Issue #4 (cont.) (Volume 14 2016)

The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of residents staying in suburbs and townships regarding the service delivered by a municipality under administration. The South African literature shows that residents in different locations behave differently when they receive poor service delivery from municipalities. Internationally, service delivery by municipalities has been measured using two research instruments. The research design was a survey and the sample size was 522 respondents. The convenient sampling technique was used to select them. The primary data were collected via face-to-face interviews, and a validated services perception (SERVPERF) questionnaire, developed by Cronin and Taylor, was adapted and used to collect data. The main finding of the study was that residents in the townships did not organize themselves and voice their dissatisfaction by embarking on protests, and they significantly agreed (Odds ratio = 0.54; P = 0.005; 95 confidence interval = 0.3516; 0.8279), more than the suburbs residents, that in the past eight months the service had improved. The study concludes with recommendations for future research and implications for municipal managers.

Keywords: Hirschman theory, service delivery, SERVPERF, suburbs and townships residents.
JEL Classification: M31

One of the challenges facing government departments is the high loss of scarce-skilled employees. When examining departmental processes and procedures, observations were that the organization concerned was experiencing a leadership transition crisis in the absence of the implementation of succession planning. In order to ameliorate this challenge, it is prudent that research into factors and perception of employees on succession planning be conducted to assist with planning of retaining scarce skills and training of employees. A corresponding research study was performed to determine factors related to succession planning, the perceptions of employees and the way different demographic categories perceived succession planning.
The response rate of a questionnaire was 34.72%. The items that loaded high were investigated for common themes and four factors emerged after factor analysis, namely organizational support programs, supervisor support, attraction of talent and a performance management system. The findings also indicated that there was a significant difference between groups in the organizational support program in terms of years of service and supervisor support among employees varying in position at the 5% level of significance. The most important implications for managers resulting from this study are that management development by way of succession planning contributes to employee satisfaction and improves the overall outcomes of the organization. Therefore, it can be recommended that there should be personal involvement by top and senior management in terms of personal accountability and responsibility for growing leaders and linking factors related to succession planning to organizational strategy and human resources strategy.

Keywords: succession planning, leadership, talent management, career management, training and development, performance management system.
JEL Classification: J21

The aims of this project are to manage the risk of a community engagement project, improve managerial of SME owners in the Tshwane community and promote CE scholarship engagement. CE opportunities as well as the high failure rate of SMEs motivated the lecturers of the Department Marketing and Retail to initiate training workshops in their community. This CE project SME skills transfer workshops aims to expand the involvement with the community and develop community engagement projects in addition also transfer managerial skills to SME owners in the community. Quantitative, exploratory research was used in the form of questionnaires with owners of SMEs participating in the workshops. The conducted research established that the most successful advertising medium is wall painting. With this community engagement project it had been reached 200 SMEs. It has been promoted CE scholarship engagement and manage the risk of this project. One of the secondary objectives was to manage the risk of this project. The results in table 1 indicate that the risk is managed adequately. This project is not considered as a high risk project for the university. The aims were achieved as evidence of transferring of managerial skills; managing risk of the project, promotion of CE scholarship and publishing articles through our CE project were achieved.

Keywords: SME managerial skills transfer, risk management, community engagement, Tshwane community, advertising media, advertising key success factors, word of mouth.
JEL Classification: M37

One of the legacies of Apartheid South Africa which has ominous consequences for the economy, is the insidious dire skills shortage for majority of the citizens. Compelling government to embark on an intensive wholesale skills development to ameliorate and stimulate the general economic performance. This paper therefore, explored the relationship between employee organizational commitment and skills development transfer. A longitudinal study, with a pre- and post-quasi experimental research design was adopted in this paper employing Organizational Climate (OC) instrument to collect data from 59 randomly selected TVET college employees. The study revealed significant correlation between organizational commitment and skills development transfer. For example, appreciative of the access to training opportunities, involvement and frequency of training, sense of belonging, an indicative of the affective organizational commitment, with meagre 23% indicating intention to use acquired new skills to look for greener pastures elsewhere. This paper attempts to assist organizations better tailor their training provision to align it with certain desirable behavioral patterns, so as to enhance organizational commitment and reduce the turnover rate of staff.

