Wits Business School (ETDs)

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    Business Case: Green-Certified Buildings in South Africa’s Residential Rental Market
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2025) Roodt, Ilona
    In this paper, the characteristics of the Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) green building certification system is explained, and the energy and water savings in a portfolio of residential units in the EDGE-certified residential building portfolio in South Africa was investigated. This research analysed the efficiency of energy and water usage, following certification, and the contribution to lowering building running costs and increasing property values was investigated. The research revealed that the portfolio design of EDGE-certified buildings results is, on average, a 42% energy saving and a 54% water saving across the portfolio. The research explores the overall reduction in building operating costs and the impact on property return by considering the payback period of the additional investment. The US Green Building Council indicate operating costs drop by 13%, with a drop of 10.5% in the first year and then an average of 16.9% over five years. The research revealed that overall cost savings are significant, the cost of greening is recouped on average over 6 years and this means that property returns increase. The US Green Building Council indicate that property values increase by between 4%-6% for a study relating to LEED-certified buildings. The research signifies the importance of bringing down energy and water costs to preserve and increase return and value, and this may be catalytic in increasing affordable housing investment and tenant standards of living. Where this activity is at scale within the right policy framework, an overall reduction in emissions may occur.
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    The Prioritization of Technical Debt Types in South African Financial Services
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2019) Maphosa, Amos; Selemi, Sandile
    Technical Debt hinders software development projects by reducing the speed of IT teams during development cycles. Although technical debt is assessed on either software artifacts or the entire application, the craftsmanship of IT resources causes the accumulation of technical debt. In this paper, I investigate two research questions related to the prioritization of technical debt among the respondents in the South African financial services. The results of 72 recorded respondents were analyzed using a quantitative data analysis approach. The analysis revealed that the Architecture Technical Debt type has the highest level of contribution to Technical Debt with 23.44% of respondents stating so. The analysis further revealed that the System Quality attribute should not be compromised with 17.42% of the respondents attesting to that. Lastly, IT strategy was deemed by 15.04% of the respondents to be the aspect of the IT risk framework to use in prioritizing the Architecture Technical Debt type.
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    Technological upgrading and secondary innovation in the South African IT Industry
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Motau, Thabitha; Mzyece, Mjumo
    Information technology (IT) plays a critical role in solving complex business tasks and enabling businesses to provide solutions and services to customers. Most businesses and governments are efficient because of technology. Because of technology, people can connect and communicate around the globe faster than they could during the days of letters. IT can enable a country, businesses, and society to adapt to changes around them. For a country that is afflicted by many challenges such as poverty, unemployment, and health care challenges, IT can resolve these challenges using technology in a way that will have a positive impact on the South African economy. Due to globalisation, South Africa now forms part of the global economy and relies on IT to participate and compete in this global market. For several years, South Africa has been ranked as the most technologically advanced and innovative country in Sub-Saharan African region by The Global Competitiveness Report (GCR). The purpose of this report is to explore how South African IT companies have used imported technology to achieved higher levels of technological capabilities enabling the companies to develop endogenous innovation and sustainable economic growth which has resulted in the high ratings by the GCR. Empirical research was conducted focusing on two South African IT companies. The study was conducted using semi-structured interviews consisting of managing directors and chief executive officers of these two companies focusing on market entry strategy, value proposition, business model innovation (BMI) and technological paradigms and future growth plans. An industry expert was also interviewed as the third source of data collection to achieve triangulation. The key findings of the study based on the data collected from the two companies and the industry expert, are that the South African IT companies have achieved technological upgrading that has produced endogenous innovation specific to certain industries with a focus on business model innovation. South African IT companies have strategically employed BMI as a valuable tool, allowing SMEs to navigate the trade-off between innovation costs and benefits. BMI involves the creation, delivery, and capture of new value by designing innovative products or services tailored to meet unmet local customer needs. This may include process innovation for enhanced efficiency, optimising product distribution, integrating new technologies, reconfiguring existing activities, providing managed services for day-to-day support, and exploring new partnerships. The emergence of new technologies has presented opportunities for novel partnerships and the redefinition of existing process and business model architectures. This adaptive approach is crucial for maintaining competitiveness in the market. Furthermore, the integration of emerging technologies serves as an avenue for capturing new customers and fostering the growth of new IT start-ups. This report presents a detailed account of strategies followed by the two case studies to build technological capabilities to produce endogenous innovation.
