Kritiese suksesfaktore vir entrepreneursukses in klein- en mediumsakeondernemings met spesifieke verwysing na die Weskusstreek van Suid-Afrika

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:At present the population in South Africa continues to grow at a higher rate thanthe rate of job creation. Traditional sources of job creation, such as largeenterprises and state departments, are unable to provide enough jobs to combatthe increasing rate of unemployment. An important component of thegovernment's effort to address the unemployment problem, should be theemphasis on the development of entrepreneurship. In a study done in Bulgaria byBartlett and Rangelava the contribution of small business to job creation becameclear. Bulgaria, like South Africa, is also plagued by a high rate of unemployment(1997: 330). As the small business is seen as the natural port of entry for theentrepreneur to the business world, it would only be logical if efforts to encourageentrepreneurship are focussed on small business development.In essence entrepreneurial activity can be regarded initially as a localphenomenon which then spreads to the larger economy. In this regard researchsuggested that a mega event in a local context might result in an increase inentrepreneurial activity. The development of the Saldanha Steel project could beseen as an example of such a mega event in the West Coast region. This eventinevitably led to an increase in entrepreneurial activity, which manifested in theestablishment of many formal and informal businesses.At the completion of the project, however, few businesses survived. This raisesthe question whether the opportunity perceived by the mega event rather than themarket on the long term initiated the decision to start-up. In this study it will beargued that the businesses that survived the so-called mega event were startedas a result of long-term market considerations characterized by the criticalsuccess factors underlying an entrepreneurial decision. The objective of thisresearch is to prove that the critical factors for entrepreneurial success play amore important role in eventual success and survival of the enterprise than theopportunistic entrepreneurial behavior sparked by a mega event only.Consequently the critical success factors for entrepreneurial success ofbusinesses established in anticipation of the mega event that survived andsurviving businesses established in the ten year period prior to the mega event,will be compared in order to test the hypothesis.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University