Andrisha Beharry-Ramraj

Planned obsolescence has become a strategy adopted by large corporations, for products to be produced with surprisingly short useful life spans. These shorter than expected product life spans ensure that consumers make regular repeat purchases of their favorite items. The monopoly of obsolescence of products is no longer the producers’ prerogative and this by itself leads to unplanned obsolescence basically led by the consumers choice. This research study looks into consumer’s attitudes and perceptions of their favorite lifestyle brands. This is on the basis that less is known on unplanned obsolescence, which arises from the consumers conduct. This work also investigates why consumers replace products, even though these products are most often still seen as fully functional. This social constructivism study has adopted a quantitative approach through the use of self-administered questionnaires. The 300 participants of the study on which this article is based were selected from the Durban of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and were chosen through stratified random sampling. The study was further cross generational, in order to examine how consumers attitudes change as they become older. It was found that despite knowing the truth relating to the phenomenon consumers were willing to remain loyal

Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) function in both the micro and macro environments, and are subject to internal and external forces in most economies. The monitoring of the external and internal factors and vital strategies by SMME owners and stakeholders including government and supporting institutions is necessary to attempt a reduction in their failure rates. Literature supports this proposition in the development of SMMEs.
The aim of this study was to analyze the environmental factors that result in a low rate of success and a high failure rate of SMMEs in Maseru the capital city of Lesotho. Primary data for this study was collected through questionnaires which were distributed to a sample of 250 SMMEs owners, however, only 180 respondents completed and returned questionnaires, which were then used for data analysis. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS21). The findings revealed that there still persists inadequacy in financial assistance and the need to develop a financial strategy by the state. Government key intervention is proposed to enable growth and development in a sector that sustains job creation and poverty reduction through financial strategy. Further research on how the sector establishes support is also proposed.

South African universities have embraced a drive to internationalize in view of globalization. One of the widely adopted measures towards internationalization has been the recruitment of international postgraduate scholars. The rationale is to draw diverse knowledge and expertise from the international students. However, the University of KwaZulu Natal’s Westville campus has not managed to attract a significant number of international scholars. The trend suggests that the university is unable to meet the expectations of international postgraduate students with regards to service delivery. The suggestion is premised on the argument that the previous and current international postgraduate students have not been satisfied with the service quality to stimulate other foreign postgraduate student enrolments through positive word of mouth. The main objective of the study was to confirm the assertions while exposing the gaps between their expectations and perceptions of service delivery at the university. The SERVQUAL model was used to guide the assessment of service quality among the research participants. The study adopted quantitative methodologies and data was drawn from international postgraduate students who were enrolled at the institution during the academic year 2016. The findings revealed that the international postgraduate students were dissatisfied with the levels of service at the university. Specifically, the study exposed gaps across all the five dimensions of service quality, namely reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles. It was concluded that the management at the university should institute deliberate measures to improve service quality, especially towards international postgraduate students.