Dissertation (MTech( Mechanical Engineering)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011 / Lean thinking and its principles, as described by Womack and Jones (1996) has been successfully applied to the manufacturing and operational environment, as evidenced by associated case studies. Fostered by a rapid spread into many other sectors beyond the automotive industry, there has been a significant development and localisation of the lean concept in general. This research study sets out to investigate the effects of lean thinking on production processes in a Small and Medium Engineering Enterprise (SMEE). It is hoped that the methodology adopted and the results of the study in the form of a concise lean principle model will assist SMEEs in the strategic planning of their manufacturing processes and improve their sustainability. The case described here, where lean principles were adopted at a transformer manufacturing company (referred to as ABZ), was considered a success by most of those involved at the company. The production cycle time improved from 33 days to 4.5 days within a few weeks of the implementation. In addition; product quality, worker morale, and housekeeping also improved drastically.

Thesis (MTech (Information Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2005. / The main objective of this research project was to explore organisational electronic commerce (e-commerce) adoption barriers experienced by SMMEs (Small Medium Micro Enterprises). In order for an SMME to become an e-business model. An SMME may start-up as an e-business without any transformation. Barriers to e-commerce adoption in htis research need to be identified. The research study should provide guidlines for SMMEs to use and pro-actively avoid possible barriers before and during the adoption process of e-business.

Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Technology: Public Management in the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology / The purpose of this study is to develop a business framework for the effective start-up and operation of African immigrant businesses in the Cape Town Metropolitan Area of South Africa. The question that guides this research is: how do African immigrants use their entrepreneurial attributes to acquire the resources necessary to start-up and operate successful businesses in the Cape Town Metropolitan Area?The study was conducted within the context of the economic development mandate as prescribed by the constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act, 1996. The development agenda also includes community, social and welfare promotion premised on the Keynesian principles that the government introduces interventions where there is an economic failure. In the South African context, this relates to unemployment and due to the prevailing economic down turns a greater reliance by the populace for social and welfare support. In recent years, immigrants especially from African countries have found themselves in a similar situation (That is in need of economic, social and welfare support). However, the government, particularly local government does not have the resources, especially financial resources to assist all local entrepreneurs, including immigrant entrepreneurs. Although there is a wide coverage of immigrant entrepreneurship in developed countries, much still has to be done as far as developing countries are concerned. From a South African perspective, there is so far no study entirely devoted to African immigrant entrepreneurship. This notwithstanding, there seems to be a growing consensus on the fact that SMMEs in South Africa are disproportionately constrained by start-up and operational factors such as finance, insufficient demand, lack of business skills and lack of information, although one cannot generalise especially as immigrant entrepreneurs face a slightly different dynamic. No studies focusing on immigrant-owned businesses in general and particularly how they tap into their entrepreneurial traits to start-up and grow successful businesses has been conducted in South Africa. At one level, the finding of this study provides vital information for new immigrants venturing into self employment. At another level, the study may provide vital insight into immigrant entrepreneurship in South Africa. Limited job opportunities force African immigrants into self-employment. However, due to the numerous challenges that they face, only a few of the immigrant-owned businesses get off the ground, let alone grow. It may be argued that most of these African immigrant-owned businesses fail to reach their full potential because they (the owners) are unable to exploit the entrepreneurial attributes that they bring or have at their disposal upon arrival. Three interrelated concepts: entrepreneurial attributes, business start-up and operation resources, and business success, are linked in this study to develop a framework for the effective start-up and operation of immigrant-owned businesses. The proposed framework seeks to encourage African immigrants to match the entrepreneurial attributes that they come with to the business opportunities and challenges that they may face in establishing and growing their businesses in South Africa.The study was designed within the quantitative and qualitative research paradigms, in which a triangulation of three methods was utilised to collect and analyse the data. From a quantitative perspective, the survey questionnaire was used. To complement the quantitative approach, personal interviews and focus groups were utilised as the methods within the qualitative approach paradigm. The research revealed that an African immigrant entrepreneur is most likely to be a male within the age range of 19 and 41 who has been forced to immigrate because of political circumstances back home. The decision to immigrate as well as the choice of South Africa as a host country was entirely dependent on the immigrant. Once in South Africa, limited job opportunities forced these immigrants into setting up their own businesses within the informal sector as their starting point. In order of importance, financial, physical, human, and informational resources were identified as being critical for the start-up and operation of a business in South Africa. In terms of acquiring the resources to start-up and operate a business, and from a financial perspective point, African immigrant entrepreneurs unwillingly made use of personal savings to finance their businesses during the start-up phase of the business. Financial resources played a double role in that they determined the main sources of physical resources used. From a human resource standpoint, African immigrant entrepreneurs preferred employing South Africans during the start-up phase of the business, and the reverse was true during the growth or operational phase. To a limited extent, family labour was involved at both the start-up as well as the operational phases of the business; with formal education and prior experience playing a significant role as far as the human resource mix was concerned. In terms of information, African immigrant entrepreneurs made use of two primary sources of information namely, their ethnic networks and friends from somewhere else.

