Due to the ever-changing environment that businesses operate in, there is a need to manage people differently to equip firms to avoid extinction. This need means that firms must identify and leverage sources management innovation. This research study investigated management innovation on an individual level by examining eight predetermined characteristics of an individual (age, total employment tenure, organisational tenure, functional role, innovation momentum, management training, educational level and gender) as possible factors that could predispose him/her to being a source of management innovation. Data was collected using nonprobability sampling and employed a self-administered survey. The findings indicated that all factors with the exception of management training are associated with an individual being a source of management innovation. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

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Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Technology itself does not currently offer a competitive advantage in this era of technological development. Innovative utilisation and application of technology does, however offer temporary competitive advantages. This innovative utilisation and application of technology is dependant on the creativity and innovation of the entrepreneur. CaliWatch™ makes use of existing technology namely cellular technology, watch technology and medical monitoring technology. The unique application of these technologies gives CaliWatch™competitive advantage in the market. The innovation does not only apply to the technology, but also to strategy and marketing to keep this competitive advantage in the market. This study analyses the different technologies and industries, identifying potential target markets and give projected financial information. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Tegnologie op sigself bied tans nie meer mededingende voordele in die era van tegnologiese ontwikkeling nie. Innoverende gebruik en toepassing van tegnologie bied wel tydelike mededingende voordele. Hierdie innoverende toepassing en gebruik berus op die kreatiwiteit en innovasie van die entrepreneur. CaliWatch TM maak gebruik van bestaande tegnologieë, naamlik sellulêre tegnologie, horlosie tegnologie, en mediese monitering tegnologie. Die unieke toepassing van hierdie tegnologieë bied CaliWatchTM mededingende voordeel in die mark. Die innovasie berus nie slegs by die toepassing van tegnologie nie, maar, om die mededinginde voordeel te behou, ook by die strategiese beplanning en bemarking. Hierdie studie ontleed die verskillende tegnologieë en industrieë, identifiseer potentiele teikenmarkte, en maak geprojekteerde finansiële vooruitskouinge.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / Technology is a critical component in modern society. Management of Technology (MOT) should be a major focus of management studies. At present the status of MOT is much less than it should be. Part of the reason is that there is little consensus about the body of knowledge for MOT. This can be traced down to as far as an inadequate consensus about the very nature of technology itself. There is a need for a simple and elegant conceptual foundation. There is a need for an accepted paradigm to govern MOT. The paradigm discourse initiated by Thomas Kuhn allows for a comprehensive frame of reference about theory contestation and about the attributes required from a contesting theory to achieve the ultimate status of a paradigm. In order to help create a coherent and streamlined conceptual foundation for MOT, this research evaluates the functionality grid as a paradigm. To realise this goal, this study first assesses the functionality grid’s compliance with the theoretical requirements of a paradigm, and secondly its compliance with the empirical requirements of a paradigm. The theoretical test uses a newly created format, the paradigm template, to establish the necessary criteria. The functionality grid is then subjected to a critical review using the said criteria. It is found that it meets the requirements of a valid paradigm. For measurement of empirical requirements, Kuhn’s own criteria are used. This second part of the study involves three practical exercises to examine the practical descriptive power of the functionality grid, and its ability to help first with the formation of a technology attuned mindset of participants, second with the improvement in technological knowledge and third with an increase in the technological literacy of participants. The outcomes of these tests are positive as well. The dissertation concludes that the functionality grid would be a viable paradigm to serve as a guide for the further development of MOT. The functionality grid becomes confirmed as a paradigm for MOT, because it contains all the attributes to serve as a coherent and streamlined conceptual structure for this discipline. Given this outcome, it is recommended that more effort be invested to understand, promote and popularise the functionality grid; and the various analytical frameworks derived from it. It is recommended that it becomes an explicit part of the book of knowledge for MOT and that it constitutes the basis for an educational curriculum to be shared by every MOT professional and student.

