Business School

Chaka Moloto Student Number: 9450242 Degree: Master in Business Administration (MBA) Faculty: Management Science University: Tshwane University of Technology PROACTIVE MEASURES TO CURB IRREGULAR EXPENDITURE IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT, HOUSING AND COMMUNITY AMENITIES CLUSTER IN SOUTH AFRICA

The introduction of Child Support Grant (CSG) in South Africa in 1998, gave rise to lots of unfounded rumours that it brings perverse incentives especially for teenagers to fall pregnant in order to access the grant. This research wants to determine whether there is a link between CSG and teenage fertility. The researcher in this research followed a triangulation of methods by using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Retrospective tables on CSG reports were analysed and correlation analysis was used to determine the link between the two variables. For qualitative data, in-depth interviews were conducted with teenage mothers and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The results obtained in this research suggests that there is no evidence that explicitly link CSG and teenage fertility rate except that there are other exogenous factors leading to the registration of the child for CSG.

The purpose of this study was to identify and understand customer perceptions about service quality (SQ) at a telecommunications retail outlet. The theory of Parasuraman,
Zeithaml and Berry (PZB) known as SERVQUAL was used to give theoretical grounding to the study.

The methodology used for this research was a quantitative approach whereby a questionnaire was used to collect primary data from a total of 200 customers using convenience sampling. The data tool used was Statistical Package for Social Science Software (SPSS) which helped describe respondents’ biographical information, cluster their perceptions using factor analysis technique and test the reliability of the research instrument using Cronbach's alpha. Data was further analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. For factor analysis, the results show that the KMO measure of sampling adequacy for this study is 0.723, which is considered to be good. For gap analysis, all five dimensions of reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness (RATER) were ranked by respondents as being equally important.

The Chronbach’s alpha for this study indicates that the reliability of the measuring instrument is 0.986, which shows an overall higher reliability factor than the Parasuraman et al study. The findings further show that in the perceptions section, all five RATER dimensions load into one factor, which indicates that according to customers, there is no real difference between the five dimensions; hence they were all given a ranking weight of 20% each.

The gap scores for all 22 questions were relatively small and the results show that on average, 89% of all the respondents were generally satisfied with the level of SQ at the retail outlet. The two largest gaps were on question 2 of reliability which deals with how the outlet’s employees show interest in solving customers’ problems, and on question 22 of responsiveness which deals with the employees’ availability to respond to customers’ requests. Therefore, it is recommended that management should focus on reducing the two gaps.

As rising unemployment levels continually erode job opportunities in South Africa, it is sensible to assume that entrepreneurship would be considered as the next-best career option; however, university graduates show very little interest in becoming entrepreneurs. Having observed this disinterest, South African economic policies have put in place initiatives encouraging youth entrepreneurship; however, these have failed to significantly affect the willingness to engage in entrepreneurial activities. It is against this background that this paper investigates barriers to entrepreneurship as experienced by students. A survey of 235 university students was conducted. Their views regarding entrepreneurship were collected by means of self-completion questionnaires and studied using cluster analysis. It was concluded that a taxonomy of two distinct categories of student exist -sceptics and optimists -based on respondents' predispositions to entrepreneurship barriers. The author identifies the themes that underlie the formation of the taxonomy, namely, family and social influence, exposure to entrepreneurial activity, entrepreneurial support, and education. The paper concludes with a discussion of practical solutions and strategies to mitigate the problem of a lack of student entrepreneurship.

Despite the exponential growth in cell phone usage in South Africa, from 13 million subscribers in 2002 to at least 49 million subscribers today, uptake of cell phone banking in the same period lags. Utilising Rogers' innovation adoption framework, this research examines banking consumers' perceptions of cell phone banking attributes, and how these may affect adoption. A survey of 124 cell phone users from Gauteng, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo Provinces participated in the study. Results indicate an improvement in cell phone banking uptake compared to past years. Perceptions of risk and security concerns appear to slow the adoption rate. While banking institutions have done a lot in launching cell phone banking, focussing attention on in-house promotion and customer demonstrations of cell phone banking may further improve adoption rate.

The Facebook phenomenon has revolutionised communication patterns especially among students and youths. Young adults increasingly integrate facebook into their daily lives. The commonly used features include chatting, uploading personal profiles, exchanging notes and study material. Several factors (for example, real-time interactive messaging, 3G mobile telephony, faster and cheaper Internet access) encourage social network sites (SNSs) and facebook adoption. While facebook started primarily as a social website connecting friends, many users have increasingly started using the platform for business, marketing and study purposes. However, despite the many opportunities for facilitating teaching and learning in universities, in particular promoting student instructor interaction, Facebook's usage in classrooms is still low. It was therefore deemed opportune to investigate students' perceptions of the SNS. The purposes of this study were to: (1) examine students' Facebook usage habits and (2) investigate the perceived usefulness of Facebook in education. Following the introduction of Facebook in a Business Management course, students' perceptions of Facebook were subsequently ascertained using constructs of the Rogers diffusion model. Data was collected from a sample of 194 undergraduate students using self-administered questionnaires. Findings confirm Facebook's popularity and utility in education. Results are discussed in the context of existing literature, and the paper concludes by proposing both theoretical and practical implications.

