Recent years have seen the decline of entrepreneurial activity in South Africa. This is especially concerning in that, officially, 27.7% of South Africans are unemployed. The unofficial unemployment figures are closer to 50%. The South African economy is battling to recover from the world economic crisis of 2009/10, putting pressure on government to alleviate growing unemployment and curtail social unrest. Furthermore, a South African economy which thrives on entrepreneurial activity will become more competitive from a global perspective. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the promotion and development of entrepreneurship in South Africa, in an effort to combat the problems listed above. In order to achieve this purpose, the objective was to develop and test a model which could be used in the development of entrepreneurs. The rationale is that, if the factors which affect entrepreneurship could be identified and tested, then recommendations could be made which could promote the development of entrepreneurs in South Africa. The approach was as follows: Perform a literature review which would cover both global and local (South African) approaches to developmental training for entrepreneurs; Develop a theoretical model comprising of identified factors which formed the base for the data collection; Develop a measuring instrument to test the relationships described in the theoretical model empirically; • Empirically test the proposed model and suggested hypotheses by means of sourcing data from entrepreneurs in South Africa and statistically analyse the sourced data; Formulate the final theoretical model to support the research objectives; and Propose recommendations based on the results of the statistical analysis. The focus of the literature study was on two main areas: trends in global developmental training, and South African initiatives to stimulate developmental training of entrepreneurs. The literature on global entrepreneurial development highlights two distinct categories for entrepreneurial development: 1) entrepreneurial education and 2) entrepreneurial training. The literature study concerning South African methodologies for developmental training for entrepreneurs, focused on current methods employed and highlighted areas on which improvements should be concentrated. From the literature study on both global and South African developmental training methods, ten independent variables (entrepreneurial culture; socio-emotional attributes; acquiring business skills; industry experience; opportunity identification; regulatory barriers; economic barriers; outside advice; formal training and informal training were identified as factors affecting entrepreneurial developmental training. All the variables were hypothesised as they were perceived to influence significantly the dependent variables: perceived global success as an entrepreneur and perceived individual success as an entrepreneur. These factors, clearly defined and operationalised, were structured in a questionnaire which was sent randomly to South African business owners. Data were collected from 332 respondents and subjected to various statistical analysis techniques. Firstly, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted to assess the discriminant validity of the research instrument. Secondly, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated for each of the identified factors to confirm the reliability of the research instrument. The significance of the hypothesised relationships in the revised model were then tested by using the statistical technique known as Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) This study contributed to this specific field of knowledge.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:27221 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Ward, Graham Bernard |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Doctoral, DBA |
| Format | xix, 345 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela University |
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