Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters/MBA)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37942
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Item Evaluating the adoption of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) related technologies by the Department of Home Affairs(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Molobi, Sekie Michael; Moodley, KebashneeThe aim of this study was to provide insights into the factors influencing the adoption of 4IR technology by the Department of Home Affairs, including the perceived impact of these technologies on general operations and client service delivery. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is a period characterised by rapid technological change and digital transformations, transforming how we live, work, and interact with the world around us. 4IR presents opportunities and challenges for the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) as it attempts to meet its mandate in an ever-changing environment. To remain effective in the face of the 4IR, the DHA must adopt new technologies that can help it improve efficiency and provide better service to its customers and key stakeholders. The study is based on the Technology Organisation Environment theoretical framework. A qualitative research methodology was adopted with the use of in-depth semi-structured interviews targeted at the Department of Home Affairs senior management personnel responsible for ICT, front end application and internal business owners. The outcomes of the study indicate that despite continued support from DHA leadership in terms of the use of new technologies and increased investment in these technologies, the Department of Home Affairs has lagged in terms of technological advancement. This is attributed to employee attitude towards new technology, their skill capacity, and resources capacity to conduct and major hindrances towards adopting new technology from an internal perspective. Externally, SITA's capacity to deliver the required services is seen as a major external factor with significant potential to hinder the Department's adoption of new technologyItem The effectiveness of technological advancements on project execution in the South African financial services sector(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Rantao, Samuel; Mupfawa , Shungu; Wotela, NkambidimaBackground: The digital age is filled with emerging digital technologies that are evolving at a rapid pace. The wide scope of digital technologies streams such as ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI), ‘automation’, ‘big data’, ‘cloud computing' and the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) have created opportunities and challenges to all involved in banking to embrace digital transformation. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of technological advancements on project execution in the South African financial services sector. The main emphasis for banks to remain relevant and gain a competitive advantage in this digital age, they would need to transform digitally by adopting appropriate emerging technologies and transition their backend processes and operations. The study further explores the mitigation of the problem statements through a management consulting start-up as a possible solution. Method: The research method was in the form of a quantitative research design, which involved 267 online surveys with banking professionals working within IT such as Chief Digital Officers, Head of Departments, and Project teams. The literature review indicated that digital transformation was reshaping the structure of the banking sector, and the role of IT project execution in the digital age. This has emphasised the need for banking professionals to stay abreast with the fourth industrial revolution developments and trends, and to prepare for imminent changes as the digital age requires new skills and competencies. Results: The findings from this study indicated that the issues pertaining to digital transformation are multifaceted and go beyond the incumbents in the financial services banking sector as they affect companies operating in other industries across SA. The findings from this study are expected to contribute to the extant literature in the field of digital transformation and competencies required by banking professionals. Conclusion: The fourth industrial revolution has introduced significant new technologies in all areas of business, and the banking sector is no different. The emergence of technologies has impacted the way projects need to be executed, in terms of speed, efficiencies and processes. All of this requires new mindsets with advanced skills which need to be quickly attained and practiced at the highest levels to make the most of the technologiesItem Grid-tied renewable energy solutions for the residential customers in Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Munyai, VhuhwavhoSouth Africa is experiencing electricity shortage crisis that is causing loadshedding. The electricity shortage crisis has been going on for almost fourteen years without a successful solution. Loadshedding has become a common occurrence and it is moving from bad to worse. The electricity crisis is caused by various factors. The slow and delayed implementation of energy policy by the government. The overdue new build programme that has been running for nearly fifteen years that included the recommission of previously mothballed coal-fired power stations such as Camden, Grootvlei and Komati and building of new power stations Medupi, Kusile and Ingula, and the aging and poorly maintained Eskom power stations. This business venture proposes a grid-tied residential renewable energy system (RRES) to address the electricity shortage crisis for residential customers in Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa. The grid-tied residential renewable energy system is an innovative renewable energy power system that will generate electricity for the residential customers and is fused with fourth industrial technologies to create great customer experience. Internet of things technology will be used to monitor and control all the appliances, entertainment systems, lighting and security system remotely in the homes of the customers. Artificial intelligence technology will be used to automate data analysis and visualisation for the customer generation and consumption data for their homes. RRES aims to disrupt the traditional way of supplying electricity and avoid loadshedding for residential customer. The business venture research aims to quantify the demand for RRES to determine the business venture viability. It seeks to understand and identify determinants that motivate or hinder individuals from