One of the great challenges facing the South African economy is to increase the number and variety of viable and sustainable economic enterprises. We have a history that has brought about many interruptions in the development of enterprises in particular. This has been particularly associated with our racial history and the destruction of wealth in black hands in both the rural and urban areas. It has adverse effects on income distribution, entrepreneurship and employment creation. The recent history of South Africa cannot ignore the role of cooperatives in developing its economic foundation. Cooperatives in the financial, service and agricultural sectors were backbones of the apartheid economy, hence we see the cooperative idea resonates on numerous platforms in the democratic Government as part of its empowerment discourse and addressing the national objective of economic growth, poverty and unemployment reduction. A number of studies have identified that the culture of entrepreneurship is one of the prerequisites for the prosperity and the high rate of economic development registered by most of the developed countries. However in terms of South Africa, the low level of entrepreneurship activity compared to its peers has been identified as one of the key factors responsible for the low rate of economic growth experienced by South Africa over the past 10 years, and cooperatives as model can be a solution to foster entrepreneurial culture and as a result maximise economic growth, reduce poverty and unemployment. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

One of the great challenges facing the South African economy is to increase the number and variety of viable and sustainable economic enterprises. We have a history that has brought about many interruptions in the development of enterprises in particular. This has been particularly associated with our racial history and the destruction of wealth in black hands in both the rural and urban areas. It has adverse effects on income distribution, entrepreneurship and employment creation. The recent history of South Africa cannot ignore the role of cooperatives in developing its economic foundation. Cooperatives in the financial, service and agricultural sectors were backbones of the apartheid economy, hence we see the cooperative idea resonates on numerous platforms in the democratic Government as part of its empowerment discourse and addressing the national objective of economic growth, poverty and unemployment reduction. A number of studies have identified that the culture of entrepreneurship is one of the prerequisites for the prosperity and the high rate of economic development registered by most of the developed countries. However in terms of South Africa, the low level of entrepreneurship activity compared to its peers has been identified as one of the key factors responsible for the low rate of economic growth experienced by South Africa over the past 10 years, and cooperatives as model can be a solution to foster entrepreneurial culture and as a result maximise economic growth, reduce poverty and unemployment. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

The 1990's in Victoria saw a political and economical shift away from the social justice themes of previous years to an economic rationalist approach to public sector services. Like other countries, educational reform initiatives focused on the introduction of market-oriented commercial practices. These were characterised by increased accountability for expenditure, pressure to supplement publicly funded income with commercial ventures, rationalisation of staff, privatisation of some services and a business-oriented approach to service provision. As part of this shift TAFE Institutes in Victoria were actively encouraged to embark on a business-based, entrepreneurial approach to training delivery in a competitive, user-choice market. This changing external environment is the context for this 'practitioner research' investigative project - the development of a motorsports program as a case study of innovation and entrepreneurship at Wodonga Institute of TAFE. A participant-observer research approach was applied to examine the perceptions of the stakeholders about the development of the program. Data was collected through semi-formal interviews with stakeholders, maintaining a reflective research journal and reviewing related literature. Analysis of the data identified emergent themes (enabling factors and barriers), reflecting at a micro level, similar themes and issues from current research and debate at national level. The themes are similarly reflected in literature on innovation, organisational change and entrepreneurship. The products generated from the investigative research project are:  Capturing Innovation: Entrepreneurial Activity Within a Publicly Funded Educational Organisation, an exegesis examining innovation and entrepreneurship at Wodonga Institute of TAFE through a case study (the motorsports program)  What a Great Idea! Where to From Here?, a set of guidelines for Wodonga Institute of TAFE practitioners about what is required in presenting their ideas to Senior Management (Appendix 1 and Appendix 2), and  a Professional development workshop agenda to support promotion of the guidelines (Appendix 2)  recommendations to Wodonga Institute of TAFE Directorate (Director/CEO and two Deputy Directors) for supporting the development of innovative ideas (Chapter 6). These outcomes aim to increase the success rate of innovative ideas being captured and developed into training programs and products at Wodonga Institute of TAFE.

