MBA & MM Theses

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    Business process re-engineering in a digital world-consultancy project
    (2017) Essop, Zubair
    The purpose of this consultancy project is to evaluate the business to business (B2B) customer management process at a company (anonymous) to identify opportunities for business process re-engineering (BPR). Introducing BPR should ultimately lead to improved efficiency, whilst reducing costs and is intended to positively contribute towards the company’s trading profit being a strategic objective of the organisation. In the face of a rapidly changing environment where local and global competition is intensifying, organisations need to sustain competitive advantage. This can be achieved through implementation of new processes which drive efficient operations management and it can therefore continue to deliver high-quality services, with excellent performance levels, at a low cost. My approach to this consultancy project will entail the following approach:  an understanding of the business problem  researching literature to gain further insight and knowledge on the subject  collection and analysing data related to the business problem  assessing the current process to understand the challenges  noting down the shortcomings of each process  redesigning the process  performing a cost benefit analysis of the solution  discussing an implementation plan Problem Definition Research Collect and Analyse Data Assess Current Process Identifiy Shortcomings Redesign Process Business Case Implementation Plan 8  deployment of the new process, monitoring and benefits realisation follows, but are out of scope for this exercise
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    The effects of sentiments on the dollar rand (USD/ZAR) exchange rate
    (2017) Mogotlane, Kgomotso Euginia
    This journal paper seeks to review the effects of investor sentiments on the USD/ZAR currency pair. The paper will focus on major investor sentiments that had either a negative or positive impact on the exchange rate volatility of the USD/ZAR currency pair. The literature is limited to the period between 2008 and 2017 quarter one. This period is based on the endeavour to understand how investor sentiment impacts the two currency pairs under investigation; post the financial crisis to date. The choice of the currency pair is based on: that USA is one of South Africa’s significant trading partners, and that ZAR also trades heavily against the USD. Both the ZAR and the USD follow a floating exchange rate regime. As a result, the short-run drivers of both currency exchange rates may be attributed to: economic fundamentals, investor sentiments, speculative attacks, as well as structural and liquidity shocks. The purpose of this paper is to focus purely on investor sentiment. Moreover, investor sentiments are random and unexpected news or events. The study followed desktop research and engaged with documents sourced from public domain. The data set was drawn from Bloomberg terminal due to reliability. Academic literature was accessed from various publications, both in print and soft copy. Lastly, the discussion relating to evidence was sourced from Bloomberg terminal wired news series. The research output is thus aimed at investors, hedgers, arbitrageurs, speculators and end-users in the foreign exchange market. The outline of this paper is as follows: Section one is the introduction to the research. Section two is literature review. Methodology section follows on in chapter three. 2 Section four focuses on the data collection, while section five discusses the results. Lastly, section six concludes the research work. Keywords: South Africa, The United States of America, exchange rate, USD/ZAR exchange rate, sentiments, volatility.
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    Opportunities for implementing Big Data Analytics in a financial services group
    (2019) Masiela, Matome
    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Even though most organisations are aware of the benefits and advantages offered by Big Data Analytics (BDA), many of them are still far behind when it comes to adopting and implementing the technology. The emergence of big data has received a considerable amount of attention from both academics and businesses, with the literature on the concept correspondingly rising too. This study focused on the factors that contributed to the XYZ financial services group taking longer to adopt 0and implement BDA despite its apparent advantages over the traditional approach. To investigate the reasons for the delay, the study undertook an interpretive qualitative research approach to understand the fundamentals relating to the delay. The research approach was interpretive social science (ISS), which examines the social reality of why there are delays in adopting BDA. A guideline made of standardised comparable and similar open-ended interview questions was constructed to solicit data from interviewees drawn from different levels of the organisational hierarchy. The data was collected through interviews and analysed using a thematic analysis technique and presented according to themes extracted from categories. The empirical study has shown that organisational dynamics, which constitute internal and external factors, play a huge role in determining the readiness of the organisation to adopt and implement the technology. Different strategies and approaches were derived from the findings, to assist in advancing the BDA project in the organisation under study. For academics, the study will advance the literature available on big data and BDA from a South African context and Africa as a whole.
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    The adaptive market hypothesis and predictability of stock returns in Africa
    (2018) Myendeki, Axola Victor Chumani
    The weak-form Efficient Market Hypothesis postulates that stock price movement is random and future returns cannot be predicted based on past returns. On the other hand, the Adaptive Market Hypothesis proposed by Lo (2004) postulates that stock market efficiency is not an all-or-nothing condition but is a phenomenon that varies continuously over time depending on market conditions. The study examines the AMH and stock return predictability on eight African stock markets: Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Stock Exchange of Mauritius (SEM), Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX), Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE), Egyptian Exchange (EGX), and the Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE). The study uses autocorrelation, wild bootstrapped automatic variance ratio, and generalised spectral tests on price returns over the period 4 January 2011 to 30 November 2017. The results reveal that the full samples of only South Africa and Tunisia re not predictable and therefore deemed consistent with the weak-form efficient market hypothesis. Further tests on the yearly sub-samples suggest that all the markets have exhibited features of predictable markets at some point in line with the varying levels of return predictability. This finding provides evidence in favour of the postulation of the Adaptive Market Hypothesis. Keywords: Adaptive Market Hypothesis; African Stock Markets; Predictability; Martingale Difference Hypothesis
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    The regulatory capital and Liquidity Management impact on Profitability of Commercial Banks in Lesotho.
