Globalisation and its related social, economic and political challenges is making the South African business environment ever more competitive, with firms finding that agility, flexibility and continuous self-renewal are essential to maintain their positions. To exploit their current competitive advantages and explore future opportunities, firms are increasingly adopting corporate entrepreneurship (CE) – a type of proactive behaviour.The aim of this research was to determine the extent to which South African firms in the financial, retail and telecommunications sectors use CE methods, and to uncover the most important internal organisational factors that influence their use. A literature review of all the themes relating to the topic was done, from which five propositions were developed and a questionnaire was compiled. After four suitable companies had been identified (with the aid of five CE experts), the questionnaire was used in 24 interviews conducted across these four case study organisations. The results were analysed and used to draw conclusions relating to the aim of the research.From the research findings, the author has been able to construct a model that managers of South African companies operating in the fields of finance, retail and telecommunications could use to improve their companies’ financial performance. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Small to medium enterprises are the key contributors to national economic growth; however, they need a robust enabling environment that provides the necessary support for the emerging entrepreneur. Incubation is system of support designed to nurture new businesses in a controlled environment. The main objective of this study was to gain insights into the extent of collaboration in the business and technology incubator environment in South Africa. Collaboration is an essential means of creating synergies that produce results; the desired outcome in this context is national economic growth. A qualitative research study was carried out with decision makers in the incubation environment, using a questionnaire that covered the challenges, the extent of networking and rivalry within the incubation milieu. This research found that due to a number of barriers there is a general lack of collaboration in the South African incubation environment. The study highlighted the benefits of collaborative efforts and created the basis for areas of further research. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

In developing South Africa, a complex web of interacting historical, economic, organisational, social and personal factors influences entrepreneurial endeavour. Such phenomena cannot easily be explained by a priori theories largely based on data from the Western developed world rather than the developing world. The purpose of the study was to develop a mid-range theory of venture creation in a developing country, based on an in-depth understanding of the experiences of a sample of South African opportunity entrepreneurs. A multiple case-study design was selected. The research was delimited by focusing on entrepreneurs in South Africa currently or recently engaged in venture creation for opportunity-based, rather than survivalist, enterprises. A series of ‘thick’ narrative descriptions of individual entrepreneurs engaged in the start-up process was prepared. This was followed by within-case and cross-case analysis and comparison with the literature. Data analysis was conducted in the tradition of grounded theory, which is only rarely seen in the entrepreneurship literature. The primary theoretical contribution of this study is an enhanced perspective of the venture creation process and its sub-processes. The model synthesises the efforts of other scholars, incorporates the lived experience of entrepreneurs in this study, adds new components to conventional models of new venture creation, and reconsiders the ordering of events in the process. Copyright / Thesis (DBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The aim of this study was to determine entrepreneurial team formation criteria in the craft sector in South Africa, aimed at creating employment opportunities for the marginalized unemployed in the informal economy through linkages to the formal economy. A quantitative research approach was used in a descriptive research design, based on social network characteristics, as determined from the literature review, to identify team member absorption criteria to an entrepreneurial crafter group. The unit of analysis was existing crafter groups in Ekurhuleni. A questionnaire was used to gather the data in face-to-face interviews. Frequency tables, cross tabulations and Chi-square analysis were undertaken to determine the highest responses across all the variables. The outcome of the analysis indicated that new team members were selected to a team based on strong tie connections and Small World Networks. The majority of team members indicated that they would not have been selected to the group if the team leader did not trust them, indicating the importance of trust in the selection criteria. The financial position of the majority of team members had not improved as a result of membership to a crafter group. The critical role of weak ties, to link crafter groups to the formal sector, became evident to ensure sustainability of the crafter groups. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

No abstract available. / Dissertation (M Com (Business Management))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Business Management / unrestricted

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of institutional (environmental) factors and personal (attitude, human capital) factors on the probability of becoming an entrepreneur. In particular, this study aims to make a comparison between different types of economies. The data for this study is derived from the 2011 Adult Population Survey (APS), the 2011 National Expert Survey (NES) of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and the World Bank Database, and covers 32 countries, including efficiency-driven economies and innovation-driven countries. This study applies hierarchical logistic regression and uses multilevel modeling for the cross-country, cross-individual dataset. The results reinforce the importance of environmental factors (regulative and normative), attitude factors, and human capital factors. The findings of this proposed study will contribute to the further analysis of the GEM database to understanding the diversity of nascent entrepreneurial activities in different contexts.

The decision to be self-employed has been studied in numerous scholarly papers. In particular, there has been interest in the decision to become an entrepreneur in relation to the macroeconomic climate. Scholars reference the potential for an economic boom to "pull" entrepreneurs into self-employment. On the other side of the debate, scholars argue that recessions "push" individuals with low skills into working for themselves. This paper finds no evidence of either theory when looking at state level growth rates in real gross domestic product and state level growth rates in unemployment claims. However, there is evidence of a differing effect of the macro environment by age and educational attainment / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Economics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester 2015. / July 15, 2015. / 2001 Recession, entrepreneurship, labor economics, Macroeconomics, Recession, Self-Employment / Includes bibliographical references. / Anastasia Semykina, Professor Directing Thesis; Carl Kitchens, Committee Member; Christopher Clapp, Committee Member; Katie Sherron, Committee Member.

No description available.

The environment in which a business operates is not static. Intensifying global competition and rapid technological progress put pressure on business to change. Better quality and service are no longer enough to give a competitive advantage. This can be achieved by entrepreneurial organisations. Through corporate entrepreneurship, an organisation can improve its competitive standing. This research aims to identify the factors that promote corporate entrepreneurship in First Rand Bank. The Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument (CEAI) developed by Hornsby, Kuratko and Zahra (2002) was used to measure corporate entrepreneurship (CE). The instrument contains 48 Likert-style questions that were believed to assess a firm’s internal entrepreneurial environment. Data were gathered from 186 respondents representing the three divisions of a large bank.The results showed that although corporate entrepreneurship exists in First Rand Bank, it is not supported by a clear strategy. Employees do not have time to engage meaningfully in CE. New and young employees in particular do not believe CE is promoted to the same extent as those employees that have been in the organisation longer. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

No description available.