Research Outputs (Economics and Finance)

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    Measuring the causal effect of women’s schooling on contraceptive use in Nigeria
    (Routledge, 2019-09-03) Ajefu, J.B.
    This paper uses the 2008 Nigerian Demographic Health Survey to investigate the effect of women’s schooling on contraceptive use. In order to control for endogeneity of women’s schooling, this paper uses an instrumental variable approach, with the free primary education programme in Nigeria introduced from 1976 to 1981, as an instrument for women’s schooling. The paper finds that the education of women increases the probability of using contraceptives. Disaggregating the results between traditional and modern contraceptive use, the results show a positive and significant impact of women’s education on both modern and traditional contraceptive use. The findings of the study lend credence to the evidence that birth control measures can lead to better timing and spacing of births that allow women to significantly expand their economic opportunities and life prospects. These have implications for women’s economic empowerment and gender equality, which are vital for any sustainable development policy.
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    Structure and an unstable business operating environment: Revisiting burns and stalker’s organisation-environment theory in zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector
    (AOSIS (pty) Ltd, 2019-12-10) Sibindi, N; Samuel, O.M
    Background: Turbulent socioeconomic contexts coupled with volatile political environments pose a serious survival threat to business organisations. Complex operational environment of this dimension most often resists application of conventional management theories and practices. Organisational managers are therefore constantly challenged to adopt contingency strategies that will not only keep their organisations afloat, but also entrench competitive advantage that could effectively sustain operations. Aim: To update Burns and Stalker’s theory on structure and business environments. Setting: The dynamics of the Zimbabwe’s economy has assumed an extraordinary proportion of complexity due to intractable political instability and hostile economic environment. Methods: Using a survey research design and employing quantitative research strategy, this article examines the underlining propositions that defined the seminal work of Burns and Stalker regarding strategy adoption by organisations in a dynamic operating environment. Primary data was collected from 189 randomly selected managers in 350 manufacturing firms operating in Zimbabwe using a structured questionnaire. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Results: The major finding of the present study suggests that firms adopt a hybrid structure when confronted with an unstable operating environment. Conclusion: The finding is inconsistent with that of Burns and Stalker, who concluded that firms adopt organic structure in an unstable operating environment. While Burns and Stalker’s study was conducted in a relatively stable socioeconomic context, the present study was conducted in an operating environment that is characterised by turbulent socioeconomic and political instability. These environmental divergences could have influenced the outcome of both studies. © 2019. The Authors.
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    Subjective well-being impact of old age pension in South Africa: A difference in difference analysis across the gender divide
    (AOSIS (pty) Ltd, 2019-12-06) Umakrishnan, K; Mfongeh, N. E
    Background: South Africa provides old age pension (OAP), a non-contributory means-tested income transfer to persons aged 60 and above. More than two-thirds of the elderly population report receiving the OAP. Women have historically had a lower pension eligibility age of 60, while the eligibility of men decreased from 65 to 60 between 2008 and 2010. Aim: This study analyses the impact of the OAP on the subjective well-being of the elderly in South Africa. The study aims at understanding the differential impact on the subjective wellbeing of male and female recipients. Methods: The study adopts the difference in difference (DiD) impact evaluation framework to establish the impact of OAP using a sub-sample of data for elderly persons aged between 55 and 64, collected from the first four waves of the National Income Dynamics study. Linear and non-linear DiD models are estimated as robustness checks given the ordinal nature of the dependent variable. Results: The OAP variable consistently produced positive and significant estimates for the sample as a whole. Further, anticipatory effect of OAP was not found to exist. A gender specific analysis indicates that female recipients have a positive and significant change in well-being as a result of OAP, while male recipients did not. Conclusion: The difference in the well-being impact of OAP between male and female recipients can be attributed to the gender difference in the use and meaning of pensions. Our findings question the uniform criteria introduced for male and female recipients for OAP in South Africa.