The mobile or cell phone has become the 21 st century icon. It is ubiquitous in the modern world, as an on-the-go talking device, an internet portal, a social networking platform, a personal organizer, and even a mobile bank. In the information age, it has become an important social accessory. Since it is relatively easy to use, portable and affordable, its diffusion continues to surpass that of other ICTs. Research increasingly suggests cell phone usage to be addictive, compulsive and habitual. Students are among the heavy users of mobile technologies, and accordingly, a 33-item questionnaire measuring addictive and habitual behaviour was administered to a sample of students. Results indicate that indeed mobile phone usage is not only habit-forming, it is also addictive; possibly the biggest non-drug addiction of the 21 st century.

The challenges associated with financial illiteracy are increasingly becoming a topical issue. Consequently, there is a growing body of literature explaining the antecedents and consequents of financial illiteracy. While most of these studies report on the experience from the developed world, very little is known on the subject matter in emerging economies. This study attempts to address this paucity in the body of knowledge by investigating the nature and extent of financial literacy in South Africa.

This study investigates factors influencing the choice of a primary health care doctor (PCD) in South Africa. Healthcare is important such that consumers embark on considerable effort when choosing a GP. While it is widely believed that patients' decisions to use a specific PCD is influenced by factors including consultation fees, medical aid accepted, geographic proximity, and third-party referrals, these claims largely remain largely unverified and untested. A PCD choice scale was administered to a sample of 205 healthcare consumers. Results suggest referrals of GP as being important.

Past and current studies indicate that, India is one of the fastest growing and most attractive economies in the world and has emerged as a desirable destination for Foreign Investment. Since 1991 India has been operating under strict policies which restricted the economy from an International trade, this drove more protectionism than open market trade. Indian government since 1991 introduced economic reform measures, to stimulate the economy. These reform measures in fiscal, reduction on the level of tariffs based on a large number of imports, exchange rate, the use of the exchange rate as the instrument for export promotion and trade policies. However, the reforms that were implemented in the Indian were not very different from the reforms undertaken by developing countries, the only alteration would be the swiftness with which they are implemented. India has one of the advantages which is the stability of its political climate. The current government and party that is in power ha...

The study explores the chronological growth of Indian Biotechnology. Applicability of Lotka's law has been examined for the authorship pattern. Productivity of authors is analyzed and a list of 35 authors publishing more than 10 publications is given. Bradford's law of scattering is used to identify the core journals which cover most of the research and development output of Indian Biotechnology. The study also shows the active authors, institutions and statewise distributions of Indian Biotechnology research output.

The paper presents a bibliometric study of library and information science research literature emanating from India based on the data abstracted in Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA). Standard bibliometric techniques are employed to analyse the collected data and accordingly get indicators. Bradford’s law of scattering is used to identify core journals of library and information science wherein Indian authors publish their research output. To understand the productivity pattern of authors, Lotka’s Law has been applied. The identified core journals are mostly published from India. Indian authors’ contribution in‘ international journals is very low. A list of authors who have published 10 and more papers during 1967-2004 is drawn and presented. Such authors are 37 (1.35%) in number and authors with single publication have major share (74.63%). The author’s productivity pattern is in conformity to Lotka’s law.

The present wave of 'economic globalization'is generally involved the process of growing interdependence of locations and economic units across countries and regions (Narula & Zanfei 2005). With the increasing globalization of production, international economics is changing rapidly. The unprecedented technological change in modern time and the increasing significance of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) are the primary reason of this globalization process (Katz et al 1996, UNCTAD 2009).

Globally knowledge parks are encouraged as a source of economic competitiveness of a region and economy. Following the developed countries model of knowledge parks, many developing countries are also promoting technology parks. In India, central as well as various state governments have encouraged science parks in different locations. This study maps the knowledge production by science parks, particularly the Indian Biotechnology Parks. Publication records from Scopus databases are used to map the growth of publications, major areas of activities, the productive institutions and collaboration patterns among top actors. The result shows that scholarly publications from these parks have increased significantly in the last decade. However, the number is very less in terms of global publication share. The maximum publications are from the physical science areas, followed by life science subjects. Collaboration patterns show that Indian educational institutes are collaborating with the entities located very close by the parks. However, collaborations among industry and academia are very limited.

Government of India has formed National Green Tribunal (NGT) during the year 2010. NGT is a ‘quasi-judicial’ body exclusively deals with the environment related civil litigations.  Before NGT has evolved, there were two previous efforts to establish green courts in India. These were National Environment Tribunal Act, of 1995 (NETA) and National Environment Appellate Authority Act, of 1997 (NEAA). However, the most effective environment court in the form of NGT has come into reality in 2010. After its establishment, NGT has settled many environmental issues and has got overwhelm response from different corners. This study conducted an empirical analysis of NGT judgments since its inception in October 2010 to December 2013. It analyzes the impact of NGT, the locations of conflicts. Special emphasis is given to the Coastal Zone management related conflicts settled in NGT. Although there many limitations in NGT act and its procedures, it can be viewed as a positive step towards the environmental justice in India.

This paper analyses growth pattern, core journals and authors' distribution in the field of bibliometrics using data from Library And Information Science Abstracts (LISA). Growth of literature does not show any definite pattern. Bradford's law of scattering is used to identify core journals and determines' Scientometrics' as the