Entrepreneurship

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Entrepreneur perceptions of sustainable entrepreneurship: a case of Pietermaritzburg SMMEs.
(2020) Ramlal, Naisha.; Chiweshe, Nigel Tawanda Farayi.
Understanding the effects of entrepreneurs’ intentions towards Sustainable Entrepreneurship can serve as an initial step in developing true sustainable entrepreneurs. However, limited research has been conducted on the intention of practising entrepreneurs, specifically amongst owners of SMMEs, towards Sustainable Entrepreneurship. Previous studies focused on the traditional entrepreneurial process, with limited studies having been done to investigate the intentions of entrepreneurs to engage in Sustainable Entrepreneurship. Studies focusing on intention towards Sustainable Entrepreneurship are limited, more so in South Africa. Not much has been known regarding the antecedents of intention towards Sustainable Entrepreneurship in South Africa. Studies conducted by various researchers have successfully explained how entrepreneurs practise Sustainable Entrepreneurship and what their contributions are. Unfortunately, the intention and motivation that drive entrepreneurs towards Sustainable Entrepreneurship, have not been addressed adequately in the current literature. Therefore, to address this research gap, this study investigated the perceptions of entrepreneurs on Sustainable Entrepreneurship. The study used a quantitative research approach to collect data from a sample of 234 SMMEs owners. Simple random sampling was used to select the participants from the population. Data was obtained through a questionnaire and were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that the entrepreneur's intentions to adopt sustainable practices were mostly influenced by the pressures they felt from their customers, investors, society, employees, and colleagues (subjective norms), their attitudes about sustainability, and their perceived behavioural controls. The results further indicated that attitude was the most critical determinant of the intention of entrepreneurs to engage in Sustainable Entrepreneurship. From a managerial perspective, this study recommends that SMMEs in Pietermaritzburg should align their business practices towards the values of their external stakeholders. From a policy perspective, this study recommends that the government and entrepreneurs should prioritise interventions aimed at developing and strengthening intrinsic and extrinsic motivations among entrepreneurs towards sustainability. The main limitation of the study was that the sample for this study was SMMEs which were registered under the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) in Pietermaritzburg. This population does not represent all SMMEs in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, or South Africa as a whole. As a result, the findings cannot be generalised to the entire population of South African entrepreneurs.
Environmental sustainability management in the small business sector: a case of Pietermaritzburg small, medium and micro enterprises.
(2021) Bhengu, Nonkululeko Cellular.; Chiweshe, Nigel Tawanda Farayi.
The present study examines the environmental sustainability management in the small business sector with specific reference to the Pietermaritzburg area. As a business sector the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) have impact that can be negative or positive on the environment. Few studies, in the subject area that the researcher have explored, have focused on the environmental sustainability management of SMMEs. For that reason, this study in its own humble way, contributes to the expansion of scholarship and literature in the area. The study has aimed to understand the measures taken by South African SMMEs to minimise and or prevent the negative impact they might have on the environment. Factors that motivate environmental preservation and protection by SMMEs have also been examined in this study as well as those factors or challenges that hinder the SMMEs from engaging in environmentally sustainable business practices. Methodologically, the study adopted a qualitative approach to investigate the opinions, perceptions and experiences of environmental sustainability of the practitioners of business in the SMME sector in the area of Pietermaritzburg as unit within the South African small business landscape. The qualitative methodological strategy of convenience sampling was deployed to collect data from 21 SMMEs in the elected area. Primary data was obtained through the use of face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed and duly analysed using thematic analysis. Further, 7 articles were selected for review using a PRISMA method for secondary data. The results of the study indicated that the owners and managers of SMMEs in Pietermaritzburg have understanding and knowledge of the necessity for environmental sustainability management and they pursuantly engage is practices that foster environmental sustainability. They engage in recycling of resources and they try to use eco-friendly and recyclable products. Like other businesses, SMMEs are driven by a profit motive; in particular they receive revenue from selling the recyclables and build a good business image. The results of the study also indicated that some SMMEs lag behind in implementing environmental practices because of lack of resources including finance. The lack of knowledge, limited education and lack of government support are a hindrance. The study concluded that the SMMEs are aware of the fundamentals of environmental sustainability management and are largely willing to comply with the requirements although they encounter challenges and limitations on their way. They need governmental support in form of finance, education and encouragement.
