Over the past few years an intense debate has emerged with regard to the value of business planning for an entrepreneur, when launching a new business. The debate concerns the crucial question that all entrepreneurs and company founders face when embarking on the process of launching a new venture. The predicament that so many entrepreneurs and company founders face is whether to plan before embarking on the priceless quest for venture success or not to plan and rather to embark on the new venture in the hope it will succeed. The purpose of this study is to examine both schools of thought and then to explore if in actual fact business planning has an effect on the growth rate of an entrepreneurial venture. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The world is in the midst of a new wave of economic development with entrepreneurship and innovation as the catalysts. The ability to continually innovate and to engage in an ongoing process of entrepreneurial action has become the source of competitive advantage and a lack of entrepreneurial actions in today’s global economy could be a recipe for failure (Kuratko, 2009). Organisations need to keep abreast of developments in their business environment and continually identify and evaluate opportunities if they are to prosper in a rapidly changing world, and they must become more entrepreneurial as their corporate environments become more dynamic and increasingly competitive (Shepherd, Patzelt and Haynie, 2009). Opportunity recognition remains an important issue for academic research. This research report aims at making a modest contribution to further understand opportunity recognition behaviour of employees within their existing work environment. The research focussed on employees working in the South African financial sector, and examined their perceptions of opportunity recognition behaviours and motivators. An understanding of these important behaviours and motivators will allow senior management of corporate entities to have a better understanding of the opportunity recognition processes by employees, and to put in place mechanisms that facilitate and support these processes in search of robust entrepreneurial activities. Apart from the economic rationale, the motivations for studying employees’ behaviour come mainly from the limited number of studies of this nature that have been carried out in emerging economies. The study is performed using data from 195 employees drawn from 23 financial sector companies in South Africa. This research concludes that South African financial sector employees perceive themselves as showing strong levels of opportunity recognition behaviours, and opportunity recognition motivators are also perceived important in promoting entrepreneurial initiatives. The empirical study reveals that there is a significant positive relationship between opportunity recognition behaviours and the frequency of opportunities recognised. vi Success is found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between frequency of opportunity recognition and perceptions of opportunity recognition behaviours. Respondents, who have a low or medium number of successfully implemented opportunities, recognise a higher number of opportunities as their opportunity recognition behaviour increases. However, those respondents with a high number of successfully implemented opportunities tend to show a slight decrease in the total number of opportunities identified as their opportunity recognition behaviour increases. A cluster analysis was carried out to provide a deeper understanding of opportunity recognition behaviours and motivators, and three distinct clusters with differing characteristics were identified. These clusters are named according to the characteristics displayed by the respective clusters (corporate achievers, mavericks, and doers). The corporate achievers cluster tends to perceive high levels of opportunity recognition behaviours and motivators. This high proportion of perceived alignment to company strategy combined with high levels of opportunity recognition behaviours may encourage more of the proposed opportunities to be in line with company strategy, which in turn may lead to the higher proportion of successfully implemented opportunities. The mavericks cluster recognise a large number of opportunities, but are behind the corporate achiever cluster when it comes to the proportion of successfully implemented opportunities and perceive low alignment to company strategy. Although this cluster shows a large proportion of opportunities proposed for their current company, their low perception of alignment to company strategy may mean that the opportunities they recommend do not always fit into the company strategy, which may explain their lower proportion of successfully implemented opportunities. The doers cluster tends to perceive low levels of opportunity recognition behaviour and motivators, as well as low levels of alignment to company strategy. Respondents in this cluster seem to do their work, but show low levels of entrepreneurial orientation.

No / This paper undertakes a comparative study of intervention strategies and the resultant impact upon new enterprise creation in the UK and Hungary. Firstly, secondary data is used to compare and contrast the actions of and support provided by, major employer organisations faced with the need to downsize and restructure in the light of changing economic circumstances. Parallels are drawn between the need to support the local economy in specific regions of the UK, which faced extreme recession following the decline of major industries and the need to support local economies in Hungary, which face an uncertain future, but new opportunities, following the liberalisation of economic policy. Secondly, the paper reports the results of interviews with entrepreneurs and owner-managers in both countries who have received and who are receiving support and assistance to establish, grow and develop new enterprises. For many this marks a significant transition from employment to self-employment and requires the acquisition of new skills and competences together with the acceptance of high levels of risk and exposure not previously experienced. Thirdly, the paper assesses the impact of changing relationships within the local economy. This is especially significant where newly established SMEs operate as sub-contractors to the supporting organisation which takes the opportunity to outsource services and/or production which was previously undertaken in-house. The paper concludes with specific recommendations concerning the role of facilitators in influencing attitudes towards entrepreneurship and actions, which may be undertaken to encourage regeneration through the creation of new enterprises.

