Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters/MBA)

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Browsing Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters/MBA) by Faculty "Faculty Commerce, Law and Management"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Assessing cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the disposal of ewaste in South African public & private institutions
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Khumalo, Dimitri
    Over the years there have been numerous studies conducted, focusing on the various facets of waste electronic and electrical equipment, also termed electronic waste or e-waste, and the impact it has on the environment. However, little attention has been placed on the management of personal data during the disposal phases of e-waste and the inherent ramifications it poses if this data were retrieved. This study sought to assess the vulnerabilities to which organisations are exposed, specifically financial and government institutions, by interrogating the management policies, processes, and procedures for stored data when disposing of e-waste at the end of the asset life cycle. A qualitative research method, through semi-structured interviews was conducted. The population selected were very senior individuals, selected based on the specific roles and experiences they fulfilled within the financial services sector, various government institutions, and e-waste recycling companies. From the findings, it emerged that there were growing concerns around the effective policy regulations put in place to manage the disposal practices of ewaste and that of personal identifiable and sensitive data of individuals. This has driven a need for policies and robust mechanisms to be instituted to try and minimise the overall impact these vulnerabilities could pose to the environment and the entire value chain, at that juncture where electronic devices have reached their EOL and are now being disposed of. iii The results demonstrate that more focus has to be placed on the managing of ewaste in industry, providing policy directives in relation to how organisations need to prescribe and conform to effective disposal practices of electronic devices that have reached their EOL. Further to this, government, in consultation with various industry role players, needs to look at ways to formalise and regulate the e-waste sector and institute measures to ensure conformance for every part of the value chain.
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    Impact of oil price shocks on stock returns: evidence from selected Southeast Asian economies
    (2017) Siddiqui, Ammar Ahmed
    This paper investigates the impact of oil price shocks on stock market returns in selected Southeast Asian countries. We selected five countries, those are Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia Thailand and Philippine. We employ autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) and VECM model in the analysis. We model both positive oil price shock and negative oil price shock. We find that the real Brent price is positively correlated with all the stock markets in the selected countries. The results of ARDL model indicate that positive oil price shock exhibits a negative impact on the stock market returns while lag one negative oil price shock exhibits a positive impact on the stock market returns in the short run. However, only Indonesia and Singapore exhibit a significant response to positive and negative oil shocks in the ARDL model. The cointegration analysis indicates a long run causal relationship from oil price to stock market returns for Malaysia and Singapore. This result is confirmed by the error correction model with significant and negative but low speed of adjustment.
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    Online grocery shopping in South Africa: underlying motivations and challenges
    (2022) Maja, Kelelo Mpanana
    While many countries imposed COVID-19-related restrictions, global online shopping adoption has recently improved, but not at the same rate as fashion and electronics. However, the disparity among the online segments is yet to be established. The study identified and examined factors influencing South African consumers’ intention to use online grocery shopping. A model was proposed to investigate and test hypotheses relating to effects of social influence (SI), word of mouth (WoM), brand intent, convenience, and order fulfilment constructs on customer purchase. Data was collected from 839 respondents via an online questionnaire. The Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique was used to evaluate the relationships between the constructs and customer purchase intention. Social influence, WoM, convenience, and order fulfilment significantly influenced customer purchase intentions, while brand intent showed an insignificant impact. Also, COVID-19 was found to significantly moderate the relationship between convenience and purchase intention, but Age and experience were insignificant.
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    Opportunities and challenges of open banking in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Dreyer, Tanya
    There is much hype and speculation around the potential of open banking to increase financial inclusion and competition among incumbent banks in developed and developing economies (Plaitakis & Staschen, 2020 and Zeller & Dahdal, 2021). Mastercard has gone so far as to call it “the most transformational trend in banking since digitization” (Mastercard, 2020). The purpose of this study is therefore to assess the challenges and opportunities of implementing open banking in South Africa as well as potential frameworks for implementation. Further as the existing knowledge base for open banking is globally limited and predominantly focussed on developed economies, it is vital to publish information from the perspective of an emerging economy that is also one of the largest economies in Africa.
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    Personalised social media advertising and its influence on online purchase intentions: a South African outlook
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Lutchman, Shanice S.S.; Saini, Yvonne K.
    Digital, social media and eCommerce are on the rise with daily rapid changes, even more so with the impact of COVID-19. Due to this evolution, consumer behaviour has advanced. Consumers are seen as digitally savvy, informed and seek value from engagements with businesses. From a market perspective, social media has historically served as a platform to assist businesses to engage with consumers. However, this has proven less effective in recent times. An antecedent of bridging this gap is personalisation. Within the current literature, there is limited knowledge on the relationship between the themes of personalisation, social media and online purchase, especially focused on the South African market. This study sought to bridge the above-identified gaps from both a theoretical and practical standpoint. The main objective of this study aimed to highlight the significant influence personalised social media adverts have on online purchase intentions. The major finding from this study was that personalised social media advertising does indeed influence online purchase intentions of South Africans. The next key findings from this study identified all four social media platforms (WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram) to have a significant influence on online clothing purchase intention through a personalised advert as it was perceived as of relevance and value. Lastly, Instagram was found to have had the strongest influence out of the four social media channels on online purchase intentions. Therefore, the implications for businesses and marketers alike should be looking at personalised social media strategies to drive online purchase intention, especially through the social media platform Instagram.
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    The perceived impact of video-on-demand services adoption on subscription TV services in South Africa
    (2022) Njomo, Fanna
    Digital disruption in the media and entertainment industry has changed how subscribers acquire, distribute, and consume content. Technological innovation facilitated the evolution of television to the introduction of services that compete for viewership from the same subscriber base. The main aim of this study was to establish the impact of the introduction of video-on-demand services on the subscriber base of traditional subscription TV services that previously had a monopoly in South Africa. Following the study’s objectives, theoretical constructs were derived from literature to understand subscribers’ expectations and competitiveness of both services, the technological innovations driving both services, how satisfied are subscribers with each service as they choose their preferred service. The study used a cross-sectional quantitative method, and primary data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from 233 subscribers who have an active media and entertainment subscription. The study found that video-on-demand services are adopting disruptive technologies that are changing subscriber content watching behaviour, subscribers are technologically savvy and adapting to digital transformation in the industry and use devices that were not used to consume content and introduced additional screens and not limited by linear scheduling. The study's findings showed that subscribers are cord-cutting and cord-shaving while others are cord-nevers as they never subscribe to traditional subscription services. Therefore, the new video-on-demand (VOD) services negatively impacted the traditional subscription TV service subscriber base. Traditional subscription TV services must implement innovations in broadcasting to be competitive and retain some of their subscribers as they acquire new subscribers.