Factors that influence entrepreneurial intentions of rural youth: a case of Narysec Free State.
(2019) Makhwedzha, Murendeni.; Chiweshe, Nigel Tawanda Farayi.
Poverty alleviation in South Africa has been placed high on the government agenda in the past decades. According to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA, 2017), the unemployment rate in the country has risen rapidly in the past few decades, increasing from 7per cent in 1980, to 18per cent in 1991 and 27.5per cent in 2019. The government has a political and moral obligation to alleviate the burden of poverty, create jobs and ensure that it stimulates economic growth and development through the creation of a conducive environment which will enable the small businesses to survive and thrive. The purpose of the study was to identify factors affecting the entrepreneurial intention of the National Rural Youth Service Corp students. The study draws heavily from entrepreneurial intention models and focuses on the relationship between key variables, namely, exposure to entrepreneurial education and social capital. The institutions of higher learning play a crucial role in stimulating entrepreneurial intentions of students, hence the university students are perceived to be more effective in their role of developing entrepreneurial intentions leading to the emergence of new ventures and to the growth of small, medium and macro enterprises. Entrepreneurial education has an important role to play in enhancing entrepreneurial self-efficacy and the influence of social capital on entrepreneurship intentions. A survey was conducted amongst the NARYSEC students. The respondents of the study comprised of 103 students who were identified by means of simple random technique. The total numbers of 103 questionnaires were completed by the NARYSEC students at Thaba Nchu College in the Free-State and the response rate was 84.3per cent. The data was quantitatively analysed with the use of SPSS computer software. The results show that the majority of students have strong intentions to become entrepreneurs in the near future. Students had positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship as they would prefer to be entrepreneurs rather than to be employed and some of them indicated that they are already in a process of starting their own businesses. Most students admitted that their families are everything to them and whatever they do is aimed at pleasing them however they do not choose a career based on their family’s advice. To overcome the challenges, this study recommended the review of curriculum to determine success, failures and gaps as well as stimulating entrepreneurship intentions by allowing students to discuss and implement their own business ideas in class as a research project. The study concluded by recommending that the government should expose every South African learner to entrepreneurship from primary level so that they can grow up thinking and reasoning about entrepreneurship which will propel them to put their ideas into action.
The influence of entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurial intentions of UKZN female entrepreneurship students.
(2019) Zulu, Mzwandile Boss Raymond.; Chiweshe, Nigel Tawanda Farayi.
Entrepreneurship intent resulting from entrepreneurship education provides a solid framework for understanding entrepreneurial activity globally. While the number of entrepreneurship education programmes is growing, their influence on the entrepreneurial intent of female entrepreneurship students has not been sufficiently investigated from a South African perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand the influence of entrepreneurship education on the entrepreneurship intentions of female students who are enrolled for entrepreneurship at UKZN. The study used a quantitative research approach to collect data from a sample of 175 female students who had enrolled for entrepreneurship modules in their second year, of which 74 responded. Nonprobability sampling known as purposive samplingwas used to select the respondents to the study. Data was obtained through a questionnaire and analysed with both descriptive as well as inferential statistics. The results revealed that entrepreneurship education has an influence on entrepreneurship intentions amongst female students. The results also indicated that the content and topics covered within entrepreneurship modules are a strong contributing factor affecting students’ entrepreneurial intentions. The study also discovered that behavioural control plays a prominent role in determining the entrepreneurial intentions of students. The results draw attention to the importance of introducing entrepreneurial modules to the curriculum of undergraduate students. Therefore, this study recommends that entrepreneurship modules should be compulsory for all students across the different disciplines to promote entrepreneurial intentions in female university students. Future research studies should compare the differences in entrepreneurship intentions between males and females that pursue entrepreneurship education at UKZN and probe the understanding of those causes in the differences, if they exist, with the view to maximising the impact of entrepreneurship education.
The role of entrepreneurial education in fostering student entrepreneurship.
(2021) Nqoko, Nompumelelo Sindiswa.; Chiweshe, Nigel Tawanda Farayi.