    (2019) Moshoeshoe, Mphaphathi
    ABSTRACT The objective of this research is to assess the impact of the Basel III regarding Capital and Liquidity regulations on the profitability of commercial Banks in Lesotho using panel data of 3 banks from 2007 to 2017. The Bank profitability is measured by Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE). The variables affecting bank profitability were categorised into Basel regulation variables, Bank-specific variables, industry-specific and macroeconomic variables. The Basel regulations variables are Common Tier 1 Capital Ratio (CET 1), Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) and Net Stable funding ratio (NSFR), and these three variables are the main focus of this study. The bank-specific variables are cost-to-income ratio, Loan-to-Deposit ratio, and interest rate spread. The macro-economic variables are Real Growth Domestic Product (GDP), Consumer Product Index (CPI) and an Unemployment Rate and the industry-specific is the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. The estimation techniques applied in the study were Fixed Effects, Pooled Ordinary Least Square (OLS), Random Effect. The findings revealed that of the Basel III regulatory variables, CET 1 significantly negatively affects ROE. This means that building the capital buffer to meet regulations will reduce the return on equity; notwithstanding, commercial banks in Lesotho are were well capitalised, and researchers have shown that the process of accumulating capital reduces the return on equity in the short-run, with improvements in profitability in the longer run. The liquidity regulations LCR and NSFR do not appear to have a significant impact given the data in the sample, however, that does not reduce their relevance to the banking sector in Lesotho and considering the nature and of banking in Lesotho, where there no active market and lesser completed products structures the impact might be minimal. Bank specific variables of cost income ratio (CIR) and loan to deposit (LTD) are in line with available literature on the topic of bank profitability and are shown to be the variables with the strongest impact on profitability measures of ROE and ROA. An increasing CIR negatively impacts profitability and increasing LTD positively impacts profitability. Of the macro variables, inflation is only mildly significant The research is a contribution to the studies on Basel III and its impact on profitability specifically in developing countries. The Lesotho Banking sector and regulator will benefit from the findings and enable them to assess the impact for Basel III future implementation. In addition, the research confirms the findings of existing literature that cost income and loan to deposit ratios have a significant impact on profitability.
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    The social and economic impact of mining in the Brits area of Madibeng Municipality, South Africa
    (2017) Pelo, Herbert Leburu
    Mining has a potential to contribute to economic growth of any country. Mining deposits in the South African Bushveld region can benefit the entire country. There are reserves for PGM’s and Chromate. Mining conglomerates have over the years earned profits from mining operations in the region. South Africa has the most unequal society in the world. The poverty levels remain very high. The mining sector remains the most unstable sector with labour unrest due to salary disputes or demand for better working conditions of service in the last 5 years which affects production and ultimately revenue. With mining being a mostly export market, the price of commodities are affected by the continuous fluctuation of the local currency (Rand). The Social Labour Plans (SLP) approved by Department of Mineral Resources as part of mining licence applications are not fully adhered to by the mining companies. Mining communities and mining companies continue to have strained relationship due to mining companies not keeping up to their promises contained in SLP. The communities embark on marches that halt production demanding employment and infrastructure development from the mines. The mining communities still live in terrible environments with a need of basic services. A desktop analysis was done by collecting data and by using qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate conduct of mining companies. The affected areas were visited and observations were made on developments in immediate affected places. Mining is governed by regulations such as Mining Charter, Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), environmental laws and most belong to the Chamber of Mines all of which encourage and support Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to the communities mostly affected by their mining operations. Mining companies contribute a minimum towards CSR and maximise their profit. All the mining companies must create a single trust which they will donate funds into. The trust must be used to fund infrastructure development in the Brits area. Mining management must be held accountable for their failure to deliver on their SLP in line with relevant SA legislation.
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    Evaluation of the factors which harness firm level innovation for Industrie 4.0 in South Africa
    (2018) Maja, Pontsho William
    Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine factors that harness manufacturing firm- level innovation for Industrie 4.0 in South Africa (SA). This study is driven by three research questions. Quantitative methods were used to find answers to the research questions and a solution to the research problem. The main research question asked was: what are the factors that harness innovation techniques, the fourth industrial revolution’s levers in South African firms? To find answers to the research questions an online survey questionnaire was sent to 105 participants. The participants were IT executives, managers involved in decision making about technological projects and technical personnel dealing with the implementation of IT and automation projects from various manufacturing firms in South Africa. Theories of Innovation diffusion by Rogers, as well as Classical theory by Karl Marx were used in this study. Based on the literature review and the results gained from the participants responses to the survey questionnaire, the findings of this study showed that local firms need the following skills: Problem Solving; IT knowledge and abilities; Decision making; Ability to interact with modern interfaces; and Data and Information processing and analytics. Following from classical and innovation diffusion theories, the study concluded that availability of the above-mentioned skills; a clear business case that justifies for investments in the firms’ IT architecture; difficulty in coordinating actions across different organisational units using the common network brought about by the Cyber-physical production system; courage to push through radical transformation and integration of data from disparate sources to enable Industrie 4.0 applications were essential for Industrie 4.0.
