Abstract:
Small and medium sized enterprises suffer from high rates of business discontinuance
largely due to leadership incompetence. The consequences of the inability of leaders to
establish viable business propositions and sustainable competitive advantage extend
beyond firm-level competiveness and are a matter of macroeconomic prosperity.
The purpose of this study was to contribute to the academic conversation on dynamic
managerial capabilities by specifically focussing on the first attribute that underpins the
concept: human capital. Moreover, the purpose of this study was to identify specifically
what roles, attitudes, and competencies leaders require to more effectively develop
firm-level dynamic capabilities enabling transition from SME to big business.
A two stage inductive exploratory methodology was adopted enabling data collection
from a pre-qualified sample of 12 prominent entrepreneurs. The first stage of data
collection was a qualifying questionnaire and the second stage involved primary data
collection by means of in-person semi structured interviews.
The key outcomes of this study are that as businesses grow and transition, leaders
need to adopt the right roles, have the right attitudes, acquire the right competencies,
and be mindful of external enablers and inhibitors in order to develop dynamic
capabilities that with effectively transition them from SME to big business.
