Wits Business School (ETDs)

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    Drivers of the use of AI-powered tools in academic research: A study of university students in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Ngomane, Danisile Priscilla; Dorson, Thomas Anning
    The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across various sectors, including education, has garnered significant attention due to its potential to enhance productivity, accuracy, and innovation. There has been a notable lack of research focusing on students' adoption of AI tools in research settings, within the context of South Africa. The primary objective of this study was to provide insights to inform strategies aimed at facilitating the effective implementation of AI-powered technologies within the academic research landscape. The study employed a theoretical framework grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which provides a foundation for understanding individuals' acceptance or rejection of technology. The study aimed to investigate the drivers influencing university students' utilisation of AI tools in educational research settings. Adopting a positivist research philosophy, the study utilised a quantitative research design as the primary inquiry strategy. This involved the administration of a research survey to collect and analyse numerical data, enabling the testing of hypotheses, identification of patterns, and quantification of relationships between variables. The study employed a cross-sectional time horizon and utilised convenience sampling to administer a survey questionnaire to 271 final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students at Witwatersrand University. Analysis of the collected data using descriptive and inferential statistics revealed several key findings. A positive attitude towards utilising AI tools was found to be driven by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, prior knowledge, and awareness about the tools. This relationship was moderated by factors such as trust and self-efficacy. The AI tools were primarily utilised for tasks such as searching and summarising articles, writing, editing grammar, and making unbiased judgments about articles. Importantly, students were influenced by the perceived benefits derived from using specific AI tools, and the ease of use associated with these tools. This research study findings suggest that promoting awareness of AI tools among university students has the potential to enhance research outcomes, improve scholarly efficiency and increase overall effectiveness. As the demand for AI technologies continues to grow, integrating them into higher education settings holds promise for unlocking substantial benefits and transforming the academic research landscape.
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    Bicultural Life Experiences and Career Orientation of South African Indian Women Engineers
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Pillay, Vanishree Nundagopaul; Ndaba, Zanele
    The purpose of this research is to explore the bicultural life experiences of South African Indian women engineers and from this, understand how identity experiences in their bicultural context inform their decision to remain in the profession. A review of the relevant literature offered biculturalism within the discourse of Identity Theory, and social cognition stemming from Social Cognitive Career Theory, as the main concepts to guide the trajectory of this investigation. The study is exploratory in nature with a qualitative design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 South African Indian women engineers from the public and private domains. Non-probability sampling strategy was adopted and effected through a snowballing technique to purposively secure candidates fitting the eligibility criteria. A narrative analysis of the transcripts was executed in a two-step process. First, by means of a three-part approach consisting of personal, social and temporal dimensions; life stories were unearthed from the interview transcripts in a deductive manner and formulated into a narrative. Secondly, narratives were inductively analysed using thematic analysis. Findings indicated that support from family, coupled with the transformed application of an Indian androcentric cultural value system within the home, positively influenced participants’ socialisation process. This triggered optimistic social cognition that informed high levels of self-efficacy and progressive decision-making. The limited organisational support reported by participants pointed to ubiquitous gender challenges: these negatively impacted professional opportunities and growth. Also clearly evident were perceptions and bias about women in the profession, strongly premised on gender identity, as opposed to racial identity. Motivation to remain an engineer was predicated on: (a) passion for the discipline; (b) career growth and opportunities; and (c) financial independence/empowerment. The findings, and their implications, offer higher education institutions and engineering bodies a point of departure that can inform strategies to motivate female engineers to remain in the profession. The study contributes to the evolving body of knowledge on biculturalism through the bicultural life stories presented by a sample of ethnic minority women who are absent from the literature pertaining to biculturalism. The research offers an assimilated version of Lent and Hackett’s Social Cognitive Career model, represented in a Bicultural Social Career Trajectory, as an understanding of the interplay between identity tags, context, cognitive processing and action behaviour. The sample’s location and nationality impose certain limitations on this study. Participants were South African- born Indian women engineers from three of the country’s nine provinces. Hence, the findings cannot be generalised to South African Indian women engineers from the remaining six provinces, nor to foreign nationals of Indian descent. These limitations offer an opportunity for future research on ethnic minority women of Indian descent, regardless of nationality. This would entail an extended geographical reach to include countries that have a population of Indian womenengineers. Such a study could potentially unearth interesting nuances regarding the bicultural life experiences and career orientation of Indian women engineers on a global scale.
