The aim of the research was to increase the understanding of how the entrepreneur’s process of creativity began and evolved by determining how ideas and opportunities were discovered, recognised and harnessed prior to the advent of entrepreneurship. There appeared to be a shortage of appropriate research studies into the entrepreneur’s creative processes, describing how it began and evolved over time. There also appeared to be few studies that attempted to describe how entrepreneurs discovered their ideas, harnessed them, and converted them into opportunities. It would seem that the majority of the empirical research studies on the subject have focused upon managers and founders of companies compared to studies involving nascent entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs. The objective of the research study was to provide a new synthesis of the research literature in order to create a framework that described the key cognitive processes and personal attributes that were involved in the entrepreneurs’ search and evolution of their ideas. The content and elements of the framework were then compared with the context of the entrepreneurs’ personal histories in order that generic themes could be identified. After a period of one year, further interviews were held with the entrepreneurs in order to monitor any changes to the processes involved. The research began with a review of existing literature relating to the entrepreneur and entrepreneurship. A selective review of the historical research literature on the entrepreneur was followed by an appraisal of some of the entrepreneurs’ attitudes and behaviour patterns. This provided a thumbnail sketch of each entrepreneur, his or her origins, and what he or she did. This was followed by a description of what might be construed as a typical nascent entrepreneur. This description detailed the process from the ‘learning phase’ to the ‘triggering event’ that caused such a dramatic change in his or her career path, i.e. the critical incident that set off a mental chain reaction within the nascent entrepreneur that led to the establishment of his or her entrepreneurial intentions. A review of the research literature concerning the focal theory of the research objectives led to an in-depth appraisal of what is meant by ‘creativity’ and ‘cognitive processes’. The difficulties of researching such subjective actions are shared by previous research literature. The creative variables were then brought together in a number of phases contained in the discovery and evolution processes. The process was then followed through the discovery phase, stressing the importance of the prepared mind to the birth of the idea. The various thinking and analytical processes involved in the evolution of an idea into an opportunity were discussed in the context of an entrepreneur’s core attributes and beliefs. The focal theory review concluded with a framework of the elements appertaining to the research objectives that had been derived from the research literature. The structure and elements of the framework were then compared with the relevant data from the field research study. A number of research questions arose from the key issues raised in the research literature. These concerned, having a prepared mind, happenstance, intuition, self-belief, values, visualisation and goal setting. The sample of the population chosen for the research study comprised fifty Scottish entrepreneurs of both sexes and varying sizes of company, ages of business, turnover and number of employees. The companies with whom entrepreneurs were involved covered various industries and activities. Following the guidance obtained from the research literature, in-depth interviews were carried out. A number of the entrepreneurs interviewed were subjected to a follow-up meeting after one year, in order to monitor any further developments and changes to the themes identified from the first interviews, and to provide the research with a further means of validation. An opportunity was taken at the meeting to share with the entrepreneurs the preliminary findings arising from the previous interviews. The interviews were tape-recorded, transcribed, and data was computerised. The data was then subjected to content analysis, as was the secondary information obtained from publications, newspaper articles and other case studies. The research findings identified many generic themes among the entrepreneurs, particularly in the area described as the discovery and evolution phases of the creative process. A high percentage of entrepreneurs also had beliefs and attitudes that were similar to their business philosophy. The findings supported a number of theories that have been outlined previously in the research literature, as well as confirming many of the traits, characteristics and behaviours attributed to being entrepreneurial. The findings of the research confirmed that many of the entrepreneurial ideas occurred serendipitously, and the use of visualisation and rehearsal techniques was considered by many to be invaluable in the creative process. Goal setting also appeared to provide essential stepping stones to the monitoring and attainment of many successful outcomes, particularly in the evolution stage. The structure and elements of the framework of the process of creation appeared to be well supported by the majority of the entrepreneurs interviewed. Recommendations are made as to how the adoption of some of the research findings could assist in the encouragement and advancement of an enterprise learning culture, and the establishment of a ‘can-do’ attitude towards enterprise creation.

Motivation for this research was driven by the fact that even though telecommunications is regarded as the primary sector driving overall infrastructure development in emerging economies, it is acknowledged that the area of telecommunications internationalisation is relatively new. The MTN Group’s internationalisation strategy on the African continent was used as the object of study. Drawbacks to traditional theories were explored in terms of fast-paced internationalisation. A conceptual framework (figure 2.1) was created from loosely-held concepts extracted from the literature review. Qualitative data analysis of the in-depth interviews conducted with 15 respondents in executive and senior roles, revealed a validation of the constructs in the conceptual framework as factors influencing MTN’s internationalisation strategy. The conceptual framework that emerged from the findings was found to represent an integrated view of the dynamism in which micro (entry mode, entry timing, firm size, and entrepreneurial proclivity) and macro (institutional development, culture, and country of origin effects) level constructs simultaneously influenced MTN’s rapid internationalisation on the African continent. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

