M. Tech. (Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology / Whilst entrepreneurial education has received a fair amount of attention both locally and internationally, there is, surprisingly, still no universally accepted curriculum dedicated to aspiring entrepreneurs at universities which adequately exposes students to an environment that encourages new venture creation. Furthermore, disparities continue to exist in the quality of entrepreneurship education programmes on offer within higher education institutions in South Africa, particularly in curriculum design, delivery methods and forms of assessment. Moreover, an entrepreneurial culture in South Africa has not yet reached the desired national level in comparison to entrepreneurship in other developed nations. This study examines the influence of entrepreneurial-related programmes on students’ intentions to venture into new business creation. This study is located within a quantitative descriptive research paradigm, which permits the testing of relationships among the various constructs through a structured questionnaire. The sample was drawn from final year students of the Faculty of Management Sciences at a university who were studying various business-related programmes in which modules on entrepreneurship were compulsory. Variables included in the study focused on the entrepreneurial content of the curriculum, attitude towards entrepreneurship, intentions towards entrepreneurship and general self-efficacy. Data provided by 263 respondents was analysed using correlation and regression analyses. The results revealed a weak predictive relationship between the entrepreneurial content of the curriculum and the attitude of students to venture into new business creation. In addition, students’ attitudes towards entrepreneurship showed low levels of prediction of students’ intentions towards entrepreneurship. Finally, the results showed that students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy did not appear to influence their attitude towards entrepreneurship. A possible reason for these results may be the notion that not enough enthusiasm is generated in students because the modules in entrepreneurship, whilst compulsory, are not offered as majors in the curriculum, unlike in dedicated entrepreneurship programmes. The major challenge in entrepreneurship programmes is the appropriateness of the content of the curriculum in developing student’s attitude towards entrepreneurship. Students who are not exposed to the content of the curriculum that allows the commercial use of entrepreneurial knowledge demonstrate a weak attitude towards entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurial content of the curriculum should be enhanced with improved teaching delivery modes that enable students to gain hands-on experience by seeing, touching and ‘feeling’ the business world. Contents of the curriculum should be designed to include learning outcomes which are for entrepreneurship rather than about entrepreneurship. An entrepreneurial content of the curriculum which is developed for entrepreneurship deals with real entrepreneurial activity and produces students who have a positive attitude towards entrepreneurship. In order to enhance the status of entrepreneurship, curriculum developers should include various aspects of entrepreneurship in all years of the students’ study programme. In order for entrepreneurship to be given ‘life’, provision should be made to support incubation start-ups at the university level with practical training. The feasibility of offering a practical, hands-on entrepreneurship programme should be explored.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management specialising in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation. Johannesburg, 2017 / South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, with youth unemployment sitting at 37.5 percent in 2016. In an attempt to remedy South Africa’s unemployment, the government sought entrepreneurship as a solution. The South African government has implemented various policies and established numerous institutional bodies to accelerate entrepreneurship. Some of these policies and bodies are aimed specifically at enhancing entrepreneurship among the youth. In order to understand the best approach to assist these young entrepreneurs, it is important to understand what drives performance in current young entrepreneurs’ enterprises. This paper evaluated the impact that entrepreneurial capital (human, social, and financial capital) had on the performance of youth-owned enterprises. It surveyed 199 young entrepreneurs (between 18 and 35 years old) to understand what drives performance within their enterprises. The research found that there were high levels of performance within youth-owned enterprises, when there were high levels of human capital and social capital. However, there was a negative relationship between financial capital and the performance of youth-owned enterprises. Overall, the research concluded that high levels of entrepreneurial capital had a positive relationship with the performance of youth-owned enterprises. The objective of this study was to understand what drives the performance of youth-owned enterprises, in order to best facilitate government assistance and support for young entrepreneurs. The outcome suggests that human capital and social capital drive performance of youth-owned enterprises, it would thus be advisable for the South African government to focus on those two variables when drafting policies and forming institutional bodies to enhance youth entrepreneurship. / MT2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation Johannesburg, 2017 / The aim of this study was to analyse and investigate the link between organisational antecedents that enhance corporate entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial orientation, followed by entrepreneurial orientation’s impact on firm growth and performance. The study focused primarily on recent graduates in companies operating in South Africa. The organisational antecedents analysed were management support, work discretion, rewards and reinforcement, time availability, and organisational