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Item A legal analysis of the complexity of race and gender disadvantage in terms of the Employement Equity Act in South Africa(2019) Mushariwa, Muriel TapiwaCenturies of colonialism and Apartheid created a legacy of inequality in South Africa that the democratic Constitution, 1996, seeks to address. The constitutional mandate in section 9 of this Constitution, enacted through the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 (EEA), requires designated employers in the public and private sphere to address the inequality in the workplace through the application of affirmative action. The EEA identifies the beneficiaries of affirmative action policies as black people, women and persons with disabilities. It is clear that these constitute three distinct groups, but that it is also possible for an individual to belong to more than one of these collectives. For example, black women fall within two designated groups on the basis of race and gender, and this dual disadvantage creates a multi-layered, unique and complex type of inequality. The main aim of the EEA is to create a representative workforce, and designated employers have a duty to break down the barriers that prevent members of the designated groups from entering the workplace. Once employed, employers need to assist members of the designated groups to progress in the workplace. However, having a representative workforce does not translate into a transformed workforce. It will be argued in this thesis that a transformed workplace is representative, but also requires the breakdown of institutional norms, processes and structures that prevent the progression of members of the designated groups. The question to be asked is whether affirmative action, in its current form, is able to transform the workplace. To answer this question, it is vital that consideration be given, firstly, to the type of substantive equality that is to be achieved in the application of affirmative action. It will be shown that the aim should be a transformative substantive equality of outcome. Focus will be placed on the fact that individuals who fall within the designated groups are not equally placed in terms of their experience of disadvantage. It is submitted that consideration of differing experiences of disadvantage needs to be taken into account so as to avoid the creation of an elite middle class black, and possibly male, group, which benefits from affirmative action to the exclusion of others, thus hampering the achievement of equality in the workplace. This thesis will show that a transformative form of substantive equality of outcome needs to be applied to affirmative action in the workplace. This transformative form of substantive equality includes a situation sensitive approach to the implementation of affirmative action in the workplace. A situation sensitive approach will apply affirmative action strictly on a case by case basis with regard to the demographic profile of the specific workforce, and the employment equity policy of the particular workplace. A one size fits all approach cannot deal with the complexity of disadvantage that needs to be addressed. It will be argued that, besides a situation sensitive approach to race, gender and disability, the issues of social, political, economic and educational disadvantage are factors that should be given consideration in identifying the true beneficiaries of affirmative action. To further illustrate this point, particular attention will be given to women within the designated groups, in order to unpack the nature of disadvantage they experienced in the workplace. Two case studies, focusing on women in male dominated professions, the legal profession and the mining industry, will be used to illustrate this point. This thesis will show that ultimately, the goal of affirmative action must be seen to be to change the workplace by breaking down both the visible and invisible barriers of equality and, in doing so, create an environment where, constitutional values of equality, human dignity and freedom are truly recognized and protected.Item An analysis of the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility in the mining sector: a comparative study of South Africa and Zimbabwe mining companies(2020) Mandevere, MelodyOver the past years, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has received increased attention from the corporate world and international organisations. There has been a call for an Africanised CSR agenda based on the African context since CSR activities being undertaken in developing countries do not address the root cause of poverty and fail to improve relations with local communities. There is concern over the sustainability of the CSR projects undertaken by mining companies in Zimbabwe and the motives behind CSR activities aimed at benefitting the mining companies’ shareholders and less on the community where they operate. CSR projects in Zimbabwe differ to that of South Africa although the companies are subsidiaries. This comparative study between Zimbabwe and South Africa’s mining sectors has been carried out to analyse the effectiveness of Corporate Social Responsibility activities. The study followed the interpretivism philosophy and the qualitative research design with multiple case studies in the two countries. The target population for the research were two companies with branches in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Hence four mines were chosen, two in Zimbabwe and two in South Africa. A total of 22 respondents were purposively selected consisting of community representatives, mining company representatives, non-governmental stakeholders and governmental stakeholders. Data was triangulated by integrating semi-structured interviews and secondary documents. The findings indicated that in South Africa there is more stakeholder inclusion and ownership of the CSR projects as compared to Zimbabwe. This is more attributed to the nature of the South African legislation on CSR that encourages stakeholder inclusion. The stakeholder inclusion and ownership contributes to project sustainability which then leads to effectiveness of CSR. The research also concluded that an Africanised CSR agenda should prioritize legal iii issues over others. This means African countries need to attend to their legislation so that CSR is mandatory with ‘social impact’ as the driving force. The study contributes to the CSR literature specifically as a comparative study between African countries. This is one of the few empirical studies that compare CSR in neighbouring developing countries. Moreover, the study also addresses whether there is a need for a more Africanised CSR to address the social challenges and understand the effectiveness of the Africanised CSR agenda leading to sustainable developmentItem An integrative cognitive-behavioural framework for predicting collective intelligence in small teams(2020) Yu-Jen Chen, JeffersonLeaders’ capability to empower their employees to form small intelligent teams will profoundly impact the competitiveness of their organisations, considering that unrelenting disruption and fierce competition are the norms in today’s business landscape. In part, owing to this reason, the study of collective intelligence (CI) has emerged as a notable interdisciplinary body of knowledge in recent years. Scholars have regarded CI as the socio-psychological concept that accounts for how team members can derive superior ideas leading to higher performance when working together as collectives instead of as individuals. The study of CI in adults is relatively new ground for management science and various research gaps persist. Not only does a well-validated CI predicting framework not exist, many CI studies were not carried out in settings that closely resemble the real-life organisational context. Some researchers even contest the legitimacy and the existence of CI. To study CI in small teams can be challenging. One of the pertinent challenges is that factors attributing towards the development of individual adults’ intelligence are not well-understood. Newly emerged studies have further highlighted the poor correlation between scores generated from widely-adopted intelligent quotients (IQ) tests and adults’ intelligence. Other studies have asserted that one cannot simply assign adults’ IQ as the results of their biological attributes and further advocate that it is more accurate to study what the cognitive-behaviours are that influence the intelligence of adults in the day-to-day context. In a similar trend of logic, CI researchers have greatly accentuated that an integrative cognitive-behavioural framework that can predict the CI of the small teams is well-needed but has not yet been established. Taking these scholarly recommendations as the basis