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IT Consumerization is the phenomenon of consumer-originated and consumer-oriented technologies entering organizations and their corresponding organizational impacts, risks, and opportunities. IT Consumerization has fundamentally changed the way organizations respond to the technology needs of business users as well as the corresponding governance, management, and operational maintenance of information technology. Enterprise Architecture (EA), a practice and body of knowledge that views organizations and enterprises through architectural layers, has been posited as an effective tool in supporting the needs of IT Consumerization. This thesis addresses the question of what roles EA can play in the context of IT Consumerization as well as the general effectiveness and comprehensiveness of current EA frameworks in addressing IT Consumerization needs. Using a single case study design, this research study applied directed content analysis and a deductive thematic analysis approach to answer these questions. The initial set of codes and themes were derived from sensitizing concepts within The Open Group Architectural Framework (TOGAF). Findings from this research suggest that IT Consumerization is a complex domain characterized with unpredictability, unknown decision variables, and no single correct answer in the context of problem solving and decision making. Our research suggests that in order for an EA practice to help in IT Consumerization initiatives, organizations must ensure that EA practices are not limited to technical problem solving, and that they have the resources and skills required for business problem solving. While EA has often been positioned as an information technology function within many organizations, we argue that based on our findings, EA’s role within organizations can go beyond this traditionally technical focus, to include both advisory and strategic roles leveraging business skillsets to solve business problems. Our EA role framework is a significant departure from the widespread belief that EA practices start at the translation of business strategy to technology strategy, by proposing that EA can play a valuable role earlier in strategic processes such as business strategy development, direction setting, and change prioritization. This inquiry highlights some of the key interrelationships between EA and IT Consumerization.

Balanced Scorecards have developed into a main management tool for analysing the inter-dependencies between the functional areas of a business organisation. Using SAP^TM Strategic Enterprise Management this book serves as a companion to a practical lecture on how to implement a Balanced Scorecard in an IT system. Students create the underlying Data Warehouse structures, define the key figures and their inter-dependencies, build the Scorecard system and analyse it in a realistic case study. A host of free, Web-based materials may be used in conjunction with this book, available at http://erp.wu-wien.ac.at. The material includes transparencies for classroom use and a case study with data for student projects. The intended audience of this book is students of business administration and applied computing science, consultants and teachers. But also practitioners in financial and management accounting will find this book useful as it provides an overview of how to implement an important management method in an IT system. / Series: Working Papers on Information Systems, Information Business and Operations

This thesis analyses the sociological and historical genesis of enterprise skill formation in South Africa and its effective coordination. South Africa’s late nineteenth century development as an emerging economy contributed to the state often taking the lead and being at the forefront of efforts to ensure coordination in enterprise skill formation. But gradually, concerns shaped by issues related to labour supply motivated leaders in firms and enterprises to forge their own imprint on the coordination of enterprise skill formation. The thesis also shows how these concerns with the coordination of enterprise skill formation involved intellectuals and professionals who attempted to intervene on these matters. The thesis proceeds to elaborate the unique institutional architecture which was constructed at various junctures in the history of South Africa’s human resource and skill formation journey. Furthermore the thesis gives an insight into the coordination of enterprise skill formation which occurred in the period of apartheid induced reforms. The evidence however shows that even when regimes change and new political orders are established, it does not end the necessity for continuity in the coordination of enterprise skill formation. As is to be expected, the institutional, regulatory and instrumental content of the coordination of enterprise skill formation is more complex in the contemporary period (circa. 2017) than it was in the 1920s and 1930s. However, the goal striven toward then was for a more streamlined process which could contribute to a change and improvement in the existing practice of enterprise skill formation. Evidence shows that this has been ongoing for over a century. The thesis gives an intricate and detailed insight into the process of building a new coordinated skills development system that was intended to ensure the coordination of enterprise skill formation under a democratic post-apartheid political dispensation. In this period a levy-grant system underwritten by a national skills levy has been a central instrument of direct coordination into enterprise skill formation. The analysis that is provided traces the iterative steps that were treaded by policy makers and policy thinkers from at least the early 1920s as they confronted what may have appeared as an elusive enterprise skill formation process. This analysis is done with a great deal more depth for the period since the early 1990s.

