Abstract
It is often said that the only constant in life is change. This concept is equally a reality for the business environment. Changes constantly take place in the business environment, and this requires business enterprises to respond in many ways to survive. The ability of enterprises to respond to changes in business environments is largely termed as a dynamic capability. This study seeked to determine the dynamic capabilities developed by businesses, particularly Small- Medium Enterprises (SMEs), especially when they have undergone business incubation. The concept of Technology Business Incubation (TBI) entails the provision of services to SMEs, services such as business development, networking and product development to name a few. It is of interest to determine if these services provided to SMEs by incubators does assist in the development of dynamic capabilities. The main aim of this thesis was to develop a framework that will be utilised to determine the operational services of technology business incubators affecting the development of dynamic capabilities for innovative enterprises which are SMEs. This was achieved through a framework developed and termed the Incubation Services Capabilities Quadrant (ISCQ). To achieve the results as depicted by the ISCQ, the study utilised a mixed-methods research approach, an exploratory sequential design in particular, where qualitative data was firstly collected and analysed, then themes are used to drive the development of a quantitative instrument to further explore the research problem. On the qualitative phase, expert opinions were collected and analysed from 16 technology business incubation managers. This was followed by a quantitative survey to SMEs on a sample size of 57 enterprises. Some of the themes that emerged strongly relate to adaptability, strategic change, innovation and repurposing when Organisational Agility is the identified dynamic capability. Subsequent dynamic capabilities and corresponding themes were discussed. This study sheds some light on what services the business incubators should focus on and what dynamic capabilities will potentially be of importance. The study makes some key recommendations such as an emphasis for TBIs to foster extensive collaborations and increase Networking and Marketing services in their offerings. This will contribute largely to the field of Operations Management as it talks directly to SME and incubation productivity. This is a very relevant topic in current times where there is constantly changing business environments such as the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.
Keywords. Technology Business Incubation, Dynamic Capabilities, Innovation Management, Business Development, Networking Marketing, Product Development, Operations Management