In South Africa, the small business sector has been identified as a sector that is not performing optimally. In a turbulent environment, this type of small business profile is magnified. Therefore, it is important to examine mechanisms through which the performance of this sector can be enhanced. Dynamic capabilities have emerged as a strategic tool of the highest order in terms of firm management and strengthening these capabilities is a key concern for firms that operate in a turbulent environment. Dynamic capabilities are described as the processes required to reconfigure existing resources into new functional competencies. Therefore, this study investigated the strategic processes of small businesses and developed a new strategic model and theory to illustrate and elucidate intervention mechanisms and strategies to strengthen the dynamic capabilities of these small businesses. Methodology: The retail community pharmacy sector was chosen as a model sector for this study since it is a sector that comprises mainly of small businesses and it is currently experiencing environmental turbulence. The methodology followed an initial exploratory, qualitative approach followed by a formal, empirical, quantitative approach. The research questionnaire was derived after ensuring that content validity, criterion related validity, construct validity and reliability criteria were met. This questionnaire was administered to a sample of 477 out of a population of 2549 small businesses in the retail community pharmacy sector, using an unrestricted, simple, random, probability sampling approach. As a consequence of having received 130 completed questionnaires, the results obtained in this study were expressed at the 95% confidence level with a confidence interval of 0.08. Results and Discussion: From a gap analysis of the level of importance of dynamic capabilities and their extent of implementation, seven dynamic capabilities whose implementation can be enhanced by an alteration of the management importance perception of them, were extracted. These capabilities revolve around staff reward, well-being, empowerment and education and training, as well as the abilities of the small business leadership to sense the environment and opportunities while being sensitive to stakeholder needs. Through a consolidation of the results of the gap analysis, a model for the initiation and the sustaining of innovative resource reconfigurations was developed. Conclusion: For the management practice setting, this study�s findings suggest that the dynamic capabilities of small firms operating in a turbulent environment can be enhanced and strengthened by the employment of the model developed by this study. From a management education perspective, this study�s findings also suggest that the employment of specific and focussed management education that revolves around the seven identified processes will enable not only the initiating phase of the proposed model but will also provide a multiplier effect in the model since management capability is also part of the general resource base of the firm. This study thus proposes the use of these management practice and educational approaches to strengthen and enhance the dynamic capabilities of small businesses operating in a turbulent environment. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / D. BL.

In South Africa, the small business sector has been identified as a sector that is not performing optimally. In a turbulent environment, this type of small business profile is magnified. Therefore, it is important to examine mechanisms through which the performance of this sector can be enhanced. Dynamic capabilities have emerged as a strategic tool of the highest order in terms of firm management and strengthening these capabilities is a key concern for firms that operate in a turbulent environment. Dynamic capabilities are described as the processes required to reconfigure existing resources into new functional competencies. Therefore, this study investigated the strategic processes of small businesses and developed a new strategic model and theory to illustrate and elucidate intervention mechanisms and strategies to strengthen the dynamic capabilities of these small businesses. Methodology: The retail community pharmacy sector was chosen as a model sector for this study since it is a sector that comprises mainly of small businesses and it is currently experiencing environmental turbulence. The methodology followed an initial exploratory, qualitative approach followed by a formal, empirical, quantitative approach. The research questionnaire was derived after ensuring that content validity, criterion related validity, construct validity and reliability criteria were met. This questionnaire was administered to a sample of 477 out of a population of 2549 small businesses in the retail community pharmacy sector, using an unrestricted, simple, random, probability sampling approach. As a consequence of having received 130 completed questionnaires, the results obtained in this study were expressed at the 95% confidence level with a confidence interval of 0.08. Results and Discussion: From a gap analysis of the level of importance of dynamic capabilities and their extent of implementation, seven dynamic capabilities whose implementation can be enhanced by an alteration of the management importance perception of them, were extracted. These capabilities revolve around staff reward, well-being, empowerment and education and training, as well as the abilities of the small business leadership to sense the environment and opportunities while being sensitive to stakeholder needs. Through a consolidation of the results of the gap analysis, a model for the initiation and the sustaining of innovative resource reconfigurations was developed. Conclusion: For the management practice setting, this study�s findings suggest that the dynamic capabilities of small firms operating in a turbulent environment can be enhanced and strengthened by the employment of the model developed by this study. From a management education perspective, this study�s findings also suggest that the employment of specific and focussed management education that revolves around the seven identified processes will enable not only the initiating phase of the proposed model but will also provide a multiplier effect in the model since management capability is also part of the general resource base of the firm. This study thus proposes the use of these management practice and educational approaches to strengthen and enhance the dynamic capabilities of small businesses operating in a turbulent environment. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / D. BL.