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    Mentorship as a retention stratefy for female engineers in the oil industry in South Africa
    (2018) Claasen, Ashlene Le-anne
    Orientation: There remain significant challenges to gender equality in the engineering industry. Female engineers in South Africa are still in the minority and are facing challenges that affect their retention levels. Research Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate, through the experiences of female engineers, whether mentorship could be used as a strategy to retain more females in the South African engineering industry. Motivation for the study: The aim of this study was to understand why the gender gap persists, by analysing the experiences of females in the oil industry. The study sought to ascertain whether mentorship could be used as an instrument to attract and retain women in this industry in South Africa. Research approach/design and method: The qualitative study was exploratory in nature. The data was collected in the form of in-depth focus groups and analysed through thematic analysis. Main findings: This study concluded that there were still explicit and implicit organizational practices in the engineering industry which were discriminatory towards females. Females were finding coping mechanisms, such as mentoring, to navigate these biased organizational practices. Female engineers utilised mentoring to try to find a work life balance, to advance their careers, to gauge a firmer technical understanding of the industry and for support, however it did not always lead to retention in the industry. Gender did not have any influence on the effectiveness of the mentoring relationship, however females would recommend having more female mentors to speak to regarding female specific issues. Practical/managerial implications: The findings will be used to guide organizations on how to implement mentorship initiatives into their organizational policies in order to attract and retain female talent in the organization. It can also be used to create general awareness in the industry around how they can support and motivate women in the industry. Contribution: This study is part of the body of knowledge which is directed towards evaluating how to improve the gender disparity in previously classified male dominated careers and to retain females in these occupations.
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    Defining the value proposition for a digital bank in South Africa
    (2019) Yannakakis, Christopher Manos
    South Africa is on the cusp of embracing digital banking in 2018. This research aims to define customer value from digital banking offerings making use of the Value Proposition Canvas for future reference of other digital banks wishing to enter into a South African market. The purpose of this study is to define a value proposition for a digital bank within South Africa. The significant golden thread that should be taken from the following research article is that there is potential in South Africa for a successful digital bank and the following will explain what exactly customers require from a digital bank. The significance of this research is limited to the South African market to assist banks in redefining their digital offerings as well as to gain customer insights with regards to expectations of a digital bank. There is very limited academic research relating to digital banks and their customer value propositions currently in South Africa. The methodology used was quantitative research through the means of an online survey that was sent out to the random respective population sample via email. This yielded the major finding of perspective customers prefer to switch from their bank provided value derived in the form of cost, convenience and efficiency was provided by the digital bank. In conclusion, it was found that further research into the field of value generation in terms of low cost, efficient service and added convenience should be explored. Keywords Digital Bank, Value Proposition Model, South Africa
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    Employment barriers for South African graduates
    (2018) Ash, Matthew Frank
    Networx for career development (CC) embarked on the implementation of a government-funded work readiness programme in 2017, which was run in conjunction with the Transport Education Training Authority (TETA) in South Africa. The project was very successful and achieved a 68% absorption rate for the unemployed graduates who took part in the programme. Broadly, for the purpose of this report, absorption means the percentage of graduates who obtained employment as a direct result of participating in the work readiness programme. Based on the success of the work readiness programme, the stakeholders of the programme wanted to ascertain ways in which they could improve the current programme, by identifying the possible barriers to employment that exist for some South African graduates. The question of ‘what are the perceived barriers for employment that exist for some graduates’ was investigated, because the stakeholders realised they were potentially treating the problem of graduate unemployment and wanted to first understand the causes of unemployment for some South African graduates. This report is, therefore, intended to identify and then recommend possible solutions to unemployment for some South African graduates. The recommendations from this consultancy report will be used to produce a framework for another study that will look to alleviate the main barriers to graduate unemployment in South Africa identified from this report. Recommendations will be made from any clearly identified trends that are established from the results of the survey that are supported by the literature, previous research and data that was analysed from the literature review. If any trends are identified that do not support any past research or literature, then possible suggestions will be recommended for potential further studies. The results of this report will show that the most significant perceived barrier for graduates achieving employment in South Africa is a lack of skills that employers are looking for. The report will recommend that further studies be undertaken to ascertain exactly which skills are required by employers. 2 The report will also show that from the gathered data, the two most effective measures for alleviating graduate unemployment are the creation of jobs outside of the major economic hubs in South Africa, and the establishment of a work readiness programme for all South African graduates. Recommendations will also be made with regards to further studies regarding a framework that should be put together to identify what a work readiness programme should look like in South Africa.