for the research design, this study regards CI as an emergent asset that arises from the cognitive-behaviours between team members during the problem-solving and decision-making processes. This study assessed the causal relations between twenty hypotheses of three cognitive-behavioural clusters, viz. resource acquisition and utilisation (RAU), strategic thinking (ST) and team members exchange (TMX), and the CI of the Action Learning Project (ALP) teams based on the outcomes of ALP competitions. The lack of academic consensus on how these twenty cognitive-behaviours impact the CI of small teams provides added novelty to this research. Considering that ALP teams are subjected to an environment that shares a fair amount of similarities with the real-life corporate scenarios but with less interference by other complex issues, the empirical findings allow researchers to further their scholarly knowledge, practitioners to design better ALP content and leaders to empower their teams. A questionnaire was developed and tested before inviting research participants to rate their own cognitive-behaviours as individuals and concurrently to assess the same cognitive-behaviours of their teams as collectives. Seeing that CI studies commonly rely on participants’ self-reporting data about the perceptions on their own cognitive-behaviours only but hardly having been probed and compared against the outcome of the participants’ perceptions of their teams as collective, contrasting two surveying approaches allow this study to conclude which approach is more appropriate for CI related studies. The responses of 406 delegates from 12 programmes were deemed fit for use, and the datasets were subjected to various statistical calculations. The findings revealed that the two datasets obtained from the two surveying approaches produced two slightly different structural path models after they were subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistic techniques. The hypotheses were reassigned into different factor dimensionalities, and subsequently, the partial least squares structural equation modelling calculations were applied to these two models. The statistical results indicated that the H-null for one of the 20 hypotheses must be rejected. An explanation was offered. Subsequently, the factors accepted were ranked according to the degree of potential impact on the overall CI of the ALP teams. The plausible rationales and the implications of this ranking are discussed. In addition, it was found that the datasets obtained from the “Rate Team” surveying approach produced a slightly better CI predictability than the ones obtained from the “Rate Self” surveying approach. The suitability of the surveying approach for CI related study is then discussed. Despite the differences between these two structural path models being marginal, this study observed a profound contrast of the key insights of each model. For the model generated from “Rate Self” surveying approach, it underscores the importance of the RAU cognitive-behaviours. Whereas the model generated from “Rate Self” surveying approach advocates that small teams must pay equal emphasis to all three types of cognitive-behaviours (RAU, ST and TMX) in order to boost overall CI of the ALP teams. The findings challenge the popular management philosophy of “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. Instead, the outcome of the study draws attention to the equal importance of gathering and utilising resources, thinking strategically and harnessing helpful styles of interaction among team members. The limitations and contributions were discussed. Recommendations for future studies are also proposed based on the findings uncovered.Item An intersectionality of race and ethnicity: the glass ceiling in the banking sector in Kenya and South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021-12) Genga,Cheryl Akinyi MargaretEven though progress has been made in the Kenyan and South African banking sector, Black African women remain a minority in Top Executive leadership positions. Previous research on the “glass ceiling” focuses on Black African women as one homogenous group not acknowledging the diversity dimensions of Black African women from Africa. Invisible factors such as race and ethnicity have been stated to contribute to the glass ceiling in the banking sector, yet this has not been investigated making Black African women more invisible. This research primarily aims to provide an understanding of the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and career advancement of Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. This research further aims: to describe the obstacles that Black African women still face, to analyse the diversity of Black African women in management, to identify the reasons as to why some Black African women have been able to crack the glass ceiling in the Kenyan and South African banking sector and to give recommendations to stakeholders as to how they can help crack the glass ceiling for Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. To address the research objectives, this research applied a qualitative Intercatergorical Intersectionality Approach to provide an understanding of the relationship between race, ethnicity, and gender in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. This was facilitated by the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus groups that were carried out with the participants being Black African women managers in the Kenyan and South African banking sector in Nairobi and Johannesburg, respectively. Data collected from the interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis in which themes and patterns were identified to address the research objectives. Firstly, findings from the research illustrated a relationship between race, ethnicity, and gender. The extent of the relationship between race, ethnicity, and gender was discussed by the role of race, the role of ethnicity, the intersectionality of race and gender, and the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender in the career advancement of Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. Secondly, the findings identified the obstacles that Black African women still face in the banking sector, which were discussed and described into three groups: Black African women are their own worst enemies in the banking sector. Thirdly, the findings illustrated the diversity dimensions of Black African women managers from the Kenyan and South African banking sector in relation to their race, ethnicity, and the positions that they held in the banks they were working for. Fourthly, the findings highlighted reasons as to why some Black African women managers had cracked the glass ceiling (discussed with the use of the glass ceiling scale). Fifthly, the findings recommend that stakeholders have to be fully committed if they want to help Black African women crack the glass ceiling in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. In conclusion, through the findings, this research provides a conceptual framework to understand the glass ceiling in relation to the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender of Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector.Item An analysis of the effectiveness of Corporate Social Responsibility in the mining sector: a comparative study of South Africa and Zimbabwe mining companies(2021) Mandevere, MelodyOver the past years, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has received increased attention from the corporate world and international organisations. There has been a call for an Africanised CSR agenda based on the African context since CSR activities being undertaken in developing countries do not address the root cause of poverty and fail to improve relations with local communities. There is concern over the sustainability of the CSR projects undertaken by mining companies in Zimbabwe and the motives behind CSR activities aimed at benefitting the mining companies’ shareholders and less on the community where they operate. CSR projects in Zimbabwe differ to that of South Africa although the companies are subsidiaries. This comparative study between Zimbabwe and South Africa’s mining sectors has been carried out to analyse the effectiveness of Corporate Social Responsibility activities. The study followed the interpretivism philosophy and the qualitative research design with multiple case studies in the two countries. The target population for the research were two companies with branches in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Hence four mines were chosen, two in Zimbabwe and two in South Africa. A total of 22 respondents were purposively selected consisting of community representatives, mining company representatives, non-governmental stakeholders and governmental