Omvärlden förändras i en allt snabbare takt, vilket också försvårar driften av organisationer. Detta leder till ökad komplexitet av verksamheters applikationer och ökar kraven på IT-tjänsterna. Fokus behöver därför skiftas från den traditionella synen på IT och IT-förvaltning till en mer kund och tjänsteorienterad syn vilket kallas för IT Service Management (ITSM). Inom ITSM finns det ett antal ramverk och IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) är det mest populära. ITIL är ett ramverk som fokuserar på processer och funktioner för att leverera och hantera en verksamhets IT-tjänster. ITIL syftar till att skapa fördelar såsom att förbättra tjänstekvalitén, minska kostnader, bli mer tidseffektiva, skapa bättre standarder och i slutändan förbättra kundnöjdheten.Det finns dock ett antal problem som verksamheter stöter på vid användningen av ITIL. För att kunna utnyttja och ta del av de fördelar som ITIL bidrar med, är det viktigt att kunna hantera dessa problem. Ett vanligt misstag är dock att fokus läggs på symptomen istället för den grundläggande orsaken. Syftet är därför att få en helhetsförståelse för de problem som uppstår vid användandet av ITIL, vilka orsakerna är och hur de kan hanteras. För att besvara frågeställningen utfördes en kvalitativ undersökning via semi-strukturerade intervjuer med tre respondenter som har praktisk erfarenhet av ITIL.Intervjuerna visade att respondenterna till stora delar plockade fram liknande problem, och att många av dem grundar sig i samma orsak. Exempel på problem som identifierades var att många hoppar över de strategiska processerna och att det råder en missuppfattning gällande ITIL. Den vanligaste orsaken visade sig vara okunskap, och att de inte vet hur det skall användas. Ett annat problem var att tjänsteleverantören inte efterföljer de införda ITIL-processerna och en orsak till detta visade sig vara att verksamheter har svårt att påvisa nyttan med ITIL. Detta visade sig kunna hanteras genom att analysera mätningar och använda dessa som underlag för att förklara varför ramverket används. / The world is changing rapidly, which complicates the management of organizations and leads to an increased complexity of an organisations applications as well as increased demands. Therefore the focus needs to change from the traditional aproach of IT-management to a more customer and service oriented view, which is called IT Service Management (ITSM). Within ITSM there is a couple of frameworks and standars, and the most popular is IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). ITIL is a framework that focus on processes and functions to deliver and manage an organizations IT-services. ITIL aims to create advantages such as improved service quality, reduced costs, to be more time-efficient, create better standards which leads to improved customer satisfaction.However, there are a number of problems that businesses encounter when using ITIL. In order to utilize and take advantage of the benefits that ITIL is supposed to create, it is important to deal with these problems. However, a common mistake is to focus on the symptoms rather than the root cause. Therefore the aim of this study is to offer a holistic view of the problems arising from the use of ITIL, what the causes are and how they can be managed. To answer theese questions a qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with three respondents that have practical experience of ITIL.The analysis showed that the respondents identified similar problems, and that many of them are based in the same cause. Examples of identified problems is that it´s common to ignore the strategic processes and that there is a misconception regarding ITIL. The most common cause were found to be lack of knowledge, and that they don´t know how to use the framework. Another identified problem is that the service provider does not comply with the introduced ITIL processes. One of the reasons for this proved to be that the organizations have difficulties to demonstrate the value of ITIL to the staff working with the processes. One way to manage this problem appeared to be by analyzing the metrics and use this as a basis to explain why the framework is used.

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