Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (ETDs)

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    Attaining Sustainable Economic Development for Emerging African Markets using CSI and Financial Competence
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Dlamini, Thandokuhle Brandon
    Corporate social investing has been a topical issue for years now, especially in the developing countries because there are many mining and related activities taking place. Generally, the criticism on mining activities does not link to their social economic benefits; hence, the story tends to be lopsided to negativity. Despite high CSI projects in Africa, there are still problems of high inequality,financial exclusion, low savings rate and bad economic development, academic literature is thin on how these projects can be used effectively. Motivated by previous literature, this study uses the VAR, logistic and multilinear models to investigate the effectiveness of using CSI to stimulate sustainable economic growth in selected African markets. The results of this research reveal that the main macroeconomic drivers of CSI projects are (i) global CSI expense, (ii) rehabilitation and community costs, and (iii) interbank rate. Surprisingly, inflation rate is a hedge variable. Although, the contribution of energy, mining and manufacturing industries to social economic development is evident, the findings of this study do not override the negative effects to global warming from these industries
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    The relationship between financial inclusion and economic development in developing countries
    (2020) Hlanti, Andile
    Financial inclusion in developing countries has not been explored to the same extent as for developed countries, and there is limited knowledge of what drives financial inclusion in developing countries. This paper looks at the relationship between financial inclusion and economic development in developing countries using an Index of Financial Inclusion (IFI) and three economic development parameters; GDP (PPP), GDP Per Capita and the Human Development Index (HDI). The study found a positive relationship between financial inclusion and economic development in developing countries. This paper analyses a combination of factors associated with the Index of Financial Inclusion by running 20 regression sets of transformed IFIs on two variable sets: aspects of the banking sector and socio-economic variables. The analysis also includes physical infrastructure factors in each regression, namely: transport infrastructure, mobile cellular subscriptions, internet connectivity and fixed telephone infrastructure. The study found that infrastructure requirements that are critical for enhancing financial inclusion in developing countries include: transport infrastructure, mobile cellular subscriptions and internet connectivity. The study further found that socioeconomic factors, such as access to credit, employment opportunities and adult literacy, are also important in ensuring financial inclusion. Certain banking variables hinder financial inclusion, like high-interest rates, while an increase in foreign assets is positively associated with financial inclusion in developing countries. This research ultimately contributes to the body of knowledge regarding financial inclusion in developing countries.
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    Foreign direct investment and Africa’s social and economic development
    (2020) Rangwaga, Joan
    The study investigates the impact of FDI on social and economic development in Africa. This study analyses panel data for 52 African countries for the period 1990 to 2017 by undertaking a quantitative research strategy. The longitudinal/panel research design was used. Secondary data taken from the African Development Bank Group’s Information Highway Portal was used. The study uses multiple regression models to analyse the impact of FDI on three dependent variables for social and economic development. To estimate the impact of FDI on economic growth, the model will control for some of the standard growth factors such as capital, labour, government expenditure, technology transfer, and inflation/price stability. When running the inequality and poverty regression models, the model will control for other factors such as level of literacy and education, employment and population growth, in addition to the standard growth factors. The findings establish the importance of FDI in economic development, however, FDI did not make significant contribution towards reducing income inequality. The study also establishes the importance of FDI in poverty alleviation. The overall conclusion is that FDI is important to social and economic development. The study recommends that African countries create a favourable investment environment by improving institutional qualities (e.g. lower corruption, lower the number of days it takes to start a business, improve political stability, rule of law etc). The results of this study show that the internal factors (labour and domestic investment) are more effective than the external factors (FDI and technology transfer). FDI inflows should be directed to projects which fit with the host country development strategy and can transform host countries through the transfer of technology, human capital development and increased competition in domestic markets.
