Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (ETDs)

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    Technology Adoption by Small-Scale Farmers in the Mid-Vaal Local Municipality
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Mindi, Thulani; Pellissier, René
    It has been demonstrated that using technology in the farming industry increases production, efficiency, and income. Adoption of technology is influenced by a wide range of circumstances, though. The aim of this study was to examine, using the PESTEL framework, how external factors affect small-scale farmers' adoption of technology throughout the Mid-Vaal Municipality. This would help the municipality, policymakers, and other stakeholders, as well as small-scale farmers, identify and prioritise external factors that significantly impact small- scale farmers' adoption of technology and take appropriate action to address or mitigate them through changes in policy or technology. A qualitative research study using semi-structured face-to-face interviews was conducted with a sample group of 11 participants. The group was made up of farmers with a diverse background in terms of farming experience and educational background. The study also focused on farmers who are involved in selling all or part of their produce operating farms between two and five hectares. A thematic analysis technique was used to identify themes in the data analysis. Most of the farmers said they are aware that technology can help them be more productive, and efficient, and generate more revenue. However, the findings of the study demonstrated that when it comes to technology adoption, most of the farmers are negatively impacted by external factors. Farmers have expressed frustration with government policies which do not enable them to implement new technology and with the stringent admission requirements of programs designed to help them, it impossible for small-scale farmers to get involved. Farmers also indicated that financial institutions view small-scale farmers as high risk and have less appetite to provide them with financial assistance to help them modernise their businesses using technology. Thus, farmers resorted to monitoring technology trends in the farming space and creating “makeshift” solutions of what is trending at the time. Furthermore, the findings showed that economics of acquiring and operating the technology is the biggest external factor farmers consider before they acquire any of form of technology. Additionally, farmers prefer using tried and tested methods iii as this is less risk and affordable. Moreover, there’s a new generation of farmers coming into the Mid-Vaal and have a positive view of new technology, which could lead to the utilisation of the latest technology as the farming operations mature. Lastly, the study made recommendations to support the adoption of technology amongst farmers to increase productivity, efficiency, and revenue
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    Bancassurance on commercial banks and life insurance in the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Mapena, Thabang; Hoohlo, Mphekeleli
    The increase in competition and the scramble for customers in the financial industry has led to the convergence of banking and insurance to form what is known as Bancassurance. Bancassurance, as the name suggests is the distribution of insurance products using bank platforms. Although two parties get into the bancassurance agreement in search of some mutual gains, it comes with unintended consequences which among other things affect the banking efficiency of banks. This study assesses the efficiency changes brought about by Bancassurance in the SADC commercial banks. Using Data Envelopment analysis with the return to scale, an analysis was done on 21 banks with active insurance income on a case and control methodology. The results showed insurance income having no impact on the regional banks’ efficiencies. The income insurance however had an impact on some banks’ returns to scale
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    Can the efficacy of the Amended Broad-Based Black Economic(B-BBEE) Empowerment Act demonstrate its successful implementation
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Vilakazi, Judy
    The goal of this study was to explore whether the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act would be effective if implemented successfully in organisations. To what extent has the implementation translated into transformation. The study shows that there are success stories of persons who have profited from the BBBEE Act's implementation as beneficiaries of some of the elements. Some of the township’s "black" residents were not completely aware of the Act and how it would help them. Moreover, the study shows that organisations with financial resources have designed clever ways to gain and attain the higher BEE contributor status despite their commitment to the "transformation" objective. Due to the small sample size, the research methodology's shortcomings make it more difficult to generalise the results. Also, there were stringent requirements to ensure that only those with relevant expertise and knowledge were interviewed. The focus of future research may be on assessing and measuring the consequences of socioeconomic development as one of the components of the scorecard in any organisation. This would make it easier to determine whether transformation has occurred.
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    Benchmarking the Technical Efficiency of South African Municipal Water Utilities: A Double-Bootstrap Dea Approach
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) Matutu, Amanda; Dikgang, Johane
    Efficiency enhancement in the water sector can help to optimise the use of available resources and mitigate the impact of climate change on water resources, while promoting sustainable water usage. Ultimately, this can lead to cost savings that may be channelled into enhancing service delivery and expanding access to water. Benchmarking is considered a useful method for improving water sector efficiency. The production frontier approach is the most commonly used technique for benchmarking, which can be computed using either non-parametric techniques, including data envelopment analysis (DEA), or parametric methods, including stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). A review of the literature reveals that DEA has become the most frequently used method for efficiency analysis in the water sector. Though a predictable approach, the DEA method may be influenced by measurement errors and anomalies, and it cannot be used to draw statistical conclusions. To address this problem, the double-bootstrap DEA technique was introduced, which permits statistical inference in DEA models. This technique helps the researcher to estimate efficiency scores that have been corrected for bias, and also identifies the factors that influence efficiency. For these reasons, this research employs double-bootstrap DEA to evaluate the efficiency scores of municipal water utilities in the South African water sector. The truncated double-bootstrap regression outcomes show that water consumer debt, consuming units receiving free water, and the effects of climate change (such as temperature variation and altered rainfall patterns) all impact the relative efficiencies of municipal water utilities. The results indicate notable distinctions in rankings and efficiency scores between the double-bootstrap DEA model and the traditional DEA model for both urban and rural municipal water utilities. Using the regression model, this research discovered that water consumer debt and consuming units receiving free water are significant factors influencing the efficiency of urban and rural municipal water utilities. These findings raise concerns about the prospects of South African municipal water utilities, particularly their ability to strike a balance between supporting indigent households and securing revenue for maintenance and future water infrastructure development, as well as efficiently managing water consumer debt and addressing the effects of climate change to deliver desired results consistently and sustainably.