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce in Information Systems (Coursework) at the School of Economic and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, June 2017 / Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are now recognized as the driving force behind most thriving economies. This is mainly attributed to the role they play in most economies in reducing unemployment and their contribution towards Gross Domestic Product. This means that SMEs should have the right resources to enable them to enhance performance. Choosing the right technology to support their businesses is one of the important decisions that SMEs should make. Understanding the benefits and challenges of different technologies is often a problem for most SMEs. One of the new technologies that has gained prominence in recent years is cloud computing. Even though the value associated with this technology has been widely researched especially for large enterprises, the rate at which SMEs adopt cloud computing still remains low. The purpose of this research sought to explore and describe the determinants influencing the adoption of cloud computing by SMEs in South Africa. The study used Technology Organization Environment (TOE) framework as the theoretical lens in understanding the adoption of Could Computing phenomenon. Further, this qualitative exploratory and descriptive study used semi-structured interviews to collect data from five SMEs based in Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, operating in different industries and belonging to the National Small Business Chamber. The main factors that were identified as playing an important role in the adoption of cloud computing by SMEs are, relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, awareness, trialability, culture, top management support, size, regulation and trade partner relationship. It is worth noting that there was not enough evidence that competitive pressure played a significant role in SME cloud adoption. / XL2018

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Building (Project Management) to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Construction Economics and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2017 / E-procurement has been implemented globally with the aim of optimising efficiency and effectiveness within procurement processes of organisations and has become one of the preferred systems for the acquisition of goods, works and services. In recent years, e-procurement processes have been widely adopted and their application has been the norm in many organisations’ procurement processes. However, while e-procurement presents some significant opportunities, a set of challenges has emerged with the implementation of e-procurement. For example, in the South African context, small and medium construction firms (SMCFs) that do not have access to technological infrastructure are often not able to participate fully in the e-procurement transactions. In that regard, the implementation of e-procurement by the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development (GDID), a public sector organisation within the Republic of South Africa (RSA) and its impact on the development of SMCFs was investigated in this study. This was done to ascertain the extent of e-procurement implementation and the experiences of SMCFs, benefits and challenges associated with this in the study area. In order to address the research question, the research design adopted involved a detailed examination of the e-procurement methodologies used by the GDID in its procurement for infrastructure projects. This was done through the utilisation of questionnaires. 10 GDID officials chosen through the utilisation of a combination of the stratified random and purposive sampling methods, participated on the research. Secondly, to ascertain the impact of e-procurement implementation on the development of SMCFs, 250 SMCFs within the GDID supplier database were emailed questionnaires to obtain information regarding their experience, benefits realised and the inhibiting factors associated with their participation in e-procurement. The 250 SMCFs were selected through purposive sampling method were selected on the basis that they participated in the procurement of infrastructure projects implemented by GDID in the previous three financial years which are 2014/15; 2015/16 and 2016/17. Twenty-seven of the 250 SMCFs responded. The e-procurement methodologies used by the GDID were found to be e-notification, partial e-tendering, e-contract award, e-contract management and e-maintenance, repairs and operations (e-MRO). There was no single integrated e-procurement system used for carrying out all the e-procurement activities. E-notifications were done through the notification of tender opportunities for infrastructure projects through the Government Tender Bulletin, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) website, Department of National Treasury e-tenders’ portal and the Lead-2-Business website. Partial e-tendering is carried out through the Department of National Treasury e-tenders portal. E-contract award was done through sending of award letters to service providers as email attachments. E-contract management is done through the utilisation of Oracles’ Primavera P6 and Unifier software and Microsoft Project and emails for normal formal communication and circulation of instructions and project reports. E-MRO was done through the emaintenance software developed by GDID. It was also found that only around 33.3% of the 27 SMCFs that responded were able to fully engage with all the 5 major eprocurement methodologies, excluding e-MRO implemented by the GDID. The remaining SMCFs still relied on the utilisation of a combination of both electronic and paper based systems. The main impact of e-procurement on the development of SMCFs was found to be both positive and negative. On the positive side, it increased profitability through cost saving benefits and reduction in time required for transactions, increased their market access (as they are able to view more tender opportunities), made transactions faster, increased production rate on site (through reduction in the time spent on tendering, thus releasing more time for managing projects on site), and safer storage and back-up of information for reference purposes and benchmarking of other projects, as well as, for dispute resolution. The main disadvantages were found to be high capital cost of procuring and installing Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) infrastructure, the lack of resources, unreliable power supply, security risk and the lack of infrastructure and the non-compatibility of different software packages and application (interoperability challenge). The study confirms that the use of e-procurement by the GDID is still evolving and is yet to be fully implemented in a way that guarantees its full potential and benefits. It also confirms that e-procurement impacts both positively and negatively on the development of SMCFs, and that the systems need to be carefully designed and applied in order to ensure the growth, inclusiveness, sustainability and development of SMCFs in South Africa. / MT2018

