ABSTRACT. This study aims to show the extent to which a firm’s strategic planning, strategic control, innovation, entrepreneurship and performance is affected by a number of firm variables. A total of 232 South African public companies were studied. A questionnaire was utilized to collect data on the companies’ practice of strategic planning, strategic control, innovation, entrepreneurship and financial performance. The questionnaire was developed from the strategic planning instrument designed by Parnell and Karger (1996), the entrepreneurial performance index (EPI) instrument developed by Morris and Kuratko (2002) and a select set of financial performance measures. The results show that strategic planning, corporate entrepreneurship and performance of South African public companies are not significantly influenced by most of the variables under study, namely, age, number of employees, gross income and gross asset value. Managers should therefore practice strategic planning effectively and also be entrepreneurial for firms to be competitive irrespective of the age and sizes of their organizations. This empirical research linking strategic planning and corporate entrepreneurship may be the first of its kind in South Africa, therefore very important. There is a need to repeat this study in other cultural settings in order to determine if similar results will be recorded. pp. 46-67

Keywords: Strategic planning, innovation, strategic entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, performance, public companies, firm size, South Africa