purchasing and installing the RRES. Given that there has been low adoption rate of renewable energy systems in South Africa. The outcome from the study will inform the development of business venture, on how to address the low adoption rate of renewable energy systems by residential customers and create a business venture that is aligned to the customer’s demand and needs. Furthermore, it targets to develop a business venture that would survive for long and launch efficiently to the market. In order to determine the viability of the business opportunity and gain insights on key drivers and barriers that influence the purchasing and installing of RRES, a cross-sectional online survey was conducted involving 321 respondents from Midrand. The survey questions were based on the persuasion attributes of the Roger’s theory of innovation diffusion. The survey showed that there is a huge demand in Midrand with 85% of participants interested in purchasing and installing RRES. Financial projections analysis also showed that the business venture is viable, as the company will be profitable and has a positive net present value (NPV)Item The Impact of Data Privacy Breaches on Consumer Privacy Concern and Patronage in the City of Johannesburg(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Maseleme, Petronella; Chalomba, NakuzeThe ongoing globalisation, technological advancements, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, along with the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, have made digital security increasingly relevant. The shift towards conducting business and exchanging personally identifying information and personal data on digital platforms has resulted in an increased risk of cyber-attacks. The main aim of this study was to investigate data privacy breaches and their impact on consumer privacy concerns in Johannesburg. This study specifically focuses on the impact of these breaches on consumer retention within the South African context, where previous studies have not explored the phenomenon in sufficient detail. Six hypotheses were benchmarked against questions posed to 150 digital customers using cluster random sampling from employees of the City of Johannesburg and students at the University of the Witwatersrand Business School. The results were analysed using structural equation modelling, regression analysis, and analysis of variance through the use of SPSS 26 software. The findings revealed a meaningful relationship between privacy concerns, trust, assurance, regulation, and digital safety and their impact on customer retention and patronage. This study contributes to the field in three ways: conceptually, theoretically, and strategically. The results provide insights for leaders and strategists to develop multi-faceted security strategies and improve customer digital safety and online experiences.Item The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Change Management within Organisations in Johannesburg(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Manamela, Mamaphala Meriam; Gobind, JenikaOrganisations are changing their work to align with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Customers’ needs have adjusted to conform to ever-changing technologies. These pressure organisations to implement technology alterations simultaneously to ensure transformation within the organisations and keep their existing customers. Moreover, technological changes require organisations to refocus their strategies and assess the capacity of Change Management to support the 4IR amid challenges brought by the change. Currently, no technologies have been instituted to implement Change Management activities. Presently, Change Management processes are not digitally implemented within organisations. instead, they are implemented manually. This leads to a lack of performance in Change Management and an inability to evaluate successes and failures. Artificial Intelligence (AI), as a proposed technology to digitalise Change Management activities, will ensure the proper Change Management impact through the data flow, ensure the data is accurate and reliable, and improve performance. This study explored the role of AI in implementing Change Management within organisations in Johannesburg. It considers how AI can be utilised in Change Management activities, such as ensuring governance and planning of Change Management activities using the relevant data to predict the impact, communicate, and converse with stakeholders through AI technologies. Furthermore, learning and development, automatic problem solving, and speech recognition be used to implement Change Management. This research was conducted with the intention of comprehending participants’ experience, knowledge and involvement in Change Management. A triangulated qualitative research design was followed to gather data from sources that included nine one- on-one interviews and five participants for the first focus group session, seven participants for the second focus group session, and five participants for the third focus session. The participants, coming from different levels and positions, included executive management, senior management, change managers and Change Management specialists, and were interviewed using MS Teams or face-Item Assessing the impact of digital transformation on business performance in South Africa’s banking industry(University of the Witswatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Melamane, SiphokaziBackground: The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the recent outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic have created a strong interest in digital transformation. Organisations have been focused on advancing their technological capabilities, thus increasing their IT investment capabilities. In the banking sector, the implementation of digital technologies has introduced the existence of digital banks and other non-financial organizations that have tapped into the financial services, such as fintech and retailer organisations. This has been gradually leading to a diluted market share, which was previously dominated by South Africa’s traditional banks. Digitising has therefore become an important aspect of organisations’ growth strategy. Purpose: This research study aims to investigate the impact of digital transformation on the financial performance of the traditional South African banks. Methodology: This study uses the quantitative research method where financial performance, is measured by return on assets (ROA) and digital technology (data analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things). The data was collected using secondary data accessed from the traditional South African banks, namely; ABSA, Standard Bank, FNB, and Nedbank’s annual