Keywords: TVET colleges, skills transfer, organizational commitment, staff turnover, performance
JEL Classification: D23

This study attempts to identify and quantify factors that adversely affect the growth and development of emerging contractors in the construction industry of Limpopo Province in South Africa. The study is based on a stratified random sample of 229 emerging contractors who operate in the construction industry of Limpopo Province. The degree of entrepreneurial skills in emerging contractors was assessed by using a composite index defined by Beck and Demirguc-Kunt (2012). Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used for data collection and analysis. The study found that 139 of the 229 emerging contractors selected for the study (60.70%) lacked entrepreneurial skills by the standards of Beck and Demirguc-Kunt (2012), whereas 90 of them (40.18%) had adequate entrepreneurial skills by the same standards. The study also showed that 141 of the 229 emerging contractors in the study (61.57%) lacked basic skills in construction engineering. More than half of the contractors in the study had disadvantaged backgrounds in terms of technical and entrepreneurial skills as well as capital and access to finance. The study found that 122 of the 229 emerging contractors (53.28%) were viable financially while the remaining 107 emerging contractors (46.72%) were not viable financially. Results obtained from the study showed that viability in emerging contractors was significantly influenced by barriers such as lack of construction engineering skills, lack of entrepreneurial skills, lack of access to finance, inability to network with well-established contractors, inability to draw up business plans, and delay in payment for services rendered, in a decreasing order of strength.

Keywords: construction industry, emerging contractors, Limpopo Province.
JEL Classification: C5, M21

Researched and identified risks for the formation of collaboration alliance between the state, regions and extractive enterprises in the redistribution of natural resource rents. Focused attention on the negative consequences of reconciling the interests of the participants of collaboration alliance to form a risk minimization strategy and implementation collaboration alliances mechanism.

Keywords: collaboration risks, social responsibility, rental income, natural resource rents.
JEL Classification: M1

Small businesses are a crucial element of and a major contributor to the economy and society. They not only provide economic stability for their owners but also meet the needs of society and businesses. Effective marketing communication is needed so that society and business can be informed about the products and services on offer to satisfy their needs. A variety of marketing communication tools can be used by SMMEs to communicate with society and business. This research explores the utilization of these marketing communication tools by SMMEs located in Soweto, Johannesburg. The data were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire that was circulated and hand-delivered to a sample of SMMEs in Soweto. The findings revealed that SMMEs in Soweto rely more on human interaction, such as word-of-mouth (WOM) and personal selling, to promote their business than on technology-driven tools such as the internet.

Keywords: SMMEs, integrated marketing communication, traditional marketing communication, Soweto, promotion.
JEL Classification: M31

The purpose of this study was to examine and evaluate SMEs’ implementation of minimum accounting practices which are some of the real underlying symptoms that lead to small and medium-size (SMEs) business failures, especially in rural and semi-urban areas. The study was conducted in Thohoyandou, the Central Business District (CBD) of Thulamela Municipality in the Vhembe district in Limpopo province, South Africa. The study used data based on responses to a structured questionnaire from randomly selected SMEs in Thohoyandou, an area whose SME business environment is similar to the challenges and opportunities faced by many other rural and semi-urban areas in South Africa. Due to cost and time constraints, the study sample was limited to 40 SMEs. The study findings confirm that SMEs often fail to comply with fundamental accounting practices like maintaining complete accounting records, which limits business information vital for decision making, as they think there is no need to keep them and that it exposes their financial position. The relevance of the study is to show how non-adherence to adequate accounting practices can negatively affect SMEs financial performance which consequently contribute to their inevitable failure. The study recommends development of training policy guidelines to sensitize SMEs of the need to comply with relevant accounting practices including internal controls and the legal requirements.

