Industrial design is recognised for the value-oriented benefits it offers to businesses. Industrial design ensures that new products are more efficient, usable, convenient and safe to use within the evolving business environment. One of the important factors for the continuous achievement of high product quality and general economic growth and stability in countries such as West Germany, Korea and Japan is their sound industrial design base. Industrial design programmes can be instrumental to ignite an entrepreneurial and innovation spirit to assist in curbing the high unemployment rate and very low levels of entrepreneurial intentions in South Africa. The core of tertiary industrial design students has unique capabilities that can assist the South African economy to stimulate manufacturing, job creation and economic growth. The purpose of this study was to investigate the entrepreneurial intentions among industrial design students enrolled for the programme in Three-Dimensional Design, at Universities of Technology in South Africa. In addition, this study investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and actual business formation by graduates of the programme. Studies have been carried out in South Africa on entrepreneurial intentions, but not on the formation, occurrence and implementation of entrepreneurial intentions amongst industrial design students, specifically. To test the links between business education and entrepreneurial intentions, a research model based on Ajzen’s (1985) Theory of Planned Behaviour was adopted and tested using quantitative empirical data collected from students in industrial design at two Universities of Technology. Quantitative data were collected from a sample of 161 participants using a validated self-administered questionnaire. IBM SPSS and STATA were used to conduct descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, factor analysis, reliability and structural equation modelling on the primary quantitative data. The empirical evidence partially supports the effectiveness of the Theory of Planned Behaviour in predicting entrepreneurial intentions. Although perceived social norms and self-efficacy is positively related to entrepreneurial intentions, results failed to reach statistical significance. However, personal attitude was found to mediate the relationship between these variables and entrepreneurial intention. Whilst business education is positively related to self-efficacy, entrepreneurial knowledge is positively related to higher levels of personal attitude and self-efficacy. The transformation of entrepreneurial intentions into actual business start-ups were investigated using qualitative empirical data collected from past graduates of the Three-Dimensional Design programme. Qualitative data were collected from a sample of 22 graduates through structured interviews. ATLAS.ti version 7.5.9 was used to analyse the qualitative data. The researcher provided evidence that there is a relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and the actual start-up of a business, as 45.5 per cent of graduates started businesses. Furthermore, business education positively influenced the actual start-up of businesses. However, graduates experienced many challenges to business start-up, with implications for the teaching of business subjects and for policy makers. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management)

Owing to the fact that entrepreneurship is widely considered to be a mechanism for reducing unemployment, the purpose of the study was to assess whether final-year Commerce students in the predominantly rural provinces, the Eastern Cape Province and the Limpopo Province, have the intention to start their own businesses.The study draws heavily from entrepreneurial intent models and focuses on the relationship between three key variables, namely, exposure to entrepreneurship education, awareness of entrepreneurial support and social capital to establish whether they are related to the intention of final-year Commerce studentsto start their own businesses. The literature review concentrated on entrepreneurial intent and entrepreneurial intent models; government entrepreneurial support initiatives in South Africa and in other countries and their role in the development of entrepreneurial intent, emergence of new ventures and the growth of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs); entrepreneurship education and its role in enhancing entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial competencies and entrepreneurial intent;the influence of social capital on entrepreneurial intent and the different stages on the new venture life-cycle; and concludes with the link between entrepreneurship and the establishment of SMMEs. A survey was conducted among National Diploma (ND): Internal Auditing, Cost and Management Accounting and Financial information systems students (IAUD, CMA and FIS) (who had six months exposure to entrepreneurship education), ND: Entrepreneurship/Small Business Management (E/SBM) (who had three years exposure to entrepreneurship education) and ND: Management (without exposure to entrepreneurship education). The respondents for the study comprised 355 final year students of which 276 were from Walter Sisulu University in the Eastern Cape Province and 79 were from Tshwane University of Technology (Polokwane Campus) in the LimpopoProvince.Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and nonparametric statistics. The findings reveal that the majority of the respondents had the intention to start a business in the future.The entrepreneurial intent of the ND: E/SBM students was v stronger than the entrepreneurial intent of the ND: IAUD, CMA and FIS students and ND: Management students. Some significant relationships were found between entrepreneurial intent and the key variables of the study. / Business Management / D.Com. (Business Management)

This study was undertaken to investigate the motivation, intention, self-efficacy, culture, business support,entrepreneurial orientation and business performance of South African and immigrant entrepreneurs in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Gauteng province. The performance of the SMEs was investigated, and the reasons and gaps that have led to the assumed low competitive ranking and poor performance of South African entrepreneurs compared to immigrant entrepreneurs were analysed. A structured research instrument (questionnaire) was used to collect data through interviews and a self-administered survey. A total of 466 questionnaires out of 500 questionnaires that had been distributed to respondents by six fieldworkers were returned (93.2%) for analysis.A number of hypotheses were postulated to address the study aims and the collected data were analysed to answer the hypotheses. The results of the study showed a significant correlation between motivation and business performance (a motivated entrepreneur is more likely to succeed in business than an unmotivated entrepreneur) and a significant positive correlation between culture and motivation to start a business (a culture that is supportive of entrepreneurial activities, lowuncertainty avoidance, high individualism and lowpower distance relates positively to a high level of entrepreneurial self-efficacy).The results also showed a significant difference between the mean values of business performance and the education of the owner. It is suggested that the government creates a favourable climate to allow entrepreneurs to release their potential. The government can help by making complex legislation easier for start-ups and reducing the tax burden on new entrepreneurs. / Business Management / D. Comm. (Business Management)