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    Benchmarking the technical efficiency of south African municipal water utilities: a double bootstrap DEA approach
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Matutu, Amanda; Dikgang, Johane
    Efficiency enhancement in the water sector can help to optimise the use of available resources and mitigate the impact of climate change on water resources, while promoting sustainable water usage. Ultimately, this can lead to cost savings that may be channelled into enhancing service delivery and expanding access to water. Benchmarking is considered a useful method for improving water sector efficiency. The production frontier approach is the most commonly used technique for benchmarking, which can be computed using either non-parametric techniques, including data envelopment analysis (DEA), or parametric methods, including stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). A review of the literature reveals that DEA has become the most frequently used method for efficiency analysis in the water sector. Though a predictable approach, the DEA method may be influenced by measurement errors and anomalies, and it cannot be used to draw statistical conclusions. To address this problem, the double-bootstrap DEA technique was introduced, which permits statistical inference in DEA models. This technique helps the researcher to estimate efficiency scores that have been corrected for bias, and also identifies the factors that influence efficiency. For these reasons, this research employs double-bootstrap DEA to evaluate the efficiency scores of municipal water utilities in the South African water sector. The truncated double-bootstrap regression outcomes show that water consumer debt, consuming units receiving free water, and the effects of climate change (such as temperature variation and altered rainfall patterns) all impact the relative efficiencies of municipal water utilities. The results indicate notable distinctions in rankings and efficiency scores between the double-bootstrap DEA model and the traditional DEA model for both urban and rural municipal water utilities. Using the regression model, this research discovered that water consumer debt and consuming units receiving free water are significant factors influencing the efficiency of urban and rural municipal water utilities. These findings raise concerns about the prospects of South African municipal water utilities, particularly their ability to strike a balance between supporting indigent households and securing revenue for maintenance and future water infrastructure development, as well as efficiently managing water consumer debt and addressing the effects of climate change to deliver desired results consistently and sustainably.
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    The role of streamlining in digitalising business processes
    (2023-02) Kulabuna, Matondo Dunny
    The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has brought about digitalisation, which has impacted how we run business operations. It has created a radical change inconventional processes. Business leaders and professionals use digital technologies to enhance business processes and achieve higher efficiency. However, much focus is placed on the introduction of technology rather than on how it improves the existing business and delivers efficiency. The literature reports a controversial application of streamlining and digitalisation that has led to divergent views on business process improvement. Some authors believe there must be a sequential approach before introducing digitalisation, while others argue it depends on the opportunity to digitalise. This study explores the perspectives of South African business leaders on optimising and digitalising processes that seek higher efficiency. Thus, the conceptual framework is based on the principle of good operations, which promotes streamlining using techniques such as Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and Lean thinking before digitalisation with the Digital Assessment Tool (DAS) model. Nine business professionals were contacted via LinkedIn and interviewed in a one-on-one session using the interview guide in MS Teams. Specific questionswere asked about their experiences in business processes, streamlining, digitalisation, and how they achieved efficiency. The findings show that streamlining is how the As-Is business process can be improved in a non-sequential manner using management techniques (BPR and Lean) and digitalisation, which depends on the opportunities and requirements. Business leaders typically evaluate the outcome against the defined performance objectives, such as project deliverables, customer satisfaction, turnaround times, and other relevant goals to prove efficiency. The key message of this study is that streamlining is valuable in enhancing business processes, and efficiency is achieved when the business objectives are clearly defined and assessed. The study contributes to knowledge by clarifying the understanding of streamlining and recommending an assessment tool to guide business leaders' decision-making that looks at the efficiency impact to add value to the business.
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    The impact of exponential organisation methods on productivity in the marketing department of a South African telecommunication organisation
    (2020) Sebone, Khutšo M
    The world is progressing into the fourth industrial revolution; this era is also known as the digital era. Digitalisation has shown to improve not only operations but also customer experience. Exponential organisations are organisations which effectively exploit information abundance, technology and new leadership style to disrupt industries and yield 10X returns. The concept of exponential organisation and its claim of yielding 10X lacks academic literature most notably in the productivity field. This study aims to demonstrate using an analytical efficiency model Data Envelopment Analysis to analyse the impact of exponential organisation methods have on productivity in the telecommunication sector. The study is based on an experimental research design, exponential organisation lite methods were implemented within a marketing department. Kurt Lewin change management was used to implement the exponential organisation methods, the change management model provided a controlled environment with minimal productivity interruptions. Exponential methods MTP and Dashboards were implemented in two out of eight decision-making units. Golany and Cronbach Alpha were used to validate the reliability of the collected data. Through the application of data envelopment analysis tool, the collected data was analysed. The two decision-making units of concern yielded 3X and 5X efficiency improvement after exponential organisation methods were implemented. In conclusion, the obtained results were positive, the study needs to be continued on a longer time frame therefore allowing for all exponential organisation lite methods to be implemented.