Entrepreneurship preparation has been generally recognised as important to leading to economic growth. Graduates may have different qualifications, but they still find themselves without a career. However, graduates are also hesitant to see entrepreneurship as a feasible career choice, even in times of high unemployment. University degrees and qualifications no longer carry the guarantee of availability of jobs for pupils, since hundreds of thousands of graduates cannot afford to do so. After acquiring degrees, graduates rarely consider entrepreneurship as a good and sustainable career option. This research was an exploratory study that adopted a mixed-method research approach for data collection and interpretation. This method allows both quantitative and qualitative data to be obtained in one analysis, it further offers more enhanced insight into the research problem and questions presented. The adoption of a mixed method allows for comparison and corroboration of research findings for a fuller understanding of the research problem. The mixed method was therefore, adopted to gather data from both third-year and postgraduate students in the discipline of management and entrepreneurship. Where self-administered questionnaires were adopted for quantitative which were administered to both third year (undergraduate) and honours students. Qualitative data was collected from postgraduate students to gather information about their entrepreneurial intentions. SPSS version 21 was used to include quantitative data with informative and inferential statistics; and NVivo (version 11) was utilised to analyse qualitative data. There was also a need to apportion the methods equally to each strand of the quantitative and qualitative data. Purposive sampling was utilised to elicit both quantitative and qualitative data from the respondents who were in the best position to engender such information. The sample for this study included the third- and fourth-year students enrolled in the School of Management, Information Technology and Governance, in the discipline of Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. This included three UKZN campuses, namely, the Westville Campus, and Howard College campus located in Durban, and the UKZN campus located in Pietermaritzburg. The sample for the study was drawn from students who had studied entrepreneurship modules during their programme, and had been exposed to entrepreneurial education for a minimum of a year. The overall enrolment of all students when the study was conducted was 330, composed of 233 third year students and 97 honorary students. The study used Krejcie and Morgan (1970) statistical table, to determine the sample size for quantitative data which was estimated at 180. The total number of questionnaires returned for quantitative was 169. The study achieved a response rate of 93%. 42% of the respondents were male and 58% were female. It was found that 72% of the respondents were pursuing an undergraduate bachelor’s degree, 28% were enrolled in a postgraduate honours degree. From the 169 questionnaires that were returned, twenty students were purposively selected to form a focus group for the qualitative data; however, only fifteen were available to participate in the focus-group discussion. The findings revealed that the university offered entrepreneurship modules as an elective. It is those students in small business management that had high entrepreneurial intentions. Students who took entrepreneurship modules as an elective plan to start their business five years after they complete their studies, and that entrepreneurship will be an option should they not find employment. The results also showed that entrepreneurial education does develop entrepreneurial intentions among the students if the curriculum is well structured. Furthermore, reflect that individuals with high entrepreneurial intentions are fully capable of taking entrepreneurial action. The research further confirmed that individuals with a high entrepreneurial mentality are more likely to have entrepreneurial ambitions and a deep desire to start a business. These studies have shown that entrepreneurial education has had a positive effect on the entrepreneurial attitude of students and their intentions towards entrepreneurship, their employability and their position in society and the economy as a whole. There has been a growing consensus among scholars that allowing students to work in interdisciplinary teams and engage with actual entrepreneurs is an especially effective way to cultivate entrepreneurial ambitions among students. The study highlighted the importance of entrepreneurial education in fostering student entrepreneurship, and also discovered that entrepreneurial intention and entrepreneurial action scores are higher if students are considered to have a need to research entrepreneurship at the university. Hence entrepreneurial education should strictly focus on influencing students' mind-set towards entrepreneurship, as a possible career. Furthermore, entrepreneurial education can make students experience more fulfilling by being explored to both theory and practice. The results of entrepreneurial education are focused on the belief that being an entrepreneur is a deliberately orchestrated action. The relation between expectations, actions and action is used on the basis of the "Theory of Planned Behavior" (TPB). If students' attitudes towards entrepreneurship are favourably affected by entrepreneurship education, their entrepreneurship intentions will or may be improved. Therefore, the present study applied TBP, this theory clearly explains human behaviour using three major variables, perceived behavioural control, attitude and subjective norms.

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Browsing Entrepreneurship by Author "Chiweshe, Nigel Tawanda Farayi."