital and relaxation of the set qualification criteria for financial support. / (M.Soc.Sc.) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2005

This research study investigates some of the problems or challenges faced by SMMEs in the Mafikeng and Mmabatho area of the North West province. It strives to find out the extent as to which these problems occur and the impact they have on these businesses. The research focuses on two major problems considered to be hindering the growth of SMMEs in this area, namely the lack of entrepreneurial management and financial skills. The lack of these skills in the running of small businesses results into poor business management, poor quality products or services. lack of demand for produce, lack of access to credit as well as poor marketing techniques. The absence of entrepreneurial education or sensitizing young people in a way that could encourage them to enter businesses and acquire a culture of entrepreneurship is one of the causes of the lack of these skills. A stratified random sampling method was employed, with stratifying variables being area and size of the business. Primary data were sought for this study, and gathered through structured questionnaires which were distributed to owners and managers of the sampled businesses. The descriptive statistics method of analysis was employed using a computer aided statistical analysis, the SPSS programme. Some of the significant findings of this research study are; that majority of entrepreneurs in the area do not have the necessary entrepreneurial, management and financial skills to run their businesses; that the educational and training levels of the members of top management of small businesses are relatively low; and many businesses do not have access to credit. The lack of entrepreneurial, management and financial skills can hamper the performance and growth of SMMEs in the area, which can cause many businesses' failure or closure. Education plays an important role in the overall running of a business enterprise in terms of revenues. Many entrepreneurs are unable to finance their own businesses. yet there is little support from financial institutions and government bodies. SMMEs in the Mafikeng and Mmabatho area need to be assisted in every way in order to enhance their performance, growth and sustainability. In order to achieve this. government needs to take the initiative to form collaborations with these business enterprises, in order to identify areas of need such as training and funding. This endeavour will impact positively to the economic growth, in tem1s of job creation to the entire province. / (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2005

Thesis (M.Tech.: Marketing)-Dept. of Marketing, Durban University of Technology, 2007. xv, 205 leaves / Cause related marketing (CRM) is becoming a popular marketing strategy used by brand managers, retailers and service companies. It can be described as a marketing strategy that links charities or ‘causes’ with the sales of a product, brand or service. The charity is mentioned in promotional campaigns and a certain percentage is donated to the cause in accordance with unit sales or turnover. A study was conducted in the eThekweni region of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa to gather information on this issue. The study was a quantitative survey and data was collected by means of an interview process. The overall objective of this study was to gain an understanding of consumer behaviour towards companies using CRM in the greater eThekweni region. This objective was made up of three sub-objectives. The first subobjective was to identify whether eThwekeni consumers would switch brands to a company involved with CRM, if price and quality were equal. This was followed by subobjective two, which was to establish whether particular socio-demographic characteristics of consumers would be related to their evaluation of a CRM offer. Finally, sub-objective three was to establish whether those same socio-demographic characteristics would be related to the selection of specific causes.

Competitive advantage is crucial for a business to be sustainable, yet many small- and medium-sized enterprises are not engaging in supplier development in order to achieve a competitive advantage. This empirical study was conducted on a sample of 64 small- and medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing industry in Kempton Park, Gauteng. The factors that influence engagement in supplier development were analysed to assess whether supplier development can lead to competitive advantage and other benefits. The findings indicate that supplier development can create and improve competitive advantage, as well as lead to other benefits. Four factors were found to have a relationship with supplier development, and therefore could influence the decision to take part in supplier development. Small- and medium-sized enterprises can use tools such as supplier development in order to be competitive and have an advantage over their competitors. The awareness of operational performance measures, competitive advantage, judgment of the absence or existence of trust, and a buyer’s relative power can all influence participation in supplier development.

