A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Engineering. 9 August 2019 / Lean startup is a new concept that was initially developed to help startups grow their business in a more effective and scientific way. The methodology has some elements that are in contrast to the way businesses or new ventures are traditionally run. While the lean startup methods have been proven in industry, the academic research especially within a South African context has been minimal. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the extent to which lean startup principles have been applied across industry in South Africa and how these have been used in conjunction with the corporate and operations strategy. From the research it was found that while South African professionals may be familiar with the concept, the application of the concept in its full form is limited. Participants also at times applied the concepts without having full awareness that the concepts were part of the lean startup methodology. A number of participants used the methodology to help develop the business and operations strategy. Participants also typically saw the value in the concepts for application across industry as long as the right structures are in place to help support the initiative. / E.R. 2019

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) March 2017 / The objective of this study is twofold: first to evaluate the magnitude of the effect of endogenous and exogenous risk factors in the success of South African (SA) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); second, to develop a framework for an integrated risk assessment model that can be used to assess SA SMEs holistically. Drawing from the entrepreneurial ecosystem, systems perspective, GEM framework and complex theory, an integrated risk assessment model framework that is person-centric, interdisciplinary, and multidimensional (individual, firm and environment) is formulated. This was a cross-sectional, quantitative study, which followed a post-positivist approach. Primary data, with a sample size of 286, was collected from SA SMEs through self-administered questionnaires. Data analysis included correlational analysis, backward elimination method, hierarchical multiple regression and mediation analysis. Financial capital, entrepreneurial self-efficacy on growth and risk perception emerged as significant predictors of SME success. However financial capital is by far the most influential predictor of financial performance. The results also confirmed the mediating effect of financial capital between entrepreneurial self-efficacy (finance and growth) and financial performance. Entrepreneurs who are confident can raise enough capital for their businesses, thus producing successful SMEs. Government policies and support programmes need to take a holistic view when supporting SMEs. While taking a holistic view, priority needs to be put on making capital available for entrepreneurs to develop and grow their businesses. Training programmes can focus on up-skilling entrepreneurs regarding entrepreneurial tasks that can improve their self-efficacy in management, financial understanding, and growth of their businesses. The study’s findings are important in that they help funders realise that business plans and financial projections are not the most important predictors of SME success, thus the need to review current risk assessment models. / MT 2017

M. Tech. Business Administration (MBA) / The objective of the study was to identify factors that have enabled Chinese footwear and textile products to thrive in the Central Business District of Johannesburg. China has become Africa's largest trading partner. Over 800 Chinese companies currently trade in 49 countries in Africa resulting in a 10-fold increase in trade between 2000 and 2010. Since the early 1990s, 800 local textiles producers have ceased operation, and over 60,000 jobs have been lost. Accordingly, the South African Government imposed import duty on Chinese textiles products in August 2006. Moreover, Chinese entrepreneurs experience logistical bottlenecks in importing products, language barriers, and still have to comply with government requirements. Also, consumers have become price-sensitive considering the arguably inferior quality of Chinese products. In spite of the hurdles highlighted above, Chinese textiles enterprises are more successful than their competitors. The results of this study showed that the relative success of Chinese footwear and textile companies in comparison with local enterprises was attributed to the practice of rewarding employees with gifts, the provision of training to employees on entrepreneurial skills, and the ability to keep accurate records on business activities. Findings of the study are valuable to stakeholders such as the local footwear and textile enterprises as well as the South African Department of Trade and Industry and the South African Chamber of commerce and Industry.

