Research Article: 2021 Vol: 25 Issue: 4S
Enid Mneney, University of Cape Town
Chandeline Jordaan, University of Cape Town
Matseliso Mphutlane, University of Cape Town
Kenny Alade, University of Cape Town
Lindelani Matshidze, University of Cape Town
Abimbola Windapo, University of Cape Town
The construction industry is one of the major contributors to the country Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, the South African industry has been faced with several challenges among them, the decrease in expenditure and investment from private and public clients. This caused a decrease on construction industry contribution to the South Africa’s GDP, while a notable increase in liquidation and insolvency of construction companies. With recent high levels of Construction Company failures, this study focusses on the shortfalls in the construction companies that lead to these failures. This research evaluates the entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and attitude that impact sustainable contractor development. A qualitative case study research approach was adopted, involving case studies of the CEO’s/leaders of three construction companies based in the Western Cape. Data was collected by means of personal interviews that reflected on the entrepreneurship attributes possessed by the CEO’S/leaders. For a broader analysis of the CEO’S/leaders, employees of the companies also completed self-administered research protocol questions. The research found that sustainable construction companies were managed by CEO/leaders that possess entrepreneurial skills, knowledge, and attitude and that these entrepreneurial attributes possessed by the CEO’S/leaders impact the sustainable development of the construction companies. The study recommends that a larger sample size be used to test the preposition of the research and the study be done with a quantitative research approach. This research is limited to its population and cannot be generalized to the population of construction companies in South Africa.
Attributes, Contractors, Development, Entrepreneurial, Sustainable
While no direct definition of the construction industry has been indicated in recent literatures, Ofori (2000) have described the construction industry as a sector in the country’s economy that involves the building, altering and maintaining of buildings and infrastructure. The construction industry is one of the largest industries that contribute to both economic and social aspects of the economy (Ofori & Toor, 2012). The construction industry is a major contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of South Africa. However, the construction industry’s GDP has reduced; according to StatsSA (2019) the Construction industry contributed 3.4% to the total GDP, in 2019 Quarter 1 in South Africa. While the largest contributors of the GDP are finance, real estate and business services which have contributed 20.7% to the GDP, for the Quarter 1 of 2019. Beside construction industry smaller GDP contribution as compared to finance, due to its labour intensive nature, it is able to create more employment and remains the sector which enable entry to employment of the unfilled workers. The annual GDP contribution of the construction industry has decreased due to the decrease in both public and private sector expenditure in construction. The rapid development of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME’s) in South Africa has put entrepreneurship at the forefront of the growing economy.
Within the last ten years small and medium sized construction companies such as Filcon Construction (Pty) Limited, Basil Read Construction, Esor Construction and Liviero Group have also undergone business rescue (Master Builders South Africa, 2019). Large companies such as Neil Muller Construction (NMC) and Group 5, have also undergone business rescue (Van den Steen & Lake, 2019). Group 5, a Grade 9 construction company applied for business rescue in March 2019,whilst the company had ongoing projects including the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, the University of Johannesburg projects and international projects like the Ayanfuri Gold Project in Ghana (Groupfive, 2019).
With recent high levels of construction company failures due to the lack of prompt payment by clients, innovation and entrepreneurial skills, The Focus of the Construction Industry Development Board Cidb (2019) has been on short-term interventions to prevent the current contractors from failing. Long-term interventions such as contractor entrepreneurial attributes towards sustaining the business have not been considered. This has resulted in the continuous failure of construction businesses. Scholars view that entrepreneurial skills, knowledge, and attitude can positively impact the sustainability of the contractor (several credible citation). Therefore, this study examines skills, knowledge and attitude possessed by entrepreneurs in the management of construction companies and whether these attributes have impacted on their sustainable development. This paper presents the overview of entrepreneurship skills, knowledge, and attitude, then outlines the research methods used in the study. The paper then provides the case studies results and the discussions and finally gives conclusion and recommendation of the research.