stakeholders. Data was triangulated by integrating semi-structured interviews and secondary documents. The findings indicated that in South Africa there is more stakeholder inclusion and ownership of the CSR projects as compared to Zimbabwe. This is more attributed to the nature of the South African legislation on CSR that encourages stakeholder inclusion. The stakeholder inclusion and ownership contributes to project sustainability which then leads to effectiveness of CSR. The research also concluded that an Africanised CSR agenda should prioritize legal issues over others. This means African countries need to attend to their legislation so that CSR is mandatory with ‘social impact’ as the driving force. The study contributes to the CSR literature specifically as a comparative study between African countries. This is one of the few empirical studies that compare CSR in neighbouring developing countries. Moreover, the study also addresses whether there is a need for a more Africanised CSR to address the social challenges and understand the effectiveness of the Africanised CSR agenda leading to sustainable developmentItem Assessing alternative monetary policy frameworks and instruments in selected African economies(2017) Chiumia, Austin BelewaThis thesis contains three core chapters that assess the performance of alternative monetary policy frameworks and instruments in stabilizing 10 selected African economies. Literature and practice show that Advanced Economies (AEs) and Emerging Market Economies (EMEs) are mostly adopting the ination targeting (IT) framework. This framework relies on active use of the interest rate as a policy instrument for macroeconomic stabilisation. Di⁄erent from AEs and EMEs, the majority of African countries are characterized by low nancial market development, frequent supply shocks and volatile terms of trade. These features impede the e¢ ciency of the IT framework and the interest rate instrument. Supply shocks imply that ination is not only demand driven. Volatile terms of trade translate into excessive exchange rate uctuations. Due to these factors, policy practice in Africa remains largely divergent from the global trend. Authorities still rely on monetary aggregate targeting (MAT) with de facto managed exchange rates. However, the MAT framework is also failing to stabilize economies. This follows instability of the key factors, such as the money demand, upon which the framework is anchored. Furthermore, controlling exchange rate movements is a challenge due to weak balance of payments positions. It is not surprising, therefore, that the majority of African economies still remain in the grip of macroeconomic instability. Ination and GDP targets are rarely met and they also remain volatile. The perverse macroeconomic features and the perceived failure of the MAT regime have necessitated the search for alternative monetary frameworks and instruments. In this study, we join the search by specically focussing on three questions. First, given the macroeconomic landscape in Africa, what is the relative performance of the interest rate vis--vis the monetary aggregate as instru ments for macroeconomic stabilization? Secondly, how do these instruments perform when apart from ination and output stabilization, monetary policy also engages in smoothing exchange rate uctuations? Thirdly, what is the relative performance of ination targeting vis--vis nominal GDP targeting as alternative monetary policy regimes for macroeconomic stabilization in African economies? Although the success of monetary policy largely relies on appropriate conguration of monetary policy frameworks and instruments, answers to these questions remain controversial and scanty for African economies. In order to address these questions, we formulate a New Keynesian Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model. In this model, money is non-separable from consumption in the utility function. We estimate the model using the Maximum Likelihood method with quarterly data mostly from 1990 to 2014. The data is obtained from the International Financial Statistics (IFS). The thesis has ve chapters. Chapter 1 is the general background to the research problem. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 are distinct but related core chapters addressing three specic research questions. Chapter 5 is the conclusion. In Chapter 2, we compare the performance of the monetary aggregate and the interest rate as alternative instruments for stabilizing ination and output in 10 selected countries. Results show that the monetary aggregate is superior in stabilizing 5 economies. In the other 5 countries, it is the interest rate instrument which performs better. In the former group of countries, the monetary aggregate plays a relatively large role in macroeconomic dynamics while in the latter the interest rate is more signicant. These results partly reect di⁄erences in nancial market development between the two groups of countries. Overall, we nd a weak role of the interest rate compared to the monetary aggregate in driving aggregate demand dynamics. The exchange rate is also found to be a key driver of macroeconomic dynamics. Our re v sults suggest three things: First, authorities in Africa need to be cautious of a blanket adoption of the interest rate as a sole monetary policy instrument. Second, authorities will nd it di¢ cult to stabilize economies using the interest rate based frameworks. Third, exchange rate stability is key to macroeconomic stability in Africa. In Chapter 3, we extend the authoritiesobjective function. In addition to minimizing ination and output volatility, authorities also use the interest rate or money supply rules to smooth exchange rate uctuations. The results show that macroeconomic performance is enhanced when authorities smooth exchange rate uctuations in 4 of the 10 countries. The gains from exchange rate smoothing mostly arise from a reduction in ination and exchange rate volatility but not fromoutput. In the other 6 countries, exchange rate smoothing worsens macroeconomic performance. These results reect the fact that the exchange rate exerts a relatively large inuence in macroeconomic dynamics in the rst group of countries compared to the latter. Exchange rate smoothing therefore minimizes the pass-through of the exchange uctuations to ination and output leading to better performance. Overall, the ndings suggest that exchange rate smoothing is harmful in Africa. Where exchange rate smoothing delivers gains, appropriate thresholdsofsmoothingneedtobeobservedtoavoidpolicyinducedmacroeconomic instability. Authorities should also smooth temporal rather that structural shifts in the exchange rate level. In Chapter 4, we compare the performance of ination targeting (IT) vis-vis nominal GDP targeting (NGDPT) as alternative monetary policy frameworks for macroeconomic stabilization. We examine the strict and exible versions of these policy regimes. We also include a hybrid regime which combines elements of IT and NGDPT. Results show that the hybrid regime performs better in 5 countries. In the other 4 countries, it is the strict ination targeting that performs better. In 1 country, exible ination tar vi geting is optimal. The results also reveal that demand shocks dominate but are closely trailed by supply and exchange rate shocks in explaining macroeconomic uctuations. The multiplicity of signicant shocks is key in explaining the dominance of the hybrid regime. The hybrid regime successfully handles shocks that can neither be optimally handled by the IT regime nor the NGDPT regime alone. These results have several implications. First, demand management alone is insu¢ cient to stabilize African economies. Second, identifying dominant shocks is critical for choosing robust monetary policy regimes. Third, the multiplicity of signicant shocks implies that choosing monetary policy frameworks and hence macroeconomic management process is more complex for African policy makers. Overall, the results have several policy implications which are outlined in Chapter 5. First, they suggest a cautious approach towards generalized adoption of the interest rate over the monetary aggregate as a monetary policy instrument in African economies. This contradicts the current wave of monetary policy changes sweeping across African countries. Secondly, the signicanceoftheexchangeraterenderscredencetoexchangeratesmoothing in Africa. The ndings, however, suggest that exchange rate smoothing can either enhance or worsen macroeconomic performance. Where it enhances macroeconomic performance, authorities must carefully consider the thresholds of smoothing to avoid creating macroeconomic instability. Authorities need not ght structural shifts in exchange rates levels through smoothing. This would help to preserve the shock absorbing role of the exchange