D.Tech. (Homoeopathy) / In South Africa, the full time training for Homeopathy consists of a five year Masters Degree programme offered at two tertiary institutions; the University of Johannesburg and Durban University of Technology. An outcome of training states that graduate homeopaths must have competency in establishing a private practice. Graduates in homeopathy invest a minimum of five years, but not uncommonly in excess of seven years before graduating, which has considerable time and cost implications. Research has shown that most graduates struggle to establish viable private practices but unfortunately there is a lack of theoretical or research-generated knowledge available to help address the problem. The purpose of the study is to develop a model to facilitate success when establishing a Homeopathic private practice in South Africa. A theory-generating, qualitative, phenomenological research design that was exploratory, descriptive and contextual was used. The sampling method was purposive, using snowball sampling. The methodology utilised the four step strategy for theory and model development as indicated by Chinn and Kramer (2011). The interviews of eighteen participants, from five provinces in South Africa, who run successful homeopathic practices were transcribed and analysed using Rapley (2011:274-275) and Creswell (2013:193-225) analysis for phenomenological studies and Tesch’s inductive, descriptive coding approach (in Creswell, 1994:155-156). Four themes emerged from the data. In theme one, participants experienced initial start-up anxieties which were exacerbated by a perceived lack of practical experience and they indicated their ability to build expertise and self-confidence through the mobilisation of external and internal resources. In theme two, participants experienced challenges inherent in establishing a new practice and expressed how they developed innovative homeopathic practices by means of diversification, differentiation and service excellence. iv In theme three, participants experience that inter and intrapersonal competencies and professional integrity contribute to generating patient trust and word of mouth referrals. In theme four, participants experience the need to mobilise self-support in order to mitigate pressures associated with creating a successful practice. From the data the central concept was identified as ‘the need to facilitate the personal and professional competencies in homeopaths which lead to the establishment of successful private practices’. This was then conceptualised and together with the theoretical definitions and relationships, forms the foundation of a model to facilitate success when establishing a homeopathic private practice in South Africa. The model is graphically represented and described. Guidelines for the implementation of the model, which unfolds in three phases, namely undergraduate, new graduate and maintenance phase, are given. The model is evaluated according to the criteria given by Chinn and Kramer (2011) and deemed to be clear, simple, general, accessible, and important to homeopaths. In addition to being a frame of reference for graduate homeopaths in South Africa, information gained can potentially be used to augment Homeopathic training. The theory generated from the study can form the foundation for further research in this, or related fields.

The Republic of South Africa (RSA) became a democracy when the African National Congress (ANC) came to power in 1994. However, more than twenty years after the apartheid era, the people of the RSA are highly politicised and society still shows an extremely high level of inequality in income that is aggravated by the lack of formal job opportunities in the country. Disturbingly, early-stage entrepreneurial activity in the RSA declined from 7.8 percent in 2008 to 5 percent in 2009. As a result, the low levels of entrepreneurial activity are partly responsible for the stagnation in the structural transformation of the economy. The economy remains dependent on sectors such as agriculture and mining where looting, instability, violence and rent-seeking are endemic in spite of plentiful natural resources. As a consequence of these factors, manufacturing is becoming increasingly uncompetitive and the economy is becoming increasingly less innovative. The RSA‟s government leaders should have used the strengths of the country to minimise or rectify the weaknesses of the extremely high levels of inequality in income and the lack of formal job opportunities. Instead, these leaders identified their supporters, satisfied their short-term consumption demands, distributed jobs to the party faithful and provided social welfare to the poor. Additionally, the majority of school leavers are not pursuing tertiary studies but, with limited or little education, they still have to form part of the potential labour force of the future. The youth employment rate for 15 to 24 year-olds, in the RSA, is as low as 12.5 percent. Again, this highlights the importance of finding alternative ways to increase the population‟s participation in the economy, probably through some form of entrepreneurship. The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical model with the main objective being to identify the factors (variables) that will promote growth, sustainability and good governance in Christian-owned Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises (SMME) within the RSA. Business is commonly viewed as a secular pursuit and religious people, particularly in Western societies, have a narrow view of the conceptual and practical application of their faith and spirituality in their businesses. As a result, the potential of businesses to influence communities, particularly with regard to issues such as social iniquities and cultural reform, good governance, responsible business behaviour, social capital, spiritual intelligence (SQ) and Christian entrepreneurship orientation appear to be, at worst, more or less irrelevant and, at best, greatly under-valued and under-utilised. The intersection of these constructs provides an understanding of how an entrepreneur‟s heightened consciousness in terms of his/her personal values and beliefs can affect his or her business activities and crucial characteristics of the entrepreneurial process, such as the recognition of opportunities, the creation of new ventures, as well as the operation and growth of these business ventures. This study uncovered a number of themes that shed light on how Christian SMME owner-managers rationalise the everyday dealings of their business lives as an expression of their faith. This study is an expression of a complex phenomenon that is extremely relevant in the present day and sharpens the focus on the important role that religious faith has to play in the field of business outcomes. Many Christian entrepreneurs express a motivational need to give back to their communities, customers and other stakeholders of the business venture. Christian entrepreneurs value intrinsic factors like purpose, passionate work and personal calling above wealth, fame, power, money, and recognition. A combination of Christian character traits forms the backbone of a Christian‟s internal power and purpose. God created people to glorify Him and this purpose is achieved through the fulfilling of a personal calling. A calling is often accompanied by a conviction of divine influence and the vocation in which one customarily engages. The call to the Christian entrepreneur is to be the salt and light in an environment (Mathew 5:13) like RSA, that is not conducive to entrepreneurial behaviour, where unemployment is very high, infrastructure is buckling under the pressures of bad management and corruption is rife.

