This project focused on restaurant industry analysis, start-up requirements, planning decisions, human resource management and restaurant marketing strategies. A marketing plan has been developed for the purposes of opening Studio Thai in the near future.

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Thesis (M. Tech. (Business Admin.)) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2014 / Research by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) continuously indicate that new venture creation success rate in South Africa is disturbingly low. This situation arises despite numerous support mechanisms in place to encourage citizens to establish their own businesses. This is an indication that current approaches to encourage new venture creation are not working. New approaches must therefore be found. The goal of this study was to combine the processes of project management and entrepreneurship, two seemingly diametrically opposed management philosophies into an integrated process model that will contribute to enhancing the new venture creation process. So, at the heart of this study is the wish to assist prospective entrepreneurs in their new venture creation journey. To achieve this objective, action research design, an emerging approach to qualitative research was adopted. Specifically, the canonical action research was used. Holistically, the study can be described as applied, cross-sectional, descriptive and exploratory in nature. Through a series of iterative canonical action research cycles, a model was developed. The results suggest that despite their seemingly diametrically opposed management philosophies, an integrated project management model for new venture creation is achievable.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Little Office (TLO) is a proposed start-up that will enter the childcare industry as a provider of on-site day-care at office parks. The unique service offering that TLO will propose to the market is on-site day-care which will not only serve the employers in question, but also their employees. TLO offers organisations the opportunity to address employee productivity related to childcare, as well as to attract and retain skills, while being able to outsource the actual day-care function, which is unrelated to their core business. The service offering to the children and their parents will include a focus on educational, social, physical and emotional development. Market trend analysis indicates an increase in demand for day-care. Combined with the fact that companies are ramping up efforts to attract and retain employees, this results in a situation where the market size and market trends indicate significant opportunities for TLO. Competition is present but due to the size of the market and the core differences in the business model presented by TLO the threat of competition is not fierce. The strategy has been developed around the market analysis and by taking into account the opportunities and threats that exist for TLO. TLO’s strategy therefore serves to differentiate it from the rest of the market in terms of location of centres as well as primary target customers. Coupled with the research evidence of positive outcomes on employee performance, this suggests the concept will be welcomed by new economy organisations. The marketing strategy will aim at large businesses, office parks and government institutions. TLO will present custom feasibility studies to identified customers to establish whether the business is feasible in terms of space, number of employees with children in the organisation, requirements by parents etc. TLO’s strategy is to develop not only core service offerings but also distinctive competencies such as a lower child to carer ratio and high quality, cutting edge and innovative childcare. The various branches of TLO will be run by a central administrative hub, where most of the costs will initially be incurred. This centralised office will be run by the owner and would require administrative and qualified social worker staff. Each branch will require qualified educational staff in line with the number of children per branch. Due to the regulatory requirements inherent in the childcare industry, TLO will base their business operations around achieving compliance excellence in their business. In addition, a continuous evaluation of childcare sciences and re-evaluation of TLO’s service offering will ensure that the latest developments in childcare are addressed and thus TLO remains competitive and progressive. The business model is low risk and provides positive operating cash flow from year three. Through partnering with labour brokers and the use of intelligent placement strategies, TLO will ensure that they have the correct staff in the correct place. Combined with continual audits of performance, TLO will turn the human resources risk into a competitive advantage. The main objectives for the first three years of operation are:  To open four branches averaging 20 children per branch within the first year;  To increase the number of clients served by 100% in Year 2 and again in Year 3; and  To develop a sustainable, profitable, start-up business.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research investigates the short-term insurance industry in South Africa in order to develop a strategic architecture for a new player to enter the market, differentiated primarily by operating on mutual principles. Mutual insurance is not something new and is widely applied across the world. However, in South Africa there is only one company that operates completely as a mutual. That company is known as the Professional Provident Society (PPS), and has been in operation since 1941. Although PPS operates completely as a mutual, it has only recently started to take part in the short-term insurance industry. Apart from them, there is no other short-term insurer that operates on mutual principles. In order to develop a strategic architecture, a thorough understanding of the industry and market was obtained by analysing the external and internal environments of short-term insurers in South Africa. The research is based on solid statistical data on all registered insurers, available from the governing body for insurers in South Africa, the Financial Services Board, as well as more qualitative data in the form of reports on industry analysis, performed by major auditors like KPMG and PWC. It also takes into consideration “cutting edge” approaches to starting up a new business, regardless of industry, through the application of the “Customer Development Model”, an approach based on lean and agile principles to mitigate the risk of developing a product / service at high cost before knowing if the market actually has a need or appetite for it. This research concludes by offering a strategic architecture and strategic implementation plan for a new player to enter the market, based on the analysis performed though the application of various strategic tools and frameworks. The primary findings of this research are that the industry is highly competitive, with longstanding ‘giants’ supported by parent companies. Those ‘giants’, however, all operate as stock insurers, and a transition by any one of them to mutual insurer, is highly unlikely. As mentioned, the industry currently only has one mutual insurer. This means there is really only one competitor (PPS) in terms of the profit sharing model and in that, PPS has a rather niche focus since its products are only available to graduate professionals. This research uses further external and internal environment analysis methods to extract industry information used in the formulation of a strategic architecture and business model for a new player to compete in the environment described above. It suggests that there is, in fact, room for a new player and that it can differentiate itself from stock insurers by applying the mutual model. It can further differentiate itself from stock insurers and PPS by expanding its market focus (i.e. not only for graduate professionals) and by utilising technology in productive and creative ways that encourages engagement with customers in a new way.