boundaries. The entrepreneurial orientation factors used were proactiveness, risk-taking, and innovativeness. The impact of entrepreneurial orientation was measured against firms’ growth and performance. A sample of 193 recent graduates, employed in an array of sectors in South Africa was analysed. The findings reveal that recent graduates place a particular emphasis on management support, and rewards and reinforcement as particular enablers for creating the context for corporate entrepreneurship. A significant positive relationship between these antecedents and entrepreneurial orientation, and a strong association between entrepreneurial orientation and firm growth and performance was found. Population trends reflect that 58.13 percent of South Africans are under the age of 29 (Stats SA, 2016), reflecting that young people, under the age of 30, will serve as the dominant demographic in the workforce in South Africa, over the next 15 years. This study was thus particularly relevant as it aligns the changing external environment that compels companies to become more entrepreneurial, with the perspective of a new generation of workforce that will be primarily responsible for driving this change. / MT2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management (ENVC) Johannesburg, 2017 / The ability of immigrants to craft successful livelihoods in the harsh economic climate that seems to overwhelm the local population has led to them being blamed for the unfortunate plight of South Africa’s poor, with the result that there has been targeted violence on immigrants in recent years. Informal sector entrepreneurship is at the heart of this with immigrants said to be outperforming local entrepreneurs, and taking away the last option of earning an income. Entrepreneurship is quoted as the only lasting solution to the poverty and unemployment that plagues developing countries. The ability of immigrants to succeed in a sector that is considered unproductive is worth investigating. In this study, cross sectional data is used to compare the antecedents of Entrepreneurial Performance between foreign Immigrants and South Africans. The findings are that, while both group’s performance is affected by Entrepreneurial Action; South African performance is driven mainly by deprivation, a factor that has no effect on immigrants. This puts the recent explosive response of local entrepreneurs to immigrant competition into perspective, and necessitates interventions that will, not only curb further xenophobic violence, but up-skill local entrepreneurs and enable them to make a living out of informal sector entrepreneurship. Contrary to popular belief, none of the population’s performance was linked to Social Capital. There is no use allowing people into the country only to stifle their ability to sustain themselves. Immigrant Entrepreneurship is a reality that South Africa needs to embrace. / MT2017

Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities, at the University of the Witwatersrand, July 2017 / Just over ten years ago on night of the 28th of August 2006, angry mobs took to the streets of Masiphumelele township outside Fish Hoek, near Cape Town, and attacked and looted foreign national spaza shops in the neighbourhood. The attacks shocked the city, and prompted the provincial government to initiate an intervention to address the underlying causes of the violence. The outcome comprised an agreement between foreign national and South African spaza shopkeepers that permitted foreign nationals to return on condition that they did not open any new shops in the township. These mediation efforts comprised the beginning of many governance interventions in Cape Town and across the country that were aimed at curtailing foreign national spaza shops in South Africa. This thesis examines formal and informal attempts to govern foreign national spaza shops in South Africa, and seeks to understand what they reveal about the nature of politics in South Africa, as a postcolonial and developing country. In doing so it locates itself in the theoretical framework of law and society, as it examines legal phenomena from a social science perspective. Its findings are based on case study methodology involving qualitative interviews with key participants and stakeholders, as well as document collection, participant observation, and media reports. The research finds that many governance actors’ anxieties towards foreign national spaza shops relate less to shopkeepers’ particular activities and more to South African traders’ abilities to incite local socio-economic discontent against these shops, and thereby threaten political establishments. However, governance interventions rarely unfolded as intended due to resistance by competing interest groups who sought to advance their private economic concerns rather than public and political rights. This invokes features of Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben’s theories of the ‘social’ or ‘biopolitics’, which argue that the entry of economic concerns into the political sphere is characteristic of the modern age. The thesis therefore reflects on Arendt, Foucault and Agamben’s theories in assessing what governance efforts reveal about the nature of South Africa’s political sphere. It finds that the social realm in South Africa differs from their accounts in two significant respects. First, the social sphere is conflicted between various economic goals – with parties seeking to foster basic life and sustenance, as well as to advance the emancipation of citizens from the colonial legacies of apartheid through economic mobility and opportunity. This makes finding a path to advance overall economic advancement in the country more difficult and contentious. / XL2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management (ENVC) Johannesburg, 2016 / Entrepreneurial Leadership is a fledgling discourse within the entrepreneurial fraternity, yet its absence in enterprises contributes to most of the firms’ abrupt ending. Studies show the lifespan of SMEs in South Africa only lasting the first three years of existence. Entrepreneurial Leadership plays critical role in the business performance of the SME in Johannesburg. A