WIReDSpace

Welcome to WIReDSpace (Wits Institutional Repository on DSpace)

For queries relating to content and technical issues, please contact IR specialists via this email address : openscholarship.library@wits.ac.za,
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Communities in WIReDSpace

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 19

Recent Submissions

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    The impact of entrepreneurship education and government support on SME performance in Montserrado County, Liberia
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2025) Konneh, Ismail I.; Urban, Boris
    Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are vital in driving employment, creating jobs, and overall growth of many economies worldwide. In Liberia, they account for nearly 80% of economic activities. However, their growth and sustainability face major challenges such as a competitive, resource-constrained business setting, and limited entrepreneurial knowledge among owners, leading to failure rates of 80–90% within the first year of operation. This study, considering these challenges, investigated the impact of entrepreneurship education (EE) and government support (GS) on SME performance (SMEP) in Montserrado County, Liberia. The conducive external business environment (CEBE) and Entrepreneurial alertness (EA) were examined as the moderating and mediating variables, respectively, in the relationship between EE and SMEP. A quantitative, descriptive cross-sectional design was used to gather primary data through structured surveys from 371 SME owners who had received EE or related trainings and GS. The data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS, employing descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), correlation, regression, and structural equation modelling (SEM) to assess the relationships among variables and validate the study’s hypotheses. Findings revealed that EE significantly enhances SMEP, highlighting its crucial role in developing entrepreneurial capacity. However, neither a CEBE nor EA significantly moderated or mediated the EE and SMEP relationship. Also, both GS, government financial support (GFS) and government non-financial support (GNS) impacts were surprisingly found negative on SMEP. This points to weaknesses in policy implementation and support program design, emphasizing the urgent need for targeted reforms to promote the accessibility, relevance, and quality of GS, coupled with a stronger entrepreneurial ecosystem. The study recommends that the government should strengthen sector-specific advisory services, enhance inter- agency coordination, and do continuous monitoring to foster inclusive economic growth and SME resilience in Liberia’s challenging post-conflict context.
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    The Barriers to Fintech enablement for access to financial services in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2025) Fortuin, Byron; Magida, Ayanda
    The research explored the perceived factors affecting access and usage of financial services, enabled through mobile money providers and Fintech’s primarily in South Africa applying a qualitative research methodology. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, data were gathered from a diverse sample of ten subject matter experts and consumers of Fintech products and services. The study investigated the barriers to financial inclusion and access to advanced financial services such as savings and credit in the form of loans. Each participant provided valued perceptions regarding their insights, experiences, and difficulties associated with Fintech's adoption and usage within this demographic. The study's findings indicate that Fintech adoption can significantly enhance access to financial services. However, adoption is hampered by challenges such as limited technology capability, awareness of Fintech products and services, trust issues, and cyber security concerns. This research has significant implications for product and services enablement and access, future research aimed at adopting Fintech to promote greater financial inclusivity among the banked in South Africa and the evolution of Fintechs and key players in the South African market contexts aligned to the Fintech ecosystem with key partnerships and regulatory advancements. The study's findings are expected to provide valuable insights into how Fintech is enhancing financial inclusion and addressing the barriers to Fintech adoption within the banked populations in South Africa, Ghana and Rwanda.
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    The Use of Unconventional Monetary Policy in Emerging Market Economies
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2025) Diphofa, Jeanette Matshidi
    This paper investigates the use of unconventional monetary policy, quantitative easing (QE) in emerging market economies (EMEs). This study establishes conditions under which emerging economies may follow to implement QE without being exposed to the risks associated with the use of QE, which include fiscal dominance and the loss of central bank independence and credibility. We also analyse the impact of the programme on bond yields, stock markets and the banking industry a few months after the announcement. We provide empirical evidence using the event study and basic vector autoregression (VAR) method with monthly data from January 2011 to December 2021 to estimate the effects of QE on domestic financial markets during the Covid-19 pandemic. We find that QE effectively lowered bond yields and positively affected financial markets; however, the impact on stocks and banks was not as significant as the bond market. The impact on bond yield is identified through the signalling channel, and on other financial markets is through the portfolio-rebalance channel.
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    The use of informal digital channels for remittances by financially excluded Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2025) Dhlamini, Tanya Lindelwe; Magida, Ayanda
    This study critically explored how financially excluded Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa adopted informal digital channels for remittances. It was conducted through ten anonymised face-to-face interviews and thematic analysis; the research explored the decision-making of undocumented and partially documented migrants. Findings reveal that trust is the primary factor driving the adoption of high-risk informal systems like the Malayitsha remittance system, serving as a guarantee in the absence of legal documentation. A lack of trust stemming from inadequate financial digital literacy and accessibility fuels reluctance towards formal digital platforms. The study concludes that this reliance on informal channels, due to financial exclusion creates great vulnerabilities within South Africa's socio-economic landscape and highlights a critical gap for targeted digital intervention
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    Exploring the Perception of Employees on Leadership Style and Employee Engagement in the Gauteng Department of Education
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2026) Chuma, Goodwill; Chikane, Rekgotsofetse
    To evidently inform planning, it is critical that organisations determine the type of leadership style adopted. The study focused on governance styles and the different positionalities in the workspace and how that impacts leadership styles. It also weighed on the notion of effective policy implementation and how the governance of policy implementation might provide insights into leadership styles that weigh and inform the implementation of policies in a stable/inclusive working environment. The study was designed with three distinct goals. The first goal was to identify the leadership style or styles that are most frequently used in GDE. The second goal of the study was to determine the level of participation in departmental planning and decision-making among probationary employees and recently hired staff members. Finally, it sought to ascertain the connection between the engagement of probationary employees and leadership styles. Using a quantitative methodology, the study gathered information from 39 out of 114 GDE probationary employees. Data was gathered by sending probationary employees a Google link. Regression analysis and descriptive statistics were computed using SPSS IBM version 29.0. The findings indicate that transformational and transactional leadership philosophies are primarily used by GDE managers. Employee engagement and transformative, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles are positively and significantly correlated. Employee engagement is positively and significantly impacted by both leadership philosophies. Therefore, employing a transformational, transactional, or laissez-faire strategy will be associated with higher employee engagement outcomes, depending on the context in which a leader decides to use their style. Therefore, it's crucial to know which style to employ in which circumstance. Furthermore, the descriptive statistics show how very involved the probationary staff members of GDE are.