A review on previous studies on the factors that led to failure of construction companies was done; this was to understand the problems facing the failure of companies. According to (Enshassi et al., 2006; Mahamid, 2012; Windapo & Cattell, 2013; Gadekar & Pimplikar, 2014; Assaf et al., 2015) these factors can be grouped into managerial, financial, and other factors. The most common factors were lack of experience by managers in the line of work, the structure of the company, a lack of business knowledge, an increase in number and size of projects, lack of diversification and the relationships with clients. Some of the factors indicated lack of entrepreneurship attributes. Therefore, further review on entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship attributes and sustainable contractor development and relationship between the entrepreneurship attributes and sustainable contractor development.
Entrepreneurial Skills
Entrepreneurship is described by (Bolton & Thompson, 2004) as the capacity and willingness to set up, develop, organize and manage a business or businesses along with taking on financial risks for making profits. They further described entrepreneurs as individuals who create and innovates something of value around an opportunity they recognized instinctively. Spinelli & Adams (2012) explains entrepreneurship as the process of an entrepreneur to seize a business opportunity and pursuing it irrespective of the resources available support this. Entrepreneurial attributes that entrepreneurs possess was future reviewed and is stated in Table 1.
| Table 1 Lists Entrepreneurial Skills, Knowledge, and Attitude That Entrepreneurs |
|
|---|---|
| Entrepreneurial Attributes | Characteristics |
| Entrepreneurial skills | Networking, innovative, risk takers, diversification (opportunity seeking) |
| Entrepreneurial Knowledge | Participate in educational programmes or courses (formal) Experience in field of work (informal) |
| Entrepreneurial Attitude | Favourable (positive) and unfavourable (negative) responses |
Table 1 lists Entrepreneurial skills, knowledge, and attitude that entrepreneurs tend to possess. Studies done by Chang & Rieple (2013); Dakhil (2013) have indicated that some of the many entrepreneurial skills possessed by entrepreneur are networking, innovating and diversifications. Lebambo, et al., (2017) expressed networking as the activity of developing and maintaining connections with individuals that can be professional and or personal, which according to Schallenkamp & Smith (2009) gives them access to information to their surrounding environment. Lebambo, et al., (2017) have further elaborated it into ability to have communication and negotiation skills. Lebambo, et al., (2017) have also elaborated innovation as the process of implementing an idea or concept when identifying opportunities in the surrounding environment to reach profitability aims that were set. In the construction industry entrepreneurs are required look for opportunities to grow and taking initiative to develop and implement ideas to grow their businesses, whilst undertaking the risk of implementing these ideas (Antonites & Van Vuuren, 2005). Oyekunle-Oyewobi, et al., (2013) have specified that in construction, entrepreneurs must have the skill to diversify the construction company. This increases the performance of the construction firm. Diversification is a marketing strategy employed in an operating company that seeks to grow its profits by venturing into providing new products or services to new markets or similar industries (Paulraj & Saravanan, 2012).
Entrepreneurial Knowledge
Roxas, et al., (2008) have elaborated entrepreneurial knowledge as the mentality, conceptions and skills which entrepreneurs use or are required to use. According to Gomezelj & Antončič (2008) entrepreneurial knowledge is the education possessed by the entrepreneur, whether formal or informal education, which informs the entrepreneurs decision-making abilities. Formal entrepreneurship knowledge is obtained by entrepreneurs through a curriculum that informs the scholars about knowledge entrepreneurs need to have, whilst they are receiving their formal education. (Gomezelj & Antončič, 2008). Furthermore, Gomezelj & Antončič (2008) states that Informal entrepreneurial knowledge is obtained by entrepreneurs from personal history, experience and informal education. Lebambo, et al., (2017) state that establishing the entrepreneurial knowledge an entrepreneur possesses requires identifying the education the entrepreneur acquired or experiences the entrepreneur has been exposed to. This is especially important in the construction industry since the industry is a high-risk market for entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurial Attitude
Lindsay (2005) described attitude as the tendency to respond in a generally supportive or unfavorable manner to a specific circumstance. The researcher further defined entrepreneurial attitude as the impulse to either respond in a favourable or unfavourable manner to entrepreneurship opportunities. As entrepreneurship attitude cannot be directly identified or observed. Robinson, et al., (1991); McCline, et al., (2000) designed the Entrepreneurial Attitude Orientation (EAO) and Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition (EOR) scales respectively, that are used to measure the entrepreneurial attitude of individuals. The scales were developed through a strong attitude theory with validated and developed instruments. The scales have been used to distinguish entrepreneurial attitude from those individuals who are not entrepreneurs.