Tourism is viewed as an important industry to help local economies overcome poverty and low rates of employment. The economic benefits of a growing tourism industry cannot be disputed in a South Africa where unemployment levels remain above international averages. However, whether South Africa is successfully exploiting opportunities to grow the industry sustainably remains questionable. Many attempts have been made to help the industry implement sustainable tourism practices, especially amongst accommodation establishments. However, policies formulated, initiatives designed and current industry norms and standards make very little distinction between various sizes and categories of establishments. As a result, smaller establishments are lumped together with larger establishments and solutions developed do not address the unique needs of this sector. This study introduces the concept of a smaller accommodation establishment (SAE). While the adoption of sustainable tourism practices within tourism remains unsatisfactory, this study focuses on illustrating the importance of the SAE sector specifically within the tourism sector. It proposes that SAEs are defined and categorised in a format that will allow for greater comparisons in performance – both in relation to each other and in relation to their larger counterparts. This will also allow for the collection of more meaningful data towards establishing baselines and benchmarks. Through a detailed literature review, this study investigates reasons why the adoption of sustainable tourism practices has been lower than desired by SAEs. The research first and foremost focuses on how to define sustainable tourism and responsible tourism and how to define an SAE so as to create a context for the remainder of the research. The literature review used the Porter’s Five Forces model to analyse the relative sustainability of the sector, and proposed the main barriers to implementation of sustainable tourism practices amongst SAEs. It then set out to answer the question: "What framework and mechanisms could be used to help SAEs overcome the barriers to implementing sustainable tourism, thus enabling sustainable growth and development of SAEs as a sub-sector of the tourism industry?" In answering the above question, the study used the Delphi method of reaching consensus to test the views industry experts in relation to the definition and categorisation of SAEs, the size of the sector, the relative importance of the sector in the overall South African economy as well as the potential barriers to SAEs implementing sustainable tourism practices. The study then tested these findings through a broad industry survey that collected qualitative and quantitative data from SAE owners and managers across South Africa. The findings of the broad industry survey confirmed the findings of the literature review and industry expert questionnaires. It added additional data that provided perspectives on the uptake of sustainable tourism practices amongst SAEs and helped to set some baselines for the SAE sector. It also added additional dimensions to be considered in the development of the framework. Finally, the research utilised focus groups and individual interviews with SAE owners and managers to determine the validity of the findings from the previous sections. From the inputs of the literature review and the three data collection phases, this research develops a comprehensive framework for the implementation of sustainable tourism practices amongst SAEs. The framework is a flexible, adaptable and scalable tool that assists in communicating a specific approach that could be utilised by many role players in the SAE sustainable tourism implementation arena, including the SAE owners, public sector entities, private sector business, industry professionals and community members. The essence of the proposed framework is to support the implementation of sustainable tourism practise amongst SAEs, thus enhancing the overall sustainability of the smaller accommodation sector while also addressing the sustainability of the cluster. The framework includes recommendations on how SAEs should be defined and categorised, as well as how sustainable tourism should be defined. The use of the proposed framework helps to draw the attention of sustainability efforts to clusters of SAEs rather than individual businesses and adds to local competitiveness through engaging the supply chains of accommodation establishments. Combining mechanisms such as incentives and change processes, route development and policy formulation guides the framework to provide collaborative holistic approaches to overcoming the barriers of sustainable tourism practices. The framework also recommends holistic indicators of success that do not only represent the performance of individual businesses, but also of business clusters, the tourism sector and the impacted communities. Within clusters, greater cohesion amongst role players will provide greater negotiation power in various aspects such as cost reduction and more favourable policy formulation processes which involves a greater base of role players. Through the adoption of guiding questions within the framework, each of the role players is able to take responsibility their actions and decisions / Environmental Sciences / Ph. D. (Environmental Management)

No abstract available / Business Management and Entr / M. Tech. (Business Administration)