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    Preventing compulsive shopping among young South-Africans and Germans
    (Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., 2019-04-15) Duh, H; Thorsten, T.b
    Purpose: Young consumers globally are susceptible to becoming compulsive shoppers. Having negative consequences and considering that compulsive shopping may originate from past family life experiences, this study aims to use human capital life-course and positive-activity theories to suggest a socio-psychological pathway for prevention. It also examined the mediating influence of happiness and money attitude. Design/methodology/approach: University students in South Africa (N = 171) and in Germany (N = 202) were surveyed. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test relationships and multi-group analysis (MGA) assessed cross-cultural differences. Findings: Emotional family resources received during childhood positively impacted happiness at young adulthood, which was found to be a positive driver of budget money attitude. Budget money attitude in turn limited compulsive shopping for German young consumers but not for South Africans. Cross-cultural differences are also observed in mediating effects of happiness and budget money attitude. Research limitations/implications: This study is based on self-reported data from university students; this might limit the generalisability of findings. Social implications: A positive relationship between happiness and desirable money attitude was confirmed. This study additionally contributes by showing that for South African and German young consumers, adequate childhood emotional family resources is a happiness’ driver. This thus exposes the multiplier effects of simple acts of showing love and attention to children and how these family emotional resources can progressively limit dysfunctional consumer behaviour in the future. Originality/value: Unlike complex psychotherapeutical and psychopharmacological treatments of compulsive buying that are being suggested, this study borrows from family, consumer and economic–psychological disciplines to suggest simple preventive measures. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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    Lakatos revisited: Innovation and ‘Novel facts’ as a foundational logic for the social sciences in an era of ‘Post-truth’ and pseudoscience
    (Cogent OA, 2019-01-01) Callaghan, C.W.
    : In what seems to be a “post-truth” era this paper argues that management theory development is necessary to provide insights into how to manage the academic research, or discovery system, itself, as it no longer seems clear that its explicit purpose, as per Lakatos’s argument, is the development of theory that predicts “novel facts.” This logic questions the extent to which the social science research system is inherently innovative. To explore these issues, the topic of pseudoscience is used as a heuristic, in order to derive an understanding of how the purpose of the discovery system seems to be understood by different stakeholders. In doing so, this paper explores how researchers may need to manage their research fields to negotiate contested academic terrain and develop what Lakatos refers to as progressive research programmes. It is argued that hypervigilance and overly conservative gatekeeping in response to threats of pseudoscience can run deep in the structure of academic engagement, contributing to a paradigm of constrained innovation. Drawing from post-normal science theory, a conceptual framework is identified for how these problems might be addressed by a focus on the development of scalability in the research process itself, without compromising rigor.
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    The effect of transformational leadership on intention to quit through perceived organisational support, organisational justice and trust
    (AOSIS (pty) Ltd, 2019) Engelbrecht, A; Samuel, O.M
    Background: The literature has extensively presented evidence to establish that employee turnover is costly and destructive to organisational processes and outcomes. Organisations in South Africa are experiencing a high rate of turnover and it is becoming increasingly difficult to retain employees whose skills are critical to organisational success. This provides a compelling necessity to direct research attention to turnover intention in order to avoid actual turnover. Aim: The purpose of this article was to use partial least squares to test the relationships among selected antecedents of intention to quit. Setting: The study was conducted using employees in organisations that were surveyed in both public and private sectors in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng provinces of South Africa. Methods: The study employed a survey research design using a quantitative research strategy. Data collected from 207 conveniently sampled respondents were used to validate a structural model developed through the review of existing literature. A standardised measurement instrument consisting of all the variables under investigation was used for data collection. Results: The results indicate the following path sequences in predicting employee turnover intention: Transformational leadership through perceived organisational support and transformational leadership through organisational justice impact intention to quit. However, the path sequence from transformational leadership through organisational trust impacting intention to quit was not confirmed. Conclusion: A replication of this study using a longitudinal research design is recommended in order to overcome the methodological limitations of the current study. The conceptual model developed in this study provides relationships that could be used as guidelines to effectively manage the retention of key employees in organizations. © 2019. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS.
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    An exploratory perspective of student performance and access to resources
    (Mediterranean Center of Social and Educational Research, 2014-11-01) Papageorgiou, E; Callaghan, C.W
    This research investigated the relationships between potential constraints to students’ access to technological resources and student academic performance. Longitudinal data from 2010 (n=228), 2011 (n=340) and 2012 (n=347) from South African accounting students was used to test the relationships between technological resources access and student academic performance using correlation analysis, multiple linear regression analysis and factor analysis. Access to the latest software was found to be associated with student academic performance; a ‘digital divide’ between students may influence their academic performance. This research specifically identifies certain constraints potentially associated with a ‘digital divide’ that may influence student performance.