sample of 123 respondents was drawn from mostly owners and managers of SMEs in Johannesburg. A multi-prong approach for data collection was administered in the study; this included calling the prospective respondents both on their landline telephones and mobiles and some were given hard copies of the questionnaire to complete. For the convenience of other prospective respondents, an e-link questionnaire was sent by email, and directly, to the mobile phones. The conclusion of the study showed a correlation between entrepreneurial leadership and business performance, correlation between entrepreneurial orientation and business performance and finally, the moderating effect of entrepreneurial leadership on entrepreneurial orientation and business performance in Johannesburg. Given the gap in the market for the practitioners in the sphere of SME, the application of findings of this report will be helpful to the prolonged tenure of the SME in Johannesburg. The theory amassed in the study will also contribute towards further studies in Entrepreneurial Leadership. / MT2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management specialising in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation Johannesburg, 2017 / In South Africa, very little research has been conducted to test the entrepreneurial intentions of highly educated and skilled black professionals. A significant portion of entrepreneurial intention research is primarily focused on students. Very little is known about the entrepreneurial intentions of mid-career individuals who are in highly specialised industries. More specifically, no research has looked at testing the entrepreneurial intentions among managers within the banking sector. Specifically, the study is aimed at determining whether self-efficacy, family background and the role of government influences entrepreneurship intentions among black managers within the banking sector. The study was done within the major banks in the Gauteng province of South Africa. 220 questionnaires were sent to bank employees who are managers and specialists in their role. The testing for hypothesis involved the relationship between dependent variable, entrepreneurship intention and the independent variables; desirability of self-efficacy, family background, government support. The analysis was done using SPSS version 23 using descriptive statistics and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. ANOVA was carried out where there was a need to compare groups of cases for differences in their means along particular variables. The analysis concludes that the independent variables, such as self- efficacy, family background and government support have a significantly positive relationship to entrepreneurship intention. The regression analysis also verified that there is a significant influence between independent variable and attitudes toward entrepreneurship among black bank managers. The findings suggest that there are high levels of self-efficacy among black managers in the banking sector. The results revealed that entrepreneurial self-efficacy has the most significant and positive impact on their intention to become an entrepreneur. It is also worth noting that government support plays an integral part in influencing the entrepreneurial intentions of the respondents. Although this study focused on the antecedents of intentions to start a business, future research must also explore relationships between intentions and behaviour. / MT2017

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management specialising in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration,University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2018 / Enterprise development (ED) is concerned with helping entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. The business development process is dynamic with rapid technological and environmental change that occurs through the enterprise development life cycle. Business incubation programs play an integral part in the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). They offer support services, both financial and non-financial, of which mentorship is regarded as one of the key aspects of incubation programs. This study looked at SMEs across South Africa, operating in different industries to evaluate the impact of entrepreneurial orientation on SME growth and determine the moderating effect of mentorship on this relationship. The South African government, through its B-BBEE policies, has mandated corporates to implement ED programs as a way of aiding the growth of SMEs. The challenge faced by SMEs within the context of ED is discussed broadly in this study with recommendations put forth in an attempt to assist the successful implementation of ED. Entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is an established construct in entrepreneurship literature and its impact on growth is well researched. The three dimensions of innovativeness, proactiveness and risk-taking, as a unidimensional composite is used to assess the level of EO exhibited by the sample. This study however, expanded on the EO-Growth relationship to assess the role of mentorship within the context of ED in South Africa. Mentorship forms part of the developmental process of entrepreneurs and is well incorporated into the ED sphere. This study considered the role of the mentors as it relates to opportunity recognition. The study applied a quantitative method to analyse the relationship between the independent variable (EO) and the dependent variable business growth (BG), with mentorship being the moderating variable. The survey questionnaire was electronically distributed, producing a final number of 215 respondents as the empirical research sample. Growth, the dependent variable, was considered as a measure of success for SMEs. The measurement of SME growth focused on sales, assets, profit, annual turn-over and employment growth. The high failure rate of SMEs in SA is a cause of great concern to the government. This study provided empirical research, which further investigated the reasons attributed to government’s concerns. It further argued for certain interventions that can be of value to SMEs, government, ED