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. Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (March 2017) / Innovation is one of the core and key characteristics of entrepreneurship, which stimulates operational and financial success of a firm. Innovation is ambidextrous in nature, characterised by exploration and exploitation. This report is concerned with exploitative innovation, which is characterised by new; products, services, and processes. This Research Report investigates how human capital investments (years of schooling and years of work experience of telecoms firms’ senior managers and executives) relate to innovation performance. This paper uses the human capital theory and the resource base theory to understand the perceived impact of human capital investments on performance and also its perceived moderation effect on the nexus between innovation and performance. Research findings from 81 senior management and executives of four major telecoms firms in South Africa indicate that innovation has a perceived direct impact on the perceived success of the firm. However, a counterintuitive relationship of human capital investments with performance is observed. Furthermore, human capital investments have a counterintuitive moderating effect on the nexus between innovation and performance. Therefore, this research report discusses human capital variable configurations that are more likely to have a perceived impact on a telecoms firm performance, and human capital variable configuration that are likely to have a moderating effect on the nexus between innovation and performance. / MT2017

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for Doctor of Technology Degree in Human Resources Management, Durban University of Technology, Durban, 2017. / The proposed contribution of this empirical study was the formulation of an exploratory human capital development model aligned to performance management for administrative employees at the Durban University of Technology (DUT). The human capital development model comprised of elements that encapsulated the link between performance improvement aided with human capital development strategies and the positive outcomes that stems from improved performance. In the context of the study, there is no standardised human capital development model for administrative employee at DUT. Hence, the study seeks to develop a human capital development model for administrative employees. The objective of the study was to develop a model that integrates the procedures of managing institutional performance with the development of its employees. The research design adopted a quantitative paradigm, using a self- administered questionnaire that was mailed to a sample 254 administrative employees. A significant response rate of 68.1% was obtained as 173 respondents returned the questionnaire. The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 24 for Windows. There were some significant findings that emerged from this study. It was indicated that 99.4% of respondents were not subjected to a performance evaluation, while 74% of the respondents showed that human capital development improved performance. A further 87.7% of the respondents reported that human capital development influence promotional opportunities, while 74.5% of the respondents responded to human capital development being linked to succession planning. A further 61.85% of the respondents also indicated that management commitment was imperative for the effective implementation of performance management systems. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and the Barlett’s Test of Sphercity indicated the factorability of the measuring instrument. Correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relation between the variables that formulated the human capital development model. Eight of the ten analysis showed that there was a relationship between the variables. The Pearsons Chi-Square test showed a significant correlation for the hypothesis that tested the variables of the study. One of the recommendations suggested is for top management to buy-in to performance management so that their leadership can encourage supervisors to commit to the process. Effective feedback, training, development, mentoring and coaching are recommended to improve the performance of administrative employee. Recommendations suggested the development of a succession planning and career advancement policy for the institution. The study concluded with suggestions for future research. / D

Organisations are spending a large sum of capital by investing on physical assets in order to improve productivity and gain competitive advantage. It has become imperative that business leadership turn their attention to the development, implementation and sustenance of physical assets management strategies in order to eliminate operational and reliability risk.