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    South African business in the transition to democracy
    (2019-01-02) Michie, J; Padayachee, V
    The transition to democracy in South Africa represents one of the most celebrated political moments of the late 20th C. While much has been said about the narrowly political and constitutional aspects of this period in South African and world history, little has been said about economic policy choices made in the transition years, or about the role of business in the transition or indeed about how business of all kinds responded to the changes. This collection of essays written by some of the leading scholars of South African business represents one of the first attempts to cover this lacunae in the literature. In the Introductory essay we review the context for these changes in politics and business relations, and summarise the findings of the papers that follow. © 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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    Does having children affect women’s entrepreneurship decision? Evidence from Nigeria
    (2019-05-16) Ajefu, J B
    This paper investigates the impact of fertility on women’s entrepreneurship decision in Nigeria, using the 2008 and 2013 cross-sectional Demographic Health Surveys data. In order to mitigate the potential endogeneity associated with fertility decision, the study explores an exogenous variation in family size using twin births in an instrumental variable (IV) analysis. Both the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) estimate show that having children is positively associated with women’s entrepreneurship decision, and there are heterogeneous effects across the subsamples by women’s age. The results of this study are robust to using the number of children younger than age five in the home as an alternative definition of fertility.
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    Facebook communication and marketing influence on decision-making and choice of university student representatives : a student’s perspective
    (SNSPA - Facultatea de Comunicare și Relații Publice, 2019) Chininga, Tapiwa; Rungani, Ellen; Chilliya, Norman; Chuchu, Tinashe
    Facebook has become the main platform for young adults to sustain their social presence as well as expand their social networks. The impact of social media on youth decision-making has attracted much attention in research and academia. The research setting was at University of Fort Hare, a university located in South Africa. Before and during a student representative council (SRC) election at the university, the six student parties contesting for the leadership office utilised Facebook in communicating and marketing their campaign messages to fellow students. This research therefore empirically investigated how Facebook influenced university students’ intention to vote and elect an SRC for the institution. The survey methodology was adopted in collecting data and non-probability sampling, a form of convenience sampling was utilised in selection of suitable participants for the study. A total of 381 students participated in the study responding to questions examining potential drivers of selection of a particular student representative party (SRP). A conceptual model was developed with Facebook constructs that included “medium credibility of Facebook”, “peer communication on Facebook” and “user trust of Facebook” among other factors that influence students’ choice of an (SRP). The main findings established that identification with peers was observed as having the most significant impact on youths’ intention to vote for student representatives. Message credibility was found to have weak impact on student’s intention to vote for a particular (SRC) candidate. Implications emerged from the findings and further research suggestions were provided.
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    Immigration Internal Migration and Crime in South Africa A multilevel model analysis
    (Wiley Online Library, 2019-09) Kollamparambil, U
    A review of South African literature on crime confirms the lack of a study that considers the impact of migration on the crime rate in the country. The high levels of crime in South Africa aside, additional motivation behind the study has been the increasing rhetoric in media and by politicians insinuating the prominent role of foreign immigrants in the high crime levels of the country. While this is the first attempt to study this relationship in the South African context, it also stands apart from existing studies undertaken in the developed countries by accounting for both internal migrants as well as foreign immigrants. Further, the study claims the use of multi-level regression estimations as an improvement from the existing studies on the issue by accounting for variance clustering across different spatial levels. In all the estimated models, internal migrant ratio came out as being positively and significantly related to crime rates across five different crime categories, with the sole exception of sexual crime rate. There was no evidence of foreign immigrant ratio impacting on crime rate in any of the crimes analysed except crime relating to property. Further, income inequality and sex ratio figure as determining factors across most types of crime in South Africa. © The Authors 2018. Development Policy Review © 2018 Overseas Development Institute
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    The effect of transformational leadership on intention to quit through perceived organisational support organisational justice and trust
    (AOSIS (pty) Ltd, 2019) Engelbrecht, , A; Samuel, O.M.
    Background: The literature has extensively presented evidence to establish that employee turnover is costly and destructive to organisational processes and outcomes. Organisations in South Africa are experiencing a high rate of turnover and it is becoming increasingly difficult to retain employees whose skills are critical to organisational success. This provides a compelling necessity to direct research attention to turnover intention in order to avoid actual turnover. Aim: The purpose of this article was to use partial least squares to test the relationships among selected antecedents of intention to quit. Setting: The study was conducted using employees in organisations that were surveyed in both public and private sectors in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng provinces of South Africa. Methods: The study employed a survey research design using a quantitative research strategy. Data collected from 207 conveniently sampled respondents were used to validate a structural model developed through the review of existing literature. A standardised measurement instrument consisting of all the variables under investigation was used for data collection. Results: The results indicate the following path sequences in predicting employee turnover intention: Transformational leadership through perceived organisational support and transformational leadership through organisational justice impact intention to quit. However, the path sequence from transformational leadership through organisational trust impacting intention to quit was not confirmed. Conclusion: A replication of this study using a longitudinal research design is recommended in order to overcome the methodological limitations of the current study. The conceptual model developed in this study provides relationships that could be used as guidelines to effectively manage the retention of key employees in organizations. © 2019. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS.