Keywords: accounting practices, SMEs, symptoms, record keeping, failures.
JEL Classification: M41

Most studies on entrepreneurship have highlighted the relative importance of a conducive environment for the development of entrepreneurship. This notwithstanding, entrepreneurship has been noted to thrive even under the most adverse conditions, such as during economic, social and political instabilities. Using resilience as the propensity to bounce back after adversity and xenophobia, crime, unhealthy competition, etc. as correlates of adversity or an unconducive business environment, this paper investigated the preponderance of Somali grocery shops in South African township despite the perceived hostility of the business environment. Anchored on the qualitative research approach, a purposive sample of 13 participants provided the required data for analysis. Specifically, the data collection took the form of focus group interviews in which two groups of 6 and 7 informants were purposively selected to be part of the interviews. Prominent in the results was the fact that almost all the current Somali grocery shops in the study area have been victims of crime and theft. Furthermore, virtually all the Somali grocery shops that were victimized during the xenophobic outburst have since re-opened. The foregoing themes of resilience and adversity unmistakably indicate the propensity of Somali grocery shop owners’ ability to bounce back. As to what township entrepreneurs worry or fear most, clearly the fear of the re-occurrence of the xenophobic attacks surpassed that of burglary, theft and death. As to what fuels Somali’s persistence and preponderance in townships, both push and pulled factors were reported. Reporting on risk aversion, it was noted that most of the founders (here referred to as an entrepreneur) are not actively involved in running the shops. They simply recruit others to do the job on their behalf. Under this circumstance, the risk is limited to financial risk. This approach is quite different for other African immigrants in the same township.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, turbulent business environment, xenophobia, entrepreneurial resilience, South Africa townships.
JEL Classification: M00

Effective marketing communication strategies and campaigns are of much importance in many organizations in informing, reminding and persuading current and potential customers to support the organization by buying organizations product offerings. Organizations in planning of marketing communication strategies and campaigns, organizations in theory need to conduct micro-environmental analysis determining organizations’ strengths and weakness. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the planning of marketing communication strategies and campaigns of car dealerships in practice with more emphasis on micro-environmental factors of consideration. In achieving the purpose of this paper, a qualitative research approach using semi-structured in-depth interviews with marketing personnel of different car dealerships in Gauteng Province, South Africa was followed. In this paper a qualitative content analysis was used to analyze primary data using Atlas ti version 7 computer software. The results revealed that there are key micro-environmental factors of consideration during the planning of marketing communication strategies and campaigns. Based on the results of this paper, the author provided recommendations to stakeholders in the motor vehicle industry, specifically, car dealerships and future research directions.

Keywords: marketing communications, marketing communication objectives, marketing communication strategy, mediatypes, micro-environment.
JEL Classification: M31

In spite of ethical concerns surrounding the practice of competitive intelligence (CI), firms in the property sector practise CI ethically and legally. No research has been conducted to establish the factors that influence firms in the property sector to practice CI ethically and legally. This research aimed to explore the literature to establish factors that may influence property practitioner firms to practise CI legally and ethically. The research was qualitative in nature and used content analysis to analyze the collected data. The research established eight factors that may influence property practitioner firms to practise CI ethically and legally.

Keywords: competitive intelligence, competitive intelligence ethics, competitive intelligence code of ethics, competitive advantage, decision making, property sector, real estate
JEL Classification: M54

This paper illustrates ‘demarketing’ and its uses to improve product image in the customers’ viewpoints. Three events stimulated the investigations. First, a leading political party lost local municipal elections in a large South Africa metropolitan. Second, a reputable soccer club lost many fans to other teams. Thirdly, a local confectionary lost clients. Investigations took place in the three settings (soccer, politics and confectionary business). The respondents were known clients or fans of the original entities, who had defected to rivals. A questionnaire was used to collect data. The entities apparently ignored the services promised to clients. Despite them being dissimilar entities, similarities occurred in the way they lost favor with their clients. The study identified demarketing as a common factor. Demarketing was applied by the rivals, and was imbedded in their policies. People and entity representatives’ used demarketing strategies to lure clients. The paper recommends that demarketing should be applied to control the market. Also, it recommends that agile competitors should augment normal marketing with demarketing to optimize marketing results.