Thesis (MTech(Human Resource Management)-- Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011 / While the relationship between training and organisational commitment has to some extent been widely researched, most of the information available in literature is based on studies done in western countries. The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between the research variables of employee perceptions of training (measured by perceived availability of training, perceived supervisor support for training and perceived co-worker support for training) and organisational commitment (measured by affective and continuance commitment) an their impact on turnover intentions among employees of SMMEs within the hotel sector of the Cape Metropole area of the Western Cape Province of South Africa.A quantitative descriptive approach to research was adopted through the use of survey questionnaire to elicit relevant information from the respondents. In the absence of a sample frame (comprising only small hotels within the Cape Metropole area) and in order to meet the criteria laid down by the National Business Act for small business, non-probability judgemental sampling was deemed appropriate and was used to identify 10 SMME hotels to participate in this study. A total 127 respondents were drawn from across the 10 hotels. The research variables were measured using validated instruments from prior studies.

Thesis (MTech (Human Resource Management))--Cape Technikon, Cape Town, 2003 / South Africa is a country that encompasses numerous population groups and cultures. The country has been embroiled in controversy since the beginning of the 20th century, notably for its human rights violations and abuse of the majority of its people; namely Blacks, Coloureds and Indians. The ruling parties since its inception as the Union of South Africa in 1910, until the demise of the National Party government in 1994, has ensured bias to the White minority population group. This favouritism was brought about politically and legislatively to protect Whites, reserve jobs and ensure segregation for the various population groups that were considered unequal, as it favoured Whites only. The country's first democratic elections in 1994 brought about a change of political will that warranted appropriate action, in order to address the imbalances of the past, for all those who were historically, previously disadvantaged. Programmes of affirmative action were required to redress these imbalances and provide necessary opportunities. The vast majority of South Africans, namely Blacks, therefore needed employment, housing and recreational facilities as previously they were not afforded many prospects. The researcher wanted to establish the state of the Black residential property market in the Western Cape, including the prospects for Black estate agents. Accordingly, an understanding of the political background of the last century was required. In order to implement Affirmative Action programmes in the real estate industry, a basic understanding of Affirmative Action was essential. The tasks and duties of estate agents had to be clarified and the position of the real estate industry with regards to the various population groups in the Western Cape was also deemed crucial. The researcher accordingly designed a questionnaire in order to conduct a survey to test public perceptions and attitudes. The researcher also concluded interviews with executives and principals representing the real estate industry. A focus group was utilised to discuss the results of the survey and they provided the researcher with qualitative data. The researcher combined this secondary qualitative data with primary quantitative data in order to develop a model which would assist the industry and prospective Black estate agents. The author believes that this model would be able to substantially benefit all the stakeholders in the real estate industry. Furthermore, the researcher is of the opinion that if this model and the recommendations are implemented, the residential market for the Western Cape would evolve naturally and Black estate agents would be in demand.

Thesis (MTech (Business Information Systems))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2006 / The emphasis on economic development of rural communities, especially small businesses within it has attracted the attention of most local, regional and national governments and non governmental agencies alike. As we move towards technology-oriented global market, community development now becomes a veritable strategy for ''pushing back the frontier of poverty" and maintaining socio-economic stability. This research argues that the deployment and use of appropriate e-commerce technology to facilitate this strategy is useful, and possibly, more suitable than any other tool or strategy. The research further examines the opportunities offered by ecommerce for small business development within the Western Cape. A framework that describes how e-commerce can support the addressing of the specific developmental needs of this community was developed. Six pilot communities involved in the pilot for the Cape Gateway Access Project initiated by the Centre for e-Innovation (Cel) of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape were investigated to find out how appropriate technologies are put to use and how they can be effectively deployed to promote entrepreneurship in these rural communities. The findings of this research reveal that the use of e-commerce by rural communities is a bit complicated. It is found that the availability and use of appropriate e-commerce technologies extend beyond provision of access, to provision of support outside technology and multi-stakeholder approach to addressing the economic situation of rural communities. The findings provide the basis for the recommendations and conclusions drawn in this research. However, the few entrepreneurs identified within the communities are found to be at different stages of e-commerce use. In general, most of the community members are unconsciously engaged in some form of e-commerce ranging from 828, 82C and G2C' , though not as significant as one would have envisaged.