rate. Finally, the prevalence of demand, supply as well as exchange rate shocks makes the hybrid monetary policy regime which combines elements of IT regime as well as NGDPT regime to perform relatively better in stabilizing the majority of the economies. Given the multiplicity of shocks, authorities inAfricaneedtocomplementdemandmanagementwithpoliciesthataddress supply side and exchange rate bottlenecks to ensure sustainable macroeco vii nomic stability. Overall, the ndings suggest that there is scope to improve monetary policy performance in Africa by adopting suitable frameworks and instruments. The results also highlight the problem of tackling monetary policy issues with a "one size ts all" approach.Item At the crossroads of international human rights law and international investment law: reflection on the right to development in the exercise of expropriation(2021) Kim, Young JaeGiven the current legitimacy crisis of international law, particularly the international law of investment owing to fragmentation and the negative impact of unfettered economic development on the environment and human rights, competing claims between North and South, sovereign states and multinational corporations, and sovereign states and their nationals over development and its benefits must be effectively and legitimately reconciled before any strategy to promote development can be implemented. In this respect, the human right to sustainable development, which this thesis introduced, provides a framework in which the potential competing claims of economic value and human rights value can be reconciled. This thesis considers the interplay of international development law, international human rights law and international investment law, by reference to the evolution of a right to sustainable development. In particular, it focuses on how the international investment law regime has evolved to incorporate human rights and sustainable development, by examining expropriation as a case study. The thesis traces the concept of development as it underlines international development law, and shows how it has moved from ‘orthodox economic development’ to ‘modern human development’ by means of the evolution of the human right to sustainable development. It proceeds to contemplate the content of this human right to sustainable development, with a view to demonstrating its relevance to international investment law. Thereafter, it shows how international investment law has evolved over time, from being narrowly focused on upholding foreign investors’ interests and rights, to taking into account international human rights and the human right to sustainable development. As a concrete example of this shift in international investment law, the thesis then conducts a case study of expropriation, which illustrates the increased interaction between the three clusters of international law. In particular, the protection of foreign investors’ rights and host states’ rights to regulate foreign investment for the purpose of ensuring international human rights and sustainable development are explored through leading cases in international investment tribunals. In conclusion, it is argued that the legitimacy of the international investment law regime can be enhanced through continuing efforts of the international community to harmonise the three clusters of international law within the human right to sustainable development .Item Balancing legality and certainty: the Oudekraal principles and their development(2020) Mahlangu, SiyabongaThis thesis is a study of the Oudekraal principles and their development. In Oudekraal Estates (Pty) Ltd v City of Cape Town 2004 (6) SA 222 (SCA), the Supreme Court of Appeal fundamentally transformed the approach of South African law to the anomaly that an unlawful administrative act may have legal consequences. The court rejected past explanations for this phenomenon, such as the presumption of validity, the distinction between voidness and voidability, the theory of legal relativity and, where the courts have declined to set aside unlawful acts on grounds such as delay, judicial pragmatism. Instead, the court developed a principled approach by which it sought to strike a careful balance between the competing rule-of-law values of legality and certainty. Four principles emanating from this seminal judgment are identified in the thesis. These are that an unlawful act may have legal effect for so long as it has not been set aside; that the legal effect depends on whether the validity of an originating act is a precondition for the validity of the subsequent act; that an unlawful act which compels a person to do or not to do something must be valid, and a person affected by it is entitled to challenge its invalidity collaterally; and that the court reviewing an unlawful act has discretion to refuse the remedy of setting aside even if a ground of review has been established. The thesis investigates how the courts since Oudekraal have interpreted, applied and developed these four principles. It concludes that there is an interplay between the various principles. In this interplay the Constitutional Court has recently tended to emphasise the value of legality over that of certainty, resulting in a lack of clarity as to what it means for an unlawful act to have legal effect prior to its being set asideItem Capacity development of service delivery structures and programmes in Bojanala Platinum District Municipality(2021) Mphahlele, MatukuBojanala Platinum District Municipality (BPDM), in the North West Province is a centre of the extractive economy in South Africa. The BPDM experiences challenges in relation to delivering quality public services. In this context, this thesis examines capacity development of service delivery structures and programmes of the local municipalities, in the BPDM, that is, Kgetlengrivier, Rustenburg, Madibeng, Moses Kotane and Moretele. In addition, the study explores the ways in which they can be overcome for enhanced service delivery. The BPDM is embedded in an extractive economy and experiences challenges of the largely heterogeneous and mobile population that results in high influx of labour migrants, socio-economic inequality, and unemployment that impact heavily on the municipal capacity to deliver services (Van Wyk, 2012; Alexander, Sinwell, Lekgowa, Mmope & Xezwi, 2012). Accordingly, the Mineral Petroleum Resource Development Act 28 of 2002 (MPRDA) unpacks legislative prescripts on what structures mining companies have to establish, how to monitor and report on collaborative Social and Labour Plans (SLPs) in conjunction with municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) for enhancement of service delivery. Thus, the study also examines the nature of structures and programmes, facilitators and inhibitors of skills development initiatives and how mining companies as local partners facilitate or impede improvement in delivering municipal services to the community. Within the context of local government capacity development, this study develops a theoretical framing incorporating scholarship on human capital, performance improvement and collaborative participatory governance perspectives. This framing is premised on the scholarly evidence that capacity development is an enabler of service delivery, influenced by skills development, municipal performance improvement and collaborative participation. ii )To generate perspectives in relation to capacity development of service delivery structures and programmes, a qualitative case study approach, using interviews is adopted. