The Ascendancy of Innovativeness on Manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises in South Africa

The study was aimed at examining the relationships among infrastructure development, employee training and resource mobilisation in manufacturing Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) innovativeness in South Africa based in Gauteng province. The main goal was to evaluate the relationship among the four variables which are infrastructure development, employee training, resource mobilisation and SMEs innovativeness. Innovativeness has become of greater importance in SMEs in Gauteng province due to intenisive employee training, resource mobilisation and infrastructure development. A quantitative research methodology was employed with the help of a questionnaire to collect data from 200 SME managers and staff members in manufacturing SMEs in Gauteng province of South Africa. The questionnaires were distributed either through email or hand delivery. A probability sampling technique, which is simple random sampling, was used in the selection of the study sample. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 28.0) and Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS 28.0) were used for the analysis of the collected data. The main goal was to evaluate the relationship among the four variables, infrastructure development, employee training, resource mobilisation and SME innovativeness. The results from the study show that there is a positive and significant relationship among the four variables in manufacturing SMEs in Gauteng province. The study recommends that the government, through the SMEs development department, review its approach to SMEs so that they can have adequate resources to enhance their business operations.