reports and full-year consolidated financial statements, from the year 2014-2021. Findings: Findings from this research study indicate that there is a strong relationship between digital technology and business performance, meaning that digital transformation does have an impact on the business performance of the traditional South African banks. Further, the relationship between the variables, digital technology and business performance is negative. This has been found by previous literature to be due to the initial costs of investment in digital technology. Research limitations/implications: Digital transformation is an important concept that continues to be explored by researchers and organisations. Therefore this research is relevant to many industries in the market, which presents an opportunity for it to be expanded to other industries. The impact of digital transformation on other performance factors such as operational performance can be studieSItem Supply and demand of Data Science skills in South Africa(2021) Mindu, NkululekoThe Fourth Industrial Revolution is redefining industries and the world as we know it. At the heart of the revolution is an explosion and the democratisation of data. Oftentimes organisations need to understand or make use of this plethora of data to make decisions that drive business imperatives. Unique skill sets are required to enable organisations to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Within this context, the study explores the Data Science profession through the lenses of skill supply and skill demand. The study reviewed the curriculum of Data Science training programmes, both university and non-university programmes were considered. The study then explored the skills currently being offered by incumbent Data Scientists by reviewing the profiles of Data Scientists on LinkedIn and looking at their featured skills as well as the academic background of these individuals. The demand for Data Science skills were then explored by looking at job posts for Data Science roles. Lastly to further explore skills in supply and the usage of Data Science skills in South African organisations, the study surveyed Data Science professionals, with a sample of 112 professionals being used. A conceptual competency framework was used to categorise the skills offered in the training programmes, skills supplied by incumbent Data Scientists and skills demanded by South African organisations. This was with a view of triangulating the skills from these different avenues and identifying the type of skills being emphasised. Results indicate a strong emphasis on quantitative and technology skills in the training programmes, skills by incumbent Data Scientists and skill requirements from organisations, when categorising according to the competency framework. There is also a strong emphasis on Data Tools such as Python, SQL, and R in the Data Science profession. It could be useful to consider different categories of Data Scientists and create specialised paths for the professionals. The broadness of the Data Science profession could benefit from making it a registered profession to create a unified understanding of the profession from all stakeholders from a skill supply and demand perspectiveItem The digital maturity levels of African airports: a departure point for the digital transformation journey(2020) Mosehlane, TshegofatsoBackground: The study aims to investigate Digital Maturity levels within the African airport industry. The correlation between Digital Maturity and the following airport performance indicators; total revenue growth, total departing passenger growth and Airport Service Quality (ASQ), was investigated to establish whether any such relationships exist. Objectives: To determine the as-is Digital Maturity levels as input into Digital Transformation Strategy development and to understand whether there exists a relationship between high Digital Maturity levels and an increase in company performance. Method: A literature study of fourteen Digital Maturity models was performed to determine the qualitative dimensions of the Digital Maturity Model used in this study. An online survey set up in a Likert scale format (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree), was subsequently developed. Frameworks by De Bruin, Rosemann, Freeze, and Kulkarni (2005) and Maier, Moultrie, and Clarkson (2012), were used for the development of the Digital Maturity Model. The reliability of the Digital Maturity model was tested using Cronbach’s alpha (α) test (Gilem & Gilem, 2003). The survey was sent to African airport employees via email. Responses were quantitatively measured by allocating weightings (1 to 5) to Digital Maturity sub-dimensions, enabling the calculation of maturity levels per Digital Maturity dimension for each airport. Descriptive studies were further conducted to understand the distribution of the collected data. The second part of the study investigated the correlation between Digital Maturity levels and company performance indicators (Remane, Hanelt, Wiesboeck, & Kolbe, 2017). Results: The study found that African airports display low maturity levels, ranging between 1.39 and 2.96. With South African and Ghanaian airports being on the higher end and Nigerian airports being on the lower end of the Digital Maturity scale. Most of the airports fall on the higher end of the scale, above Digital Maturity level 2.7. Furthermore, all the airports experienced a decline in total revenue and an increase in total departing passenger numbers over 3 years. The airports with the higher Digital iii Maturity levels experienced lower total revenue declines and higher total departing passenger growth, compared to the airport with the lowest Digital Maturity level. Additionally, the airport with the highest Digital Maturity level, experienced the most considerable decline in ASQ. Whereas the airport with the lowest Digital Maturity level, experienced an improvement in ASQ over the 3 years. Conclusion: Digital Maturity levels at African airports are low and to remain competitive, airports need to define strategies to assist them in progressing to higher levels of Digital Maturity. The features and outputs of the Digital Maturity Model survey should be used to inform the Digital Transformation Strategies. The study found a positive relationship between Digital Maturity and growth in total revenue and total departing passengers, and a negative relationship between Digital Maturity and ASQ. Organisations should decide on the Digital Maturity dimensions that will be a priority for them to remain competitive. These priority dimensions should be used to offer a differentiated experience to passengers and customers per the organisations’ refreshed Digital Transformation Strategy.