Scholarship has recognised the importance of entrepreneurship for economic development. Increasingly, policy makers promote entrepreneurship as one of the solutions for unemployment concerns. However, although many people formulate entrepreneurial intention they fail to convert their intention into action; this problem is called the intention-action gap. The problem of intention-action gap is particularly salient in Saudi Arabia. Although people have positive perceptions about entrepreneurship and high entrepreneurial intention, the country’s entrepreneurial activity is low. This presents a barrier in achieving the country’s national strategy to create more entrepreneurs through the promotion of entrepreneurship. Here, raising an intention to become an entrepreneur does not equate to becoming an entrepreneur. Scholars often predict entrepreneurship by entrepreneurial intention. Thus, they assume that entrepreneurial intention is the best predictor of action. They use dominant intention models to predict entrepreneurial behaviour. However, there is compelling evidence that entrepreneurial intention alone is an insufficient predictor of subsequent entrepreneurial behaviour. Thus, it is inadequate to prepare people to deal with difficulties of initiating action and striving towards goal attainment. Hence, there is a need for a more proximal predictor of entrepreneurial behaviour that can promote goal striving. Self-regulation (simplistically thought of as ‘will-power’) has been shown to be a better and more reliable predictor of intention in other fields. In fact, it was found that supporting intention with self-regulation can enhance the action prediction by up to 18%. In entrepreneurship, self-regulation has been suggested to differentiate people with entrepreneurial intention from active entrepreneurs. Against this background, this thesis investigates the processes underlying the forming of entrepreneurial intention to identify predictors of self-regulation. Hence, it extends existing intention models with self-regulation that facilitate action initiation. Consequently, this study focuses on the link between entrepreneurial intention and self-regulation. In addition, due to the salient influence of culture in Saudi Arabia’s context, the study explores the effect of cultural values on entrepreneurial intention. The conceptual framework is developed to explain the link between entrepreneurial intention and self-regulation and the effect of cultural values. This proposed two main levels, namely, goal setting and goal striving. The former reflects forming entrepreneurial intention and deliberative mind-set. The latter reflects forming implementation intention and implemental mind-set. This model is then tested through questionnaires among 405 non-entrepreneurs working in the private sector in Saudi Arabia. The data collected are analysed using the statistical tool, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The study found that several factors and their interactions are important to explain the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and self-regulation. First, concrete goal intention can be formulated through desirability, feasibility, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. However, this firm goal intention does not lead to self-regulation. Second, after formulating concrete goal intention, people can increase their self-regulation through implementation intention and optimism. The effect of cultural values is important as they appear to reduce entrepreneurial self-efficacy and, hence, decrease self-regulation. The outcomes have theoretical implications and lead to policy recommendations that can support better self-regulation and bridge the entrepreneurial intention-action gap, making a valued contribution to the development of entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia.

The development of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) contributes significantly to job creation, social stability and economic welfare. Obtaining finance for start-up and growing entrepreneurial ventures has proved to be crucial for SMME growth and is therefore the prime concern of this research. This research will specifically investigate the risk assessment practices used by South African commercial banks when providing funding to entrepreneurial ventures. In addition, the research seeks to establish whether there is consistency amongst the South African commercial banks in their risk assessments practices. Lastly to establish the impact of the global economic crisis of 2008 on the risk assessment practices of the South African commercial banks. To achieve this, a qualitative study in the form of expert interviews supported by structured research questionnaires with representatives of the four large banks was undertaken. In summary, the findings of the research demonstrated that risk assessment practices of the South African commercial banks were consistent with the integrated theoretical framework and amongst each other. Respondents ranked the character, capacity and collateral of the business as the most important criteria when assessing term loan applications. Furthermore, the impact of the global economic crisis of 2008 resulted in the lending policies of the banks being more strictly adhered to. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Most multilevel marketers lose money and quit within the first year of operations because of a lack of effective strategies for building and retaining a productive downline. The purpose of this multiple case study was to apply Cantillon's entrepreneurship theory to explore strategies used by 3 multilevel marketers from 3 different multilevel marketing companies with operations based in New York. Participant selection was purposeful and based on the number of years the participants had been in multilevel marketing and their generated income. Data collection occurred through semistructured interviews with open-ended questions of the participants and a review of company training documents and videos. Data from the interviews and training were examined, and key ideas were documented and analyzed using a 6-step data analysis process, including listing and grouping the collected data, considering all data before reducing or eliminating any, grouping the data by research questions, formulating the data into themes, documenting the experience, and presenting the data findings. Three themes emerged from the data: entrepreneurial mindset, strong leadership and support, and training and development. Adopting strategies described in this study may contribute to social change by increasing the success rate among multilevel marketers, thus reducing unemployment, resulting in more taxable income and increased tax revenue, and producing a positive effect on the economy in New York area.

