Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology: Internal Auditing in the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013 / At present, South African Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) play an important role in the stimulation of the national economy. Despite the above, prior research shows that the failure rate of these entities is exceedingly high. Several factors which impact on SMME sustainability have been identified by prior research and as a result SMME sustainability has received attention from both local- and national Government. One of the factors, which is perceived as a major contributor towards the high failure rate of SMMEs, is the lack of proper internal controls. The responsibility to implement internal controls and internal control frameworks, including the task to ensure that these controls are optimally used, lies with management. In essence, it can be said that a business that is uncontrollable, is ultimately, unmanageable. The analogy was made by the author that “SMMEs are perceived as not sustainable owing to the utilisation of inadequate internal controls”. With the absence of adequate internal controls, an environment would be created where a business is susceptible to all kinds of detrimental risks (for example, fraud risk). When these risks are realised within a small business environment the overall sustainability of such a business will, more often than not, be negatively impacted upon. The main objective of this study was to determine the degree to which the implementation of an adequate system of internal controls can help to improve SMMEs’ sustainability. The research that was conducted was empirical in nature and fell within the ambit of the positivistic research paradigm. The logical stance that was undertaken in this study was that of deductive reasoning and, furthermore, this research was regarded as applied research which incorporated quantitative research characteristics. To achieve the above dispensation, questionnaires were administered and distributed to 110 owners and/or managers of SMMEs which operated within the fast moving consumer goods industry, situated in the Cape Peninsula. The non-probability sampling technique that was executed comprised of purposive sampling, and data that were collected from this research was analysed by deploying descriptive and inferential statistics. Lastly, the research conducted found that SMMEs have implemented internal controls as part of their business measures; however, the issue remains that a majority of these SMMEs are not aware of formal internal control frameworks to further enhance their existing internal control processes. To remedy the above concern, the author was of the perception that respondents should be trained on formal internal control frameworks in order to address the concern of limited awareness of existing internal control frameworks.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Business Administration (Entrepreneurship) in the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2014 / The world’s population continues to grow, while job creation opportunities shrink, particularly among young people. Youth unemployment is among key global challenges that may continue to persist for many years. Recently, the unemployment rate among youth in South Africa was estimated at 70 percent. This could mean that thousands and thousands of young people are living under poverty conditions in this country, which may result in a generation of poverty if this position remains unobserved. Interestingly, entrepreneurship has been adopted world over as a strategic approach to facilitate economic participation among youth. Their engagement in entrepreneurship helps them to achieve economic independence, increase their self-esteem, improve their standards of living, to reduce their dependence on state welfare and improve their emotional intelligence. At the same time, job creation opportunities and a decline in criminal activities as a result of unemployment, will ensure development of economic growth. Despite the above mentioned entrepreneurship benefits, youth in Khayelitsha, where this study is based, may be reluctant in pursuing careers in entrepreneurship, owing to inadequate entrepreneurship development services among them, which appear to the case. The objectives of this study were to find out specific factors that discourage the youth from pursuing entrepreneurship careers, to investigate particular challenges that inhibit expansion of their entrepreneurial ventures, and to describe specific prospects of youth entrepreneurship development in Khayelitsha. The current study adopted a descriptive research design. A quantitative empirical research approach was employed with the help of self-administered questionnaires. A sample of 132 subjects was randomly drawn from a population of 200 youth entrepreneurs who operate and are formally registered as SMMEs within various industries that are registered on the database of a local organisation known as Khayelitsha Youth In Business (KYIB), which promotes and develops entrepreneurship among youth in Khayelitsha. The data that was collected from participants of the current study was captured and analysed with the help of a Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software, based on 77 questionnaires that were returned. The findings were illustrated in tables, bars and pie charts, and the objectives of the study were achieved. It was found that it was not the case that young people in Khayelitsha do not want to pursue careers in entrepreneurship, but rather it was that youth entrepreneurship development is lacking in this community. The current study also revealed that a major factor that inhibits youth entrepreneurship development was the lack of awareness and inaccessibility of entrepreneurship support structures and initiatives in this community. Interestingly though, this hindrance does not appear to have a negative bearing on the identified growing enthusiasm of youth to engage in entrepreneurial activities. Overall, on the basis of the challenges and prospects revealed, recommendations to improve the current situation were made. This study is an applied research effort and its relevance is linked to the fact that it provides a rare insight into the state of youth entrepreneurship in a large but under-researched township community in the Western Cape. The findings and recommendations therefore bear far-reaching ramifications for all stakeholders who are concerned about developing youth entrepreneurship in this society.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. / Universities have long been recognised as sources of knowledge creation, innovation and technological advancements. Interest in academic entrepreneurship and the establishment of university spin-off companies has grown in South Africa over the past 10 years. South Africa’s national research and development strategy argues that economic growth and wealth generation are founded on innovation. The area of university entrepreneurial behaviour and technology commercialisation has attracted much research attention in recent years especially as more innovative solutions are sought for the world’s ever growing socioeconomic challenges. In view of this, the South African government has made considerable and various efforts to promote the creation and commercialisation of research output in the university context. Against the aforementioned, this study seeks to understand the position of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) as a university of technology in terms of commercialisation and technology creation since the 2005 merger. More specifically, the study seeks to understand the dynamics surrounding the creation and transfer of technology in South Africa, using CPUT as a case study.