South Africa is faced with much poverty, joblessness and an economy that is not sustainable. Unemployment is on the rise in South Africa with the Eastern Cape having the largest number of unemployed people. Co-operatives can be used as a tool to combat poverty and for job creation, but the problem is that co-operatives are still an unknown entity in South Africa. Co-operatives are only known by a few and those few are still sceptical and not willing to form co-operatives. The already established businesses are also not forthcoming nor showing any willingness to do businesses with co-operatives. The less they do business with them, the less the co-operatives flourish. The present study investigates to what extent co-operatives can be a solution to decrease poverty and unemployment. The primary objective of this study was to make a contribution to the development and success of co-operatives by investigating the performance of co-operatives in the in the important business functions of financial management, general management, human resources management, marketing management and operations management. The study also investigated which of these business functions were the most important determinants of business success in these co-operatives. A sample of 50 co-operatives in the East London area of the Eastern Cape was selected and three members per co-operative were requested to answer the questionnaire. The expected number of respondents was therefore 150. However, only 65 usable questionnaires (response rate of 43.3%) were returned. The SEDA Small Business Assessment Tool was used to measure the co-operatives’ performance in these business functions. The empirical results revealed that the strongest correlates of business success in these co-operatives were financial management (r = 0.57, p < 0.05) followed by human resources management (r = 0.49, p < 0.05) and operations management (r = 0.40, p < 0.05). The results also show that, while the co-operatives do have some form of financial management strategies in place, they do not address some of the major financial management concepts that are really essential in a sound financial management policy. The co-operatives generally do not follow any formal financial costing system at all. The results however indicated that the co-operatives expressed high confidence in their financial, general and human resource management practices and low confidence in their marketing and operations management practices.

Many countries that have achieved economic development have a dynamic co-operative sector which contributes substantially to the development of these economies. From a global perspective, co-operatives have been proven to be flexible in meeting a wide variety of social and economic human needs such as job creation, alleviation of poverty and building of communities. With the drive to decrease poverty in South Africa, there has been an increased interest to support co-operatives with the intention to provide employment, social development and building communities/ community care. It seems, however, that South Africa has not yet reached the same momentum in the co-operatives movement as elsewhere in the world and the economy is still characterized by a high unemployment rate and a low growth rate (Van der Walt, 2002). This study is an attempt to determine the factors for business success in co-operatives by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of co-operative businesses within the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality in the Eastern Cape. The study includes an extensive literature review on the nature and prevalence of co-operatives in South Africa where challenges faced by South African co-operatives and particularly those in the Eastern Cape Province, are indicated. It also highlights international best practice and reveals that for co-operative success, apart for functioning by the International Seven Cooperative Principles, knowledge and expertise in business management are absolutely necessary so that co-operatives can be profitable and sustainable. With this knowledge, an adapted form of the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) Small Business Assessment Tool was used to formulate the questionnaire and to review business management literature. A survey conducted involved fifty-one co-operative members on the database of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Business Unit. The opinions of the respondents were compared with the guidelines provided by the literature in the study in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of these co-operatives, which then determine the critical success factors for business success in co-operatives. The empirical results show that the co-operative members understand co-operative principles and function through them. They have a fairly general knowledge of business management. The results also show significantly positive correlations between Marketing Management, Financial Management, Operations Management, Human Resources Management and General Management, on the one hand, and the business success of co-operatives, on the other hand. This indicates that these respondents recognize the importance of these business functions in the success of their businesses. However, failures and weaknesses experienced in these areas lead to the recommendations that they need to be mentored as they cannot put this knowledge into application, and secondly, they need financial assistance and support to sustain the co-operative businesses.

