M.Ing. / This dissertation aims to identify the skills, characteristics and management principles necessary for engineers who are involved in entrepreneurial activity. The dissertation covers the fundamental concepts influencing engineering managers; the marketing skills and processes which serve as a basis for successful entrepreneurship; training and development of entrepreneurial engineers; the engineer's function within the entrepreneurial environment; consulting engineering as a facet of entrepreneurship; business planning and financial controls, and finally a case study to correlate theory and practice and to provide a reference for future study. The primary objectives of the research are: to assess the realm of entrepreneurship; to determine what the engineering management principles required are in order to become a successful entrepreneur; to discuss the engineering process from an entrepreneurial perspective; to assess the engineering population in order to determine the potential for entrepreneurship and to formulate a proposal for successful entrepreneurial engineering. This study aims to serve as a reference for engineers who may decide to enter into an entrepreneurial at some point in their career.

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The past economic dictate of large-scale production has worn out; the era of the managed economy has eventually come to an end. Instead, entrepreneurship is taking over as the new driver of worldwide economic development. Today, the people from the Lebanon have become an allegory for successful entrepreneurial endeavours abroad. Existing theories demonstrated that the experiences arising from migration enhance the ability to discover entrepreneurial opportunities. However, only a few academic sources actively discussed and explored the phenomenon of Lebanese entrepreneurship, thus leaving a gap for research. On these grounds, the purpose of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of how entrepreneurs of Lebanese origin engage in entrepreneurial activities in Sweden. The country of Sweden is facing a major transformation in its economic structure. Previously dependent on the export of raw materials, Sweden is now moving towards a knowledge-intensive economy, a shift that naturally results in an increase of entrepreneurial activities. In the theory chapter, various sub-concepts of entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurial process as well as the definition of a diaspora and its characteristics are explored. The following research question was elaborated: How does the entrepreneurial process of entrepreneurs with Lebanese origins, building up their economic activities in Sweden, look like? In order to gather the necessary empirical data to address the research question, four semi-structured interviews were conducted. In the analysis chapter, the collected data was scrutinized and matched with frameworks and theories extracted from the theory chapter. The final chapter contains the conclusion and limitations of this study, and makes suggestions for further research. This thesis contributes to existing research by providing information about the entrepreneurial process of immigrants, when setting up a business in Sweden. The main implication of this thesis constitutes that each entrepreneur has pursued their unique entrepreneurial path. Similarities were detected in the willingness to contribute to the Swedish society by proving their capabilities and the shared affiliation to their Lebanese heritage. Variances were found in the entrepreneurial processes as well as in the reasons for their involvement in entrepreneurial activities. To illustrate, some of the surveyed entrepreneurs discovered an entrepreneurial opportunity, whereas others created opportunities through their deliberate action.

Magister Commercii - MCom / There has been a lot of comment and reaction to the presence of immigrants in South Africa, and most of it has been very negative. In light of the negative reaction, one can ask whether immigrants do in fact add any value to the well being of the host countries, given their education, experience and high involvement in small businesses. Several studies have noted that the relatively highr level of education and skills of migrants is at the same level as those of the host populations. This research is aimed at contributing to the debate of the perception that immigrants are taking up jobs that are supposed to belong to South Africans. / South Africa

The global economy is creating profound and substantial changes for businesses and industries throughout the world. These changes make it necessary for businesses to examine their purpose carefully and to devote a great deal of attention to selecting and following strategies in their pursuit of the levels of success that have a high probability of satisfying multiple stakeholders. There is a significant amount of written consensus regarding corporate entrepreneurship as a means for promoting and sustaining global corporate entrepreneurship and economic growth. This consensus focuses mainly on international businesses and not on South African businesses. Before corporate entrepreneurship and innovation can be instilled in an industry or business the current status must first be determined. Little empirical research is available in the South African context that indicates the successes and failures of corporate entrepreneurship in businesses. This study addresses the management dilemma that exists (particularly in South Africa) as how to foster and implement corporate entrepreneurship in businesses to sustain this competitive advantage and improve performance. Ireland, Kuratko and Morris (2006) developed a corporate entrepreneurship health audit instrument to assess corporate entrepreneurship and innovation in a business. The purpose of this study is to make use of this health audit instrument to assess the corporate entrepreneurial and innovative levels in the South African short-term insurance industry. The empirical evidence indicated that significant statistical differences exist between the employees in the short-term insurance industry in terms of various aspects of the degree and frequency of entrepreneurship, and various corporate entrepreneurial climate factors (management support, work discretion, time availability and organisational boundaries). The results of two self-administered questionnaires revealed that gaps exist in the businesses in terms of the various business units as well as the management levels. A corporate entrepreneurial development programme can be developed to address these gaps. The study proved that an international instrument can be applied in a South African context. Because this was the first formal study being done in the field of corporate entrepreneurship in the South African short-term insurance industry, it can serve as a benchmark for individual short-term insurance businesses. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Business Management / unrestricted

