Entrepreneurs Perceptions On The Effectiveness Of The Innovation Hub Pretoria South Africa

Measuring the effectiveness of science parks is not a straightforward task.The hypothesis that science parks have been effective cannot be proved or disapproved this paper is to provide Science and technology parks in South Africa,typically The Innovation Hub with some insights concerning the science and technology parks and its effectiveness thereof.This has been done from the perspective of the entrepreneurs at The Innovation Hub.Lessons were provided for other Science Parks in South Africa and the rest of Africa.The study makes a useful contribution to the theory with regards to factors that are important for the effectiveness of The Innovation Hub through the entrepreneurs in South Africa.An understanding of these perceptions not only guides and informs The Innovation Hub,but is beneficial to the public sector,policy makers,private business and universities.This was an exploratory study that used a mixed method approach of both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis techniques.The unit of analysis was all the entrepreneurs who are in The Innovation Hub.The qualitative research approach was used to gather data through face-to-face in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs at The Innovation Hub.Purposive sampling techniques were used to select respondents for the research.The quantitative research approach used the web application Qualtrics survey tool to gather information via the means of a questionnaire.The entrepreneurs accessed the online questionnaire and answer questions relating to the entrepreneurs perceptions of the effectiveness of The Innovation Hub.Four hypothesis have been tested which were,Hypothesis 1: Entrepreneurs perception of knowledge is positively associated with the effectiveness of The Innovation Hub.Hypothesis 2: Entrepreneurs perception of attitude is positively associated with the effectiveness of The Innovation Hub.Hypothesis 3: Entrepreneurs perception of practices is positively associated with the effectiveness of The Innovation Hub.Hypothesis 4: Entrepreneurs perception of purpose is positively associated with the effectiveness of The Innovation Hub.The research findings concluded that there is a positive relationship between the entrepreneurs perceptions on the effectiveness of The Innovation Hub.The study proved that even though The Innovation Hub is developing and has an impact on the entrepreneurial development of the entrepreneurs,there are still challenges in terms of implementation.As a result,the study made recommendations for further developments of The Innovation Hub.