Abstract
M.Comm.
The overall objective of this study was to find the influence of entrepreneurship
on sustainable economic growth by defining entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial
organisations as well as the inter relationships between entrepreneurship,
development and growth.
In today's competitive environment the influences on success through
sustainable economic growth needs to be known. This will allow the
understanding of failure as well as the reproduction of the success in other
business. If the success can be reproduced this will be of benefit to the
organisation, the community and at a macro level the country. There is an everincreasing
amount of research to quantify the contribution entrepreneurship has
to sustainable economic growth.
Most research agrees entrepreneurship has a significant impact on economic
growth. What is also of importance is that the economic growth is sustainable
since there are areas such as the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises that may
yield growth in the short term but can not sustain it. This can be argued as being
more harmful to an economy than no growth at all. This strongly contrasts
entrepreneurship where the sustainability of the growth is paramount.
Entrepreneurship has over the past years enjoyed more and more attention as
the underlying reason for sustainable growth. One of the reasons for this is that
specific theories such as activity based costing or total quality management or
any other management theory does not explain the complex inter-relationships of
an organisation. Entrepreneurship is viewed as a broader approach that includes
various management theories but also attributes the sustainable growth to the
softer areas of study such as psychology, culture and creativity. These areas
must be researched to assess the true impact on sustainable growth.
The effect of the softer areas such as psychology on entrepreneurship, is shown
by the way an entrepreneur is motivated. By understanding how an entrepreneur
is motivated, more individuals can be exposed to this set of circumstances
thereby potentially increasing the number of entrepreneurs. The effect of culture
on the climate for developing entrepreneurship is also important. If the culture
that is conducive to entrepreneurship can be maintained and introduced to a
wider audience, it may be possible to increase entrepreneurship. In the same
way creativity, which has been linked to studies in entrepreneurship, may be
stimulated thereby increasing entrepreneurship.
Various stakeholders have roles in developing entrepreneurship. This is
important to understand since if these stakeholders do not develop
entrepreneurship there may be a decrease in sustainable growth. The
stakeholders must know the role as well as being measured on the success of
the development.
Even if stakeholders develop entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurs must then
make use of the favourable environment to grow at a rate that is sustainable.
This can be achieved by the use of entrepreneurial strategies.
The conclusion is the inter-relationships and the positive impact entrepreneurship
has on sustainable growth can be affected most by mentoring a potential
entrepreneur. This was a method that produced the most significant results in
previous empirical studies.