In fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Management in Finance and Investment at the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management at the University of Witwatersrand Graduate School of Business, 2016 / The increasing number of BB-BEE policies and strategies aimed at supporting SMEs in South Africa is evidence that Black-owned SMEs are important for development of the country. Between 2007 and 2010, the number of SMEs grew by almost 60%, contributing approximately 61% of the country's GDP. In spite of the widespread financial support put in place by government agencies to support them, findings reported that SMEs in South Africa score a relatively high failure rate. Moreover, little is known about the causes of these high failure rates. This thesis aimed at filling the gap in the literature by identifying the risks that South African Black-owned SMEs face. In doing so, Black-owned SME owners/managers were interviewed across various industry sectors. This revealed that although these owners/managers were well educated and skilled, they did not believe that their staff were trained enough. The findings revealed financial risks were still the most prominent risks these SMEs face, which seemingly gave rise to other risk factors such as the lack of access to technological improvements or skilled labour, and their inability to set up or run effective marketing strategic plans. The gap between the supply of and the demand for financial support for Black-owned SMEs could be attributed to a number of factors, including red tape, bureaucracy, corruption, politics and an unstable economy. A number of implications followed from this. For the financial support to reach its target effectively, independent and transparent micro-finance institutions have to be in place. This needs to be coupled with the establishment of a platform for Blackowned SMEs that could be used to market Black-owned SME products and services. Another solution could be the design of SME-aligned skills transfer incubation programmes. Applying the results from this research, one should be careful to consider its limitations because of the small sample size and selection criteria, which imply that these results cannot be generalised beyond the scope of this study. / XL2018

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Commerce in Business Science from the School of Economics and Business Sciences. Johannesburg South Africa / Increasing competition in industries has made it necessary for established companies to regenerate themselves and renew their ability to compete. This is the goal of Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) activities, which involve extending the firm‟s domain of competence and corresponding opportunity set, through internally and externally resources. Recently, CE has evoked interest not only from academics, but also from business practitioners and policy makers. This interest stems from the recognition of the advantage that can be gained from corporate entrepreneurship activities (Entebang, Mansor, & Puah, (2006). The prominence of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the economy continues to grow. Their assets have been growing steadily since 2011 while SOEs play a critical role in the economic pursuit of advancing economic growth and developmental objectives of the country (Brown, 2014). This dissertation assesses the impact of forms of capital on corporate entrepreneurship in State Owned Enterprises in South Africa. The focus is on three forms of entrepreneurial capital which are; (1) economic capital, (2) human capital, and (3) social capital. Each form of capital is critical and has been discussed in the literature in order to orientate its utility in relation to entrepreneurship. The study was carried out in three major SOEs, which are administered by the Department of Public Enterprises. The study was based on quantitative measures using a self-administrated questionnaire. It was found that some forms of capital have a significant impact on a company‟s entrepreneurial activities. For instance, it was found that forms of entrepreneurial capital have significant influence on corporate entrepreneurship because they contributed positive toward the growth of the business. This study considered the nature or the quality of the company‟s workforce by means of employee human capital. Therefore, of all the managerial processes that can affect the pursuit of corporate entrepreneurial outcomes, Human capital is considered as one of the more vital. Furthermore, the recent loan guarantees from government to SOEs such as Eskom and South African Airways are a practical indication on the level of importance Economic capital is on corporate entrepreneurial activities. On Social capital and Corporate Entrepreneurship, Foil (1995) argued that it is the access to a diverse set of firm resources that significantly enhances corporate entrepreneurship activities, which points to the importance of Social capital at multiple levels within the organisations in pursuing corporate entrepreneurship. However, more research is required to investigate further how forms of capital impact established company‟s entrepreneurial activities. / MT2017

Thesis (M.M.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2016. / Alternative funding models for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are more often than not reviewed from the perspective of the entrepreneur, in line with the need for funding in each growth phase. This research addresses the problem of funding availability for SMEs by interrogating what funding models are viable from the supply side through the growth phases of a small business in South Africa. The variables employed are loan amount advanced to the small business sector, risk appetite structures and measures, such as size, product, lending rate and sector. Using individual firm data in a cross section regression framework, the results of the study indicate a positive relationship between the size of the firm and the loan amount advanced. Evidence is presented that suggests that macroeconomic factors, such as the interest rate, do not have significant influence on lending. Further, and in confirmation of previous literature, this study indicates that there is a general lack of knowledge on how to fund small businesses in South Africa, and this research contributes to the existing literature by providing insights on the alternative models used by lenders to supply funding to SMEs. / GR2018