Sustainable Contractor Development
Sustainable contractor development is the state whereby construction companies are consistently developing their employees, growing their firm and making a profit in the construction industry (Jacquet, 2002). Sustainable contractors are construction companies that can sustain their business irrespective of the fluctuations in the state of economy or late payments from the clients (cidb, 2002), which is determined by considering the companies pro-activeness, the size of the company, entrepreneurial competence of the CEO/leaders and the CEO/leaders involvement in projects as well as the organization structure.
Pro-activeness of the company, which is characterized as researching market, trends to seize new opportunities before their competitors. Pro-activeness creates an opportunity for the company to be innovative, gain competitive advantage and improve the companies risk management (Bakar et al., 2012). The higher grade a contractor is on the cidb Register of Contractors, the higher the value of the projects they can tender for and complete (cidb, 2019). Growing the size of companies requires the ability to improve use of resources and manage a bigger work force (Bakar et al., 2012). The size of the company, the number of projects they completed and the value of projects they completed speaks to the experience of the construction company (cidb, 2019) and adds to the credibility of the company. Scholars such as Bakar, et al., (2012); Handayani (2017) have discussed those management characteristics of a company impact the growth of the company. For a company to sustainably grow, management needs to impose strategic plans that will facilitate the growth of the company. The leaders require knowledge and experience of the industry the company is involved in, to facilitate the growth of the company. The management needs to ensure the products delivered to the client are of good quality, the requirements are met, and a good relationship is maintained with the clients. To achieve this, management needs to be involved in projects (Handayani, 2017). The involvement of management in the projects of a construction project improves the sustainability of the development of the construction company. Having knowledge of what is being done on projects and how it is being done improves the company performance (Handayani, 2017). Yusof & Bakar (2012) have attributed the sustainability of construction companies to an efficient organization structure and company management. They further state that the company’s team must comprise of competent members with enough technical expertise, knowledge, and skills. Having an efficient organizational structure in a company ensures individuals know their roles and responsibilities in a company. This ensures everybody works effectively to reach the goals of the company.
Relationship between Entrepreneurship Skills, Knowledge and Attitude and Sustainable Contractor Development
Nkiru & Okoye (2017) have emphasized on the role of entrepreneurship on sustainable development. Ahmed & McQuaid (2005) have also emphasized on entrepreneurship as an important source of innovation while taking risk and being persistent. The development of these skills possessed by entrepreneurs, improves the abilities of the entrepreneur to manage the company. These skills impact how entrepreneurs create opportunities for their company, how entrepreneurs react to threats to the company and how entrepreneurs develop and implement new ideas (Cooney, 2012). Cooney (2012) has discussed that entrepreneurial skills positively impacts entrepreneur’s company growth in a sustainable manner.
Ahmed & McQuaid (2005) have also elaborated that personal history and experience of the entrepreneur play a great role in developing and improving their services and products. Lewricks (2010) study revealed that entrepreneurial companies tend to grow through educating the entrepreneurs on how to manage the changes to the company, which will maintain the sustainable growth of the company. Entrepreneurship knowledge has proven to be a great advocate in ensuring sustainable development. How entrepreneurs react and manage changes in their growing companies are impacted by their experience in the industry. This also impacts the sustainability of the development of contractors (Gomezelj & Antončič, 2008).