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    An investigation into the factors influencing the purchase intentions of smart wearable technology by students
    (International Association of Online Engineering, 2019) Nkonko, E.K.; Chiliya, N; Chuchu, T; Ndoro, T
    The purpose of this study was to examine the factors which influence the purchase intentions of Smart wearable technology by students in South Africa. The researchers, guided by literature developed a conceptual framework with five constructs, namely, product quality, design, price, consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. The study followed a quantitative research design. Data was collected from 416 registered students at a selected higher education institution in South Africa who were older than 18 years. Data analysis techniques comprised of structural equation modelling which focused on confirmatory factory analysis to confirm conceptual relations and causal relations between the factors. SPSS 23 and AMOS 23 software were used to perform the data analysis. The results revealed that product quality and product design had a significant positive effect on purchase intentions. Price and attitudes were found to be mediating the effect of product quality and product design on purchase intentions. The paper contributes to existing literature on the purchase intentions of Smart wearable technology. Furthermore, it provides technology organisations with adequate insight into the factors which influence the purchase of Smart wearable technology. © 2019 International Association of Online Engineering.
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    Supply chain partnership, supply chain collaboration and supply chain integration as the antecedents of supply chain performance
    (AOSIS, 2019-02-26) Mofokeng, T.M.; Chinomona, R
    Background: It is understood that improving performance has become an important objective of supply chains. As such, strategies have been adopted as an effort towards increasing performance. Amongst these strategies, partnership, collaboration and integration have been identified. A mutual advantage of these approaches is that they facilitate cohesion between parties where knowledge and resources are pooled together and shared with the purpose of achieving optimum results. However, it is observed that the extent to which partnership, collaboration and integration affect supply chain performance collectively is a research void. Objectives: This study intended to examine the influence of partnership, collaboration and integration on supply chain performance, particularly within the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. The theory of relational view was adopted to support the study’s conceptual model. Method: The study used SmartPLS to analyse the data. Results: Three hypotheses were empirically substantiated using a sample of 271 SMEs situated in Gauteng. Conclusion: The findings revealed that the research constructs partnership, collaboration and integration influence supply chain performance in a positive way. Implications of the study are further provided. © 2019. The Authors.
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    A review of South Africa’s National Research Foundation’s ratings methodology from a social science perspective
    (Academy of Science of South Africa, 2018) Callaghan, C
    One of South Africa's National Research Foundation's (NRF) activities is to award ratings to academics who apply according to predefined categories. Explicitly or not, these ratings are part of submissions academics make for promotions and for employment in South African universities. As such, methodological assessment of the validity of this system is important. This paper seeks to conceptually evaluate certain characteristics of this system against certain general principles of reliability and validity. On the basis of the results of this evaluation, it is argued that assumptions that the NRF rating system is always valid or reliable as a differentiator of individual academics cannot be made unconditionally. Using Management Science as an example of a social science field that draws from multidisciplinary theoretical and methodological frameworks, this paper identifies certain validity issues associated with the current NRF rating system, and makes recommendations for improvements. Significance: •Certain validity issues are highlighted and arguments are made to improve the methodology used by the NRF to rate researchers. •Issues related to multidisciplinarity and mode two knowledge production are considered. •Technological advances that have made it possible for scientific measurement of research productivity and impact are discussed. •Problems with subjective methodologies are identified, together with their ethical consequences. © 2018 The Author(s).
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    Business rescue practices in South Africa: An explorative view
    (AOSIS (pty) Ltd, 2018-06-20) Naidoo, T; Patel, A; Padia, N
    Given the seemingly low rate of success of the current business rescue regime (at just 13.6% as at June 2015), this study sought to identify whether the current business rescue regime in South Africa realises its intended objectives and why this meeting of objectives or failure to do so may be the case. It focuses on practical issues and the investigation is undertaken through interviews with business rescue practitioners who are the facilitators of business rescue. The findings show that there is a lack of clarity in the definition of success which may be cause for concern and that, despite its consistency with other jurisdictions, in the views of practitioners, the success rate is expected to improve. The study finds that there is a lack of prompt action when signs of financial distress are noted and a lack of funding for companies in business rescue. The experience of the practitioner has a significant impact on the success or failure of the rescue and may be one of the reasons for the current low rate of success of the regime, while the specific qualifications of the practitioner play a smaller role. The plan is imperative but there is often a lack of information and insufficient time allocated to its preparation. Consistency of Court judgements also has a bearing on success of business rescue, while consistency with provisions of other jurisdictions is not considered to be important.