practitioners, mentors and corporates. A regression analysis and bivariate correlation analysis was adopted to test the hypotheses, confirmatory factor analysis assessed the factorial validity of the constructs. Pearson’s test tested the significance of the correlations, visual tests (histograms) and descriptive statistics (skewness and kurtosis) assessed the normality of variables, before hypothesis testing was carried out, factor analysis determined the empirical analysis to confirm the theory, and to reduce dimensions of variables within constructs. In addition, the overall level of Cronbach reliability (0.68≤α≤0.89), and the corresponding EVA of close to 0.3, showed excellent reliability. The empirical findings of the study revealed that EO had a positive impact on SME growth and that the relationship between EO and growth was moderated by mentorship. As such, this study contributes to the theoretical discourse through its contribution to the existing body of literature. It further adds to literature concerned with the role of mentors in ED, and how this influences the growth of SMEs participating in ED programs. From a practical perspective, it provides recommendations to all stakeholders of ED in South Africa. Finally, this study provides ED practitioners, incubation managers, government policy makers, corporates, mentors, SMEs and entrepreneurs with relevant information to support their strategic planning and the implementation of enterprise development in South Africa. / MT 2018

A RESEARCH REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF COMMERCE, LAW AND MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF MANAGEMENT SPECIALISING IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND NEW VENTURE CREATION Johannesburg, 2016 / Technology entrepreneurship is vital to economic development as it could have positive effects on employment and could rejuvenate industries, especially through disruptive technologies. Studies have shown that South Africa has one of the highest new venture failure rates across the globe and it is, therefore, becoming critical to determine the key factors of successful technology ventures that could contribute to sustaining new technology ventures in South Africa. With the Internet of Things (IoT) fast becoming the most exciting technology trend aimed at transforming everyday business and individual lives, this study set out to investigate the key success criteria for IoT new ventures, as well as key sectors for IoT within South Africa. Linking technology entrepreneurship and the opportunities provided by IoT, this research aims to identify the key success criteria of entrepreneurial ventures within South Africa, as well as analyse the South African IoT ecosystem to determine which sectors provide the greatest opportunity for technology entrepreneurs. This research was conducted through primary research across IoT new technology ventures, as well as enterprises across industries within South Africa. The study found that successful ventures and unsuccessful ventures have different entrepreneur characteristics. A key characteristic for successful IoT ventures is entrepreneur ambitions, while education is the biggest hindrance to unsuccessful ventures. The related car and fleet management industries were found to provide the largest opportunity for IoT entrepreneurship in South Africa. This study provides valuable insight into the IoT market that will aid the sustainability of IoT entrepreneurship. From an academic perspective, it supplements the existing literature on technology and IoT entrepreneurship in South Africa. / MT2016

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of M.Sc. (Building) in Property Development to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / The lack of entrepreneurship is an obstacle to economic development. In South Africa (SA), disciplines are taught in a context that is enterprise-based, with no emphasis on the need to impart business start-up skills within specific disciplines. A culture of entrepreneurship is lacking, resulting in low records of entrepreneurship incidents in SA. The challenges and/or benefits of integrating entrepreneurship education within the South African real estate (RE) course and its effects on graduates’ entrepreneurial intent, is not well understood. The purpose of the research is to investigate whether the introduction of entrepreneurship education within the RE discipline would encourage graduates to become entrepreneurial in the practice of real estates. A mixed methodology approach has been used in this research. Primary and secondary research data has been made available in the form of questionnaire surveys of graduates and course directors/lecturers from the University of the Witwatersrand and other international universities that have entrepreneurship education embedded within their real estate programmes, as will be selected by the researcher. The research has found that both pedagogical strategies of course work and applying experiential learning teaching methods would be required to effectively integrate entrepreneurship education within a real estate programme in a manner that would stimulate graduates to be entrepreneurial in the practice of real estate, although it was not known whether the graduates would actually start businesses and when they intended to do so. It was also found that those students whose studies took place in real estate programmes that had entrepreneurship education embedded in them were more commercially aware. The integration of entrepreneurship education also resulted in an improvement of graduate self-esteem and confidence. Graduates were endowed with adequate professional, interpersonal, technical and business skills. The research, however, found the majority of real estate courses lacked in teaching graduates to be more versatile. The courses largely lacked in the provision of industry exposure and were inadequate in teaching graduates how to market themselves and their real estate businesses. According to the findings on the individual entrepreneurship test, graduates that studied entrepreneurship-based real estate courses had a higher probability of starting a business. / MT2018