AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

The main objective of the study is to measure the relationship between the practices of corporate entrepreneurship and lean six sigma within the South African financial sector. Although studies on these management styles are prevalent in the literature, few of them provide a direct comparison of the styles. There is a further gap in the literature that addresses the South African context. The study design included anonymously submitted questionnaire data on the levels of corporate entrepreneurship, lean six sigma and organisational performance from employees at South African banks. 248 potential participants were contacted, with a snowball sampling method being utilised. The final response rate was 41% (102 completed surveys), and this is the number used in the study. Respondents were employees at South African banking institutions. Likert scales were used to score the various constructs of corporate entrepreneurship and lean six sigma. The study looked to determine if there are statistically significant relationships between these constructs. In addition, the relationship between organisational performance, corporate entrepreneurship and lean six sigma was reviewed. The findings were that there are low-level practices of entrepreneurship and lean six sigma in the South African financial institutions. The main findings showed that in general the elements of corporate entrepreneurship had a correlation to the elements of lean six sigma, as evidenced in four out of the six possible correlations. This being said; the correlations were weak to slightly moderate in nature. As for the correlation to organisational performance, four out of the five potential correlations were statistically significant, all be it either weak or almost moderate. There was a positive direction to the correlation in all instances. The main implications of the findings are that corporate entrepreneurship and lean six sigma, though vastly differentiating in history and styles can co-exist in a single organisation. There were no instances of negative correlation as may be expected from the seemingly incomplete and incompatible nature of the two methods. The recommendation is that these two strategies can and should be implemented in conjunction, given their explicit impact on organisational performance. The main limitation of the study was that a small sample used. Another limitation was the focus on banks and not the entire financial sector. Future research could target other financial institutions that are not full service banking operations. The study could contain more detail to determine if, the size and age of the organisation impact on the practice of corporate entrepreneurship and lean six sigma.