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    The impact of manager-employee coaching relationship and self-leadership on performance behaviours of corporate graduate interns in a South African telecommunications company
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Molekwa, Solomon Molefi; Msimango-Galawe, Jabulile
    The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of the manager-employee coaching relationship and self-leadership practice on the performance of corporate graduate interns. The study employed a post-positivist paradigm and a quantitative approach. Through an online Qualtrics questionnaire, data was gathered from a sample size of 200 corporate graduate interns. Data analysis method that was adopted was regression analysis to test hypotheses. The results demonstrated a significant positive impact between self-leadership skills practice and performance behaviours of corporate graduate interns. The hypothesis that the perceived quality of a manager-employee coaching relationship impacts positively on the performance behaviours of corporate graduate interns was not supported. The key message from this study is that the self-leadership coaching is critical for the development and growth of corporate graduate interns. Leadership that practices coaching is vital for supporting employees to develop and practice self- leadership skills, which impact positively on their development of desired job- related performance behaviours
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    Factors influencing the next generations’ succession decisions for family businesses in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) Maduka, Oluchi Jane; Msimango-Galawe, Jabulile
    The involvement of the next-generation family members on succession decisions can improve continuity of the business. i Although several factors scan influence an individuals i choice of career, including in relation to joining the family business, parental support is the most influential. the primary objective of the study was to investigation factors influencing the next-generations’ succession decisions for family i businesses in SA. given that challenges usually emerge during succession decisions especially when the founder wants to pass down the torch to his/her children. This can discontinue the business if a proper process is not instituted.
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    Motivational factors, intent and contextual factors that influence the creation of small entrepreneurial ventures in Gauteng
    (2021) Tsenki, Relebohile G
    Orientation – Many South Africans have opted for entrepreneurship to earn a decent living, while the government directs itself to the fighting of unemployment and to increasing economic growth and development. Currently, the country faces high levels of unemployment, leaving entrepreneurship to be viewed as a positive answer to such a problem. Motivation for the study – For entrepreneurship to occur, there must be some type of motivation, behaviour or action, belief in one’s ability and external forces playing a role. The idea for this topic developed due to the high unemployment rate in South Africa, with the focus being on the Gauteng province. The importance given to identifying the intent (desire and behaviour) to become an entrepreneur led by the motivation through push-and-pull factors, with the necessary belief one had in themself (self-efficacy) and by the external environment (the contextual factors) with which the participants in the current study were faced when attempting to create their venture. The present study did not focus on those individuals who wanted to start a business in the future, but rather on those who had already established a business, which lent additional insight into what they had to endure to get their business up and running. Research purpose – The main purpose of the current study was to identify the motivational factors, intent and contextual factors that influence the creation of small entrepreneurial ventures in Gauteng, focusing on individuals aged 18 and above. Research design, approach, and method – The study uses quantitative research methods based on a positivist research paradigm. The questionnaire was administered, using a link via WhatsApp and email, to a sample of 120 entrepreneurs who were registered and who operated in the Gauteng region at the time of the study. The data was analysed using exploratory factor analysis, reliability and validity testing, correlation analysis and linear regression. Main findings – The findings of the study concluded that a positive relationship existed between entrepreneurial intent, with motivational push-pull and contextual factors, in small entrepreneurial ventures in the Gauteng region. No evidence was found in the study regarding to the relationship between entrepreneurial intent and self-efficacy. Practical/managerial implications – The results of this research have practical implications for policymakers, researchers and incubators. Contribution/value add – The study contributes to the existing empirical findings as to how different dimensions of motivational factors and contextual factors can affect entrepreneurial intent, as well as their effects on small entrepreneurial ventures in a developing country.