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    Emerging technologies for technological and economic catch-up: the case of nanotechnology in South Africa
    (2020) Simate, Geoffrey Simate
    In a speech “There is plenty of room at the bottom” by Feynman (1959) the concept of nanotechnology was born, though the term itself was coined by Taniguchi (1974) later. Today, the world is witnessing unpreceded technological changes via nanotechnology which have affected every industry. Nanotechnology-based technologies have primarily continued to create a multitude of new processes and products that have substantially advanced the quality of life globally. In terms of objectives, firstly, this study sought to establish if South Africa is creating technological and economic capabilities for catch-up, in general, and in nanotechnology, in particular. Secondly, the study looked at whether nanotechnologybased technologies (i.e., water treatment and medical applications) have facilitated technological catch-up, and subsequently, economic catch-up in South Africa. Nanotechnology being an emerging technology is considered by many scholars that it can offer windows of opportunity which are able to allow latecomer nations to catchup with the technologically and economically advanced states. The objectives of the study were investigated through quantitative methods, and the study used secondary data from government and institutional policy documents to assess technological and economic capability creation in both general terms and in nanotechnology. The evidence from a critical analysis of the policy documents shows that South Africa has invested heavily in capability building institutions such as the national innovation system (NIS) so as to boost its technological and economic development. The NIS is a key concept which represents a country’s collective efforts towards advancing innovation (Manzini, 2012). It is ideally the network of institutions in the public and private sectors whose activities and interactions initiate, import, modify and diffuse new technologies (Freeman, 1989). The six functions of the NIS and the four mechanisms for knowledge flow were considered as the capability building blocks for innovation in South Africa and thus were used to operationalise the NIS. The six functions of the NIS according to the OECD (1999) include (1) technology and innovation policy formulation (2) financing R&D (3) performing R&D (4) promotion of human resource development (5) technology diffusion; and (6) promotion of technological entrepreneurship. The four mechanisms for knowledge flow include (1) joint industry activities, (2) public/private interactions, (3) technology diffusion, and (4) personnel mobility (OECD, 1997). The study also used bibliometric information of scientific publications and patents as measures and/or indicators for knowledge generation and invention, and subsequently, technological catch-up. Ideally, scientific publications and patents provide information pertaining to the trajectory of the technology and the key areas of innovation that may be necessary for economic growth and economic development. Two nanotechnology-enabled fields, water treatment and medicine, were specifically studied. The two fields are believed to be enablers of the UN millennium development goals for developing nations. The BRICS countries together with the USA were analysed in the study. The USA was found to be way ahead of the other nations in the two fields in scientific publications, citations of the scientific articles and patents filed through WIPO during the 9 year period from 2010-2018. However, China surpassed the USA on a year-by-year basis in nanotechnology enabled water treatment processes and/or products after 2016. The rest of the BRICS nations were found to be far below the performance of the USA in the two fields in both a 9-year period and on a year-by-year basis. An interesting observation of the study is that there were more patents in medical fields than in water treatment. This trend is attributed by some scholars to intensive R&D in pharmaceutical industries than in any other industry. It was also observed that firms and/or universities were significant patent applicants in both fields whilst there were fewer individual applicants particularly in medicine. One significant capability building strategy that was accessed in the study is collaborations amongst the studied nations. There are many benefits of collaborative working relationships including enhancing the quality of work undertaken and many more other advantages. Both nano-based water treatment and nanomedicine results had strong evidence that showed that collaborations maximized scientific research publications. Surprisingly, the collaborative results in scientific publications for South Africa with other BRICS nations was very low despite having a number of MoUs that encouraged R&D collaborative programmes amongst themselves. It was expected from the study to find that nanotechnology cuts across the boundaries of various traditional fields of study within water treatment and the medical field. This is a clear evidence that nanotechnology has an inherent capability to unlock new and diverse opportunities in various fields. Sales and /or market data was used to represent the economic impact of nanotechnology related products and/or processes. Unfortunately, data on assessment of economic impact of nanotechnology enabled materials in water treatment and medicine is not easily available due to numerous obstacles including elements such as regulations, standards, health & safety issues and public perception. Therefore, this study only provided results of sales and/or market data for nanotechnology-enabled products and/or processes in general, and not necessarily water treatment and medical related nanotechnology-based products and/or processes. Compared to other BRICS nations such as Russia, India and China, the results showed that South Africa does not seem to use nanotechnology as a “window of opportunity” for catching-up economically despite significant investment in the field by the government. The USA is currently leading in the generation of revenue from nano-enabled materials (see Table 4.21).