Significant accidents are often related to the performance of a complex socio-technical system (enterprise) involving technology, people, organizations, processes, management and legislation. Approaches to identify factors that lead to accidents and then take them into account during the design, operation, maintenance and evolution of the socio-technical system (enterprise) are not well defined and not consistently utilized in practice. The emerging discipline of "enterprise engineering" provides an opportunity to apply an engineering approach to the design, operation, maintenance and evolution of enterprises to improve the likelihood of the enterprise achieving and maintaining its safety goals. The integration of design principles and approaches from the fields of systems engineering, safety engineering, management science and enterprise architecture into a Safety Enterprise Engineering (SEE) approach based on a consistent model of the enterprise provides the basis of the approach described in this thesis. A general process model for applying an enterprise engineering approach to safety management is defined. Design principles from nuclear industry best practice documents are identified and mapped to the general process model. The Fukushima nuclear accident that occurred in 2011 was used to identify weaknesses in current practices in the nuclear industry. These weaknesses were compared with best practices, as defined by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) documents, to identify the subset of weaknesses identified from the Fukushima accident that are also weaknesses within the IAEA set of best practices. The Safety Enterprise Engineering approach was applied to a slice of safety related functionality of a CANDU nuclear utility to demonstrate the degree to which the SEE approach overcomes weaknesses of both current practice and best practice within the nuclear industry. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This dissertation attempts to construct a theory which states that forms of enterprise are determined to a large extent by potential market failure. In the four independent, but closely interrelated chapters, I derive this hypothesis through theoretical reasoning, and suppose it by referring to empirical observations. Chapter 1, Forms of enterprise as a response to market failure, proposes the main idea that forms of enterprise are determined by market failure. I take three representative types of firms - capitalist firms, worker owned firms, and consumer cooperatives - and consider their relationship with three major causes for failure of markets: asymmetric information, externalities, and market power. Chapter 2, Firms owned by raw material suppliers: A case of food manufacturing firms run by agriculture cooperatives in Japan, is a case study which complements chapter 1. It deals with food processing farmers' cooperatives. These firms are owned by the suppliers of raw materials, and therefore classified as the fourth type of firms. I consider comparative efficiency of this type of firms from the viewpoint of market power and asymmetric information. Chapter 3, Asymmetric information on production-related risks and the form of enterprise: Capitalist firms versus consumer cooperatives, considers an efficient enterprise form when there is asymmetric information on accident risks in the market. Chapter 4, Market power and the form of enterprise: Capitalist firms, worker owned firms, or consumer cooperatives, considers an efficient enterprise form when there is market power in various markets. / Ph. D.

This research investigates the commercialisation processes of handicraft producers in Sabah, Malaysia, and the factors influencing their development and performance. The Malaysian government encourages handicraft production as a full-time activity in dedicated workshops, but the vast majority of producers stay part-time and home-based. The aim of this research is to understand why so few producers switch to a greater level of commercialisation, despite government support. From the literature review, it is found that a combination of person-related and contextual factors influences small enterprise development and performance, but handicraft producers in a developing country context have different characteristics to the firms usually studied in entrepreneurship, so they may follow different development paths. Therefore, qualitative research was carried out (in-depth interviews with 16 handicraft producers), which aimed to understand deeply from the producers’ point of view how they made choices about their enterprises, and the factors that encouraged or inhibited their move to full-time status or workshop premises. It was found that interviewees perceived part-time domestic production to be convenient and flexible, and workshop production to be a big commitment, although factors such as level of perseverance and social networking were influential to these. In the interviews, a complicated relationship between status, premises and enterprise performance was also found. A face-to-face survey was then conducted of 210 handicraft producers in Sabah region, which aimed to test quantitatively the factors that influence producers’ status, premises and performance, and the relationships between them. Through cluster analysis, three groups of producers were identified: (i) ‘high performance full-timers’, (ii)‘part-time professionals’ and (iii) ‘part-time home workers’. The first group contained both domestic and workshop-based producers, all full-time status, and showed highest levels of sales and profits. It was interesting to find that part-time professionals had lower profit levels than part-time home workers, even though almost all part-time professionals produced in workshops, half of them in government assisted workshops. One way ANOVA tests found significant differences between the clusters on thirteen person-related and contextual factors, including producers’ (i)education level, attendance in craft incubator, previous income activity, (ii)self-confidence, perseverance, (iii)skills relating to production, organising and networking, (iv)income maximisation motivation and (v)access to government supports, financial resources and reliable workers. The evidence from the research shows that handicraft producers in Sabah region see many advantages in domestic production, and profit levels can be higher than in workshops. By identifying the different profiles of handicraft producers in Sabah, and the person-related and contextual factors that influence them, this research may help the Malaysian government to develop effective support policies for different types of handicraft producer, including how to encourage more individuals to become ‘high performing full-timers’.

This thesis is dedicated to the Enterprise Architecture. Author is trying to verify theoretical knowledge in a business practice. The thesis is therefore divided into two parts - theoretical and practical. The theoretical part deals with the importance of architecture, the benefits of EA and comparison of two major EA frameworks (Zachman framework, TOGAF). Author describes their disadvantages and possible improvements. Focus is placed on issues of ICT services architecture. The architecture of ICT services is not yet in practice, despite its advantages, which I describe. I am trying to describe several points of ADM, which is part of the TOGAF on the basis of theoretical knowledge. To apply the knowledge I choose part of the banking sector. I describe loan process and its IT solution.