The main objective of this study was to study the characteristics of the New International Business (NIS) or Born-Global in a sample of 81 SMEs belonging to the Spanish textile sector. This is descriptive analysis regarding the location, the subsector of activity, size, economic performance and internationalization strategy implemented by the NEI (2005-2009).The results identified three groups of NIS: export, import and export-import. The group of companies that makeup the largest importers and are associated with smaller companies. The exporters appear to be related more to low techsub-sectors while more internationally committed are those with a higher dimension. Regarding the location not detected any evidence of territorial pattern. Finally, among firms internationalized in the time period analyzed, it is also noteworthy that the economic performance of these is higher among importers. This study provides information on why the same country and same industry some companies decide shortly be created to assume certain levels of risk, engaging in operations engaged in foreign markets while others do not. It also participates in the debate on the competitiveness of manufacturing companies. / El principal objetivo de este estudio ha sido estudiar las características de las nuevas empresas internacionales (NEI) o born-global en una muestra de 81 pymes pertenecientes al sector textil-confección español. Para ello, se ha realizado un análisis descriptivo respecto a la localización, el subsector de actividad, el tamaño, la performance económica y la estrategia de internacionalización implementada por las NEI (2005-2009). Los resultados obtenidos identifican tres grupos de NEI: exportadoras, importadoras y exportadoras-importadoras. El grupo de empresas que conforman las importadoras es el más numeroso y está asociado a empresas de menor dimensión. Las exportadoras parecen vincularse más a subsectores low-tech mientras que las más comprometidas internacionalmente son las que tienen una mayor dimensión. Respecto a la localización, no se han detectado evidencias de algún patrón territorial. Por último, entre las empresas internacionalizadas en el periodo de tiempoanalizado, también es destacable que la performance económica de las mismas es mayor entre las importadoras. Este trabajo arroja alguna luz sobre la cuestión de por qué en un mismo país y en un mismo sector algunas empresas deciden al poco tiempo de ser creadas asumir determinados niveles de riesgo, implicándose en operaciones comprometidas con los mercados extranjeros mientras que otras no. Asimismo, también, participa del debate relativo a la competitividad de las empresas manufactureras.

M.Comm. / Today's managers, faced with rapidly changing and fast-paced competitive environments, are challenged to manage "discontinuities created by an interdependent global economy, heightened volatility, hypercompetition, demographic changes, knowledge-based competition, and demassification of some sectors accompanied by enormous growth in others" (Daft & Lewin, 1993:i). Such environmental conditions place intense demands on organisations to interpret opportunities and threats actively when making key strategic decisions. To cope with such challenges, existing larger firms are increasingly turning to corporate entrepreneurship as a means of growth and strategic renewal (Guth & Ginsberg, 1990). Entrepreneurship involves a process of value creation in which an individual or team brings together a unique package of resources to exploit an opportunity. The key steps involved are: identifying opportunities, developing business concepts, determining needed resources, acquiring resources, and managing and harvesting the venture (Jones, Morris & Rockmore, 1995:86). Corporate entrepreneurship (also termed intrapreneurship) involves extending the firm's domain of competence and corresponding opportunity set through new resource combinations that are internally generated (Burgelman, 1984).- Terms such as 'reinventing the corporation', 'the empowered organisation' and 'organisational renewal' are used to describe change efforts where entrepreneurship is a central ingredient. Research has shown that organisations that adopt an entrepreneurial posture in order to cope with the uncertain environment are characterised along dimensions such as unpredictability, dynamism and heterogeneity. These organisations enjoy superior performance (Covin & Slevin, 1988; Zahra & Covin, 1995). The domain of entrepreneurship is no longer restricted in a conceptual sense to the process of creating an independent new venture (Wortman, 1987; Low & MacMillan, 1988). Lumpkin and Dess (1996:136) describe the essential act of entrepreneurship more appropriately as 'new entry'. New entry is the act of launching a new venture, either by a start-up firm, through an existing firm, or via 'internal corporate venturing' (Burgelman, 1983). With this in mind, they distinguish between entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial orientation. Entrepreneurship explains what entrepreneurship consists of, and entrepreneurial orientation describes how new entry is undertaken. Entrepreneurial orientation can therefore be defined as the processes, practices and decision-making activities that lead to new entry (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996:136). However, the entrepreneurial orientation (also referred to as entrepreneurial posture) is not limited to the creation of new organisations, but exists in all actions that distinguish entrepreneurial behaviour from other types of business activity that might be undertaken to capitalise on an opportunity (Lumpkin & Dess, 1996:153). These actions also pervade the organisation at all levels (Covin & Slevin, 1991:7).