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with senior managers in the municipalities and the respective, locally based mining company. In addition to semi-structured interviews, documentary analysis and the descriptive statistics were employed. The study’s research questions examine the structures and programmes for enhancing capacity development in relation to service delivery. In addition, the study hones in on how local partners facilitate or hinder improvement in providing municipal services and how local municipalities better utilise their capacity development resources, including partnership with mining companies in relation to service delivery. This case study reveals that there are difficulties with respect to capacity development associated with skills retention, organisational relations and socio-political capacity building. The study concludes that political abandonment, poor communication and stakeholder engagements aggravate weakened inter-municipal co-operation and inadequate utilisation of resources. These challenges undermine cost-effective, efficient and effective implementation of capacity development of service delivery structures and programmes, underpinned by skills development and organisational learning. This study, suggests that socio-political resilience and administrative synergy are key enablers in the enhancement of service delivery. The thesis contributes to the body knowledge about the distinctive nature of the interface between learning and skills development, underscoring key enablers of improved capacity development of service delivery structures and programmes.Item Central bank communication: a survey and content analysis of the South African Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee statements(2022) Segawa, ArnoldThe South African Reserve Bank (SARB), South Africa’s central bank, adopted inflation targeting in 2000. In 2000, the SARB adopted flexible inflation targeting as a monetary regime and in doing so, set its inflation target at 3%–6% for the CPIX (Coco and Viegi, 2020). However, for inflation targeting to prove effective, it remains vital that the monetary institution in question contains the expectations of the private sector primarily in line with the expectations channel of the transmission (Svensson, 1999). To this end, the role of effective communication has in the past two decades proved vital in monetary policy. This PhD dissertation seeks to evaluate the SARB’s communication strategy, with particular emphasis on its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) statements, and thereafter appraise its interaction with the media and other market agents. This evaluation takes the shape of three studies, with particular focus firstly on SARB’s MPC statements over the past twenty-one years. This study assesses whether there has been more clarity in SARB’s communication over the past twenty-one years by relying on the Flesch and Flesch-Kincaid methods, which are widely accepted in central bank communication literature. In evaluating SARB’s communications and upon surveying the data, this section offers empirical evidence about SARB’s MPC meeting statements spanning more than two decades, clearly exhibiting its evolution. The second facet of the study examines whether the SARB’s MPC communications between 2010 and 2021 triggered causality in the subsequent news reports from the Mail & Guardian newspaper in South Africa. The study examines whether SARB’s post-MPC statements’ readability was reciprocated in the subsequent Mail & Guardian newspaper articles. Relying on the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score and Flesch Reading Ease Score methodology to survey both SARB’s MPC statements and the corresponding Mail & Guardian newspaper articles, a computation is created that is subsequently used to examine Granger causality.Item Combating economic inequality: the strategic role of the fund management industry in promoting inclusive development in Nigeria(2020) Yetunde, Omotuyi Opeyemi; Omotuyi, Opeyemi YetundeThere is growing inequality in many countries around the world, and particularly in Nigeria. Recognising this global challenge, the United Nations agreed to seventeen sustainable development goals in 2015. As part of a global agenda to tackle inequality and promote inclusive development, the United Nations agreed to a specific goal to reduce inequalities among and within countries. To enable effective implementation, the United Nations calls for a global partnership, involving the public and private sector, in the achievement of the goals. This thesis highlights the state of economic inequality in Nigeria. In so doing, the thesis finds that the high rate of inequality in Nigeria is mostly as a result of poor social spending on the part of government, as well as adverse corporate impacts, resulting in poor social opportunities and outcomes for citizens. Furthermore, the thesis analysed Nigeria’s legal and regulatory provisions on issues of inequality, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the laws. The thesis finds that these laws are grossly inadequate to address the inequality challenges in Nigeria, and a complementary approach to address these challenges is needed. Since the thesis finds a significant increase in the growth of investment funds in Nigeria over the last decade, the thesis proposes the Nigerian Fund Management Industry as an avenue for improving the state of economic inequality in Nigeria, through the implementation of the principles for responsible investmentItem Cryptocurrencies and African financial markets: integration, risk analysis, and diversification(2021) Kumah, Seyram PearlThe international financial system has witnessed cryptocurrencies as new financial instruments with increased growth in both volume and value and unique risk (return) benefits. The cryptocurrency market is integrating with financial markets which may induce increased investor participation with the chance of excessive liquidity in the cryptocurrency market. This can impair financial stability should there be shocks to the cryptocurrency markets. However, there is as yet little established scientific knowledge about the impact of cryptocurrencies on financial markets with African financial markets completely untouched. Such knowledge is critical since shocks to cryptocurrency markets may have rippling effects on the financial markets. The thesis contributes to fill this gap by investigating the nexus between cryptocurrencies and traditional asset classes in the African financial markets. This may help in understanding the microstructure of financial markets in general and the functioning of African markets in particular for regulating the general financial system. The thesis is organized into four empirical essays, each focusing on a research problem. The first essay examines the level of integration between cryptocurrencies and African stock markets using wavelet-based methods. Findings suggest low degrees of integration between the markets at higher frequencies, but this grows stronger at medium frequencies and perfectly integrates at lower frequencies. Implying that stock markets in Africa are highly exposed to cryptocurrency market disruptions from the medium-term and international investors seeking to hedge their price risk in African stock markets using cryptocurrencies may have to look at the short-term. The phase difference arrow vectors and cross-correlation analysis implying lead (lag) effects are time-varying and heterogeneous, showing no particular cryptocurrency or stock market as leader or follower. Different markets have the potential to lead or lag other markets at varying scales which may induce arbitrage opportunities for international and local investors. The second essay tests the ability of cryptocurrencies as viable alternatives to African fiat currencies during turbulent and tranquil currency conditions implementing the ensemble empirical mode decomposition-based quantile-in-quantile regression. The essay establishes that cryptocurrencies behave differently from African fiat currencies, showing significant negative relationship during extreme fiat currency regimes at medium and lower frequencies. This suggests cryptocurrencies as viable alternative digital currencies and good hedges for African fiat currencies form the medium-term. This essay affords policymakers in Africa and across the globe seeking for viable alternative digital currencies to mitigate currency crises to consider cryptocurrencies from the medium-term. Forex traders may also compensate for losses from currency shocks by using cryptocurrencies to hedge USD/African fiat currency exchange rate risk. In the third essay, we perform cryptocurrency market risk analysis focusing on tail risk and frequency spillover connectedness. The FZL function for joint Value-at-Risk and Expected Shortfall was used to measure tail risk, compare the level of risk, and capital adequacy of cryptocurrencies. Findings suggest Ethereum and Steller as less risky, followed by Monero, Das, Litecoin, Bitcoin, and Ripple, implying that Ethereum and Steller require the least capital to absorb losses. Investigating the time-varying interconnectedness across cryptocurrencies, the study posits that cryptocurrencies are strongely interconnected at high frequencies suggesting contagion risk in the cryptocurrency market and that diversification opportunity is low in the short-term. The essay also evidences time-varying volatility shock transmissions across cryptocurrencies. Economic actors interested in cryptocurrencies can follow this easy to hedge, calculate margins, and capital required to ensure financial stability in the global economy. The fourth essay sheds light on the hedging properties of seven cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Das, Ripple, Monero, and Steller) for gold and crude oil price fluctuations at bear (bull) markets across time employing wavelet-based quantile-in-quantile regression. The essay finds that cryptocurrencies provide negative dependences for extreme gold and crude oil price fluctuations from