A Master’s dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Commerce (School of Economic and Business Sciences) Johannesburg, 2016 / It has been suggested that a global ‘Second Generation’ of innovation (SGI) is required in order to address the deficiencies of contemporary innovation practice. In the commercial context, contemporary innovation practice is often constrained by market forces and the profit mechanism, effectively resulting in stagnation in the innovation pipeline. As a consequence, many potentially profitable and beneficial innovations are not pursued. SGI is a proposed new paradigm that makes use of open innovation, open source and crowdsourcing in order to extricate the full potential of distributed knowledge systems to ultimately ameliorate the free flow of knowledge and innovation. Much of SGI theory relates to pharmaceutical research but there exists a paucity of literature that applies SGI theory in the academic research context, where similar problems exist. It has been purported that academic research is inherently non-innovative and the occurrence of ‘academic failure’, or the inability of academia to produce innovative research output is a serious concern. In order to examine the relationship between SGI and academic research, a mixed methodology approach, which incorporated both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies has been used. First, a model of relationships between important theoretical concepts was derived from the literature. Next, a questionnaire survey was distributed to a sample of 529 academic researchers across South African universities and research institutions in order to gauge potential ‘SGI Propensity’ in relation to academic research output (or productivity) along with all other relevant variables in the literature-derived model. It is argued that the relationship between SGI Propensity and academic research productivity can provide a clear indication of the potential of SGI in the South African academic context. Aggregated data collected from this sample was then tested using a variety of statistical tests, including correlation analysis, hierarchical multiple regression, as well as tests of moderation and mediation. Additionally, a sample of 30 high-ranking South African academic researchers was also sampled for a parallel qualitative study, which occurred through a one-on-one interview process. Results from both studies were recorded, analysed and contrasted. Thereafter, conclusions were drawn and recommendations made. / MT2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Engineering, 2017 / Manufacturing companies have challenges implementing business process improvements and innovations (BPI) on support service processes effectively and find it difficult to measure the impact of such interventions on the overall performance of the organisation. Measurement of the impact of BPIs on overall performance of manufacturing companies is problematic due to the inadequacy of BPI metrics for support services. Furthermore, there are no universally accepted frameworks available for the measurement of the impact of improvements on support service processes on the performance of manufacturing companies. While there are frameworks available for performance measurement in general, they are not specific to measurement of the impact of BPIs in manufacturing support service processes. An initial exploratory study, based on an online survey of 50 companies that would typically conduct BPI or where known to the researcher to have conducted BPIs recently, was conducted to explore the nature of BPIs in manufacturing support service processes in South Africa. A second longer online survey was then conducted with 1000 respondents in manufacturing companies selected through expert sampling to further explore the nature and impact of BPIs in manufacturing support service processes considering selection of support service processes, the types and number of support service processes as well as BPI traditions and methodologies in use within manufacturing companies. In addition, four companies were selected for in-depth case studies in which ten projects were analysed by applying within case and cross case analysis The results of the surveys, the case studies and a revisit to the case companies were used to refine successive iterations of a theoretical framework initially developed from the literature. The framework provides a set of guidelines and actions for manufacturing companies to effectively conduct BPIs on manufacturing support service processes a basis from which the impact of improvements in manufacturing support service processes on manufacturing companies can be measured by providing the measurement areas to consider and a set of high level measures to use as high level indicators. Finally, the framework was checked for completeness using recommended criteria derived from the literature and was found to be complete and suitable as it met all the criteria for good measurement systems defined in the literature sources used in this study. / MT 2017

Energy efficiency stands out with its potential to address a number of challenges that today's electric utilities face, including increasing and changing electricity demand, shrinking operating capacity, and decreasing system reliability and flexibility. Being the least cost and least risky alternative, the share of energy efficiency programs in utilities' energy portfolios has been on the rise since the 1980s, and their increasing importance is expected to continue in the future. Despite holding great promise, the ability to determine and invest in only the most promising program alternatives plays a key role in the successful use of energy efficiency as a utility-wide resource. This issue becomes even more significant considering the availability of a vast number of potential energy efficiency programs, the rapidly changing business environment, and the existence of multiple stakeholders. This dissertation introduces hierarchical decision modeling as the framework for energy efficiency program planning in electric utilities. The model focuses on the assessment of emerging energy efficiency programs and proposes to bridge the gap between technology screening and cost/benefit evaluation practices. This approach is expected to identify emerging technology alternatives which have the highest potential to pass cost/benefit ratio testing procedures and contribute to the effectiveness of decision practices in energy efficiency program planning. The model also incorporates rank order analysis and sensitivity analysis for testing the robustness of results from different stakeholder perspectives and future uncertainties in an attempt to enable more informed decision-making practices. The model was applied to the case of 13 high priority emerging energy efficiency program alternatives identified in the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A. The results of this study reveal that energy savings potential is the most important program management consideration in selecting emerging energy efficiency programs. Market dissemination potential and program development and implementation potential are the second and third most important, whereas ancillary benefits potential is the least important program management consideration. The results imply that program value considerations, comprised of energy savings potential and ancillary benefits potential; and program feasibility considerations, comprised of program development and implementation potential and market dissemination potential, have almost equal impacts on assessment of emerging energy efficiency programs. Considering the overwhelming number of value-focused studies and the few feasibility-focused studies in the literature, this finding clearly shows that feasibility-focused studies are greatly understudied. The hierarchical decision model developed in this dissertation is generalizable. Thus, other utilities or power systems can adopt the research steps employed in this study as guidelines and conduct similar assessment studies on emerging energy efficiency programs of their interest.

