An assessment of the impact of entrepreneurial orientation on the success of selected public secondary schools

Abstract

Entrepreneurship has been hailed as the new engine of economic growth in both developed and developing countries. It is paradigmatically referred to as the process of innovatively exploring and exploiting opportunities in the midst of risks and uncertainty, by synthesising resources to create novel outputs, often within the context of new organisational formation. Exalted as the driving force of innovation, entrepreneurship offers the benefits of increased economic efficiencies, alleviation of poverty, bringing, innovation to the market, job creation, and sustained employment. Traditionally, entrepreneurship was associated with the private sector and for-profit businesses, with entrepreneurial innovations considered to be those directed toward the marketplace. Therefore, the phenomenon initially received marginal attention in public school management. Schools are state-appointed suppliers of a service, funded by the government, and are considered as domesticated organisations, therefore their survival is seldom at doubt. On the other hand, schools are operating in an environment of increasing uncertainty. This uncertainty stems from their openness and consequent exposure to rapid environmental changes. It was found that public schools face various challenges, including a lack of entrepreneurial spirit and a fragmented approach regarding their visions, missions and strategic thrust. This study, through literature research and a quantitative empirical research, focused on the identification of the dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (independent variables) and the factors related to perceived school success (dependent variables). Furthermore, the study exploits the relationship between the dependent variables and the independent variables to determine the impact of entrepreneurial orientation on perceived school success in three predetermined groups of secondary schools in Gauteng. Factors measuring entrepreneurial orientation were extracted from the literature review, and identified as autonomy, innovativeness, risk-taking, competitive aggressiveness and pro-activeness. Factors measuring perceived school success were identified in order to develop a measure of school success. The 13 identified dependent variables were classified into four different groups. After grouping, the four main categories were school leadership (leadership, evaluating school performance and staff development), teaching and learning (emphasis on academics, class size and high quality of teaching and learning), learner behaviour (safe and orderly schools, discipline and parental involvement) and learners (learner self-esteem, monitoring pupil performance, feedback and high expectations). The study was based on a sample of 800 educators, heads of departments, deputy principals and principals at selected public secondary schools in the province of Gauteng in South Africa, who completed a structured questionnaire. The majority of the respondents were between the ages of 50 and 59 and 74% of the respondents were female. The primary unit of measurement was public secondary schools, and as expected, respondents were mostly educated, with 97.6% in possession of post-matric qualifications. Only 74.1% had a degree or higher qualification though. A total of 79.3% of the respondents were educators on post level 1 and regarding the population group, 83.5% were White. The effect of each of the independent variables on each of the measures of perceived school success, as the dependent variable, was measured through 13 multiple regression coefficients, after the independent variable was proven reliable and valid through drawing a pattern matrix of Oblimin rotated-principal component factor analysis, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measures of sampling adequacy, and Bartlett's test of sphericity. The measurement instrument utilised in this study was proven to be reliable and valid. None of the factors loaded significantly onto the independent variable, risk-taking. A Hierarchical Linear Modeling was performed to determine whether there were significant differences between the school groups in terms of selected variables. A Spearman rho was also performed to determine the correlation between the independent variables and the four main groups of dependent variables. During the empirical research, it was found that significant relationships exist between leadership, autonomy, innovativeness, and competitive aggressiveness; evaluating school performance, autonomy, and innovativeness; staff development, autonomy, innovativeness, and competitive aggressiveness; emphasis on academics, autonomy, innovativeness, and competitive aggressiveness; class size, pro-activeness and competitive aggressiveness; quality of teaching and learning, autonomy and innovativeness; safe schools, autonomy, innovativeness and competitive aggressiveness; discipline, autonomy, innovativeness and pro-activeness; parental involvement, pro-activeness and competitive aggressiveness; learner self-esteem, innovativeness and pro-activeness; monitoring pupil performance, autonomy and innovativeness; feedback, autonomy, innovativeness; and high expectations, autonomy and innovativeness. In relation to the Hierarchical Linear Modeling of the independent variables, differences between the three groups of schools were found in terms of innovativeness (practical visible and practical significant differences), pro-activeness (practical visible difference), and competitive aggressiveness (practical visible difference). The results of the dependent variables indicate practical significant differences in terms of emphasis on academics and parental involvement. The results of the Spearman rho indicated that the four groups of dependent variables were reliable after determining the Cronbach alpha coefficients. Practical significant correlations were found between innovativeness, school leadership, teaching and learning and learner behaviour; competitive aggressiveness, school leadership, teachingand learning and learner behaviour. Practical visible correlations were found between autonomy, school leadership, teaching and learning, learner behaviour and learners; Innovativeness and learners; pro-activeness, school leadership, teaching and learning and learner behaviour; and competitive aggressiveness and learners. Both primary and secondary objectives were met and all research questions were answered. All criteria were met to ensure that the research was conducted according to research principles. Through this research, school principals and school management teams in South Africa can gain insight into the creation of entrepreneurial success as well as the measurements of perceived school success, in order to create sustainability and a competitive advantage. It is recommended that future research should include non-functional or poor performing schools