Small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in global and national economies, both in developed and developing countries, contributing significantly to economic growth and job creation. Yet, SMEs face ongoing survival issues as their limited access to resources often constrains their ability to compete and realise their potential. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are known to be a crucial component in realising benefits for any organisation and are seen as significant contributors to an organisation’s performance. However, only a portion of SMEs report that their value expectations have been met in adopting an ERP system. SMEs require a better understanding of how to extract value from ERP adoption in order to remain competitive. An on-going SME problem is a lack of low-level awareness of the benefits that an ERP system is capable of providing them. The problem is stated as “SMEs do not understand the benefits derived from the adoption of an ERP system”. The purpose of this treatise was to determine a clearer understanding of how ERP systems can be considered a technological innovation that may be exploited by an SME to deliver business value by increasing the performance of the SME and thereby increasing the SME’s competitive advantage. A literature review was conducted on ERP and SMEs which identified benefit models grounded in the theories of Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) and Resource Based View (RBV). DOI explains the benefits derived from ERP use as the technology diffuses throughout the social organisation and RBV measures the business value extracted from ERP adoption and use. A model for ERP benefits for SMEs was proposed based on the extant literature and empirical evaluation on a sample of 107 SYSPRO ERP users in South Africa. The model was statistically assessed as to the relationships between the independent variables of ease of use, collaboration, capabilities, efficiencies, analytics, industry sector and maturity against the dependent variable of ERP business value. The variables of analytics, capabilities and ease of use together explain 68.9% of the variance of ERP business value, while analytics and capabilities explain 53.8%. No significant relationship was found for efficiencies, collaboration, industry or maturity, being a measure of length of years’ experience in ERP use. The results indicate that SMEs perceive analytics to be a valuable determinant of ERP value contributing to the competitiveness of SMEs. The higher the SME focuses on analytics, the greater the organisation’s performance increases due to the enhancement of analytical-based decisions aiding in a better decision-making process. Capabilities are the degree to which an ERP system caters for the functional needs of the SME. This treatise argues that SMEs should pay particular focus on their operational requirements and whether the ERP system is capable of providing them as customisation of the ERP is costly. Organisational personnel utilising ERP must be comfortable utilising it. Perceptions as to an ERP’s complexity and usefulness define the ease-of-use. SMEs should consider the inherent aspects of a given ERP system that support the adoption rate of their personnel of an ERP system. Practically, SMEs should assess the degree of system intuitiveness both during ERP selection and during the adoption lifecycle phases. ERP providers should focus on the provisioning of aspects both in the software and during the implementation of an ERP system at an SME in ensuring the system is intuitive, useful, easy to use, functionally addresses the SME requirements simply and surfaces meaningful analytics in support of decision-making process.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, 2006 / The high unemployment rate in South Africa has forced many people to think of creative ways to derive an income. This in turn has resulted in the increase of microentrepreneurs who could contribute positively to the economy if given the opportunity. According to the White Paper on National Strategy for the Development and Promotion of Small Business in South Africa (1995), the objective is to stimulate and promote small businesses by providing access to requisite resources. However, what has become apparent is the lack of resources for micro-entrepreneurs, as well as problems with accessibility to the few available resources. Popular literature often refers to money being made available by government or foreign donors to assist micro-entrepreneurs in getting businesses started. There is also much talk about empowerment of entrepreneurs via financial resources as well as through skills training. However, much of the assistance is available for opportunity entrepreneurs and not for the survivalist entrepreneurs. Although there has been a commitment by government to promote small business, it yet again focuses on the opportunist entrepreneur rather than the survivalist entrepreneur. Survivalist micro-entrepreneurs face huge challenges in accessing any type of resources. Although there is much talk about promotion of small business, there seems to be a gap in what is being advocated and what is being done. What has happened thus far is that small and medium enterprises have been branded under one label, proving detrimental to the micro-entrepreneur. The opportunist entrepreneur and the survivalist entrepreneur have vasy different needs and the resources made available should address the different needs. This study focused on micro-entrepreneurship in the Cape Flats area of the Western Cape, specifically on survivalist micro-entrepreneurs, and excluded the opportunist entrepreneur.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2009. / The 2010 FIFA World Cup toumament could provide valuable opportunities for the tourism entrepreneur in Cape Town. This study focuses on the factors that affect the entrepreneurwho chooses to make tourism a career in Cape Town. The aim of the study is to examine the tourism entrepreneurs' ability to be sustainable and is focused on the single tourism owner operating a service business in the Cape Town CBO such as small tour operators, tour guides and accommodation agents. Using the quantitative research method, a questionnaire as well as individual interviews, the data collection techniques have helped to provide valuable information as to the influencing factors on entrepreneurship, operational challenges and the extemal environment affecting tourism business in Cape Town. The results which could be useful to an aspirant entrepreneur indicate that the survey participants were generally positive about the FIFA event and that success for them is the ability to understand the market and plan strategically in order to operate a business effectively that will meet specific market requirements.