Submitted in the partial fulfilment for the Degree of Master of Arts in Development Studies Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand, March 2017 / The precarious existence of Uber drivers operating within Johannesburg’s metropolitan area is the primary area of study in which this dissertation has undertaken. Driver precarity, defined in the study as the loss of labour market security in various forms, is argued to stem from Uber’s sharing economy-inspired business model. The analysis of Uber’s business model, substantively focuses on the service’s dynamic pricing model of fare price setting, the implementation of a ‘rating’ system in which to evaluate driver performance and the use of ‘independent contractor’ labour. It is argued that each of these three Uber business practices place drivers in a position of precarity in the realm of their income, employment, work and job security. The study mobilises a qualitative research methodology, enlisting the methods of unstructured interviews on eight active Uber drivers, four autoethnographical observations on real-time work behaviour and document analysis to generate data for analysis. The prevailing argument made regarding Uber’s precarity-creation, is aided through a consultation of Guy Standing’s theorisation on precarity (2011), with Harvey’s flexible Accumulation theory (1990), Foucault’s Panopticism thesis (1975) and Hochschild’s emotional labour theory (1983) broadening the scope of the analysis. / XL2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management specialising in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation, 2016 / Despite the significant role that SMMEs play in the growth of developed and developing economies, they are often plagued by various constraints. Access to finance is considered as one of the major constraints that exist within businesses and is also a consequence of other issues which create an impediment towards the success of SMMEs which compromises the growth of any given economy. The pervasive issue on the lack of access to finance tends to be greater for informal businesses as opposed to formal businesses due to various aspects, such as the entrepreneurial attributes that informal business owner-managers have, which are indeed found to be lacking, consequently leading to circumstances where banks reject loan applications made by these businesses, suppliers reject any request of trade credits made by the owner-managers operating these businesses and potential investors find these businesses to be less attractive when investing for future returns. This study has examined certain determinant factors that are embedded within the theory of entrepreneurship which are perceived to be some of the factors which in essence are considered as success drivers for the growth of all forms of businesses. More importantly, these factors have been closely analysed in the context of informal businesses with regard to whether they prove to be important factors to soliciting finance which is considered a crucial resource for the growth of informal SMMEs. In examining the perceived importance of each of these factors in relation with access to finance, as well as the perceived importance of finance in leading to growth of informal SMMEs, a self-administered questionnaire was distributed across 385 informal business owner-managers in the Gauteng province. Given that the nature of the study was quantitative, descriptive and inferential statistics were performed on the data. Various statistical methods, such as correlation analyses and multiple regressions, were employed to test the proposed hypotheses associated with the relationship of social capital, and human capital to the access to finance, and access to finance on growth. The findings reflected that social capital and human capital are important factors to accessing finance. Furthermore, access to finance is an important factor in the growth of SMMEs in the informal sector. The study contributes towards addressing the existing gap in the knowledge base regarding the determinants of financial access for SMMEs. It also contributes towards providing direction to policy makers involved in enterprise development to reach out to informal business ownermanagers by providing training to these entrepreneurs so as to improve their social and human capital and grow their businesses to graduate into the formal sector as their contribution is needed to grow the South African economy / GR2018

Thesis (M.M.(Finance & Investment)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2017 / This study investigated whether the financial sector (private and public) is accessible to the SME’s and entry level entrepreneurs dominated by Black and poor people. The study employed a comparative analysis method; it compared the structure of the South African financial sector to those of India and Brazil, as newly industrialised countries. The finding indicates that the South African financial sector lacked the presence of state-owned financial institutions as in the comparable NCI countries to support SMEs and entry level Black entrepreneurs. The study then recommended the creation of state-owned microfinance institutions, whose performance will determine the need of state-owned banks / GR2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management specialising in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation Johannesburg, 2016 / Very little information seems to exist on the role of women in South African family owned businesses. Women in family businesses need to be recognized in order to highlight the constraints they may be facing and their contributions to the economy. The purpose of the study is to determine how human and social capital variables can empower women in family businesses to enhance their success or address their challenges. This research study follows a positivistic paradigm and a questionnaire was developed to assess the research objectives. The questionnaire was sent out to a sample of 200 females involved in family owned businesses from South Africa and 150 responses were received. The findings revealed that at lower levels of education, females were the key decision makers for business expenditure, borrowing and investment decisions. With regards to experience inside and outside of the family business, decision making was shared between males and females with the exception of business expenditure decision making at 0-5 years experience inside the family business. Furthermore, decision making was generally shared between males and females for most of the social capital variables, with the exception of using or relying on partnerships where females did not play apparent decision making roles. Practical recommendations from the findings for women in family owned businesses include shifting from operational to more strategic decision making; gaining experience outside of family owned business to strengthen decision making capabilities; which in turn, would empower them to tackle riskier elements of social capital, like relying on partnerships and conducting business on trust. / MT2017

D. Tech. Technology in Business Administration / The purpose of the study was to identify and quantify differential factors that affect economic viability and long-term survival in small, micro and medium-sized enterprises (SMMEs) that operate in and around the City of Tshwane in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The research was based on a 5-year follow-up study (2007 to 2012) of a random sample of 349 small and medium-sized business enterprises that operate in and around the City of Tshwane in South Africa. Data was gathered from each of the businesses on socioeconomic factors that are known to affect the long-term survival of small, micro and medium-sized businesses. The objective of the study was to identify and quantify key predictors of viability and long term survival.

M. Tech. Business Administration / This study focuses on innovator biopharmaceutical companies (also known as biomedical companies) and aims to explore the reasons why such companies invest into South Africa. Biomedical FDI (foreign direct investment) is the type of FDI (foreign direct investment) that takes place in research, both basic and clinical research and development. It also aims to provide useful information and insights about biomedical investments into South Africa, as there is a dearth of publications in this area.

Organisations in South Africa are facing many local and global pressures for reconfiguration through various interventions that encourage global integration and competitiveness, and simultaneously aim to promote social redress and empowerment of the previously disadvantaged in the region. Organisations are required to achieve global competitiveness and economic success, as well as simultaneously allow for redistribution. The aim of the research reported on here, was to explore the influences of local and global trends on the structures and practices of organisations. Questions were asked about the imperatives behind these dynamics specifically those of global competitiveness and local redress, as well as the feasibility of realising these apparently contradictory demands. This was done through a case study of the Monte Vista Hollywood and Sugar Mill Casinos in KwaZulu-Natal, and a comparison with U.S. Indian Reservation casinos. The research findings showed that the responses to the global pressures of competitiveness and local pressures of social redress used by the two casinos, were at times contradictory, questioning whether the industry would have the envisaged positive impacts of economic growth and social redistribution. However, clear answers to these were not forthcoming due to the lack of reliable information, suggesting further research into the topic. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.