South Africa and more specifically Port Elizabeth is faced with many challenges with regard to economic growth and unemployment. It is generally acknowledged that the “Small to Medium Enterprises” (SME) are the largest employers in any economy, additionally SME’s are large contributors to the gross domestic product. Successful SME’s are the catalysts of the economy and over time they can develop into large enterprises. It is clear that in order for a country to have a strong and sustainable economy it needs to have a strong and successful SME sector. Unfortunately the South African SME sector performs relatively poorly in comparison with the SME sectors around the world (Herrington, Kew & Kew, 2009). With the knowledge of the importance of the SME sector to the economy and the knowledge that the South African SME’s are generally underperforming, this study will identify how to improve the relative success rate of the SME sector in Port Elizabeth South Africa. In order to achieve this, this study needs to identify why the SME sector is not performing on a par with other SME sectors from around the globe and what initiatives need to be implemented in Port Elizabeth that will enable its SME sector to perform at the same level or better than other SME sectors from around the globe. This study identifies that the South African SME’s are provided with a number of support initiatives. Some of these support initiatives have been very effective, while other support initiatives have been unsuccessful or have failed. This study concludes by identifying a number of areas that need improvement; of these areas two are identified as being critical to SME’s success and sustainability, these two areas are: · The need to make SME’s more aware of the government / business initiatives that are available; and · Establish more effective mentoring and coaching. In order to address these critical areas, the study suggests the use of an internet portal that can be used to coordinate all the activities between the mentors and the SME’s. This internet portal will be expanded to become the core information hub and collaboration centre for the flow of information between the SME’s and any of their stakeholders. Once all this information is centralised it will be a relatively simple process to measure the success rate of the SME’s and the effectiveness of the different mentors.

An increase in the global competitiveness has forced manufacturing organisations to re-look their facility from a labour productivity standpoint. Leveraging a manufacturing operation into a competitive avantage must at all times support the organisation’s objective. It is therefore critical that the operation reviews its strategy so that it fulfils the ever changing needs in the market. Purpose – The main objective of this research is to identify the critical success factors to improve direct labour efficiency within Johnson Controls Automotive South Africa (Pty) Ltd (JCI). Design/methodology/approach – A combination of a comprehensive literature review and visits to the Uitenhage plant and head office were employed in the study. JCI practices were observed to highlight the level of direct labour productivity. This was followed by interviewing relevant and key personel who had an involvement in achieving direct labour productivity in the plant. A questionnaire-based research approach was adopted for this purpose and a total of 83 valid survey responses were received from staff in the Uitenhage plant, together with head office staff who directly supported the plant. The questionnaire was designed to identify and test perceptions of employees, regarding the factors of production, identified as sub variables. The research aim was to determine the most practical and effective strategies to improve direct labour productivity. Results were analysed and interpreted after which recommendations were formulated. Findings – Several critical success factors identified as sub variables were tested to understand their impact on direct labour productivity. Empirical results showed that organisational culture, leadership culture, employee engagement, communication and skills, development and training, had a significant effect on direct labour productivity. Respective ratings of these elements were discussed with the focus of improving this going forward. Research limitations/implications – Continued scepticim within JCI about the benefits of direct labour productivity to their business is one of the fundamental limitations this research faces. Originality/value – The novelty of the research project stems from the realization of key factors contributing to the improvement of direct labour productivity within the JCI enviroment. The results would provide JCI with indicators and guidelines for a successful implementation of direct labour productivity initiatives in the Uitenhage plant.

Summaries after each chapter / Flourishing organisations realise that employees make a critical difference when it comes to competitiveness, performance and innovativeness. Employees are required to be dedicated, energetic and absorbed in their work (Bakker & Schaufeli, 2008). In short, organisations require employees who are engaged. The general aim of this research was to use a controlled experimental research design to establish whether the participation of employees in an emotional intelligence intervention would increase their levels of emotional intelligence and thus improve their levels of work engagement. The researcher concluded that the intervention did not result in a significant increase in the employees’ levels of emotional intelligence and work engagement. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)