Department of Business Management

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Browsing Department of Business Management by browse.metadata.advisor "De Coning, T. J."

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    Key factor intrapreneurship : the development of a systems model to facilitate the perpetuation of entrepreneurship in the larger South African organisation
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002-12) Goosen, Christiaan Johannes; De Coning, T. J.; Van der M. Smit, E.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Business Management.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on corporate entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship. Current research on the subject focuses on traditional theory of intrapreneurship in which the creation, structure and focus of business ventures feature prominently. Central to an intrapreneurship inquiry however, are the people who make up the organisation and their interaction within the organisation through structures and processes. Many members in an organisation can initiate and be involved in entrepreneurial activities, but the lack of autonomy and access to resources can restrict them from doing so. This study proposes a solution to these problems by focusing inwards into organisations and examining ways to foster intrapreneurship. It also emphasises the influence of executive leadership on organisational outcomes. In addition it proposes an answer to the question of how internal structures and processes can facilitate intrapreneurship and how management's relationship with staff can promote intrapreneurship. Through this the study adds to the current understanding of intrapreneurship. The study examines the relationship of a proposed intrapreneurship model to organisational performance, particularly financial performance. Lastly it examines intrapreneurship in context. Once an organisation behaves intrapreneurially, positive results could follow, therefore the relationship between one of the possible results, that of improved financial performance and intrapreneurship is researched in this study. Financial data form the basis of the calculation of many measures of performance. Organisations, however, are generally not willing to supply researchers with hard financial data. A possible way to overcome this problem is to measure financial outcomes through the interpreted views of management, for example that sales increased or decreased, rather than stating the absolute value. However, this is a subjective measure and the researcher decided to overcome this problem by concentrating the study on a sector of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for which published financial data is available. The published financial data forms the basis for the calculation of an index that is used to discriminate between better and weaker financial performance of organisations. The study identifies nine dimensions of the construct Intrapreneurship, which were factorised into three key factors. Two of the key factors focus externally and one internally. The final intrapreneurship model that emerges from the study represents the organisation's innovativeness, proactiveness, and management's influence on organisational structures, processes and internal relations. This model represents product lines and changes, research and development leadership, new techniques employed in the organisation, the organisation's competitive posture and its risktaking propensity, its environmental boldness and the decision-making style of management in terms of external opportunities. The model also addresses internal structures and processes, as well as relations in terms of intrapreneurial goal setting - a system that promotes, facilitates and manages creativity and innovation. It addresses an intracapital system for supplying resources and it facilitates communication. The model allows for staff input to management, a degree of intrapreneurial freedom, a problem-solving culture and empowered staff. Finally, it provides for the championing of intrapreneurs hip by management. In the study, hypotheses are set to establish if a relationship exists between intrapreneurship and financial performance and to examine intrapreneurship in context. The influence of organisational age, organisational size and the organisation's share Beta on intrapreneurship, is examined. The conclusions of the study can be summarised as follows: There is a relationship between financial performance and intrapreneurship as represented by the key factor management. The key factor management is a significant predictor of financial success. Organisations with higher levels of intrapreneurship are therefore more likely to be financially successful than those organisations with lower levels of intrapreneurship. The key factors that represent the proposed model each correlates moderately with the financial index. The key factor added by this study to the traditional model of intrapreneurship, improve the correlation and enrich the model. The study confirms the view that organisations can be intrapreneurial, regardless of size, which is measured by both employee count and annual turnover. This finding dispenses with the popular view that only small organisations can be entrepreneurial. The study furthermore confirms the view that older organisations could be less intrapreneurial. The study finds that younger organisations tend to be more proactive in their approach in the areas of new techniques, competitive posture, risk-taking propensity and environmental boldness, as well as in respect of decisions to exploit opportunity. The study also indicates significant correlation between organisations' share Beta coefficient and two of the three key factors that comprise intrapreneurship. This confirms the notion that intrapreneurial organisations could be more prone than their counterparts, to volatile market movements of their shares. The study does not propose a definitive model, but presents a practical model that can be implemented - a model that could improve organisations' results, specifically in the area of financial performance.