In today's open business environments, innovation happens in globally dispersed organizations that exchange technological knowledge across increasingly permeable boundaries. Innovation intermediaries play an important role in these technology transfer processes. They operate as middle-men between solution seekers (companies seeking technological knowledge for solving their problems) and problem solvers (experts with specialized knowledge and solutions) and thus help to connect suppliers and customers of technological knowledge. Currently, clients that select an intermediary organization and managers of intermediary organizations that assign agents to a project have very little guidance as to what type of an intermediary they should select to guarantee that the intermediation process is successful. This study will provide much needed guidance. Successful technology transfer is operationalized as gains in efficiency and/or improved innovativeness, though it is likely that a trade-off exists between these two goals. This is commonly referred to as the productivity dilemma. To be successful, intermediaries need to understand the solution seeker's problem (problem framing) and reach into their networks of contacts or connections with various experts (social capital) to match the right expert to the problem. The literature on technical problem solving states that problem solvers that frame a problem as the need to reduce uncertainty solve the problem by reaching for readily available resources and tend to provide solutions that are similar to previous solutions. These incremental improvements are efficient, but not very innovative. Problem solvers that frame a problem as the need to reduce ambiguity do not expect the solution to be found in readily available sources and reach further. The outcome of this problem solving is likely to be dissimilar to the previous outcome, resulting in radical changes and high innovativeness. I argue that an innovation intermediary's choice in problem framing is likely to be dictated by two different focuses (bonding versus bridging) in the social capital of the agent. The agent with a high level of bonding social capital generally reinforces existing relationships (deepening the connections) and can easily access the appropriate experts. Consequently, bonding social capital is related to uncertainty reduction problem framing and, in turn, efficiency improvement outcome. As for the agent with a high level of bridging social capital, the agent tends to build and seek new contacts from different fields of expertise and specialization (broadening the connections), thus the agent can always reach different experts in different fields of specialization. Consequently, bridging social capital is related to ambiguity reduction problem framing and, in turn, innovativeness improvement outcome. The aim of this study is to contribute to the body of knowledge in technology management by exploring the relationship (that has never been explicitly identified in the past) between problem framing, social capital and the outcomes of innovation intermediation process. This indeed provides a much needed means to match intermediaries and projects in ways that lead to the desired levels of innovativeness and efficiency. In this study, the research model that identifies the relationship between problem solving, social capital and outcomes of the intermediation process is developed from the literature review of three different streams of research, namely technical problem solving, social capital and innovation intermediary. The hypotheses are set according to the relationship identified in the research model. Then, the data on the innovation intermediation process is collected from an intermediary organization in Thailand called iTAP which provided full access to its intermediary agents and archival records of its projects, resulting in a rich data set that is thoroughly analyzed by appropriate statistical models to explore the relationship in the research model. The results indicate that there are strong relationships between social capital and the outcomes of intermediation process. Specifically, ease of reach is a dimension of social capital that has a positive impact on both the outcome with efficiency improvement and the outcome with innovativeness improvement; while trust and mutual understanding show a negative relationship with the outcomes. The results also support the linkage between social capital and ambiguity reduction in problem framing. However, the other linkages between social capital and uncertainty reduction in problem framing, and between problem framing and outcomes, do not have statistical evidence but the data are in favor of the research model. An additional alternative theory of temporal and dynamic problem framing variables is introduced and thoroughly discussed to explain the innovation intermediation process. In summary, this study suggests that while more is better for bridging social capital, there should be a balance in bonding social capital. By bridging the relationships with different and diverse groups of people, the intermediary agents gain greater benefit in broadening their network of contacts that can help in solving the problems with both efficiency improvement and innovativeness improvement. On the other hand, by deepening the relationships with their existing network of contacts, the intermediary agents may also benefit by gaining more trust from the network but the closeness of their relationships may also hinder them from looking for better answers to the problems due to the false assumption (groupthink) and familiarity with the network (not-invented-here syndrome). The key to success for managing the successful innovation intermediation process is to promote strong bridging social capital and balanced bonding social capital of the innovation intermediary agent.