the medium-term, and that all cryptocurrencies are hedges for gold price fluctuations but only four cryptocurrencies (Ethereum, Monero, Ripple, and Steller) are hedges for crude oil price volatilities. The essay also evidences bidirectional causal effects among the assets establishing that when the cryptocurrency market is bearish and the price of gold and crude oil is low, economic actors can hedge the downside risk of the commodities or cryptocurrencies across time using either of the assets. The essay provides precise information to economic agents on risk mitigating strategies for gold and crude oil marketsItem Culture, contraceptive attitudes and advertising perceptions: the case of rural Zimbabwe(2021) Jaravaza, Divaries CosmasThis study examined information processing and behavioural responses to reproductive health advertising in subsistence marketplaces, providing an opportunity to advance marketing science through deepening our understanding of rural consumers‘ patterns of advertising responses (cognitive and affective) and how they relate to values, social axioms, contraceptive attitudes and socio-demographic factors. Birth control and safe sexual practices are important concerns, but, are least understood in the institutional context of subsistence marketplaces (Burgess & Steenkamp, 2006). Study 1 was on relations between culture and contraceptive attitudes and study 2 was on latent classes of advertisements responses to advertisement stimuli designed for subsistence markets. Study 1 and 2 had 395 and 225 respondents respectively. Measurement scales for study 1 were: the Portrait Values Questionnaire, the Social Axioms Scale, and the Contraceptive Attitude Scale. Study 2 used the same scales which were used in study 1 plus Mitchell and Olson‘s (2000) Attitudes Towards the Ad Scale items to evaluate four poster advertisements designed through qualitative research in rural Zimbabwe. Structural equation modeling was done using the rigorous two step approach of Anderson and Gerbing (1988), of which study 1 established that resultant self-conservation and religiosity had positive relations to contraceptive attitudes, whilst, fate control had negative relations to contraceptive attitudes. In study 2, the best fitting model, using latent class analysis, identified three segments of subsistence women‘s cognitive and affective perceptions of poster ads. Rural women‘s public health poster ads responses have not been previously studied. The four poster ads and the cues designed specifically for the unique context of subsistence markets rural consumers are a contribution to advertising research and practice. Also this study is the first to combine contraceptive attitudes, culture and advertising perceptions. Important lessons on ads design, measurement properties of scales and constructs relations are outlinedItem Customer and employee-based brand equity driving United Bank for Africa's market performance(2017) Uford, Imoh CharlesWith increased competition in the banking industry, particularly in developing economies, United Bank of Africa Plc (UBA) in Nigeria has been thriving. The bank is a multinational financial services provider, which operates in 22 African countries. It also has offices in the US, UK and France. UBA has about 626 global branches and serves more than seven million retail, commercial and corporate global customers. Positioned as a pan-African bank, the UBA Group is firmly in the forefront of driving the renaissance of the African economy. It is also well positioned as a one-stop financial services institution, with growing reputation as the face of banking on the African continent. UBA Plc has grown over the years from being just a brand name to a house hold name in Nigeria. In 2011, it was reported that UBA’s total assets was worth about $12.3 billion. The bank is also gearing to be one of the dominant and leading banking brands in Africa. While the measurement of UBA’s asset worth is important as it reveals information of its financial performance, it can be more important to measure the worth of its intangible assets, which is being captured from the assessment of its brand equity. Brand equity does not only comprise of an organization’s intangible assets, but does reflect the values consumers hold of a brand and can also secure long-term commercial and competitive advantages for companies. With the notion that the value or power of a brand lies in what customers perceive in their minds concerning the brand, most studies have measured brand equity mainly from the customer-based brand equity (CBBE) perspective using Aaker’s (1996a) and Keller’s (1998) models. Aaker’s (1996a) model is however considered to be the most comprehensive CBBE model and it measures brand equity from five dimensions – brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, brand loyalty and proprietary assets. While CBBE can secure long-term market performance, it is being recommended that the contribution of employee-based brand equity (EBBE) should also be measured. This is particularly important in the service sector, such as banking, where “what is delivered is less important than how it is delivered”. More so, with the increasing importance of internal branding, there is a need to measure EBBE, which assesses how knowledgeable, happy and committed employees are willing to deliver on the brand promises to build brand equity. In addition to the importance of measuring both CBBE and EBBE, there is also the need to further compare the extent to which both CBBE and EBBE predict market performance, an outcome anticipated, but rarely empirically tested. This study therefore employs Aaker’s (1996) CBBE model and Kwon’s (2013) EBBE model to examine the sources of UBA’s CBBE and EBBE respectively and the extent to which each of the equities drive market performance indicators, such as consumer purchase intention, willingness to pay a price premium and brand preference. A positivist research paradigm with a quantitative survey of 182 UBA employees and 178 UBA customers were used to test the hypotheses. The relationships hypothesized in the conceptual model were empirically tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicated that the conceptual model satisfactorily fitted the data and provided reasonable explanations among variables. In terms of the relationships, it was found that UBA’s CBBE was accounted for by brand associations or image and brand loyalty. UBA’s overall CBBE positively and significantly affected all the market performance indicators of purchase intention, willingness to pay a price premium and brand preference. UBA’s EBBE which was found to be positively and significantly driven by role clarity and brand commitment could only positively and significantly predict the bank customers’ willingness to pay a price premium. Conclusively, it was found that while UBA’s EBBE make some contribution to the bank’s market performance, its CBBE is the major driver of its performance. This study theoretically contributes by not only empirically testing Aaker’s (1996b) CBBE and Kwon’s (2013) EBBE in the Nigeria’s banking sector, but by also showing how both models explain market performance. Practically, the study reveals sources of CBBE and EBBE, which not only UBA should prioritize in improving their market performance, but other service sectors in Nigeria and the continent should take special note of. Keywords: Brand equity, customer-based brand equity (CBBE), employee-based brand equity (EBBE), United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, structural equation modelling (SEM), United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, willingness to pay a price premium and brand preferenceItem Determinants of successful coopetition between SMEs in SADC countries – implications for strategy and firm performance(2021) Feela, TshepoThe purpose of the study was to investigate the existence of coopetition (the simultaneous competition and collaboration between two or more firms) amongst the SMEs in the SADC as well as to ascertain whether these relationships have a positive effect on firm performance. Firm performance is divided into financial performance, strategic performance, and innovation performance. Furthermore, an additional aim is to investigate which variable(s) (foresight, risk aversion and exploiting opportunities) moderate the relationship between coopetition and firm performance. The results show that there is strong coopetition amongst SMEs in SADC and that coopetition has a positive and significant effect on firm performance. However, although no variable moderates this relationship, risk aversion has a positive and significant direct effect on firm performanceItem Developing and testing a framework for digital channel adoption in emerging markets(2021) Patel, Muhommed RiyaazThe adoption rate of mobile