The Determinants of Corporate Entrepreneurship for Firms in Adventure Tourism Sector in South Africa

Abstract

The paper investigated the determinants of corporate entrepreneurship for firms in adventure tourism sector in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The population for the study were firms registered with the Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism Portal (NMBT) (2012) and the Dirty Boot Adventure South Africa (2012). Convenience sampling method was used. Data was collected through the use of a self-administered questionnaire. For the purpose of data collection, one hundred and fourteen questions were identified through a thorough review of the literature (Burns & Burns, 2008:454). Field (2005:636) Principal component analysis was used to reduce the one hundred and fourteen questions to twelve factors namely: flat organisational structure, management support for intrapreneurship, vision and strategic intent, rewards / reinforcement and sponsorship, innovativeness and creativity, multi-disciplined teamwork and diversity, entrepreneurial leadership, resources and time, strong customer orientation, continuous cross-functional learning, tolerance of risk, mistakes and failure and work discretion and discretionary time. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation, T-test and ANOVA. Cohen`s (d-value) was used to measure the effect size of differences for t-statistics Cohen (1988:38). The Cronbach’s alpha was used to test the reliability of the scales. The results showed significant positive relationships between the twelve factors and corporate entrepreneurship. Recommendations included an integrated framework that could assist adventure tour operator to establish and sustain corporate entrepreneurship within this sector.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n9p713