Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters/MBA)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37942

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Subject: search.filters.subject.e-commerce

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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Investigating consumer ‘s intention to adopt and use automated parcel lockers for last mile delivery in Gauteng
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Ramokoena, Dineo; Chalomba, Nakuze
    E-commerce growth brings new challenges and opportunities into logistic services, especially delivery services: increased customer demands and expectations, rising online shopping and frequency of purchasing. Automated parcel lockers, introduced as an alternative to home deliveries, create opportunities for an efficient distribution model for small parcels. Little has been explored in the South African context regarding consumers’ behavioural intention to use automated parcel lockers and how this can lead to their actual use. This study aimed to address the identified research gap from a consumer perspective. To achieve its goal, the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology was adopted to investigate factors influencing consumer behavioural intention to use automated parcel lockers for last mile delivery in Gauteng. Quantitative data through an online distributed questionnaire was used to answer the primary research questions. This study utilised convenience sampling to select a sample of 172 study respondents. The findings support four of the five proposed hypotheses, holding true that consumers’ behavioural intention fully mediates the relationship between performance expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions to use automated parcel lockers.
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    Factors that influence the consumer behaviour and the increase of online shopping in the South African market
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Tshabalala, Lilian Bertina; Rukudzo, Pamacheche
    South Africa’s e-commerce industry grew by 66% (more than R30 billion) in 2020, compared to 2019, significantly due to online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research explores the factors influencing growing intentions for online shopping in the South African market after hard lockdown restrictions were lifted. Drawing on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) model and the Need for Cognition theory, the study investigates the extent to which online shopping intention is explained by perceived effort expectancy, online shopping performance expectancy, delivery value expectancy, customer dissatisfaction / dissonance and social influence. The constructs are aligned with the understanding that purchasing online requires less effort than traditional retail store visits and that delivery time, customer service social e-communities affect acceptance and usage of online shopping. Using the survey method, a self administered questionnaire on a Google form was designed to collect geo-biographical information and responses related to each construct of the study. Quantitative data was collected from 81 participants residing in Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal and Western Cape who engaged in online shopping. After the internal structure and reliability of the constructs were determined, multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationships between the data was analysed using and structural equation modelling to determine the path relationships between online shopping intention and perceived effort expectancy, online shopping performance expectancy, delivery value expectancy, customer dissatisfaction / dissonance and social influence in SmartPLS v4. The findings show that delivery expectation has the strongest influence on online while effort expectancy and performance expectancy revealed moderate relationships with online shopping intention. As more retailers engage in ecommerce, findings imply that maximising the delivery component of online purchasing should improve online shopping behaviour. Inferring from the results, this study provides 7 insights for online retailers to prioritise their delivery times and cost to enhance online shopping intention. Additionally, optimising retailer websites calls for a strong digital presence to improve online customer experience with a long-term perspective that will better position retailers to compete in the e-commerce space. Researchers are encouraged to interrogate the lack of significance of customer dissonance and social influence in determining online shopping intention in future research
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    A meal preparation and delivery service business in Maseru
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Raphuthing, Lomile
    The purpose of this study was to assess consumer preference for an online meal ordering and payment service in the food industry in Maseru, Lesotho. This service would offer office bound workers delivery of a variety of light meal alternatives, even catering for specific dietary preferences such as Banting and vegetarian. Lesotho is a small landlocked country in Southern Africa, wholly encircled by South Africa, and one of 46 countries that falls into the United Nations category of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) (UN, 2019). With South Africa being a more developed country and with better facilities and services all round, Basotho people continuously import South African goods, services, and culture, including ways of eating (Rantšo, 2017). In many areas of urban South Africa, consumers take it for granted that they can access a variety of prepared meals and have them to their door. This experience companies likes Mr. Delivery and Uber eats have made ordinary. Conversely, very few delivery services currently exist in Lesotho. The research explored the preference of Maseru’s working-class towards a new meal preparation start-up offering a menu with freshly prepared healthy eating alternatives paired with the convenience of delivery to the office in time for their lunch break. The research question was answered by collecting data from 60 potential customers, being office bound workers, from both the private and public sectors in Maseru within the 24 to 50 year age range. Data was collected using an electronic survey and analysed using Microsoft Excel and a statistical programme called Jasp.014. Frequencies and related graphs were created in Microsoft Excel, while Jasp.014 was used for Chi-Square calculations.
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    Platform valuations in emerging markets: Industry specific network effects model
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Mtini, Qhawekazi; Omane-Adjepong, Maurice
    Network effects are intangible assets that can create value in platform mediated businesses. Traditional accounting standards provide limitations to the ability to quantify the value created by these network effects, therefore, theoretical network effects laws, namely; Metcalfe’s, Sarnoff’s, Odlzyko’s and Reed’s laws are used as ‘rules of thumb’ to predict network value. Existing studies have largely verified the suitability of these rules of thumb by using data from developed markets with the use of overall company revenue as an indicator of the network value, albeit mixed conclusiveness and limited scope. In practice, Metcalfe’s law is the most popularly used and although business models and revenue generation differs across various industries, it is used regardless of the industry that the platform business operates in.This empirical study makes use of actual platform generated revenue and monthly active user base data from companies in the Asia Pacific emerging markets and across social network, e-commerce and search engine industries to test the suitability of Metcalfe’s law in emerging markets, regardless of industry. Theoretical value curves are derived using Metcalfe’s, Reed’s and Sarnoff’s laws to conduct a comparative test using curve fitting and the least squares method across the industries. The study finds that although Metcalfe’s law is the most suited for e-commerce and search engines; it is not the most suited regardless of industry as Sarnoff’s theory proves to be mostsuited for social networks. This proves that although Metcalfe’s law is suitable for use in emerging markets; in practice, there should be consideration of industry when selecting the most suited network effects rule of thumb to be used to predict the value of a network. In addition, the adjustment from using overall company revenue to platform generated revenue proves that using overall revenue for companies that generate revenue through platform and non-platform activities can result in the use of a network effects law that overestimates the value of the network, as seen in the instance of Tencent where Metcalfe’s Law was proven to be the best suited in the research by Madureira et al. (2013), Zhang et al. (2015) as well as Hove (2016). In this study the adjustment of revenue and improvement of the robustness of the model through use of quarterly data as opposed to annual data finds that Sarnoff’s Law is best suited for social networks.