M.Comm. / The aim of this study was to explore the concept of internationalisation of South African businesses, to determine the entry strategies required to penetrate foreign markets, to examine the challenges these companies are likely to confront and also to analyse the impact of the internationalisation process on the local economy. It was established at the outset that the political environment of the past negatively affected the social and the economic environment. It caused the isolation of South Africa and its businesses and this meant that they were unable to play an effective role in the global economy. However, the advent of democracy has opened doors of challenges and opportunities. It was also established that most firms become international by a process of reeping 'incrementalism' rather than by strategy. It was shown that companies that seek to internationalise must conceive strategy and work towards the venture.

This study shows that cyber crime is a recent addition to the list of crimes that can adversely affect businesses directly of indirectly. This phenomenon was not directly prosecutable in South Africa until the enactment of the ECT Act in July 2002. However this Act also prevents businesses to fully prosecute a hacker due to incompleteness. Any kind of commercially related crime can be duplicated as cyber crime. Therefore very little research appears or has been documented about cyber crime in South African companies before 2003.11.21 The motivation to do this study was that businesses often loose millions in cyber attacks, not necessarily through direct theft but by the loss of service and damage to the image of the company. Most of the companies that were approached for interviews on cyber crime were reluctant to share the fact that they were hacked or that cyber crime occurred at their company as it violates their security policies and may expose their fragile security platforms. The purpose of this study was to attempt to get an overall view on how South African businesses are affected by cyber crime in the banking and short term insurance sector of the South African industry and also to determine what legislation exist in this country to protect them. The case study approach was used to determine the affect of cyber crime on businesses like banks and insurance companies. Each case was interviewed, monitored and was observed over a period of a year. This study discloses the evaluation of the results of how cyber crime affected the cases, which were part of this study. The banks felt that they were at an increased risk both externally and internally, which is likely to increase as the migration towards electronic commerce occurs. The insurance industry felt that they are not yet affected by external cyber crime attacks in this country.

The research problem addressed in this study was to identify the generic strategies that small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME’s) are required to implement in order to achieve competitive advantage in the highly competitive global automotive market. Markets have merged into one huge global marketplace, increasing the competitive forces on all the participants in the automotive markets. Strategies to achieve competitive advantage has changed from the traditional domestic strategies to that of strategies required for global competitive advantage. This has created challenges for SMME’s to attain competitive advantage essential in the fast-changing global markets. The East Cape Motor Industry Cluster (ECMIC) is the heart of the SA automotive industry with three of the major automobile manufacturers having their assembly plants located in the Buffalo and Nelson Mandela Metropoles. A significant number of component manufacturers and their suppliers serve these manufacturers, as well as the other automobile manufacturers located elsewhere in South Africa. Many of these component manufacturers and suppliers are SMME’s. The need to become globally competitive is thus critical for SMME’s in the region. This study investigates the generic strategies that SMME organisations are required to implement in order to achieve competitive advantage in the ECMIC, and based on this and the empirical study that seeks opinion from management of SMME firms in the ECMIC, a model of generic strategies to create competitive advantage is developed.

The primary research objective considered by this study was to determine the nature of the governance system employed by the Offerman Family businesses in ensuring that all company assets, resources and actions are directed at, and controlled in the achievement of established company objectives and are accounted for to all legitimate stakeholders. Four related secondary objectives were also examined. The Offerman Family businesses consist of three separate companies that all make clay bricks in some form. Over recent years, the Offerman Family businesses have grown and taken on various minority shareholders in these three separate companies. For this reason, the governance requirements of the businesses have changed significantly from when the businesses were smaller and owned by a single family. The literature review on which the study is founded commences with an overview of family business topics appropriate to the research. Following this introduction, the history of the Offerman Family businesses is presented through until the present day (August 2010). Topics of governance are then considered in depth with a particular focus maintained throughout on that most applicable to the Offerman Family businesses. The research followed a case study approach within the phenomenological research paradigm. The details of the methodology employed are provided including an explanation of the questionnaire used as the research instrument. The questionnaire was submitted to ten people capable of influencing governance in the Offerman Family businesses and a useful response rate of 90 percent was achieved. The findings of the research detail the nature of the governance system employed by the Offerman Family businesses. It appears that there are shortcomings with family governance while governance of the businesses seems to be facilitated by the presence of the requisite governance building blocks such as a board of directors. Nevertheless, these governance systems are currently not functioning optimally leaving considerable room for improvement. The study closes with a review of the secondary research objectives and the resolution thereof. A list of recommendations is provided, which if implemented, could assist the Offerman Family businesses towards improving governance. Recommendations towards additional research are offered followed by an explanation of the limitations of the study.

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 Masters of Commerce (Development Theory and Policy) 15 April 2016 / Using a multiple case study approach of three R&D performing firms in South Africa, this research explored whether current R&D internationalisation trends are having a positive or negative effect on South Africa’s investments in research and development (R&D). The research found that, contrary to theoretical proposition, the three firms have not relocated core parts or their entire R&D to technologically advanced countries abroad as a result of their increased international exposure. Instead, they have broadened their scope of R&D to integrate foreign-based knowledge inputs. The research also found that increased internationalisation causes firms to alter their approaches to R&D exploitation through incremental improvements on- and/or finding new applications ofexisting technologies and creating new markets for them. Three motives influenced the firms, namely to access new knowledge not available locally, to access human capital and to exploit existing capabilities in new markets. Where firms reduced their local R&D investment, such activities were not being relocated to abroad. Increased competition fostered firms’ R&D efficiency. Firms reviewed their internal structures to maximise intellectual property (IP) value; they adopted stricter methods for evaluating new R&D requirements; and they afforded higher priority to R&D with better potential for success. Most of this is meant to exploit existing knowledge. The findings are applicable to Emerging Economy Multinational Enterprises (EMNEs) that already have well-established R&D capability at home and experience operating in the international R&D environment. / MT2017