The attitude of an entrepreneur determines whether they react favourable or unfavorable to specific circumstances (Lindsay, 2005). The entrepreneurship attitude of individuals is determined by how they react to certain scenarios. How entrepreneurs react to threats to the company, whether internal or external, implementing innovative ideas and the measure of involvement and control the entrepreneur has over the company, is an indication of their attitude. Their responses to these circumstances impact the sustainability of the contractors’ development.
A study done by Windapo (2018) concluded that entrepreneurial factors and activities directly impact sustainable growth and success of a construction company. The study was done on a case study of Lubbe Construction Company where the individual had no formal education but has successfully managed and developed a construction company. The study elaborated the entrepreneurship attributes of the company owner sustained the company. Based on the review, it is not known whether a combination of entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and attitude contributes to the sustainable development of construction companies in the context of South Africa. This research aims to fill that gap of knowledge.
The qualitative research approach was adopted for this research. The qualitative research approach applied to multiple-case studies. The purpose of this research is to determine whether the entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and attitude of CEO’s/leaders have impacted the sustainable development of construction companies. Multiple case studies are the most suitable to achieve the research objectives since it focuses on interpreting data and the interpretation is subjective (Fellows & Liu, 2015). The multiple case studies allow for the independent analysis of the selected cases and their individual selected data, to help realize the objectives of this research. The case study method is also used in previous research documented in the literature reviewed. Windapo (2018) used one case study to determine the entrepreneurial factors affecting the sustainable growth and success of a South African construction company.
For the purpose of this research, the population of the study consists of the CEOs/leaders of sustainable construction companies, registered in Grade 2 to 6 on the cidb Register of Contractors in the Western Cape Province and employees of these sustainable construction companies. The CEO/leaders were selected through purposive sampling. The three criteria to select participants of the study were that the construction company must be based in the City of Cape Town Metropolis, the construction company needs to be listed between Grade 2 to 6 GB on the cidb Register of Contractors and the construction company needs to have been in continuous operation for at least five years.
The interview was a semi-structured interview. These interviews were split into sections to gather information about the respondent’s profile, the entrepreneurial attributes they possess and the sustainable development aspects they implement in the construction companies. The respondents also completed the interview protocol to rate the extent of entrepreneurship skills, attitude, knowledge and the sustainability of the contractor development. The researchers also collected interview protocols completed by three employees of each respondent, reflecting their rates of the participants entrepreneurship attributes. The interview and interview protocol was the main instruments used to collect data. Financial records were requested from the CEOs/leaders of construction companies during the interviews. Researchers obtained a list of projects they have completed and the value of said projects from CEOs/leaders of the sustainable construction companies. The researchers analyzed the data obtained during interviews, the research protocols completed by the contractors and their employees and documentation provided by the contractors using content analysis. The researchers made use of information provided and deduced emergent themes in the data, by coding the data. Nvivo qualitative data analysis was used to assist in identifying the themes in the occurrence of the codes in the data. The cases were further analyzed using cross case analysis. The researchers used these to analyze the data, making deductions from the data and discussing the findings for each case.
The researchers’ ensured data obtained concentrated around the objectives of the research. The probing and prompting techniques used was the same for each interview, to ensure consistency with all participants. The questions are set to be easily understandable and not open for different interpretations to ensure data obtained is reliable. A pilot study was done with a PhD student in the Department of Construction Economics and Management at University of Cape Town as a means of validation. This provided an opportunity to adjust questions, plan the duration of the interviews and ensuring possible responses would achieve the objectives of the research.
Case Study 1
Case study 1 is a construction company established in 2006 by the current CEO (R1) in partnership with the spouse and the company is based in Cape Town, South Africa. The responsibilities of the co-partner are managing the internal side of the business whilst the CEO is mainly accountable for managing the sites. The company follows a participative structure, whereby the employees are involved in business strategy issues. The company is registered as a grade 5PE under the cidb Register of Contractors. The companies have been more involved in general building projects and are looking into expanding to property development.