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    Essays on Agricultural Finance, Financial Development, and Economic Growth in Nigeria
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Ayodele, Ademola Emmanuel; Tweneboah, George
    This study examines essays on agricultural finance, financial development and growth in Nigeria. It focuses on investigating the individual and joint effects of agriculture finance and financial development indicators on growth. Also, the research computed the threshold of agricultural finance at which financial development indicators optimizes inclusive growth in Nigeria. To achieve these research objectives, we adopted both the Endogenous growth and Solow-Swan theoretical foundation; and employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag (QARDL) techniques. The study utilized time series data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin and World Bank World Development Indicators (WDI) covering 1980 to 2022. The results reveals that agriculture finance exerted significant negative impact on economic growth in the short-run; however, the long-run impact of agriculture finance on economic growth is positive. Also, it was observed from that financial development indicators (bank deposit, credit to private sector and market capitalization) have positive impact on economic growth. Although, bank deposits exerted negative impact on agricultural output growth, credit to private sector and market capitalization impacted positively on agricultural output growth. Furthermore, it was observed from the QARDL results that positive links exist between agriculture finance, financial development indicators and inclusive growth in the short-run. Also, the interactive effects of agriculture finance and financial development indicators on inclusive growth were positive in the short and long-run periods. Lastly, the threshold effects of agricultural finance suggest an optimal level that maximizes inclusive growth, indicating policymakers should consider an 11% to 14% allocation of GDP per employed person to the agricultural sector. Therefore, the study recommends as key access to agricultural credit, as well as ensuring proper monitoring to boost growth in Nigeria. Importantly, credit to the agricultural sector should be kept within the established threshold level, since agricultural finance might exert some adverse effects on inclusive growth when it exceeds the established threshold levels.
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    Exploring the digital divide in underserved communities in rural Mpumalanga, South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Shandukani, Linda; Magida, Ayanda
    This research report explored the digital divide in underserved communities in rural Mpumalanga, South Africa, focusing on how owning a smartphone can help bridge the gap. Despite the widespread use of digital technology, financial constraints and limited digital literacy continue to create disparities, especially among marginalised populations. The study employed a qualitative research design, primarily through eight in- depth interviews, to explore how smartphones can impact digital inclusion and overall quality of life in these communities. The findings reveal a digital divide, particularly among young Black individuals, due to barriers in smartphone and internet accessibility. While ease of access to technology can enhance social and economic capital, challenges such as pricing and infrastructure limitations exacerbate disparities, perpetuating cycles of poverty and marginalisation.
