Exploring key performance indicators for selected township small, medium, and micro service enterprises in South Africa to evolve in the organisational life cycle

Abstract

Township small, medium, and micro enterprises (“enterprises”) face challenges due to not utilising key lagging and leading performance indicators (“indicators”) to evolve in the organisational life cycle (“cycle”) and rarely progress in the “cycle”. This study aimed to explore which “indicators” within the Results and Determinants Framework (“framework”) may contribute to the selected “enterprises” in South Africa to evolve in the “cycle”. A tailored “framework” was identified, and suitable “indicators” were explored through semi-structured interviews. The findings demonstrated “indicators” such as, social media for competitiveness, maintaining records for financial performance, a customer-centric approach for improving quality of service, and new ideas to enhance innovation. A novel finding was that a few “enterprises” have progressed from the start-up stage to the growth stage. This study suggests that a tailored “framework” and collaboration with government institutions may assist “enterprises” to improve their performance.