applications in South Africa and India, both emerging markets, is lower than in developed markets. Emerging economies are unable to use developed market solutions and realise operational efficiencies in business, which can impact customer experience and satisfaction. The effect of digitalisation through mobile commerce in South Africa and India is gaining momentum; from banking to e-commerce, the acceleration of digitalisation is evident across emerging markets. New technologies and platforms are reshaping traditional business models and mobile application adoption is key to digital transformation and commercialisation. However, the context-specific aspects that drive digital adoption in emerging economies may still benefit from further research. This study aims to enhance the literature in this field by examining mobile application adoption in South Africa and India. It develops a model that incorporates the Technology Acceptance Model, Domestication Theory, and Bottom-of-the-Pyramid emerging market characteristics through qualitative analysis. In doing so, the study investigates how digitalisation trends interface with traditional technology adoption models, emerging market characteristics, and domestication characteristics (such as lifestyle integration and community influence). Therefore, by applying a sequential mixed-methods approach, the study seeks to determine the factors that influence mobile application adoption in emerging markets, and to investigate the influence of ecosystems and bottom-of-the-pyramid characteristics on the adoption and usage of technology. The qualitative study provides insight into factors that influence mobile application adoption in India and South Africa from a theoretical framework that was developed from a qualitative analysis and tested empirically. The analysis of 31 semi-structured interviews, 15 from South Africa and 16 from India, is conducted using Computer Assisted Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) NVivo 12. Subsequently, the data is coded and the themes validated. The quantitative study comprises 2 061 survey questionnaire responses: 1 009 from South Africa and 1 052 from India. These are analysed using SmartPLS path modelling, whereby two structural equation models are developed. The findings suggest that perceived ease of use, perceived risk, perceived value, privacy, user environment, lifestyle integration, customer feedback, awareness and access are all associated with digital adoption. Mediation analysis is also investigated. It shows that awareness and xxi customer feedback mediate the relationship between perceived risk and perceived ease of use. Tests for moderation indicate that access and affordability moderate the relationship between constructs (awareness, customer feedback, and lifestyle integration) as it pertains to intention to use. The developed theoretical framework provides a description of the drivers of digital adoption in emerging markets, specifically in South Africa and India. The findings suggest that participants in India are more knowledgeable than those in South Africa regarding the benefits and use of mobile apps. The study contributes to existing literature and discusses implications for researchers and practitioners.Item Duties of private persons and the right to equality in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Finn, Meghan; Albertyn, CatherineTo what extent does the right to equality (and specifically, the right not to be discriminated against unfairly) give rise to duties that are borne by private persons in South African law? This question is morally, legally and politically freighted in South Africa, marked as the country is by gaping inequality and the legacies of centuries of colonial, apartheid and patriarchal oppression that was sustained by not only the government, but also in private spheres. The overall project of this thesis is to map out and normatively justify South Africa’s approach to private anti-discrimination duties in the Constitution, legislation and emerging doctrine. Most surveyed jurisdictions use a test of publicness as a threshold determination of whether an entity is an anti-discrimination duty-bearer. Conversely, in South Africa, the possible class of duty-bearers is much wider – in principle, all persons as well as the state are duty-bearers. I argue that South Africa’s approach is substantiated by a legal endorsement of substantive equality which requires a historically and contextually sensitive analysis of systemic inequalities that cut across public and private spheres. However, although the class of anti-discrimination duty-bearers is broad, this does not mean that private duties exactly mirror the duties of the state. Instead, the scope for private discrimination to be justified – i.e. found to be fair – is generally broader than when the state is the discriminator. Courts are charged with determining the balance to be struck when private actors’ rights compete. I argue that this balance must be struck within PEPUDA’s section 14 fairness enquiry, which to date has been chronically neglected by litigants and courtsItem The effects of individual and organizational factors on ethical behavior in the South African construction industry(2019) Makonye, ChidoEmployees often face many difficult situations that demand ethical decision making from the viewpoint of society and organizations. Various factors influence the outcome of ethical or unethical decision-making and behaviour of employees. This paper briefly examined some of the major factors that may affect ethical behaviour in construction companies. The strength of these factors may vary from individuals to individuals, organizations to organizations, and situation to situation. The factors that were investigated are personal values, corporate ethical values and the organisational climate. Age and gender were used as moderators in this study. South Africa is a developing country in which many private and public organizations are being faced with a lot of fraud and corruption. It is not only in private organization but also the government. This call for an investigation on ethical behaviour but to solve a problem one must find the source of the problem. The study was designed to answer the major question: Are there any significance relationships between personal values, corporate values and organisational climate and ethical behaviour in the South African construction industry? The researcher employed a quantitative research method. Data collection was done by use of questionnaires distributed to various construction companies. A computer programmer called SPSS version 25 and Microsoft excel were used to analyse data. Descriptive statistics was used to interpret data collected from the first section of the questionnaire that is the biographic information. Linear regression and correlations were used to test the proposed hypothesis. Multiple regression was used to test the moderation effect of age and gender. The findings largely confirm previous studies that personal values and corporate values influence ethical behaviour. However contrary to some previous studies, there was no significant relationship between ethical behaviour and organisational climate. Conclusions, findings and recommendations were drawn from the results.Item Enhancing access to justice in Kenya through clinical legal education(2021) Kotonya, Anne; Du Plessis, RietteThis thesis examines the endeavours of university law clinics towards enhancing access to justice in Kenya. It isolates the social justice function of clinics in countries with a pressing access to justice need as that of serving the indigent and orienting lawyers towards social justice in society. In exploring the interface between access to justice and legal education, it analyses the legal frameworks, distribution, structures, settings and projects of university law clinics in Kenya in relation to literature on clinical legal education (CLE). The thesis centres on the social justice mission of CLE as a way of aligning legal education with the country’s transformative constitutional framework. In this way, it capitalises on the clinics to foster transformative legal education. The thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge when it addresses the research gap on clinical legal education in Kenya and presents empirical data on the current forms of clinical programs in law schools in the country. It incorporates the voices of clinicians and student leaders and presents the challenges they encounter in their attempt to use clinics to enhance access to justice for indigent persons. The emphasis on social justice as well as the comparison with South Africa’s original clinics differentiates this thesis from the growing body of literature that centres on the pedagogical aspects of CLE. The thesis applies grounded