M.A. (Social Sciences) / The engagement of local people in development projects has become a common phenomenon that development theorists and practitioners have emphasised for the past few decades. The debate was sparked by the realisation of the failure of the top-down approach to development which had serious consequences in project sustainability. Therefore, the bottom-up approach of community participation in development projects has been viewed as a panacea for sustainable projects at the grass roots level. The study is based on the understanding that community participation is central in community development, in order to ensure sustainability. It has been observed and acknowledged from the empirical evidence that, despite the acceptance of participation as workable alternative and useful approach to community development, there are many collapsed projects and blame has been shifted to lack of funding and other factors such as economic meltdown as the major setbacks. Today, concerns are raised on the ineffectiveness of community participation, which may lead to project failures. In many instances, local people have become recipients of pre-designed projects by outsiders and often the objects of administrative manipulation. This implies that development agents were determined to impose their own thinking and understanding of community participation on the community. As a result, development projects that local people were expected to take over in the implementation phase collapsed and such communities did not take responsibility for their failures. The question to be answered is whether community participation is the hallmark of project sustainability or just one of the processes that is necessary in development articulation. It is against this background that the study explored factors associated with participation in income generating community projects in Botlokwa community in Molemole Local Municipality, Limpopo province. The qualitative method was employed in this study.

South Africa is faced with many mutually reinforcing societal challenges which include, amongst others, a high rate of unemployment, poverty and inequality. The community that is mostly affected by these challenges is the black African community. In order to deal with the challenge of poverty and inequality which causes other societal problems, entrepreneurship and enterprise development becomes the answer. This view is supported by the body of knowledge available on the subject of entrepreneurship and enterprise development. This paper undertakes to understand critical success factors affecting entrepreneurial culture within black African communities in South Africa. In addition, this paper undertakes to investigate the perceived influence of education and training, access to funding, government policies (i.e. regulatory environment), government programmes, commercial and financial infrastructure, physical infrastructure, crime, corruption and social and cultural norms on the success of entrepreneurial culture development within black African communities. Propositions are made and tested through conducting in-depth interviews with individuals involved with the dynamics presented by this subject on a day to day basis. Evidence collected is interpreted into knowledge and finally recommendations are made.

Recent years have seen the decline of entrepreneurial activity in South Africa. This is especially concerning in that, officially, 27.7% of South Africans are unemployed. The unofficial unemployment figures are closer to 50%. The South African economy is battling to recover from the world economic crisis of 2009/10, putting pressure on government to alleviate growing unemployment and curtail social unrest. Furthermore, a South African economy which thrives on entrepreneurial activity will become more competitive from a global perspective. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the promotion and development of entrepreneurship in South Africa, in an effort to combat the problems listed above. In order to achieve this purpose, the objective was to develop and test a model which could be used in the development of entrepreneurs. The rationale is that, if the factors which affect entrepreneurship could be identified and tested, then recommendations could be made which could promote the development of entrepreneurs in South Africa. The approach was as follows: Perform a literature review which would cover both global and local (South African) approaches to developmental training for entrepreneurs; Develop a theoretical model comprising of identified factors which formed the base for the data collection; Develop a measuring instrument to test the relationships described in the theoretical model empirically; • Empirically test the proposed model and suggested hypotheses by means of sourcing data from entrepreneurs in South Africa and statistically analyse the sourced data; Formulate the final theoretical model to support the research objectives; and Propose recommendations based on the results of the statistical analysis. The focus of the literature study was on two main areas: trends in global developmental training, and South African initiatives to stimulate developmental training of entrepreneurs. The literature on global entrepreneurial development highlights two distinct categories for entrepreneurial development: 1) entrepreneurial education and 2) entrepreneurial training. The literature study concerning South African methodologies for developmental training for entrepreneurs, focused on current methods employed and highlighted areas on which improvements should be concentrated. From the literature study on both global and South African developmental training methods, ten independent variables (entrepreneurial culture; socio-emotional attributes; acquiring business skills; industry experience; opportunity identification; regulatory barriers; economic barriers; outside advice; formal training and informal training were identified as factors affecting entrepreneurial developmental training. All the variables were hypothesised as they were perceived to influence significantly the dependent variables: perceived global success as an entrepreneur and perceived individual success as an entrepreneur. These factors, clearly defined and operationalised, were structured in a questionnaire which was sent randomly to South African business owners. Data were collected from 332 respondents and subjected to various statistical analysis techniques. Firstly, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted to assess the discriminant validity of the research instrument. Secondly, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated for each of the identified factors to confirm the reliability of the research instrument. The significance of the hypothesised relationships in the revised model were then tested by using the statistical technique known as Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) This study contributed to this specific field of knowledge.