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    The impact of the use of e-Commerce on customer experience for retail in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Naidoo, Jaroshen; Mudau, Thanyani Norman
    e-Commerce systems are rapidly changing how individuals shop, and they have provided many retail stores in South Africa with a new sales channel to service customers. With many organisations heavily investing in e-Commerce systems, the need to have end users adopting e-Commerce is vital for the success of the future of e-Commerce. Two areas that need to be examined include how customers currently use e-commerce systems and how e-Commerce use impacts customer experience. To understand the challenges, factors influencing e-commerce usage and its impact on customer experience were investigated. This study distinguished between basic and advanced utilisation of e-commerce systems. To understand the research objectives identified, an extended version of the Delone and Mclean IS Success model has been adapted to the study, which has been modelled as an e-Commerce IS success model. The factors influencing the advanced use of e-Commerce systems include information, system, and service quality. With e-Commerce being split into basic and advanced use, advanced use was focused on understanding how it affects customer experience. This data was collected through a survey distributed to end users of e-Commerce over LinkedIn. 159 respondents(n=159) provided insights into the factors, which included Information quality, system quality, service quality, basic use, advanced use, user satisfaction, customer experience and data quality. However, data quality was a factor that dropped during the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), which was done through SPSS and AMOS. The research showed strong relationships between information quality and advanced use, system quality and advanced use, and service quality and advanced use. This confirmed the first objective of understanding the factors that impact the advanced use of e-Commerce systems in retail in South Africa. The next major result showed that advanced use had a higher coefficient to the basic viii uses relationship towards customer experience, and this translated to end users wanting to make use of the advanced features of e-Commerce systems to make decision-making and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) easier to achieve. In the findings, numerous contributions have been made, which include the factors that impact the basic and advanced use of e-Commerce systems. The effects of the basic and advanced use on customer experience and user satisfaction, which did not previously exist within the e-Commerce space, are also contributions identified in this study. Overall, this study helps organisations understand what end users and customers would want to use when using e- Commerce platforms in terms of features and how customer experience can be influenced by new technologies and features introduced into the e-Commerce system for retail in South Africa.
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    The influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on personalised learning in the workplace
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Msimang, Siphamandla; Alagbaoso, Manessah
    This study investigates the influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on personalised learning in the workplace, set within the rapidly evolving landscape of digital technology integration in organisational learning strategies and environments. Addressing the gap in literature regarding AI's role in enhancing workplace learning experiences, this research utilises the Technology- Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework and Senge's Learning Organisation theory as its conceptual underpinnings. Through a quantitative methodology, data was collected from 391 participants across various industries via an AI-powered chatbot survey interface, focusing on employees' engagement in self-directed learning activities, perceptions of AI-enhanced personalised learning, and the factors influencing their engagement in workplace learning. The study reveals that employees perceive AI as an enhancer of personalised learning experiences in the workplace, with its adoption being significantly influenced by factors such as technological compatibility, organisational support, and a conducive regulatory environment. The findings offer an understanding of the multifaceted nature of AI in enhancing personalised learning experiences in the workplace, providing insights for future strategies and implementations in this evolving field. The conclusion draws attention to the transformative potential of AI in enhancing personalised learning within the workplace, advocating for its strategic integration to fully leverage its benefits. By aligning AI-driven learning tools with organisational cultures that prioritize continuous learning, organisations can significantly improve employee engagement, skills development, and ultimately, their competitive advantage in the digital era.
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    Perceptions on the adoption or use of waste to energy (WtE) technologies among waste managers in Gauteng
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mokgolobotho, Ingrid Konkong; Ngubevana, Lwazi
    The Gauteng Province, increase in population growth, urbanisation, industrialisation and economic activity has resulted in increased amounts of generated municipal solid waste (MSW). There are concerns about landfill airspace depletion, energy poverty, environmental concerns that create greenhouse gases, air pollution and water contamination. The province also requires electricity to keep its economic activity functional, while providing its citizens with electricity. The research is a qualitative study, with the purpose of understanding how waste managers in the waste industry perceive the adoption or use of waste to energy (WtE) technologies in Gauteng. Semi-qualitative interviews were held, face-to-face and on Microsoft Teams. The sample chosen were waste managers who were knowledgeable on the research topic. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data from the semi-qualitative interviews. Data triangulation was used to establish the credibility/validity of the interview findings. The findings in the study from the semi-qualitative interviews and literature review were aligned with regards to the role waste managers’ play in procuring waste to energy technologies as well as the benefits on the uptake of WtE technologies, which are improved waste management practices, less environmental challenges and the introduction of new revenue streams. Waste managers are also viewed as researchers, collaborators and educators. The study found that some of the factors that influence the perceived ease of use as well as perceived usefulness of WtE technologies include the feasibility and affordability of these technologies, access to finance, the availability of technical, training and skills transfer, potential employment opportunities and the need to diversify the energy supply iii The challenges observed by the participants were the lack of stakeholder engagement and sufficient education, lack of adequate legislature and poor governance as well as lack of access to capital. The enablers were noted as equipment tax returns, introduce landfill tax, high landfill entry gates, energy sales, carbon credits as well as educating and involving all waste generators and recyclers. To attract investors, participants noted that there should be transparency and simplified contracts, having relevant collaborations, the need for grants and assurance on return on investment
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    Social Media Influencers And Purchase Intention For Motor Vehicles In South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mlimi, Evans Muzi; Saini, Y.K.