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    Kreatiwiteit in Suid-Afrikaanse klein- en mediumgroot ondernemings
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 1996-03) Maas, Gideon Johannes Pieter; De Coning, T. J.; Smit, E. van der M.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Business Management.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The development of small to medium enterprises (SME's) has various advantages for a country's economy, inter alia the creation of job opportunities. South African SME's are expected to realise these advantages, as set out in the national strategy for SME's. The turbulent national and international environment offers unique challenges to SME' s, but could also be the cause of them not meeting expectations. One possible way to secure dynamic behaviour of SME's in such a turbulent environment is to stimulate creativity. The question arises whether South African SME's are creative, and what can be done to promote their creativity. This study therefore focuses on two issues, namely creativity and SME' s. Creativity is discussed on the basis of existing theories and definitions. The primary aim of the discussion is to identify elements which can explain creativity in SME's. The following four elements are discussed: • characteristics of creative persons; • creative processes; • an environment which can support creativity; and • manifestations of creativity. The second issue under discussion framework of D'Amboise and Muldoney is SME's. An adapted (1984) was used as basis to discuss characteristics of 8ME owners, 8ME behaviour practices, and how 8ME's interact with the task environment. Conclusions regarding 8ME owners and 8ME behaviour patterns indicate that an entrepreneurial approach is conducive to creativity, and that 8ME's that interact dynamically with the environment tend to be creative. These conclusions are then integrated. Characteristics of 8ME owners, 8ME behaviour practices, creative processes, and manifestations of creativity are discussed. It was not possible to provide a list of manifestations, and therefore only an instrument for identification and classification is provided. Evaluation is subjective, which supports findings in the literature that objective evaluation is probably not possible. The integrated 8ME profile is an adapted conceptual model which serves as basis for the empirical research. This model suggests that there could be associations between characteristics of 8ME owners and 8ME behaviour practices, and manifestations of creativity. It was decided on a questionnaire for data collecting, because it is inter alia less expensive, and less time consuming for 8ME owners to complete. Questionnaires were forwarded to 3310 addresses, and 342 usable questionnaires were returned. Telephone inquiries confirmed that the low response could not be attributed to either the study or the questionnaire, but rather to factors unique to 8ME's, such as owners' limited time. After the descriptive statistics were reported, a stepwise logistic regression for binary dependant variables (creativity) and multiway analysis for categorical and ordinal explanatory variables were executed in an explorative way, in order to identify possible predictors of creativity. These predictors were then compared with the descriptive statistics to establish possible deficiencies. The most important deficiency is that the present profile of SME owners is not in equilibrium with predictors, and is therefore regarded as the most important reason why SME's are not creative. There is greater equilibrium between SME behaviour factors and predictors, but this is neutralised by non-creative SME owners. Internal (SME's) and external interventions which can create an environment conducive to creativity in SME's, are finally discussed. This approach can be visualised as an iceberg, which implies that manifestations of creativity are only perceptible if the imperceptible phase has a sound basis. This development approach is not an instant, but rather a long term process. If, however, deliberate efforts are not made to promote creativity in SME's, they will not be able to meet expectations, which could have serious consequences for the economy.
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    Strategic alliances between communities, with special reference to the twinning of South African provinces, cities and towns with international partners
    (Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2011-10) De Villiers, J. C. (Jacobus Christiaan); De Coning, T. J.; Smit, E. van der M.; University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Business Management.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The international relations of regions, cities and towns include a variety of activities of which the phenomenon of twinning, or the establishment of a relationship with a community in a foreign country, is normally the most prominent and long lasting. Twinning originated in the aftermath of World War Two in Europe and the concept soon spread to America, where it was defined as a new form of “citizen-to-citizen” diplomacy. Twinning has since evolved through three distinct phases: the reciprocal phase; the associative phase; and the commercial exchange phase, and an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 cities and towns globally are involved in such relationships. This study, which aimed to identify and assess the extent of international twinning relations of South African provinces (regions) and local communities (in cities and towns) and to establish guidelines for twinning success, was conducted in an interdisciplinary manner and had to cover a wide terrain as the field of twinning worldwide is under-researched. The twinning between two communities in different countries was defined as a strategic alliance, and the bodies of literature on strategic alliances in the private sector as well as on the factors that lead to twinning success were investigated. A systems approach was followed and the twinning phenomenon was investigated from a macro perspective by investigating the context, content and process of the phenomenon worldwide; from a meso perspective by investigating the context of twinning in South Africa; and from a micro perspective by investigating the content and process of South African twinnings. The literature study revealed duplication and confusion in the terminology used to describe twinning and its related concepts, and conceptual clarification was necessary to develop a common terminology for the future. In this study, therefore, an important distinction is also made between the twinning of municipalities, and the twinning of communities. From the literature study, success factors for twinning were identified. Based on these, a conceptual model of twinning was developed which embodies the best-practices content and process elements of twinning, and this model was used to construct the primary research questionnaire. Elements of the conceptual twinning model were subjected to significance testing. It was confirmed that similarities of the personalities on both sides, partner commitment, understanding, cultural sensitivity, positive partner attitude, community awareness of the twinning, existence of a business plan, quality of management, management commitment and active marketing relate significantly positively to alliance success. The primary research conducted amongst all provinces and municipalities in South Africa, combined with secondary research sources, revealed the number and extent of the twinnings of South African communities and municipalities with foreign partners. Altogether 35 relationships were identified that have lapsed, 130 current relationships exist, and 41 new ones are in the process of being concluded. Another 60 relationships exist on the provincial level. These twinnings represent non-central-government-level linkages with 45 foreign countries, but only a few of these relationships are successful in meeting their original objectives. Some of the key findings of the study are that twinning is becoming more important globally as multilateral organisations acknowledge the importance of international relations at the local level and that twinning can play a big part in local economic development and promoting unity on the African continent, but is lacking in South Africa due to an absence of back-up and support, a lack of coordination and synergies between the three spheres of government, a lack of marketing, a lack of municipal capacity at local level, and the non-compliance of municipalities with official policy. The main positive outcomes of South African relationships were reported in the areas of knowledge sharing and training, and financial benefits. Key recommendations are that on the macro level, global coordination and assistance schemes for twinning be improved and that community ownership of twinning be put back at the centre of the focus of twinning; on the meso level, an organisation be formed to facilitate South African twinnings and to provide support; and at the micro level, alternative sources of funding be sought and that the process model developed in the study be used to increase the possibility of twinning success.