M.Com. (Business Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The term “stakeholder engagement” has gained increasing prominence over the last few years in a variety of contexts. This interest has been fuelled by a range of issues that have taken place over time both from a global perspective and also from a South African perspective. From an international perspective, key among these issues include an increased dissatisfaction with business’s focus on stockholder/shareholder interests and the proliferation of business scandals that have been driven by an often singular focus on (financial) “bottom line”. This dissatisfaction has been further facilitated by the dramatic advances in communication technology that has enabled business malpractices to be instantaneously communicated around the globe with disastrous implications for business reputation. This dissatisfaction has resulted in calls on business for greater engagement with other stakeholders who have traditionally been on the periphery of business and have not received the attention it perhaps deserves, except when their interests had been blatantly violated. From a South African perspective the response to this issue is manifested in the attempt to review the corporate governance practices and guidelines of South African business through the lens provided by the King II Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa. This report has specifically highlighted the need for business to engage with all their stakeholders as contributors to the sustainable business success. This has resulted in an expansion of the notion of a singular (financial) “bottom line” to a so-called “triple bottom line” which also accommodates the social (including ethical) and environmental “bottom lines”. Typical questions that arise from a broader stakeholder approach need to be addressed. Examples of these are: Why should business engage with stakeholders? What are or should be the underlying reasons for engaging with stakeholders? Who are stakeholders? What are the implications of engaging with stakeholders? To answer these and other questions, the researcher set out to develop a framework for stakeholder engagement practices for South African business. In order to achieve this objective, the concept of stakeholder engagement was analyzed. This was conducted by reviewing the historical background that has led to the increasing emergence of stakeholder engagement interest by business. To facilitate an understanding of the field of stakeholder engagement an overview of stakeholder literature was presented and the current issues in the literature in relation to stakeholders reviewed. The applied research component of the study involved a qualitative content analysis of the annual reports of a sample of listed South African companies (N=22) to determine whether structured stakeholder engagement practices had been executed. If this had been the case, patterns of stakeholder engagement practices could have been identified. It was, however, found that these companies did not seem to have specific structured approaches to engage with their stakeholders. By integrating the findings from the literature review and the content analysis a framework for stakeholder engagement practices for South African business was developed. This framework depicts stakeholder engagement as a three-step process that broadly consists of stakeholder identification, planning for engagement (setting objectives, prioritizing and developing strategies) and implementation (defining performance measures, monitoring outcomes and reporting). / Prof. LJ Van Vuuren

M.Com. (Financial Management) / Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its effective reporting are becoming increasingly important. Evidence suggests that there is a growing trend towards investment in companies which are social and environmental conscious. The mining sector in South Africa (SA) is characterised by labour disputes, environmental concerns and seemingly negative impact on local communities. Public opinion and the media commonly perceive the sector to be unwilling to improve on its CSR activities and performance. The goal of the study was to determine whether SA mining companies have adequately integrated CSR into their reporting and whether the extent and depth of CSR reporting is sufficient for the companies to be classified as a CSR conscious investment. To achieve this goal a content analysis was conducted on the official reports of the five largest (measured by market capitalisation) South African mining companies. Each company‟s CSR was analysed by determining trends, the extent and the depth of reporting in the CSR categories; community, diversity, employee relations, environment and human rights. The results indicated that there is a positive trend towards the sample of mining companies becoming socially responsible. The results, however, also indicate that there is a large degree of variation between the sampled companies and that the extent and depth of human rights reporting is a general concern which needs to be addressed.

M.Comm. / Although the marketing concept has been the cornerstone of the modern marketing discipline for twenty years, insufficient attention has been given to its implementation. In recent years there has been renewed interest from academics and practitioners regarding the marketing concept and market orientation. Market orientation, the skills and competencies related to it have accordingly prevailed in the marketing and management literature. This resurgence of interest is not surprising, since the implementation of the marketing concept represents the foundation of high quality marketing practice. Market orientation is a business philosophy that makes the customer the focal point of the company's entire operation. Becoming market orientated therefore requires significant changes in the culture, processes and structure of the traditional organization. Market orientated organizations nonetheless has an important competitive advantage in providing customer value and achieving superior performance. Market orientation is therefore a significant cause of business success. All over the world it has been recognized that the small business sector plays an important, if not critical role in the social and economic development of a country. This also applies to South Africa. Small businesses inadvertently have been more reluctant than larger firms to embrace the marketing concept to obtain organizational goals. The relative importance of both small businesses and market orientation in the business environment led to this study concerning the market orientation of small businesses. Therefore the research problem chosen for this study is to determine the market orientation of small businesses in South Africa.