    The effect of social media influencers on purchase intention for motor vehicles in South Africa. The motor-vehicle industry is one of the largest sectors in South Africa and the most dominant in the manufacturing industry. In 2022, the sector’s contribution accounted for 4.9% to the gross domestic product (GDP) making it a very consistent player in manufacturing. This industry is dominated by familiar and legacy brands such as Toyota, Volkswagen, BMW, Ford, Suzuki, and Renault to mention a few. The sector has recently seen new entrants namely Chinese and Korean brands enter the market and challenging the traditional players. This has prompted marketing practitioners to employ new innovative strategies such as using Social Media Influencers to shape consumer perception about their brands. Social Media Influencers are individuals who position themselves as experts in a particular field and they share their product knowledge with their online audience on social media channels. Therefore, the research study investigated the effects of Social Media Influencers particularly their expertise, credibility, trustworthiness, popularity, likability, and attractiveness on purchase intention for motor-vehicles in South Africa. The researcher followed a descriptive research design, where a research survey was randomly distributed to over 1000 post graduate students and working professionals. The findings revealed that a Social Media Influencer’s expertise, trustworthiness, and likability significantly affect consumer purchase intention when shopping for motor vehicles. Three of the six proposed hypotheses were supported by the research results. The study makes a significant contribution to academic literature as it shows the important role played by Social Media Influencers and how Motor-vehicle companies can partner with them to promote the brands and improve loyalty.
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    Investors’ Perceptions of the South African National Brand
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mhlungu, Nondumiso Marcia
    The problem of understanding investors' perceptions of the South African national brand, shaped by historical, political, and economic dynamics, is crucial for enhancing investment attraction in emerging markets like South Africa. This study aimed to explore investors' perceptions of the national brand of South Africa, focusing on understanding how these perceptions influence investment decisions. The research aimed to understand how investors perceive the South African National Brand and its impact on their investment decisions. The research problem addressed the gap in understanding how investors perceive the South African national brand. Utilising a purposive sampling technique, 15 participants were selected based on their expertise and involvement in investment activities within South Africa. Data collection involved in-depth interviews, allowing for an exploration of participants' perceptions. The study found a diverse range of perceptions among investors regarding the South African national brand. While some participants expressed confidence in the country's potential for economic growth and investment opportunities, others highlighted concerns related to political stability, infrastructure challenges, and socio-economic disparities. Despite positive attributes such as natural resources and cultural diversity, concerns about crime rates, corruption, and regulatory uncertainty were identified as significant deterrents to investment. The study concluded that while the South African National Brand possesses intrinsic strengths, addressing governance, security, and regulatory framework challenges is imperative for enhancing investor confidence and attracting sustainable investments. Based on the research findings, it is recommended that South African authorities and stakeholders engage in targeted efforts to improve and promote the national brand, emphasising its strengths and addressing areas of weakness. This could involve diplomatic efforts to enhance the country's international image, economic reforms to improve stability and attractiveness to investors, and strategic communication campaigns to showcase South Africa's potential as an investment destination. Additionally, ongoing research and monitoring of investors' perceptions should be conducted to adapt strategies effectively.