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

<p>An abundance of research in the social sciences has demonstrated a persistent bias against nonnative English speakers (Giles & Billings, 2004; Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010). Yet, organizational scholars have only begun to investigate the underlying mechanisms that drive the bias against nonnative speakers and subsequently design interventions to mitigate these biases. In this dissertation, I offer an integrative model to organize past explanations for accent-based bias into a coherent framework, and posit that nonnative accents elicit social perceptions that have implications at the personal, relational, and group level. I also seek to complement the existing emphasis on main effects of accents, which focuses on the general tendency to discriminate against those with accents, by examining moderators that shed light on the conditions under which accent-based bias is most likely to occur. Specifically, I explore the idea that people’s beliefs about the controllability of accents can moderate their evaluations toward nonnative speakers, such that those who believe that accents can be controlled are more likely to demonstrate a bias against nonnative speakers. I empirically test my theoretical model in three studies in the context of entrepreneurial funding decisions. Results generally supported the proposed model. By examining the micro foundations of accent-based bias, the ideas explored in this dissertation set the stage for future research in an increasingly multilingual world.</p> / Dissertation

This thesis explores the rapidly growing phenomenon of equity crowdfunding from the perspective of professional investors. The aim was to contribute to the relatively thin aca-demic field of equity crowdfunding, shedding light on why it is yet to be recognized as an important instrument for raising capital and provide suggestions for improvement. The data was collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with Angel Investors that through their experience could identify benefits and constraints with equity crowd-funding not obvious to the crowd. Benefits of using equity crowdfunding platforms were outweighed by the identified constraints such as corporate governance issues, uncertainties concerning laws and regulations, high risk, and lack of intellectual capital. This eventually led to suggestions for improvements that included channelling the crowd investments through a mutual fund, and allowing the crowd to co-invest with Angel Investors to get around the constraints. Conclusively, the Angel Investors were positive towards the underlying ideology of equity crowdfunding of helping more entrepreneurial ventures reaching their full potential by tapping a previously unutilized source of capital, the crowd. However, there is scepticism to how the phenomenon is currently working in practice.