Elmarie Venter

The Role of Selected Team Design Elements in Successful Sibling Teams

For any team to function effectively, several basic elements need to be present. The extent to which these elements are present increases the chances of a successful team outcome. Since a family business can be viewed as a type of team, the literature on how to design effective teams is also relevant to business families. The primary objectives of this study are to identify the team design elements commonly referred to in the family business literature and to empirically test their influence on the effectiveness of South African sibling teams in family businesses. The empirical findings of this preliminary study show that physical resources, skills diversity, and strategic leadership are important determinants of sibling team success whereas role clarity and competence are not.

Corporate social responsibility for SMEs: A proposed hypothesised model

In a competitive, globalised world, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is proposed as a strategy to invigorate the competitiveness of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The primary objective of this paper is to identify CSR factors that influence the competitiveness of SMEs and to develop a hypothesised model that can be tested on SMEs. Although SMEs in Uganda are increasingly becoming the backbone of the economy, their rate of survival and competitiveness are a cause for concern. The outcomes of CSR activities can help to improve the survival rate of SMEs, and may offer great oppor‐ tunities for business competitiveness, locally and globally.