Keywords: demarketing strategy, demand, perception, product quality.
JEL Classification: D47, M14, M31, M37

This paper focuses on the recent land grab in Zambia for agricultural investment. The paper explores the history of foreign land acquisition and shows the dynamics that led to the liberalization of land market in Zambia. The research argues that despite the negative effect of these investments, the government can leverage this opportunity to place the country on the trajectory of growth, especially in the area of capacity development through skill acquisition. This can be achieved by structuring the contract to contain some performance requirements that investors are expected to contribute to the local people.

Keywords: land grab, foreign agricultural investment, capacity development.
JEL Classification: Q1

The growth of the economy of many countries is dependent on the survival and growth of SMMEs as these businesses are the ones on which the hopes for job creation and poverty alleviation rests. To this end, many institutions – government and private – are investing resources to try and stimulate this sector and enhance their chances of success and sustainability. In order to achieve this, these institutions use a range of initiatives and services to stimulate and upskill SMMEs. Not only do they focus on standard services such as mentoring, counselling, and services such as for instance marketing material development, business and marketing plans, financial planning, etc., but from time to time, they also offer specific interventions with specific themes to generate interest from entrepreneurs. The main purpose of this study was to establish whether SMMEs and entrepreneurs value the information and advice they receive at events of value and usable.

Keywords: SMMEs, despondency, perceived value.
JEL Classification: M1

This study investigated the drivers which influence consumers’ beef buying behavior. A validated questionnaire was used to collect the data and to evaluate consumer beef purchasing behavior. Exploratory factor analysis was employed to analyze the data while Cronbach alpha coefficient was used to calculate the reliability of the drivers. Satisfactory levels of reliability were recorded. The analysis identified eight drivers that influence the buying behavior of consumers when they purchase beef products. These drivers were: quality of the meat, buying preference, farming practices, intention to buy, health, convenience, packaging & presentation and future purchase. In addition, correlational analysis indicates that additional important attributes to buying behavior are supplier characteristics and packaging & presentation. The study culminates in a frame of reference for beef (and possibly other meat products) buying behavior analysis whilst it also provides a frame of reference for marketers to better understand their customers’ behavior when they are selling beef. As a result it is recommended that retailers focus their actions on the more important beef purchasing drivers and that the study be repeated on a larger scale so that the results of the present study can either be confirmed or further refined.

Keywords: beef cattle, buying behavior, consumer preferences of beef, packaging, farming practices, factor analysis.
JEL Classification: M30

The purpose of the study consists in the investigation of the leasing market and determining the prospects of its development in Ukraine, which will make possible for lessors to justify the choice of their strategies. There were forecasted values of the analyzed indicators of leasing market for the following three periods: the third quarter of 2016, fourth quarter of 2016, first quarter of 2017. It was proposed to calculate the integral development index of leasing services in Ukraine based on the amount of leasing companies in Ukraine, the amount of financial leasing contracts, the share of long-term lease agreements, the value of financial leasing contracts, the proportion of borrowed funds in the structure of leasing transactions financing, the share reward the lessor for the leased property in the structure of the lease payments, in the amount of leasing companies in Ukraine, the amount of financial leasing contracts, the share of long-term lease agreements, the value of financial leasing contracts, the proportion of borrowed funds in the structure of leasing transactions financing, the share reward the lessor for the leased property in the structure of the lease payments. The authors defined the growth of Ukrainian leasing market in the first quarter of 2017. The proposed integral development index is applicable both on regional and international level. The results of study can be used for substantiation of the choice of lessors’ strategies by developing alternative strategic decisions, the optimal use of which should lead to a further growth of the leasing market.

Keywords: leasing, leasing companies, methods of multivariate statistical analysis, forecasting, market of leasing services.
JEL Classification: C53, G17, G21