There is a known fact that prosperity of new ventures will benefit the economy as a wholein a positive manner and therefore the economy should strive to create more new ventures. Steiner (2007) shows in his article that, one way out of unemployment is to venture intoself-employment. Whilst men venturing into self-employment have been quite stable overthe years, female entrepreneurs have drastically increased. Further, female entrepreneurshipis a way out from poverty, which goes towards equality for a nation (Eftimoski, 2006;Minniti, 2003). There exist an importance to study the in depth factors that correlates withthe female decision making process of venturing into self-employment. The authorsidentified a lack of research focusing on differences in motivation between unemployedwomen and employed women who started their own businesses. The purpose of this thesis is to find and compare the motivational factors for unemployedand employed women to take the decision of venturing into self-employment. The authorswant to understand the significance of previous studies and developed theories in applianceto previously unemployed and employed females venturing into self-employment withinJonkoping municipality, Sweden. Around this area, there is a great reputation of strongentrepreneurial spirit (Wigren, 2003). This qualitative study did not aim to generalize the results to a whole population, but ratherto understand the researched individual’s choices when taking the step into self-employment.Since this thesis wishes to find out incentives and motivations for thedecision of females going into self-employment, in-depth interviews with 10 self-employedwomen has been conducted to deeper the understanding of these events. A multiple casestudy was used in order to find common motivational factors for women to enter self-employment. The main results of this thesis showed that there were differences in motivational factorsfor unemployed and employed women when deciding to become self-employed. The mostvisible motivational factor for the unemployed females to enter self-employment was theactual unemployment. However for the employed women, the biggest motivational factorswere disagreement with management and not being able to develop, in combination with abusiness opportunity. There were also no signs of monetary reward, impacting upon thefemale’s decision to venture into self-employment.

<p>There is a known fact that prosperity of new ventures will benefit the economy as a wholein a positive manner and therefore the economy should strive to create more new ventures.</p><p>Steiner (2007) shows in his article that, one way out of unemployment is to venture intoself-employment. Whilst men venturing into self-employment have been quite stable overthe years, female entrepreneurs have drastically increased. Further, female entrepreneurshipis a way out from poverty, which goes towards equality for a nation (Eftimoski, 2006;Minniti, 2003). There exist an importance to study the in depth factors that correlates withthe female decision making process of venturing into self-employment. The authorsidentified a lack of research focusing on differences in motivation between unemployedwomen and employed women who started their own businesses.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to find and compare the motivational factors for unemployedand employed women to take the decision of venturing into self-employment. The authorswant to understand the significance of previous studies and developed theories in applianceto previously unemployed and employed females venturing into self-employment withinJonkoping municipality, Sweden. Around this area, there is a great reputation of strongentrepreneurial spirit (Wigren, 2003).</p><p>This qualitative study did not aim to generalize the results to a whole population, but ratherto understand the researched individual’s choices when taking the step into self-employment.Since this thesis wishes to find out incentives and motivations for thedecision of females going into self-employment, in-depth interviews with 10 self-employedwomen has been conducted to deeper the understanding of these events. A multiple casestudy was used in order to find common motivational factors for women to enter self-employment.</p><p>The main results of this thesis showed that there were differences in motivational factorsfor unemployed and employed women when deciding to become self-employed. The mostvisible motivational factor for the unemployed females to enter self-employment was theactual unemployment. However for the employed women, the biggest motivational factorswere disagreement with management and not being able to develop, in combination with abusiness opportunity. There were also no signs of monetary reward, impacting upon thefemale’s decision to venture into self-employment.</p>

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This dissertation examines the factors influencing entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia, focusing on economic, social, and cultural aspects. Three hypotheses guide the study: 1) Economic factors. 2) The social environment. 3) There is a positive relationship between prior and subsequent venture creation. Using panel data from 13 regions between 2008 and 2022, findings show that positive economic changes, higher income per capita, lower unemployment, and higher business density significantly boost new venture creation. Access to finance and prior venture creation also positively influence subsequent entrepreneurial activities. However, a higher proportion of foreign workers and marriage rates negatively correlate with new venture creation, while the female population ratio has a complex impact. This research provides insights for policymakers and entrepreneurs, emphasizing the need for supportive economic environments and policies addressing social dynamics to enhance entrepreneurial growth in Saudi Arabia.

