Workable model for small, medium and micro enterprises hosted in selected incubators in South Africa

Abstract

The South African Government, in line with international thought, recognises the potential of the contribution of SMME’s to the overall economy of the country. Government and the private sector have introduced agencies and operations to support the development of SMME’s. Given this support, SMME’s continue to face serious challenges and barriers leading to failure, for example, finance, government policy and communication, marketing, infrastructure, limited use of technology, weak business management, training and skills development. Of these, this paper will focus on the latter three areas of failure, namely, limited use of technology, weak business management and training, since these have a more direct bearing on the study. To stem the tide of failure and offer support and solutions, the challenge was met by the formulation of entrepreneurial incubation strategies. This paper provides an account of Maturity Models which are discussed in an historical context, reviewing past models, to trace the origins of such models. Innovation is seen as a means to meet the objectives of sustainable acceleration of economic growth and the creation of wealth to reduce poverty and improvement of quality of life. The paper describes a valuable model, enabled by an electronic driver, to assess the improvement of maturity of SMME’s to transform them so that they are enabled to align their management and processes. This model is provided in the form of the People, Innovation, Capability and Maturity Model (PICaMM)