PC industry is a highly competitive industry. In this fast changing environment, no company can simply rely on basic core competencies to stay-up with the market & competitions. The growth of global demand for PCs has reached a plateau in recent years, and as products are becoming commoditized the differentiation between products are hardly distinguishable. And price war is inevitable. This study investigated how does a global computer company build and manage its dynamic capabilities to stay competitive and make appropriate adjustment to leverage its dynamic capabilities in the new business. The study finds that in order to sustain competitiveness in the market, corporation needs to look inward and institute a process to manage product and service development and business risks. Having good products and customer relationship are just the starting point for a successful business. A continuous learning system can help company to constantly strive for better improvement and in a long run this becomes a strong driving factor to improve operation excellence. It takes persistent and relentless drive for improvement to make a good company to great. When a company is going to start a new business and break an existing model, one of the effective approaches is to form a special task team that is given the full ownership in making sure the project is successful. In addition, senior management team needs to work closely with the project team via regular meetings and to offer help in clearing roadblocks within the organization and allowing team to think out-of-box and propose necessary changes. Without management support and foster, the chance of success for the special task team is minimal. / PC industry is a highly competitive industry. In this fast changing environment, no company can simply rely on basic core competencies to stay-up with the market & competitions. The growth of global demand for PCs has reached a plateau in recent years, and as products are becoming commoditized the differentiation between products are hardly distinguishable. And price war is inevitable. This study investigated how does a global computer company build and manage its dynamic capabilities to stay competitive and make appropriate adjustment to leverage its dynamic capabilities in the new business. The study finds that in order to sustain competitiveness in the market, corporation needs to look inward and institute a process to manage product and service development and business risks. Having good products and customer relationship are just the starting point for a successful business. A continuous learning system can help company to constantly strive for better improvement and in a long run this becomes a strong driving factor to improve operation excellence. It takes persistent and relentless drive for improvement to make a good company to great. When a company is going to start a new business and break an existing model, one of the effective approaches is to form a special task team that is given the full ownership in making sure the project is successful. In addition, senior management team needs to work closely with the project team via regular meetings and to offer help in clearing roadblocks within the organization and allowing team to think out-of-box and propose necessary changes. Without management support and foster, the chance of success for the special task team is minimal.

