A Study on the Relationship Between Entrepreneurs Levels of Education and the Success of Their Respective Businesses in the Province of Kwa Zulu Natal, RSA
The small medium and micro enterprise (SMME) sector has been widely recognised as an engine of economic growth in South Africa. The implementation of the National Small Business Strategy (NSBS) in 1995 established several important objectives for the SMME sector to deal with problems faced by that sector, some of which included: lack of access to markets and procurement, lack of access to finance and credit, low skills levels and levels of education, lack of access to information and a shortage of effective supportive institutions. In order to minimize these problems and achieve the objectives set out in the 1995 White Paper, the South African Government established institutions and programmes designed to improve the access of the SMME sector to critical resources such as sources of finance, market opportunities, technology, training and development and education. This study set out to determine whether there is a relationship between the level of education of SMME owners and the growth of their businesses using labour force and turnover as success indicators. This study adopted a mixed method approach that employed a survey research design methodology in which a combination of research methods was used. These included questionnaire surveys, observations and face to-face interviews. Empirical data was collected from 300 respondents in the province of Kwa-Zulu Natal of South Africa in order to answer research questions and to test various hypotheses concerning the determinants of the success of the respective businesses. Demographic characteristics of the SMME operators and their enterprises were also collected. Quantitative data from the survey was analyzed with the application of quantitative techniques, using descriptive statistics. The study revealed that most of the business owners were males in the age group 31-40 years. Most of the entrepreneurs had completed a senior secondary qualification, followed by junior secondary and diploma qualifications. Commercial banks constituted the major source of funding to owner/ managers interviewed and the most common form of ownership was the close corporation. The chi-square test results proved to be significant, indicating that the there was a relationship between the owners/managers level of education and the businesses ability to grow by increasing its labour force and its year on year turnover, over the two years preceding the study. This study, conducted in a developing economy, supports other literature based on developed economies that the level of education of an entrepreneur and success of a business are related.
education businesssuccess growth SMME
Ricardo M. Peters Pradeep Brijlal
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
国际会议
杭州
英文
286-296
2011-10-15（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）