Small and Medium Enterprises are the engines of economic development. In developing countries, they play an irreplaceable role in poverty alleviation through creation of jobs and contribution towards the countries’ gross domestic products. South Africa is faced with a challenge of high failure rate of SMEs despite the efforts by government to support and grow this sector. For a country to have a strong sustainable economy, sustainable and successful SME sector is necessary. Literature reviews have demonstrated that incorporating sustainability aspect into entrepreneurship improves the performance of businesses. Research on implementation of sustainability principles by SMEs is limited and SMEs have been left out in sustainability teachings and monitoring. The purpose of the study was to analyse the role played by entrepreneurial mind-set and entrepreneurial education on sustainability of SMEs. The research was conducted amongst 10 SME owners/managers with businesses located in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. Case study method using a semi-structured interview guide was conducted. Results were transcribed, analysed and interpreted. Results of the research demonstrated that SME owners/managers possess entrepreneurial mind-set, which is a necessity to run a successful business. There was also evidence that entrepreneurial education enhances entrepreneurial mind-set of SME owners/managers. SMEs owners/managers also demonstrated that they implement sustainability principles informally with no guiding documents. With regards to implementation of sustainability principles, there was no noticeable difference between SME owners/managers who had undergone entrepreneurship education and the ones who had not gone through entrepreneurship education. This highlighted the need to incorporate sustainability issues in entrepreneurship education courses. The study brings contribution towards building sustainable SMEs.

It is estimated that the failure rate of small, medium and micro enterprises in South Africa’s (SMME’s) are between 70 percent and 80 percent. As a result, millions of rand are lost on business ventures because of essentially avoidable mistakes and problems. Difficulties encountered by small business owner-managers can be described as environmental, marketing, financial or managerial in nature. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the nature and importance of problems experience by small business owner-managers in the private health sector. The design that was used in this study was qualitative, descriptive, exploratory and contextual in nature. This study fell within the broad framework of qualitative research, as interviews were employed to do the research project (Baker, 1999:247). A purposive sample was used to identify the participants for inclusion. The target population was small business owner-managers operating within the private health sector in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. The sample comprised eight business owner-managers in the health sector within the boundaries of the Nelson Mandela Metropole, purposely identified. Before doing the empirical research, a pilot study was conducted with one small business owner-manager that fulfilled the required criteria of the research population. Data was collected by means of naïve sketches and semi-structured interviews. Data was analyzed according to the framework provided by Tesch (in Creswell, 1994). Guba’s model (in Krefting, 1991) was employed for data verification. Interviews were conducted in both Afrikaans and English. iii Direct transcriptions from the tape-recorded interviews ensured that all data was gathered and saved for reference when needed during the data analysis as described by Field and Morse (1996:64). The researcher took observational, theoretical, methodological and personal notes as described in Wilson (1989: 433-435). Transcriptions from sketches and interviews served as the database for the study. Only literature pertaining to the research process was consulted prior to the data collection of the primary data, in order to establish an effective research format. The problems experienced by small business owner-managers in the health sector were discussed under four major themes and several sub-themes identified by the researcher and the independent coder. The main themes that emerged from the study were: small business ownermanagers in the health sector lacked business skills and experience; had financial problems regarding their businesses; had difficulty building a customer base; and were uncertain in terms of their businesses’ future. Conclusions were drawn from the findings of the study and limiting factors were identified and acknowledged in the report. Recommendations that could assist practitioners, educators and trainers were suggested.