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 fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management with specialisation in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, March 2016 / New technology-based firms (NTBFs) or technopreneurs are assumed to be one of the most important sources of economic value creation and development. Apart from bringing innovation with high growth and impact potential, NTBFs are faced with high uncertainty and demand a supporting environment that enhances firm’s performance. It can be concluded that new firms or new incubatees operate in competitive settings and demand systems that aid them to realize sustainable growth. Globally, there is a well-established body of knowledge that scrutinizes factors and relationships between factors that enhance NTBFs innovation performance. Majority of existing literature concurs that there are numerous variables of factors that can influence the product or service performance in respect to turnover. Within sub-Saharan Africa, technology incubation support programmes are seen as factors that affect a firm’s performance. However, the rise of NTBFs, the startups concept and technology incubator practices are all very much in their infancy in South Africa. From this point of view, it is significant to qualify the existing global body of knowledge to Gauteng’s context in order to identify the right mix factors impacting innovation performance of new technology-based firms. Factors such as survival, research and development (i.e. R&D propensity) and technological capability are seen as levers that impact new technology-based firm’s innovation performance. In a narrow sense, in this study, we aim to extend existing research by identifying determinant factors related to survival, R&D propensity and technological capability as independent variables; and analyse the nexus of these factors and innovation performance, the independent variable. We prudently identify startup firms that are in technology and embrace innovations while most of these new startups are still in an early development stage and receive comprehensive investment from university or government innovation in Gauteng. A total of 206 NTBFs were surveyed. Initially, the study employs exploratory factor analysis to first estimate the underlying variables and estimate of latent loadings. Subsequently, the correlations between survival, technological capability, R&D propensity and innovation performance measurements were tested. ii The findings suggest that there is no relationship between the number of years under the incubation management and producing new products and services that firms can launch to new market to gain profits in order to survive. Particular, in South Africa, the technology incubator movement is still in an infancy stage; hence for firms starting new ventures and producing products, it is difficult. The evidence from this study also found no relationship between survival (i.e. access to knowledge and collaboration) and innovation performance i.e. turnover. On the other hand, it was expected that investing vigorously in R&D would create patents, publications, products and services which would impact turnover. In opposition, the empirical results found no statistical relationship between R&D propensity and turnover. Our results should also be interpreted in the broad sense; measuring R&D propensity should be viewed with the understanding of complexity in measuring R&D impact to turnover. The study also found no relationship between marketing and firm turnover. Although theoretical studies suggest applying marketing capability is a key in launching and commercialising innovations, these firms tend to place more focus on product developments and pay less attention to marketing capabilities. Consistent with existing literature, the study found that there is a positive relationship between technological capability - innovativeness and innovation performance i.e. turnover. This is in line with the researcher’s position that generation, developing and implementation of new ideas leads successful performance of innovation, while we have contended that adapting or modifying existing technologies, emphasising introduction of new products, marketing of tried and true technologies and using previous research to implement technologies as determinant factors to technological capability (i.e. Technology Adaptation) impacts innovation performance. The results of the study concluded that there is a relationship between Technology Adaptation and innovation performance. In regards, competitive environment, the study found that no relationship between introducing innovation ahead of competitors and innovation performance. It was expected that these firms would avoid taking risks, these firms are not equipped with resources to experiment innovation methods or lead in new market identification. The empirical evidence generated from this study is significant and contributes to the existing body of knowledge for this reason: the study advances literature of measurements of innovation performance which varies from one study to the other. / GR2018

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 / With a struggling economy characterised by high levels of poverty and unemployment, it makes sense that Swaziland should prioritise the growth of new ventures in a bid to foster economic growth through ensuring accelerated SME growth. However, the country’s SME policy notes significant problems which hinder venture growth, particularly pertaining to SMEs access to finance, markets, entrepreneurship education and training, as well as business support programmes, business regulation and contract enforcement. This study seeks to evaluate the impact these factors have on the growth of SMEs in a bid to ascertain the extent of this impact, and further to make recommendations on how the rhetoric and practice of entrepreneurship can be shaped to foster high growth entrepreneurship within this milieu. This is done based on an analysis of data collected through a quantitative survey conducted amongst SMEs incubated within the country’s only public incubator, SEDCO. The findings are drawn from a correlation and multiple regression analysis, with the latter aiming to ascertain causality between these conditions and venture growth. Through this, the study found that the variables of access to finance, markets, education and training, business support programmes, business regulation and contract enforcement are significant predictors of venture growth, thus more needs to be done to ensure that inefficiencies within these are addressed to bolster levels of SME growth. The study contributes theoretically to the entrepreneurial landscape in that it comes at a point where there is no current research assessing the enablers and inhibitors of venture growth within Swaziland. It is of further practical significance in that it broaches the subject of high growth entrepreneurship in an environment laden with necessity, survivalist entrepreneurs whilst it is the former that is perceived to have a significant impact on the economy. / MT2016

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