R1 has ten years of experience as the CEO of the company. R1 completed matric in South Africa and is not registered with any professional bodies. R1 gained entrepreneurial experience from working for a construction company before starting the current company. R1 has entrepreneurial skills as such as recognizing and seizing opportunities in the market. R1 and the co-partner have done a business entrepreneurship programme with the University Stellenbosch and a program from EPWP contractor development programme offered by the Department of Public Works. R1 puts great effort in the business activities by visiting the site 2 to 3 times a day and by guiding the workers. According to R1, it is crucial to visit the site daily to apply damage control as soon as issues arise. R1 is willing to learn, this has helped to ensure the continuity of the business. R1 and partner spend resources to enrich their knowledge and that of the employees. R1 has an average of 13 employees for the past five years and an average of R 2 800 000 Turnover for the last five years and lastly R1’s company had an average profit of R 480 000 for the last five years. The company has grown sustainable in terms of employees from 10 in 2014, to 15 in 2018. While the company witnessed a decline in turnover and profit in real terms from R4 000 000 and R400 000 in 2014, to R2 000 000 and R300 000 in 2018 respectively.
Case Study 2
Company 2 operates in two sectors, the construction sector and the clearing and forwarding sector. The construction company is the subsidiary of the clearing and forwarding agency. The clearing and forwarding agency was founded in 1995 by the current CEO (R2) and the construction arm was established in 2012, initially listed as a Grade 2 company on the cidb Register of Contractors. The company is based in Cape Town. Currently, the construction company is registered as a 4GB and 4CE.
R2 is the owner of the company and is more involved with seeking opportunities and tenders for the company in order to maintain the sustainability of the company. R2’s highest academic qualification is matric. R2 has seven years of experience in the construction industry. R2 has entrepreneurial skills such as the ability to network and to outsource external expertise for the projects. R2’s attitude is described by R2 as poor towards construction business opportunities. R2 has personal control over the construction business activities and has a high self-esteem in the company and the industry. The owner measures company performance by valuing the work of the individuals that are involved in the company and the skills that they acquire while working for the company. To improve market shares or turnover in the industry R2 ensures to minimize costs of the projects the company is responsible for and completing them as quickly as possible. R2 believes that entrepreneurial skills, knowledge, and attitude have a very positive impact on the sustainability of the business and adds that without entrepreneurial attributes there is no way the business would succeed. R2 has an average of 3 employees for the past five years and an average turnover of R 3 976 200. The company has a gradual increase in turnover of R2’s construction company from R 641 000 in 2014 to R 5 800 000 in 2018. This shows the occurrence of sustainable growth in the business.
Case Study 3
Company 3 is a medium sized construction company that primarily operates in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The company was established in 2004 by the current partners. The partners in the company have equally divided responsibilities. The company is registered as a Grade 6 General Builder PE company under the cidb Register of Contractors. The company provides services to private and public clients and it handles various types of construction projects.
R3 is the co-owner of the construction company. R3 studied BSc in Quantity Surveying at University of Cape Town and is currently the commercial director of the company involved in the tendering and the contractual activities of the company. R3 is responsible of overall joint management of the company. R3 has 15 years of experience as the co-owner of the company. R3 uses the open-door policy leadership strategy and the management of the company uses top-down management. R3 elaborated on the difficulty to accommodate innovation in the construction industry as the industry still mostly adopts traditional methods but R3 still tries to be innovative, nonetheless. R3 expressed to have a sense of self-worth and self-achievement as the company that R3 started has been able to be sustainable in the construction industry for 15 years. R3’s revealed a positive attitude towards business opportunities in the construction industry despite the current condition in the industry. R3 stated that the relationship with the client is considered very important for the company as it is an opportunity of the company to secure repeat works. Profitability and the life span of the company was considered as the measures of company performance. R3’s efforts to ensure sustainability are hard work, ethics and ensuring good relationship with the employees. R3 has an average of 13 employees for the past five years and an average of R 30 200 000 turnover for the last five years. R3’s company has decreased the number of employees from 15 in 2014, to 10 in 2018. The company witnessed a decline in turnover from R 36 000 000 in 2016 to R 28 000 000 in 2018. The actual profit data was not provided, however R3 indicated that the company has shown a profit for the past five years.
