Rapid economic growth, poverty alleviation, as well as formal and informal employment are dependent on and subjected to small businesses. These small businesses have been credited as the spine of a country with the intentions and projections of developing and becoming a recognised, economically stable nation. In South Africa (SA), research indicates formal Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) account for 98.5% of the number of formal businesses in the economy, however, the formal SME sector only accounts for 28% of the country's jobs, creating concern as it should be 60-70%, based on international trends. The purpose of the study is to examine innovative leadership in the South African SME manufacturing sector, within the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). A quantitative research approach was adopted, while using a non-probability convenience sampling technique to achieve a sample size of 384. Data were collected using a self-administered, closed-ended questionnaire, with predetermined answers scaled using a 5-point Likert scale, while factor analysis was conducted using SPSS (version 23.0). The study found innovation in leadership at SMEs in the KZN manufacturing sector hampered by business characteristics and leadership abilities, identifying critical factors that interfere with leadership being innovative, insofar as technical skills, lack of government financial assistance, educated employees, and government barriers, as well as ICT advancement costs, are concerned. The study recommends that, to facilitate innovation by leadership, SMEs in the KZN manufacturing sector should invest in ICT and engage educated employees, in addition to continuously capacitating leadership with field-related skills. A further recommendation is that the government needs to develop, implement and maintain a functional system to alleviate prohibitive government regulations that inhibit business innovation, development and sustainable growth of the country's SMEs, specifically in the manufacturing sector. M NGIBE LM LEKHANYA Innovative leadership in South African manufacturing SMEs within KwaZulu-Natal
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in the South African economy as they provide job opportunities to communities and contribute to the South African gross domestic product. However, the majority of small businesses lack financial skills, which results in the falsification of financial information and analysis and inaccurate financial reports leading to decline of confidence by investors and negative impact on stakeholders. Therefore, this study examines the critical factors that affect SME’s financial stability which in the long run result in the liquidation of SMEs. The study was descriptive and quantitative in nature, using questionnaires to collect data from a sample of one hundred and twenty (120) SMEs across the Durban area. The findings show that lack of understanding of financial reporting has a negative impact on the financial stability of the business. Also the lack of insufficient financial experience proved to have a negative impact on the financial stability of SMEs. The study recommends that a short accounting programme should be developed by government incubators to assist and provide owners and accounts staff of SMEs with practical experience in financial reporting in order to increase their level of understanding financial reporting processes.
In order to compete, retain and attract postgraduate students, and overcome the lack of postgraduate throughput, universities of technology need to be more customer orientated. Therefore, to gain competitive advantage, university management needs to identify and assess the service quality gaps in research support structures and analyze the impact they have on students and staff within the university. The purpose of the study is to investigate the perceptions of staff and postgraduate students with regard to research structures and service quality support by relevant offices with specific reference to Durban University of Technology. Data were collected from academic staff and students across six faculties at the Durban University of Technology. The sample consisted of 278 academic staff and 260 postgraduate students, using a simple random sampling. A mixed method approach of qualitative and quantitative techniques was used, with a closed and open-ended questionnaire developed, by adapting the SERVQUAL instrument developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985), to evaluate and assess the quality dimensions (gap) for reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The findings of the study indicated that staff and students were dissatisfied with the research support structures across six faculties. Further research should aim at assessing performance management of research support structures and service within the relevant research offices
The adoption of Management Accounting Practices (MAPs) has been acclaimed for providing positive administrative and strategic influence on large organizations, and are understood to play an integral part in decision-making. However, SMEs are operating in a turbulent environment, they are now challenged to effectively utilize the embedded MAPs to strengthen their strategic business approaches to maintain their sustainability and survival. Therefore, this study seeks to explore the challenges of integrating the adopted MAPs as an innovative strategy towards sustaining small businesses. The research sample consisted of 120 manufacturing SMEs operating in eThekwini metropolitan South Africa. A nonprobability convenience sampling technique and a quantitative questionnaire were utilized to identify and collect the data from the sampled population. The results of the study indicated that amongst other critical factors, lack of education and training of owner/manager and shortage of skills were the contributory factors influencing the integration of MAPs as an innovative strategy towards SMEs’ sustainability. The study results further revealed that there are a variety of other challenges hindering SMEs from utilizing MAPs as an innovative strategic tool and those were the enterprise age and years in operation, lack of government business incubation and technology adoption. These contributory factors were identified as necessary aspects that SMEs needed to align and iron out before integrating MAPs as an innovative strategic tool.
Academic staff are required to change and adopt new teaching approaches to meet the requirements and expectations set by higher education institutions. This means that there is a drastic need for academics to be competent to help boost their teaching abilities, knowledge, and be encouraged to upgrade their qualifications. Without continuous well-coordinated academic training programmes, training, and skills development, academics will continuously struggle to perform their core functions which include research, teaching and learning, continuous professional development, and community engagement. The intention of this study therefore, is to identify academics perceptions on academic training programmes provided by the selected university of technology and the predicaments, and the complexities involved in empowering academics to improve their teaching and learning approaches. A quantitative research approach was therefore used, with a questionnaire used as a data collection instrument. Using a nonprobability purposive sampling technique, a sample size of 132 was considered.The study findings revealed that the university lacked a proper system to evaluate and measure the impact of academic training programmes offered to academic staff. The recommendations were made on different aspects in line with the findings and the study aims and objectives. But most significantly, the study recommended that a systematic review should be done to monitor the impact these training programmes have on the development and support of teaching and learning
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