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    Can progressive macroeconomic policy address growth and employment while reducing inequality in South Africa
    (2019) Padayachee, M
    This article aims to set out some progressive, mainly post-Keynesian, macroeconomic policy ideas for debate and further research in the context of macroeconomic challenges faced by South Africa today. Despite some successes, including at reducing poverty, the South African economy has been characterised by low growth, rising unemployment and increasing inequality, which together with rampant corruption and governance failures combine to threaten the very core of the country’s stability and democracy. The neo-liberal economic policies that the African National Congress–led government surprisingly adopted in 1996 in order to assuage global markets sceptical of its historical support for dirigiste economic policy, have simply not worked. Appropriate progressive macroeconomic interventions are urgently needed to head off the looming prospect of a failed state in the country which Nelson Mandela led to democracy after his release from prison in February 1990. What happens in Africa’s southern tip should still matter for progressives all around the world. The article draws on both history and theory to demonstrate the roots of such progressive heterodox economic thinking and support for a more carefully coordinated activist state-led macroeconomic policy, both in general terms and in the South African context. It shows that such approaches to growth and development – far from being populist – also have a rich history and respectable theoretical pedigree behind them and are worthy of inclusion in the South African policy debate.
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    Measuring the effect of Evaluation Capacity Building Initiatives in Africa: A review
    (African Evaluation Journal, 2017-04-26) Ms Candice, Morkel; Mr Mokgophana, Ramasobana
    The growing demand for evidence to support policy decisions, guide resource allocation and demonstrate results has elevated the need for expertise in monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Despite the mushrooming of short courses in M&E, their impact on improving the capacity to meet the demand has not been adequately and comprehensively measured or evaluated. The purpose of this article was to highlight the need for improving the measurement of evaluation capacity building (ECB) to better understand what works in building M&E capacity in Africa.
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    The impact of corporate rebranding on brand equity and firm performance
    Nana, S; Tobias, M.J; Chiliya, N
    Rebranding has become a very important strategic tool for companies wanting to succeed in this ever-competitive business world using the principles of rebranding. Companies may occasionally discover that they may have to re-position the brand because customers change preferences and new competitors enter the market. Moreover, a strong brand enhances positive evaluations of a product’s quality, maintains a high level of product awareness, and provides a consistent image or brand personality. To keep up with fierce competition, companies may seek to transform their business due to changing business directions or adding extra business units. The main purpose of this study was therefore, to investigate the influence of rebranding on brand equity and firm performance. This study was quantitative in nature. Data were collected from 372 respondents using anonymously completed questionnaires. Research scales were operationalised on the basis of previous work. Proper modifications were made in order to fit the research context and purpose. “Rebranding” measure used five-item scales; “Store Layout” used a five item scale measure; “Franchising” used three item measure, “Brand Equity”; “ Perceived Quality “, “Brand Associations and Attributes” and “Firm Performance” all used a five item scale measure while “an customer experience ” used a six item scale measure. All measurement items were measure on a five-point Likert-type scale that was anchored by 1=strongly agree to 5= strongly disagree to express degree of agreement. The seven posited hypotheses were empirically tested. The results supported three hypotheses in a significant way and rejected four hypotheses. Important to note about the study findings is the fact that rebranding has no effect on the firm’s brand equity although brand equity has an influence on the firm’s performance. Notably too, the relationship between customer experience and firm performance is robust. This finding indicates that brand equity can have a strong influence without the influence of rebranding. A major implication for this study is that rebranding is a risky operation that needs to be carefully managed.
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    R&D failure and second generation R&D: New potentialities
    (2014) Callaghan, CW
    Ample incentives exist for firms to pursue product, service, or process innovations to increase their profitability. In contrast, few incentives exist for firms to pursue innovations that provide social externalities if these are not inherently profitable. This article provides an argument that first generation research and development (R&D), or R&D that does not utilise economies of scale (as second generation R&D does), cannot effectively provide societal innovation that is not incentivised by market forces. An example of an alternative model for global societal problem solving, based on second generation R&D, is offered.