Orientation: The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship among technological creativity, self-efficacy and entrepreneurship intentions of university students in an emerging economy context.Research purpose: This study explores how technological creativity is linked to self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions.Motivation of the study: African countries are pervaded by subdued imagination that breeds survivalist entrepreneurship, which is bereft of innovation. This reality calls for the input of technological creativity to innovative entrepreneurship. Although results from contemporary research acknowledge the explanatory effect of technological creativity on entrepreneurial intentions, they under-explore the mechanism of the relationship, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, hence this study.Research design, approach and method: Using a quantitative approach and cross-sectional survey design, a self-completion questionnaire was administered to 130 students who had undergone a compulsory entrepreneurship course at a South African university of technology. The study employed Pearson’s correlation test, regression analysis and the bootstrapping procedure to assess the mediation effects and test the different hypothesised relationships.Main findings: The findings revealed that self-efficacy fully mediated the influence of technological creativity on entrepreneurship intentions.Practical and managerial implications: The results of the study stress the importance of considering psychological aspects, such as technological creativity and self-efficacy, in the evaluation of ways that can be used to effectively foster the entrepreneurial intentions of students undergoing entrepreneurship education.Contribution or value-add: The results authenticated psychological frameworks as guiding tools to understanding the intentional component of planned entrepreneurship activity. The study added further knowledge by exploring a previously untested relation between technological creativity and self-efficacy to unravel the complexity of entrepreneurial intentions among tertiary students.

Background: While the proliferation of social media is hailed for increasing corporate business networking and competitiveness, this claim has not been sufficiently tested in tourism small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in African emerging economies where traditional communication modes tend to dominate.Setting: This study investigates the use of social media in tourism SMMEs to widen their business networks to increase competitiveness.Aim: This study contributes to the debate on business networking among stakeholders within the tourism sector.Methods: To close the research gap, the current study employed stakeholder theory and survey data of 123 hospitality SMMEs to explore the influence of social media utilisation for business networking with stakeholders and its effect on business competitiveness.Results: Findings showed that the majority of tourism SMMEs used social media technologies to retain their customer base, solicit feedback from customers, assert their dominance in the market, maintain contact between their co-workers and share information. Moreover, the findings indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between social media business networking and competitiveness of these firms. The study recommended that tourism SMMEs should create a policy framework for comprehensive stakeholder engagement that serves the interests of all individuals.Conclusion: To increase the competitiveness of such firms, SMMEs should incorporate social media into their formal internal and external information strategy.

Culture significantly influences corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviours and business ethics in Africa. In that context, various claims exist about how Ubuntu ethics can also serve as a practicable theory to guide CSR actions. In line with such claims, this study critically interrogated the practicability of utilising an Ubuntu-based approach to guide CSR actions among African businesses. It drew perspectives from published theoretical and empirical literature focusing on Ubuntu as a CSR construct. In conclusion, based on the analysed views, the article argues that although the Ubuntu philosophy adds valuable insight into how firms and managers in Africa can conduct their CSR activities, its transition from a cultural philosophy to a business ethics theory needs to be revised. This implies that the current aspirations of Ubuntu-based CSR relevant to local contexts may not be realised soon.

Orientation: Regardless of the contribution done by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in modern economies, and the critical role managerial interpersonal competencies play in sustaining these enterprises, no known comparative study has been conducted in SMEs in developing economies.Research purpose: This study purposed to establish the impact of managerial interpersonal competencies on SME performance as measured by innovation and return on investment (ROI) in both family-owned SMEs (FOSMEs) and non-family-owned SMEs (NFOSMEs) in Zimbabwe and South Africa.Motivations for the study: Efforts at understanding managerial competencies and firm performance among SMEs have taken a holistic approach, using all known managerial competencies; yet, recently, there is acknowledgement that interpersonal competencies are more effective in business sustainability than other competencies. With this observation, the need to extent this finding in other contexts among FOSMEs and NFOSMEs in developing countries becomes apparent.Research approach/design and method: The study whose design was a descriptive comparative case study adopted a quantitative approach.Main findings: The study found a positive and significant relationship between managerial interpersonal competencies and firm performance as measured by innovation and ROI in FOSMEs in both countries.Practical/managerial implications: NFOSMEs may need to focus their training on interpersonal competencies for managers in order to be sustainable. For FOSMEs, continuous enhancement of managerial interpersonal competencies is important as it promotes innovation and business sustainability.Contribution/value-add: The study helps fill the lacuna between research and practice with respect to managerial interpersonal competencies in FOSMEs and NFOSMEs in the two countries.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose an instrument, the Small Enterprise Social Responsibility Inventory (SESRI) for measuring business social responsibility (BSR) in the African venture setting. Design/methodology/approach – The approach was to use the components of Dzansi's framework to create an instrument for measuring BSR activities of small ventures that operate in rural Africa. The instrument was tested in a rural community in South Africa for validity, reliability, structure, and its ability to predict firm performance given performance of certain BSR activities. Findings – Through factor analysis of data obtained from 314 small businesses in a rural South African setting, the instrument was found to be valid for measuring small business BSR and identified five factors: expected benefits; community or customer practices; realised or actual benefits; awareness or attitude and performance; and employee practices. Through discriminant analysis, employee practice was found useful for classifying ventures as high or low sales and profit performers, suggesting that information on a firm's BSR related employee practices may be useful predictors of sales and profit. Research limitations/implications – Firstly, the methodology requires self-evaluation by the respondents. However, those respondents who reported low levels of BSR activities (and negative growth in sales and performance) also reflected on their own “performance” and recorded it as low signifying some level of realistic reporting. Secondly, there is absence of question items about environmental issues. Thirdly, the sample was taken in a small rural setting, which requires caution when generalising from the results. Originality/value – This study provides an African context specific measurement instrument for addressing small business BSR. Academics will find it useful in their research efforts. Fund managers will also find it useful for evaluating small business BSR performance. Owners/managers will have a benchmark in performing their social obligations.

In this paper, the researchers argue that unravelling perceptions and attitudes of relevant employees towards theft and vandalism is critical to stemming electric cable theft. The researchers draw on the Reasoned Action Theory (TRA) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to explain the involvement of electricity utility companies’ own employees in vandalism and theft of electricity copper cables. Drawing on a theoretical research approach involving the examination of mainstream literature, the paper explores the reasons for employees’ engagement in actions that contradict company policy, namely stealing from the employer or vandalizing organisational property. The findings suggests that personal traits (employee perceptions and attitudes), organizational factors (such as organizational climate) constitute presage factors that trigger psychological dispositions to rob the company of its material assets (copper cables) in general and ultimately steal and vandalise copper cables in particular.