Business incubators have become an integrated part of innovation systems worldwide, designed to support innovative entrepreneurship and regional development. However, empirical research on incubated firms show mixed results on innovation and growth. In this paper, 18 Swedish incubators, top-ranked and funded by government innovation programs, are studied through the lens of the institutional logics perspective. Multiple conflicts in state and market logics are highlighted and discussed, as well as implications for new venture creation and future research on business incubators as influential institutional actors.

University education is no longer a passport to secure employment for graduates. This requires young graduates to consider entrepreneurship and self-employment as a viable career option. Understanding the determinants of entrepreneurial intention (EI), therefore, becomes important. In exploring the determinants of EI, prior studies investigate the effects of individual factors, contextual factors and entrepreneurship education (EE) in isolation from each other. Moreover, literature on the effect of EE on EI shows mixed conclusions. The current study, by considering EE as the kernel, firstly examines individual and institutional determinants of EI. Secondly, it explores whether EE affects the relationships between EI and its individual and institutional determinants. To avoid bias from utilising one particular methodology, this study purposely employed a concurrent triangulation strategy. This was intended for model testing and in-depth understanding of the research issues in the Zambian context. Primary data were collected from Zambia via qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey. For the qualitative study, 13 interviews were conducted and interviewees included final year undergraduate students, educators and practitioners in enterprise support organisations. For the quantitative study, 452 useful responses were received from final year undergraduate students. Research results suggest that, firstly, EI is primarily a function of perceived feasibility and desirability of entrepreneurship. Secondly, individual and institutional factors directly influence perceived feasibility and desirability of entrepreneurship. Thirdly, and more importantly, individual and institutional factors indirectly exert their impact on perceived feasibility and desirability via EE. The study contributes to knowledge in four major areas. Firstly, against the backdrop of mixed conclusions in prior research about the effect of EE on EI, this study finds that the effect of EE should be examined in conjunction with factors at individual and institutional levels. Specifically, it establishes that effectiveness of EE mediates the effects of individual and institutional factors on perceived feasibility and desirability of entrepreneurship i.e. the attitudinal antecedents of EI. This helps clarify the role of EE. Secondly, unlike prior studies and models that examine the influence of EE, individual factors and contextual factors in isolation from each other, this study develops and validates a multi-level integrated model to explore how these factors jointly shape EI. Specifically, the model shows that factors at individual and institutional levels influence EI not only through their effects on perceived feasibility and desirability but also through their impact on the effectiveness of EE. Thirdly, the study provides evidence from Zambia, an under-researched developing country, that EI is primarily a function of perceived feasibility and desirability of entrepreneurship. This supports prior research conclusions from developed countries. Lastly, the study further develops and validates constructs for EE, providing a basis for evaluating EE. In particular, it demonstrates that effectiveness of EE in relation to EI can be evaluated from three angles: perceived learning from the module/programme, experiential learning and access to resources. On the whole, the findings derived suggest that, in order to promote graduate entrepreneurship, multifaceted and concerted efforts will be required from policy makers (to help shape institutions), practitioners (to devise and implement collaborative support mechanisms), educators (to design and deliver appropriate EE content and pedagogy) and scholars (to evaluate and develop knowledge). Acknowledgements I am entirely responsible for the work presented in this thesis. However, at the same time I acknowledge that work of this magnitude and depth can never be solely the effort of one individual. There are many stakeholders to thank. I am greatly indebted to the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission (UK) for offering the Commonwealth Academic Staff Scholarship, the Coppebelt University for granting the study leave, and the University of Wolverhampton Business School’s Management Research Centre for facilitating the research project. I am also indebted to my supervisors, Dr Yong Wang (Director of Studies), Dr Ian Mckeown and Dr Graham Tate for guiding me through this study. Without Dr Yong Wang’s dedicated direction, mentoring and support, this project would not have been finished properly. Special thanks go to the eight universities in Zambia which authorised and facilitated access to the final year students for the survey. Special gratitude also goes to the lecturers, students and enterprise support practitioners in Zambia who participated in the interviews. I am also grateful to all the staff at the University of Wolverhampton for their support. Particularly, I wish to thank Prof Silke Machold, Prof Mike Haynes, Prof Les Worrall, Dr Paschal Anosike, Dr Stuart Farquhar and Steven Greenfield for their encouragement and support. I thank Andy (Dr Jones), David and Aurelian (Dr Mbzibain) for all the insightful discussions in ML119 and ML120. Lastly, words are not adequate for appreciating my wife and best friend Bernadette and our children Bruce, Grace and Benita for their encouragement and sacrifice during this research project. I end this section with gratitude to God for life and blessing.