The federal government has been inconsistent in meeting the mandated contracting set-aside goals of 3% to aid service-disabled veteran small business owners. Guided by the general systems theory, the purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore what strategies an owner and 2 senior managers of a small service-disabled veteran-owned business in the Washington, DC metropolitan used to obtain federal contracts. The owner and senior members represented those responsible for strategic vision, development of business opportunities, and the company acquisition process. Data were collected from semistructured face-to-face interviews and corporate documents. Member checking and transcript review were completed to strengthen trustworthiness of interpretations of the participants' responses. Based on the methodological triangulation of the data sources collected, 6 themes emerged from the data analysis as key strategies to obtain federal contracts: business practices, business development of opportunities to attain growth, marketing to obtain opportunities to bid, networking to gain industry knowledge on trends and markets, understanding federal government contracts which emphasized the federal acquisition system access and availability of procurement information, and contract bidding which emphasized the importance of solution development. The findings from the study may contribute to social change by providing insights and strategies for service-disabled veteran small business owners in sustaining profitability through obtaining government contracts. The data from this study may contribute to the prosperity of the veteran small business owners, their employees, their families, and local communities.

Research suggests that children of self-employed parents and children belonging to family businesses are much more likely to pursue entrepreneurial careers. But while nature is a critical driving force behind intergenerational entrepreneurship, nurture seems to be even more important. The next question, and the overarching goal of this dissertation, is how do enterprising families – defined as families who own more than one business, but don't necessarily do so together – nurture the next generation of entrepreneurs? Of particular importance to discovering the process of intergenerational entrepreneurship, is understanding why some siblings follow an entrepreneurial path while others actively avoid it. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, 35 family members across eight enterprising families were interviewed. The findings suggest a critical determinant of who becomes an entrepreneur is based on children's entrepreneurial sensemaking, which they form throughout their experiences in childhood and adolescence. Child-specific characteristics, such as entrepreneurial innateness, as well as the presence of family system facilitators, were critical factors that influenced the valence of children's entrepreneurial sensemaking (i.e., negative, positive, balanced), which in turn influenced their career trajectories (i.e., never entrepreneurs, legacy entrepreneurs, open professionals). These findings have important practical implications for the sustainability of enterprising families.

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Magister Commercii - MCom (Business and Finance) / The youth of South Africa is currently faced with high levels of unemployment and poverty. This raises concerns about the future of the South African people and its economy. Consequently, much is needed to develop the youth to allow for a prosperous future. A decrease in poverty and unemployment was found to be linked to an increase in education. Entrepreneurial education can have a significant impact on entrepreneurial success. This research paper aims to assess the influence of entrepreneurial education and training on students' entrepreneurial development. To ensure a comprehensive assessment of the development of students, I utilised a mixed methodology to assess students both quantitatively and qualitatively. The study assessed a sample of students from South Africa and the United States of America who jointly partook in a two-week entrepreneurial education and training programme at TSiBA Education, Cape Town, South Africa. Entrepreneurial education and training had a positive effect on the students' entrepreneurial development, entrepreneurial orientation and intentions to start a business. While entrepreneurial orientation aids the exploitation of business opportunities, before opportunities can be exploited they must be recognised. Bringing into question the link between students' entrepreneurial orientation and their abilities to recognise and develop opportunities into successful ventures. To explore this I interviewed two participants and found the high entrepreneurially orientated participant to exhibit greater opportunity recognition and development abilities, compared to the low entrepreneurially orientated participant. I concluded by finding that although differences do exist between high and low entrepreneurially orientated students, entrepreneurial education and training could positively influence students' entrepreneurial orientation and assist in the development of entrepreneurs. The results suggest that TSiBA Education should attempt to increase the duration of the entrepreneurial programme to maximize the influence of the entrepreneurial education and training.