Against the background of reports such as the Global entrepreneurship monitor (Foxcroft, Wood, Kew, Herrington&Segal 2002) and the World competitiveness report (2003), indicating that South African small businesses lag behind their counterparts worldwide with entrepreneurship, the research questions driving this study were: · What is unique about creativity in the entrepreneurship domain i.e., can creativity as a concept be uniquely delimited in order to contribute towards the development of the concept of entrepreneurial skills? · What are the perceptions among South African small business owners of their own creativity and their application of it? · What are the implications of the above for the development of entrepreneurs? A literature study of the entrepreneurship theory pointed to a number of unique concepts considered as crucial to venture growth, namely, sustained opportunity exploitation and maximisation which could be regarded as the “creative” activities of the entrepreneur. The entrepreneurial process was investigated to establish the entrepreneurial tasks and processes underlying opportunity exploitation and venture growth maximisation. Apart from depicting activities such as opportunity identification, development and refinement of the business concept, assessment and acquiring of the necessary resources and implementation, the literature seemed vague and referred more often to skills required for the above tasks, such as entrepreneurial skills and management skills. It was established that entrepreneurial skills include, inter alia, creativity, visioning, risk taking and role modelling. The creative process activities were linked with those of the entrepreneurial process to establish whether there are unique entrepreneurial applications of creativity. The following “creative acts” were identified as critical in the entrepreneurship domain: · “creation of a business/opportunity”, · “synthesis” i.e., the putting together of systems/resources and even opportunities, and · “modification” i.e., the adapting, changing of processes, etc., to realise growth. The current situation pertaining to entrepreneurship training and development was investigated to establish whether the above was addressed in the existing training models and learning contents of the domain. It was concluded that despite great advancement having been made in the training and development of creativity and innovation in the entrepreneurship domain, the experiential element of applying the activities of creation, synthesis and modification in order to obtain sustained venture growth is difficult to address in formal learning programmes. Against the background of research (Jung, Ehrlich, Noble&Baik 2001:42) that found that there were positive relationships between an individual’s level of self-efficacy and performance, South African small business owners’ perceptions of their own creativity, their businesses’ innovativeness and their implementation orientation was tested empirically. It was found that South African small business owners perceived themselves to be creative and their businesses to be reasonably innovative but that there was a negative relationship between these two perceptions and the implementation orientation. The high esteem of own creativity and innovation versus a lower implementation orientation is indicative of a need to develop experiential training programmes focused on the implementation of creative activities i.e., commercialisation of products and application of innovation in businesses. In view of the high esteem South African small business owners have of their own creativity, the question is posed as to whether they would be willing to undergo training because they might think they do not need training in this field. In view of the difficulties of incorporating experiential learning content in formal training programmes it is proposed that the possibility of integrated learning be investigated and developed to include business information centres, networking, linkages, mentoring and tutoring. Copyright / Thesis (PhD (Entrepreneurship))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Business Management / unrestricted

<p> Growing numbers of America&rsquo;s 1,281,432 active licensed attorneys open their own law firms due to strained employment opportunities. With 50% of small businesses failing within 5 years, and solo law offices accounting for 75% of attorneys in private practice, there is a need for preparing solo criminal law practitioners for business success. Some solo criminal law practitioners do not understand the critical business performance variables that impact small business success. The total population for this quantitative correlational study included solo criminal law practitioners from the Philadelphia Bar Association <i>Legal Directory</i> and Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers members. Barney&rsquo;s resource-based theory (RBV) and Lussier&rsquo;s nonfinancial success-failure business prediction model were the foundational frameworks of this study. I used Lussier&rsquo;s nonfinancial success-failure questionnaire to collect data via a self-administered survey. A Kendall tau correlation was used to determine the relationship between Lussier&rsquo;s 16 independent variables measuring success or failure and a single dependent variable of &lsquo;level of profits&rsquo; for the 31 participants. 31 participants (4%) is a very low response rate. Increased participation is needed for better research results. Fifteen of the 16 variables showed no relationships with the level of success. Only 1 hypothesis showed a relationship between the type of start-up plan developed by the firm and the level of success (&tau; = .322, p = .032). The findings from this study support the Small Business Association&rsquo;s definition of a business plan as a living roadmap for business success. The implications for positive social change include the potential to increase employment opportunities by directly impacting the economy in creating economic expansion.</p><p>

