This study explores the worth of state sponsored Business Incubators to the South African economy in respect of job creation and enterprise development. Using The Innovation Hub Management Company (TIHMC)‟s Maxum Business Incubator as a case study, and employing mixed methods, this non experimental longitudinal research undertakes to interrogate the quality of service rendered by one of South Africa‟s premier enterprise development facilities and its contribution to employment generation since its formation in 2000. The study surveys Pre - Incubatees, Incubatees and Post - Incubatees and interviews key informants in the TIHMC management to unravel this relatively under-researched area. The results show that the TIHMC Maxum Business Incubator has nurtured up to 81 firms which in turn have provided a combined total of 821 jobs between 2000 and 2011 - constituting 0.10% of the 800,000 employment opportunities generated by the Gauteng Provincial Government within the same period. However, the results also indicate that a range of services, particularly business skills, planning, financial management and book-keeping training require vastly improved technical expertise to sustain the incubated firms‟ market potentials. Further, the TIHMC needs to develop accessible information management systems and evaluative tools to enable regular performance appraisals, beneficiary feed-back and tracking of success stories in order to improve its strategic visions. The study‟s ambitions were to inform the TIHMC management‟s future plans and to contribute more generally to informed national discourses, policy making and academic inquiry into the efficacy of the novel notion of Business Incubation and its value to developing world contexts.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/14905 |
| Date | 11 July 2014 |
| Creators | Chirambo, Francine Mambwe Chama |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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