The findings obtained in the study are discussed in the following sub-sections
Entrepreneurial Skills Possessed by Company Leaders/Founders of Construction Companies
Chang & Rieple (2013); Dakhil (2013) have described entrepreneurial skills as the ability to develop a concept and a business plan and the ability to network and access external expertise. R1, R2 and R3 can develop a business plan; this was revealed as all the case studies started the business they are currently managing. The skill of networking is possessed by R1, R2 and R3. R1 has been exposed to networking opportunities, through participation in contractor development programmes and believes in building strong relationship with workers and clients. R2 shows networking by facilitating groups of workers that was hand selected to work and complete a project, which indicates R2 can network with individuals and identify what type of people work well together. R3 has been in the construction industry for 15 years and through this life span in the construction industry, built up a network of reoccurring clients. R1 and R3 build and maintain relationships with people who can provide the company with business opportunities. This is indicated as networking skills possessed by the respondents. Diversification is a marketing strategy employed in an operating company that seeks to grow its profits by venturing into providing new products or services to new markets (Paulraj & Saravanan, 2012). R1 stated that the tendering for construction projects only, will not sustain the company for the future and is also looking into diversify the company into property development market. This speaks to R1 identifying external influences as a threat to the future of the company, identifying a possible gap in the market and being pro-active in solving a possible future obstacle for the company. R2 has already diversified the company into the shipping industry. The skills possessed by R1, R2 and R3 ultimately assist them in managing their construction companies to be profitable and sustainable.
Type of Knowledge Possessed by Entrepreneurs
According to Gomezelj & Antončič (2008) entrepreneurial knowledge is the education possessed by the entrepreneur, whether formal or informal education, which informs the entrepreneurs decision-making abilities. Formal entrepreneurship knowledge is obtained by entrepreneurs whilst they are receiving their formal education (Gomezelj & Antončič, 2008). R1, R2 and R3 all have formal knowledge. Both R1 and R2’s highest level of education is matric. R3’s highest level of education is tertiary education. Informal/tacit entrepreneurial knowledge is obtained by entrepreneurs from personal history, experience, and informal education. Informal education refers to education with no learning outcomes that must be achieved (Greenhow & Lewin, 2016). This type of entrepreneurial knowledge is obtained by entrepreneurs whilst working in the market and increases with the duration the entrepreneur spends in the market (University of Oslo, 2015). With managing construction companies for more than 5 years, R1, R2 and R3 have tacit entrepreneurial knowledge gained through experience. R1 and R3 have additional experience of five and eight years respectively, through working in the construction industry before entering the industry as CEO’S/leaders of construction companies. The tacit entrepreneurial knowledge possessed by R2 was acquired only while being the CEO of the construction company. R1, R2 and R3 agreed that tacit entrepreneurial knowledge in the construction company is important to manage construction companies. The entrepreneurial knowledge an entrepreneur has, influences all their decisions which in turn impacts the sustainability of the construction company.
Attitude of the Company Leaders/Founders of Construction Companies
Lindsay (2005) described attitude as the tendency to respond in a generally supportive or unfavorable manner to a specific circumstances and to entrepreneurship opportunities. Robinson, et al., (1991) came up with the EAO scale that is used to determine, measure and predict the presence of entrepreneurial attitude present in an individual (Harris et al., 2007). The EAO measures individuals' attitudes across four constructs which are achievement and innovation in business, perceived personal control of the business outcome and lastly perceived self-esteem in business. The innovation in the business investigates whether the individual has incorporated innovative methods in business activities. The perceived personal control means the individual’s control and influence on their businesses. Finally, the perceived self-esteem involves self-confidence amongst colleagues, employees and other businesspeople and competency while conducting their businesses (Robinson et al., 1991).