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of Master of Technology: Cost and Management Accounting, Durban University of Technology, 2011. / As a result of current business trends, South African companies are being forced to examine changes in the finance function. The purpose of this research is to establish and examine the paradigm shift in the finance functions of selected South African companies in KwaZulu-Natal, and to develop a measuring tool to determine the degree to which these functions are evolving to be more in line with a value adding paradigm. A mixed methods approach was used in this study, with qualitative analysis supported by some quantitative analysis. A case study approach was adopted, and non-probability sampling using the purposive method was applied to select eleven respondents. The data was gathered by means of both a questionnaire and follow up interviews. The data has been analysed using a combination of both descriptive and inferential statistics, and qualitative analysis. It was found that the majority of respondents were not measuring the cost of, nor were they focused on reducing the resources allocated to the finance function. In addition, the major portion of finance function resources remain focused on the accounting processing roles of the finance function. However, an increasing emphasis on the decision support and strategy formulation roles was discovered. A measuring tool was developed and applied to the finance functions of respondents. This brought the researcher to the conclusion that the finance functions of respondents could not be confirmed as value adding business units. It was recommended that finance function resources be mapped according to the various roles identified. The measuring tool could then be applied to reveal potential areas of change that would result in the finance function transforming into a value adding business unit. Future research into an appropriate finance function performance measurement system, and the impact on the training of accountants of the changing finance function paradigm, was identified.

M. Tech. Organisational Leadership / Over the past few decades, increasing attention has been paid to the contribution of Universities of Technology towards advancing the frontiers of science and technology. However, such research is descriptive and lacks a theoretical framework. Relying on the resource-based theory and incubation models, the present research is concerned with proposing a theoretical framework for the enabling factors that influence the graduation of new technology-based firms that result from the commercialisation of research and technology through to becoming established businesses from university technology business incubators. This framework is being proposed with two major objectives in mind. The first is to identify the main enabling factors that influence the graduation of new technology-based firms within university technology business incubators, which may provide a base for university stakeholders to design an appropriate incubation programme aimed at timely and successful graduation of new technology-based firms. The second is to link the development of business ideas to enabling factors that influence their progression into graduate businesses, which may provide a better understanding of how university incubation aspects work, providing theoretical insights into the incubation process of new technology-based firms. In the theoretical framework, a number of enabling factors were identified as components of the incubation process, namely stringent selection and admission criteria, administrative and legal policies, access to financial resources, access to university entrepreneurial network/mediation, and access to organisational resources and business support services. The most significant finding of the research is that there are a number of enabling factors that influence the graduation of new technology-based firms within university technology business incubators, the most significant of which are stringent selection and admission criteria, the business support services, financial resources, university entrepreneurial network/ mediation and organisational resources. Each of these factors is grouped into three stages: the pre incubation stage, the incubation stage and the graduation stage.

Since 1994, tourism has become one of the most benefited industries among the overall of the South African economy. However, the industry is still far from being an example of transformations. The tourism industry in South Africa is still dominated by white-owned large enterprises, leaving limited space for the development of black-owned small tourism businesses. The existing literature identifies that government support represents a key variable regarding small tourism business development, specifically among black entrepreneurs. This study evaluated the role of provincial government support in the development of black-owned small tourism businesses in the South Africa, with a focus on Cape Town.

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 / The prominence of international entrepreneurship in the global economy is of great importance and interest to researchers, entrepreneurs and governments alike. International business and accelerated internationalisation focus on multinational companies as well as entrepreneurial ventures for growth and innovative collaborations across borders in the global environment. The dominant logic for any corporate organisation today is to ensure that it facilitates and fosters an ecosystem that is conducive to innovation. The concept of generating opportunity through creativity and exploiting it with innovation, has proved to be extremely difficult, yet valuable. Innovation and control systems balance each other to ensure a pro-entrepreneurial organisational climate. Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) has received substantial attention in entrepreneurship research, which expands and develops a cumulative body of knowledge. The CE strategy is conceptualised by identifying key principles and components. This research is formulated to investigate the pro-entrepreneurial organisational architecture, as well as the entrepreneurial process and behaviour that individually and collectively encourage entrepreneurial orientation (EO). The relationships between the identified variables and moderators in a bank in the financial sector of South Africa are measured. Stevenson’s (1983) dimensions of entrepreneurial management, defined as a set of opportunity-based constructs, was measured by the EM measurement scale. Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) was assessed with the Miller/Covin- Slevin scale and linked to the entrepreneurial or innovative process of the company. Analysis of 178 samples (n=2229) indicated positive relationships between the variables, confirming theories in literature on the effects or predictions of the elements in the CE strategy on each other. The effect of success or failure in implementation indicated no moderating effect. Recommendations to address in future research are suggested. / MT2017

M. Tech. Entrepreneurship / The world is experiencing remarkable social, political, economic and entrepreneurial changes and challenges. Some of these challenges relate to the incorporation of various social cultures to the business culture. Managers, businessmen and entrepreneurs need to reconcile the various cultural dimensions to survive in a highly competitive global market environment. When doing business with people it is important to understand what defines them and most people are defined by their social culture and tradition. Culture is therefore an important aspect in understanding how we all interact in our social and business lives. Culture creates the rules for social interaction that conditions how people will react to others within the business environment and that form of interaction occurs according to rules (norms) and values embedded in our various cultures. The purpose of the study is to investigate the influence of the Ubuntu philosophy and its practice on the functionality of family businesses.