<p> In countries around the world, refugees have started to create economic identity through entrepreneurial activities. In doing so, they boost new business formation, innovation, and job creation. Acknowledging this potential, the Austrian Federal Government passed a comprehensive program in 2015 to support start-up businesses. This program targets Austrian and foreign-born entrepreneurs alike. Recent estimates are that between 3,000 and 14,700 refugees could begin businesses in Austria. Beyond the examination of the success factors and barriers of refugee entrepreneurs, this case study sought to explore how the start-up programs capture the needs of refugee entrepreneurs. </p><p> The target population consisted of 12 recognized refugees who were about to start, or have started, a business within the past 5 years in Austria. Using online surveys and narrative interviews, the aim of this study was to yield insight into the successes and barriers refugee entrepreneurs encountered in becoming business owners in Austria. Further, a survey with five service providers of start-up programs aimed to support documentation of the offered services and how their activities mitigate the barriers to meet entrepreneur&rsquo;s needs to become successful. </p><p> Findings show that the biggest barriers for refugee entrepreneurs lie within the institutional environment (e.g., tax and social security regulations), lack of human capital (e.g., lack of German language skills), and access to resources (e.g., access to financial capital). The presence or absence of German language skills is a particularly significant factor. Combined with business administration skills, it offered a great advantage. Other success factors included knowing one&rsquo;s start-up reasons and having favorable market conditions.</p><p> From the clients&rsquo; viewpoint, start-up service providers appear to offer appropriate services for refugee entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, data suggest that agencies could improve delivery of service on the program level and in regard to coordination among and beyond service providers. Some reasons why refugee entrepreneurs&rsquo; needs are not fully met include lack of cultural contextualization of knowledge or demands that exceed supply. Based on expressed barriers and needs, this study provides recommendations for how start-up service providers could improve their services on both the program and the systems level.</p><p>

Universities are facing growing pressure to contribute towards innovation which has social impact and which contributes to economic development. Researchers mainly in the Science and Engineering fields are the primary sources of innovation outputs from universities and as such their involvement in commercialisation activities directly adds to the growth of innovative outputs from publicly financed research. Technology Transfer Offices (TTO) have been established at universities across South Africa to foster the involvement of researchers in commercialisation activities, to champion the innovation conversation within higher education institutions and to progress innovations from concept to application in society. This study focussed on understanding the factors which enable or create a barrier to the involvement of researchers in commercialisation activities at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. The key elements examined in this study include the researchers’ perception of enablers (monetary and nonmonetary incentives) and barriers to involvement at national, institutional and individual levels. This study undertook to understand the perceptions of researchers of enablers and barriers to involvement in commercialisation at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Researchers in the two faculties of Science and Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology were approached to anonymously complete an electronic survey, the questions for which were developed from literature. The results from the survey were analysed using descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing. This study finds that a combination of incentives is necessary to enable researcher involvement and to lower barriers to involvement in commercialisation research. A set of recommendations based on the study are put forward on how such recommendations can be implemented.

In the rapidly evolving organisational landscapes of today, the quest to grow or sustain competitive advantage demands that organisational practices become more innovative, hence innovative advantage. Globalisation and technological advances drive the necessity for innovation within organisational contexts and the resultant rapid pace of change demands that organisations adopt an intrapreneurial orientation to accommodate this need for innovation. South African organisations, in particular those within the automotive sector, are faced with both unique opportunities and threats as a result of the increased impact of globalisation and the resultant open markets in the post-apartheid era. Programs offered by governmental institutions for this industry sector, such as the Motor Industry Development Programme (MIDP), as well as widely promoted systems such as those engendered by continuous improvement and benchmarking to achieve excellence, are successful only in attaining uniformity and incremental improvements and one-dimensional thinking methodologies. The quest for innovation advantage requires increased creative activity to assist individuals within these organisations in adopting an intrapreneurial outlook to provide proactive solutions. The literature survey has revealed that top-down controls and centralised decision-making as provided by corporate entrepreneurship, is the antithesis of intrapreneurship. Intrapreneurship is thus an autonomous process. Federal Mogul Sealing Systems (FMSS), an automotive component manufacturer within the Eastern Cape served as the basis for this study. A detailed literature review was conducted and a questionnaire was drawn up and distributed in an attempt to assess the three prevalent elements for the creation of innovation advantage through intrapreneurship as reviewed in the literature survey. The three elements were: individual intrapreneurial traits, organisational barriers and enablers of intrapreneurship and the influence of precipitating events on intrapreneurship. The research was conducted and recommendations were made based on the objectives of this study in relation to the organisation under study, FMSS.