R1 faced financial struggles and limitation to access of information when starting the construction company but he persisted and got the construction company registered. R3 believes that although the industry is volatile but there is an opportunity for growth in the industry. Both R1 and R3 see opportunities instead of obstacles which speaks on their positive attitude and tendency to respond in a favorable manner to entrepreneurship opportunities. R1 and R3 have a high self-esteem, which was deduced from their attitude towards the reputation of their company and delivering quality projects. R1 has personal control over his construction sites ensuring a minimum of two visits to a construction site every day. R2 and R3 do not have personal control over construction sites but oversee them. The achievement in the business is focused on starting and growing a business company.
Level of Sustainable Development of Construction Companies
Dlungwana, et al., (2002) have described contractor development as a deliberate and managed process to achieve targeted developmental outcomes that improve the contractor grading status, performance and quality delivered by contractors and improve the contractor equity and targeted ownership. R1, R2 and R3 have contractor development goals. This was revealed through the advancement of R1, R2 and R3 on the cidb Register of Contractor. According to the cidb (2019) these grades of contractors belong to contractor development and performance improvement categories. Growing the size of companies requires the ability to improve use of resources and manage a bigger work force (Bakar et al., 2012). Dlungwana, et al., (2002) stated building stable and strong relationships with colleagues and clients contribute to sustainable contractor development. This was evident in R1 and R3 as the contractor ensures that the relationships they build are of importance. R1 is constantly developing a better network to further create opportunities for the company. R3 has been in the industry for 15 years and has already established a big supporting network for the company.
Yusuf, et al., (2012) have attributed the sustainability of construction companies to an efficient organization structure and company management (Handayani, 2017). Access to information and communication aids the development and growth of the company. R1 and R3 have an organizational structure that stipulates who is in control of what functions in the company. R2 oversees the overall management of the company and outsources all other functions of the company.
This research was conducted to determine how entrepreneurship skills, knowledge have and attitude impacted Sustainable Contractor Development. Through this research it was found that the entrepreneurial skills identified in the company leaders/founders increases the ability of the contractor to create more business opportunities for the company. Skills such as networking are crucial to managers as it can increase the chances for the company to secure more tenders. While skills such as diversification reduces the risk of the business and allows for the business to have more than one source of income. Both explicit and tacit entrepreneurial knowledge in the construction company is important to manage construction companies. Explicit knowledge is important when managing a construction company. The managers gain additional skills and improve the skills they already possess, required to manage the companies. Tacit knowledge is also important as the experience gained from the industry helps the managers to understand how the industry works and to assist them in the managing the construction companies. The attitude of the company leader/founders was found to be positive towards seeking opportunities and the future of their construction companies. This was evident through their persistently looking for opportunities of employment for their construction companies. This research was conducted to determine how entrepreneurship skills, knowledge have, and attitude impacted Sustainable Contractor Development. Through this research it was found that the entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and attitude have positively impacted the sustainable contractor development.
The research was done to determine whether entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and attitude impacts sustainable contractor development. Through the analysis of the findings, it was evident that the proposition that was test was correct which means the innovative abilities of CEOs/leaders impacts the sustainable development of construction companies. The study therefore recommends that the cidb make use of the entrepreneurial attributes of the CEOs/leaders in identifying the construction companies that will develop sustainably. The study also recommends the leaders to have positive attitude towards the industry and to seek more opportunities to develop sustainably. The researchers recommend that more contractors/CEO along with their employees enroll for contractor development programmes to enhance their contractor development mechanisms. It is important for the employees to be part of the programme as well to maintain coherence within the company structure and ensure that the employees align with and understand the CEO’s vision for sustainable contractor development. This research was conducted in the Western Cape primarily Cape Town. Further research can be conducted to determine whether the entrepreneurial skills, knowledge and attitude impacts sustainable contractor development in other provinces. The research only focused on three case studies; further studies can be done on a larger sample size using a quantitative research approach to determine whether entrepreneurial attributes is normally distributed across construction companies.
This work is supported by NRF (Grant Number-120843). However, opinions and conclusions are those of the authors and are not necessarily attributable to the NRF.