theory, a vigorous qualitative research method to guide the collection and analysis of data. The theoretical explanation of the factors that enhance and those that resist the role of clinics in enhancing access to justice is grounded in data which was collected from purposively selected law schools. The data, obtained inductively from the interviews and focus group discussions, is also used to develop a theoretical explanation of the use of university law clinics to enhance access to justice in a transformative constitutional context. The thesis establishes a nexus between legal education and transformative constitutionalism as well as between CLE and transformative legal education. It begins by demonstrating the absence of a suitable framework for investigating the factors that resist or enhance clinics’ contribution to access to justice in a transformative constitutional setting. The thesis then locates clinics in Kenya in the context of the development of the legal profession, legal education and the constitutional history of the country. It develops a legal and institutional framework made up of a transformative constitution and legislation governing legal education, the legal profession and national legal aid schemes. Chapter three proceeds to apply this framework to Kenya and finds a legal framework based on strong constitutional foundations that in certain instances is also fragmented, inconsistent and marred by gaps. The exploration of the CLE experiences in the country is presented in chapter four. These find the curriculum, law students, academic staff and the place of clinic in the university as central to determining the form and structure of CLE in the respective institutions. The forms of clinics are reflective of the broad definitions of CLE that include Street Law and skills courses. They provide evidence of clinics that are skewed towards the social justice mission of CLE. The data also yields aspects of clinics that influence their role in access to justice. The thesis finds that clinical practice in Kenyan universities takes the form of both curriculum-based and extracurricular clinics, with the latter bearing a strong social justice orientation and the former a pedagogical one. The focus of CLE is inclined towards social justice, while its pedagogical mission remains underutilised. The thesis analyses factors that undermine the promotion of access to justice through CLE in Kenya. Identifying shortfalls in clinical practice in the country, it deduces that the clinical practices are indeed CLE but at its nascent stages. The findings are in harmony with literature that considers the twin missions of CLE as inseparable orientations that are not mutually exclusive. They show the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and legal aid legislation as providing further impetus for CLE beyond their original goals at inception. However, this impetus is not reciprocated by the policy and legal framework for legal education. In considering the dysfunction of the legal profession as the dominant institution in providing access to justice, the thesis deliberates on university law clinics as an institutional bypass for the provision of access to justice for the indigent in the country. It proposes university law clinics as the theory of change for the legal profession. The thesis makes suggestions for future research on the understanding that further steps need to be taken in Kenya to optimise both social justice and pedagogy that are the twin missions of clinical practiceItem Enterprise risk management, corporate governance, performance and risk-taking behaviour of the insurance industry: empirical evidence from Ghana and South Africa(2022) Horvey, Sylvester SenyoThe growing complexities in the business environment have led to the adoption of enterprise risk management (ERM). ERM is a new approach to managing organisational risks holistically to achieve its goals. Regardless of the diversities in the business environment, ERM has become an essential factor for businesses and is believed to enhance shareholder value. Despite the growing number of studies on ERM, literature suffers some limitations regarding its proxies and inconclusive results between ERM and performance. This study adopts a more comprehensive measurement of ERM, which captures various characteristics (such asrisk governance, operational mechanisms, and quality of risk oversight) within the risk ecosystem. The study uses a panel regression technique on a sample of 33 and 63 insurers from Ghana and South Africa, respectively, covering 2015-2019. This thesis is centred on four thematic papers. Each focuses on a specific subject (s) at the heart of the problems or research questions being investigated. The first paper provides a comprehensive and systematic literature review on the measurement and performance of ERM. Google Scholar was the primary search tool for ERM literature spanning 2001 to 2020, and papers listed in SCImago journal ranking were discussed. The study finds that most studies rely on secondary sources, particularly the Chief Risk Officer’s appointment, as a simple ERM proxy. This is widely adopted in the literature due to the difficulty in assessing ERM information. The study recommends that empirical measurement of ERM rely on both primary and secondary data as they complement each other and allow more insight and factors to be considered for a robust ERM measurement. In terms of performance, the ERM literature reveals mixed findings, but enough evidence supports the assertion that ERM enhances firm profitability and value. The study suggests that scholars consider examining the ERM-performance relationship in emerging economies as most of these studies centred on the US and European economies. The second paper analyses the determinants of ERM adoption in Ghana and South Africa using a panel logistic regression technique. Building on the contingency theory, the study posits that several factors contribute to ERM adoption. The study finds that firm size, ownership, leverage, industrial diversification and the type of audit firm are positively associated with ERM adoption in both countries. Findings from the quantile regression also highlight that the initial levels of size, profitability and leverage reduce ERM adoption, and an extreme increase in these factors promotes iii ERM adoption, which implies a nonlinear direct U-shape relationship. On the contrary, the study sees an inverted U-shape for return on assets and leverage for Ghana. Industrial diversification, Big4 audit companies and ownership show consistent patterns of a significant positive effect on ERM adoption at different quantiles for both samples. The findings support the fact that insurers could improve their risk management system by considering the factors that significantly affect them. The third paper first examines the impact of ERM on insurance performance (underwriting performance and Return on Assets) and second investigates how corporate governance (CG) characteristics such as the board size, board independence, and gender diversity interact with ERM in affecting insurance performance. The major findings are summarised as follows: (1) a positive relationship exists between ERM and insurance performance for both countries; and (2) board size, board independence and gender diversity interact with ERM in affecting underwriting performance and return on assets. This was mostly positive and significant in both samples. The study suggests that insurers interested in ensuring an effective ERM system should leverage these corporate governance factors to appreciate the overall impact of ERM on performance. In the final paper, the study examines the linear and non-linear effects of ERM and CG on risktaking behaviour. The result from the linear regression elicits a significant positive relationship between ERM and risk-taking for both countries, implying that insurers with a strong ERM system are more likely to pursue higher risks. The empirical evidence also suggests that board size and board independence have a significant positive impact on risk-taking for both samples. In contrast, gender diversity shows an inverse relationship with risk-taking. Using the dynamic panel regression by Seo et al. (2019), the study confirms non-linearities between ERM, CG and risktaking. Evidence from the South African sample indicates that ERM significantly increases insurers’ risk-taking beyond the threshold level. Again, the South African sample shows significant threshold levels for board size, gender diversity and board independence at 10.03, 0.274 and 0.547, respectively. The Ghanaian sample also documents significant threshold levels at 7, 0.286, and 0.692. The study recommends that insurers consider the significant threshold levels to determine the optimum level of risk that must be pursued.