Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters/MBA)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37942
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Item The impact of artificial intelligence capabilities on organisational performance: an empirical study in the South African retail context(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Cronjé, Dylan ChristoDeveloping the ability to undergo digital transformation with Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly crucial for retail organisations, given the rising occurrence of AI-driven activities within their organisations. This underscores the need to understand how retail organisations should structure themselves to leverage AI effectively and in what ways value can be attained. Within this context, this thesis investigates how AI capabilities can enhance organisational performance by prompting changes in critical organisational activities. Through a survey-based research approach, data was gathered from individuals within retail organisations in South Africa to explore the indirect impact of AI capabilities on organisational performance. A total of 145 participants from South Africa's retail sector were surveyed, and their responses were analysed using structural equation modelling with AMOS/ SPSS. The results indicate that AI capabilities positively influence process automation, cognitive insight generation, cognitive engagement, and innovativeness. While both process automation and innovativeness positively correlate with organisational performance, it was observed that cognitive insights and cognitive engagement do not significantly affect organisational performance. These findings explain the essential resources comprising an AI capability and highlight the consequences of nurturing such capabilities on critical organisational activities, thereby influencing organisational performanceItem Addressing The 4IR Skills Gap for South Africa’s Economy(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Bodibe, Lerato; Venter, RobertThe widespread enthusiasm and hysteria for Artificial Intelligence (AI) todays not only encourages but forces us to approach the future with a combination of childlike aw and mature concerns. A new and evolving set of skills is vita and needed, because automation and robotisation powered by AI is simultaneously creating and eroding jobs. The so-called digitally enabled jobs, AI-driven jobs, indisputably needs a skilled cadre of graduates. This is especially true for the ICT sector in South Africa, which is plagued by a serious skills shortage. The research conducted for this MBA social entrepreneurship project led to the aim of establishing an eSkills institute, specifically targeting the youth in Orange Farm. This community was chosen for its demographic and social condition where it faces high levels of youth unemployment, drug abuse, and lack of access to educational facilities by the youth. The proposed business model offers a promising approach for the eSkills Institute to achieve both its social and financial goals, bringing meaningful change to disadvantaged communities through digital skills training. This would enable the eSkills institute to achieve long-term viability and make a positive impact with its underlying primary objective of providing digital skills training to disadvantaged communities, thereby bridging the digital divide and increasing their access to economic opportunities. Basing our analysis on market research and stakeholder engagement has helped identify key areas of opportunity to generate revenue and create social value. These opportunities include offering paid digital skills training programs to corporate clients, partnering with government agencies to provide subsidised training to low-income individuals, and establishing a social enterprise arm that offers software development and design services to small businesses and their ecosystems