Youth entrepreneurship is one of the solutions to reducing unemployment. The purpose of the study was to analyse youth entrepreneurship business performance in the Capricorn District Municipality in Limpopo Province. An entrepreneurship development model focusing on internal factors (entrepreneurial orientation) and external factors (supportive and cooperative environments), was adapted to establish whether they are related to youth business performance. The business environmental factors, such as business location, crime, and corruption were also tested as to whether they are related to youth business performance. The research used a census survey and primary data was obtained through questionnaires. The respondents for this study were 26 youth entrepreneurship business units in CDM, in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings reveal that youth businesses have shown negative performance in terms of the employment in the CDM, which results in employing fewer than five employees. / Business Management / M. Tech.

The introduction of PPPs in infrastructure provision has changed the way in which governments around the world now view infrastructure provision. However, the introduction of PPPs to deliver the needed infrastructure has benefited only a few companies. Most of these companies are the big construction firms that possess technological know-how and those that have the financial ability to execute large infrastructure projects. Although SMEs are important for employment creation, inequality and poverty reduction, the participation of SMEs in these PPP projects is very low. This is because PPP models in developing countries are based on those used in developed economies, and such models ignore the socio-economic problems facing developing countries. Therefore, this study argues that PPP projects in developing countries present an opportunity for growing the SME sectors in developing countries. It challenges the viewpoint of seeing infrastructure backlogs only as providing opportunities to big private sector companies and argues that infrastructure backlogs can be used by governments to reduce the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality by linking SMEs to PPP projects. The traditional PPP model that is being applied by many developing countries does not fully encourage the participation of SMEs in PPP projects, as most of the projects executed through this model are bundled into big projects that SMEs cannot execute due to a lack of technological know-how and weak balance sheets. The study therefore suggests different ways in which the participation of SMEs in PPP projects could be improved based on the results of the survey conducted for this study. The study then proposes an “innovative conceptual PPP model for sustainable SME development” that takes into account the needs for developing countries to create jobs, reduce poverty and inequality. It also takes into account all challenges for SMEs identified through the review of literature and the study survey. / Economics / D. Litt. et Phil. (Economics)

Youth unemployment is one of the key global challenges facing the world today. Statistically, the global youth unemployment rate is 13.1%. Youth entrepreneurship is viewed as a possible solution to youth unemployment. Interestingly, the world has adopted entrepreneurship as a strategic approach to facilitate economic participation among the youth. Youth entrepreneurship has gained importance in recent years in many countries, as a way of fostering employment opportunities, boosting economic competitiveness, and promoting local and regional development. Youth involvement in entrepreneurship assists in boosting their confidence, achieving economic independence, and alleviating poverty. Some researchers describe entrepreneurial orientation as innovativeness, pro-activeness, risk taking, and competitive aggressiveness. Other researchers see entrepreneurial orientation as being pushed or pulled into entrepreneurship. In this study, push and pull factors to become entrepreneurs were used to determine the entrepreneurial orientation of the respondents. The objectives of the study were to investigate whether there is a relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and the business performance of youth entrepreneurs in the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality. A descriptive research design within a quantitative research approach was adopted using online surveys and physical administration of questionnaires. The study used a census method to sample 555 youth entrepreneurs in the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality. A low response rate was achieved as only 96 respondents fully completed the questionnaires, which were used in the analysis. The collected data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The findings of this study revealed that push factors had a significant influence on the business performance of youth businesses in the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality; whereas there was no statistical evidence to suggest that pull factors predicted the business performance of youth businesses in the study area. The research found that entrepreneurship among young individuals is essential to enhancing young people’s economic development. The study discovered that most TMM youths were pulled in to starting their own businesses. The research also suggested that, EO could encourage TMM youth entrepreneurs to continue to become innovative, take- risk, be pro-active and competive aggressive in the businesses. / Business Management / M.A (Business Management)

The traditional theories of development concentrated on stimulating economic growth and ignored the social aspects involved. Despite the massive injection of donor funds, the situation of the poor deteriorated. The projects in Tembisa are an example of this, as the community was not involved in the assessing of needs or designing of interventions and were only the implementers. The evaluation offers an alternative developmental paradigm that has been used with success in other similar circumstances – the sustainable livelihood approach (SLA). The SLA contends that urban communities should become planners, initiators and executors of local development in order for any transformation to occur. Urban communities have to change their behaviour and attitudes, be willing to accept change, and to take ownership of the projects. The facilitators, NGOs and government have to be willing to unlearn their traditional ways, listen, and accept that they are not the only experts in the field. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

The traditional theories of development concentrated on stimulating economic growth and ignored the social aspects involved. Despite the massive injection of donor funds, the situation of the poor deteriorated. The projects in Tembisa are an example of this, as the community was not involved in the assessing of needs or designing of interventions and were only the implementers. The evaluation offers an alternative developmental paradigm that has been used with success in other similar circumstances – the sustainable livelihood approach (SLA). The SLA contends that urban communities should become planners, initiators and executors of local development in order for any transformation to occur. Urban communities have to change their behaviour and attitudes, be willing to accept change, and to take ownership of the projects. The facilitators, NGOs and government have to be willing to unlearn their traditional ways, listen, and accept that they are not the only experts in the field. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)