Wits Business School (ETDs)

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    The emergence of embedded finance in corporate South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Latiff, Asma; Totowa, Jacques
    This study explored the burgeoning phenomenon of embedded finance (EmFi) within the South African financial services sector, examining whether it is a disruptive force or merely an evolutionary progression in service delivery. Grounded in Christensen's disruptive innovation theory and supplemented by a comprehensive review of both local and global EmFi implementations, the paper aims to dissect the impact of EmFi on consumer access to financial services, evaluate its benefits and challenges, and project its future implications for the industry. Qualitative interviews with industry experts were conducted to assess how EmFi is reshaping consumer interactions with financial services, the operational and strategic benefits it offers to businesses, and the potential challenges it poses, including regulatory hurdles and data security concerns. The study further investigated EmFi's capacity to disrupt traditional banking models and induce a paradigm shift towards more inclusive, efficient, and customer-centric financial services. Findings indicate that EmFi significantly enhances consumer access to financial services, embedding banking, loans, and investment products into everyday digital platforms, thereby democratizing financial access. While EmFi presents clear benefits in terms of convenience and personalized service delivery, it also introduces challenges such as regulatory ambiguity and increased data privacy risks. The future impact of EmFi on the financial services industry suggests a potential hybrid future where traditional institutions and fintech innovations collaborate more closely under a redefined regulatory framework. It was concluded that, currently, EmFi represents an evolutionary step designed to enhance the delivery of financial services. However, it possesses the latent potential to become a disruptive force. Traditional banks that fail to keep pace with technological advancements, update legacy systems, and foster open partnerships with fintech’s and third parties may find themselves at risk of disruption. EmFi stands at a crossroads, with its trajectory dependent on the strategic responses of the banking sector to these emerging challenges and opportunities. Recommendations for future research underscore the importance of continuous exploration into EmFi's evolving iii role in promoting financial inclusion, adapting regulatory frameworks, and reshaping the competitive landscape.
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    Accelerating the advancement of black women leaders in corporate South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Letsoalo, Shamiela; Mazonde, Nomusa
    As of 2022, the disparity in corporate South Africa's top management positions were evident, with only 11% of Black women holding such roles, contrasting starkly with the 53.1% representation of white males in similar positions. Examining the progression over the preceding four years, the data from 2017 reveals that Black women occupied 14.2% of board positions, indicating a modest 6% increase during that period. This information substantiates the observation that Black women face substantial underrepresentation in high-ranking corporate roles within South Africa and that their advancement to these positions has been notably sluggish. The study's theoretical framework employed a comprehensive approach by integrating three interconnected perspectives: Intersectionality Theory, Organisational Leadership Theories, and Marxist Feminist Theory. This triangulation offered a nuanced exploration of the factors influencing the acceleration of Black women leaders to top positions. A deliberate selection process involved choosing 8 Black women leaders from 7 companies and 1 state-owned entity for participation in this study. The selected individuals participated in either face-to-face interviews or virtual open-ended question sessions through video conferencing platforms, Zoom or Microsoft Teams. During these interactions, the participants candidly discussed their career paths to executive positions, highlighted obstacles faced during their journeys, and reflected on the strategies that enabled them to overcome challenges in their pursuit of leadership roles. The participants described the challenges they encountered which in their view impeded their progress in pursuit of career advancement to senior and top management positions. The study delved into the professional journeys of these accomplished Black women leaders through semi-structured interviews. Targeting c-suite and senior-level professionals, including CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and group executives, the research explored their experiences across diverse sectors such as financial services, professional consulting, technology, government entities, and mining. All participants, who were situated in Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa, were deliberately selected from the researcher's professional and personal network. Purposive sampling ensured representation from various leadership roles. This qualitative exploration, rooted in the participants' lived experiences, uncovered insights into systemic barriers, and organisational initiatives affecting the accelerated progress of Black women leaders to senior and executive positions, and the strategies which supported them in their advancement to leadership roles. The study's approach provided more information on the lived experiences of the participants, urging further research and interventions to enhance and accelerate the representation of Black women in senior corporate positions in South Africa. The study addressed a pressing issue of transformation and diversity in corporate South Africa by offering practical solutions for Black women leaders and companies. It emphasised the significance of actively building and nurturing professional networks, mentorship, and continuous learning as pivotal strategies for Black women navigating corporate landscapes. Additionally, for companies aiming to foster diversity and inclusion, the study underscored the importance of clear communication of policies, effective mentorship and sponsorship programmes, and the promotion of an inclusive organisational culture. Providing flexible work arrangements to support work-life balance and addressing specific challenges faced by Black women leaders were identified as key contributors to a supportive environment. The study concludes by recognising its role as a foundational exploration, shedding light on the challenges faced by Black women leaders in corporate South Africa, offering solutions, and serving as a baseline for further in-depth investigation
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    Self-knowledge and leadership effectiveness in corporate South Africa
    (2020) Ngouessy-Guibinga, Gabriel Landry
    This study explored leadership effectiveness and self-knowledge through a constructivist grounded theory paradigm. The research also looked at the journey of some attributes of leadership effectiveness from the leaders’ selves to their bodies according to the dualistic effect, and the impact this has on shaping the effective actions taken by those leaders towards others. It finally presented the impact of those effective actions on others, as well as the manner in which they respond to the effective actions taken by their leaders towards them. The study was guided by the following research objectives: (a) to assess the leaders’ understanding of the concepts of self-knowledge, self-body dualism and leadership effectiveness; (b) to assess the informants’ view on the relationship that could exist between self-knowledge and leadership effectiveness; and (c) to build a theory of leadership effectiveness based on the concept of self-knowledge. Twelve leaders took part in the research, and all the models that emerged from this study are grounded in their presentation of their experiences. The results of this study suggest that the leaders experienced the acquisition of self-knowledge as the journey of a lifetime through continuous spiritual, emotional, verbal and physical exchanges of the self and the body with the external universes these leaders had described through self-doubt, self-reflection, unlearning, challenges, experience and feedback from others. A broader understanding of the way in which the interviewed leaders perceived their individual processes of acquiring self-knowledge and the impact this could have on the shaping of their leadership styles, which would determine whether or not they would be effective leaders, is permitted through the study of the leaders’ quotidian life experiences, which were subsequently mapped in the context of their professional, personal and informal social worlds. The entire self-knowledge acquisition experience was reflected by the inclusion of their individual experiences and knowledge, their social world and the descriptions they gave of these. Lastly, if the journey of self-knowledge for leadership effectiveness is assessed only from the viewpoint of having failed in one’s leadership role, then the whole purpose of undertaking the journey is missed. Immersing oneself in the individual experiences of the interviewed leaders has practical inferences for academics and consultants in the field of self-knowledge-based leadership