Acta Commercii - Volume 15, Issue 1, January 2015

Orientation: It is considered important to take stock periodically of the present channels available for communication of scholarly discourse and research, something that has not been done in international management in South Africa.

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Research purpose: This study aimed to not only identify the gaps in South African international management research, but also to serve as a source of international management research with a South African focus in order to aid future South African international management research.

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Motivation for the study: As South African business become more global and international management plays a more central role in business practice, the importance and relevance of international management increases, thus necessitating a greater research focus on international management.

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vResearch design, approach and method: A content analysis was conducted on the 1313 articles published in the seven South African management journals between 2004 and 2013.

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Main findings: Not only is a mere 2.7% of all articles published in the seven South African management journals between 2004 and 2013 focused on international management, but there was also a decline in the number of international management articles published.

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Contributions/value-add: This study will not only help to identify the gaps in international management research in South Africa, but will also serve as a source of South African international management research for future researchers and academics.

Objective: The primary objective of the study is to recommend marketing guidelines for independent primary schools, with the focus on product and people in the marketing mix. This objective was achieved by identifying choice factors influencing parents' selection of independent primary schools, identifying the most important choice factors and demographic differences regarding the importance parents attached to these factors.

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Problem investigated: Some independent schools in South Africa find it difficult to market themselves effectively as a result of a lack of information pertaining to the choice factors identified by parents when selecting independent primary schools. A comprehensive set of choice factors will provide a more accurate picture of the criteria parents perceive as important in independent school selection.

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Methodology: The methodological approach followed was exploratory and quantitative in nature. The sample consisted of 669 respondents from 30 independent schools in Gauteng in South Africa. A structured questionnaire, with a five-point Likert scale, was fielded to gather the data. The descriptive and factor analysis approaches were used to analyse the results.

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Findings and implications: The main finding is that a total of 29 different choice factors were identified that parents perceive as important when selecting an independent primary school. The most important factor for parents when making a choice is the small size of the classes, followed by the religious ethos of the school as well as qualified and committed educators. This indicates that parents have a comprehensive set of choice factors and implies that a better understanding of these factors by independent schools may assist them to focus their marketing efforts more optimally in order to attract new learners.

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Originality and value of the research: Very little research exists with specific reference to independent school marketing in South Africa. The importance of the research study at hand stems from the fact that some parents are dissatisfied with the public schools system, stimulating the demand for independent schools in the country. The increased level of competition amongst independent schools in South Africa therefore necessitates that these schools gain knowledge on the choice factors of parents when selecting such a school. This will assist independent primary schools in the development and design of their individual marketing strategies when recruiting new learners.

Purpose and objective: The purpose of this research is to determine what managers regard as important critical success factors in ensuring a memorable visitor experience at a live music performance.

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Problem investigated: When organising a live music performance, it is evident that the various characteristics that form part of the visitor experience have to be considered. The critical success factors of live music performances from the supply side are fundamental, since the costs of organising live music performances are high, the needs of the visitors are constantly changing and competition plays a major role in the success of such events. Management furthermore constantly needs to be aware of the ever-changing external environment by determining what factors visitors consider to be vital for a rewarding experience at a major music event. This is extremely important since the concept of experience has become more pervasive, mainly given that the event sector, such as live music performances, has adopted experience as a tool to make individual businesses more competitive, as the organisations operating within this sector exist to provide consumers with an experience.

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Design and/or methodology and/or approach: A qualitative research method, by means of interviews, was used to obtain the relevant information from the selected participants. All the data collected in the process were transcribed into text and presented in narrative form. The six steps of data analysis and interpretation were applied to analyse the data.

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Findings and implications: The following four major themes emerged from the analysis; each theme was differentiated in terms of various categories and subcategories. Theme 1: The most important aspects for a memorable visitor experience; Theme 2: Main purpose when organising a live music performance; Theme 3: Important aspects regarding the management of a live music performance; Theme 4: Timing of event management. Based on the research conducted on the critical success factors from a supply side, the following findings emerged. Firstly, it is evident that the critical success factors differ significantly from one tourism sector to another. Therefore, more qualitative research should be applied with regard to critical success factors in other tourism operations. Secondly, comparing the results of the qualitative research reveals significantly more in-depth information than those of the various quantitative research studies conducted on critical success factors. Thirdly, it is evident that the pre-event, during-event and post-event planning phases differ from event to event. Lastly, it is evident that there is no common guideline with regard to creating a memorable visitor experience.

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Conclusion: Determining the critical success factors for memorable live music performances (from the supply side) in South Africa enables management to improve the current management plans in order to ensure an outstanding memorable visitor experience whilst also improving the overall success rate.

Purpose and problem: Human capital represents an investment in education and skills. However, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) the ability of small-scale retailers to grow and increase firm performance is restricted by the scarcity of education and prior work experience.

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Methodology: Survey data were collected from 126 owner-managers in the retail industry in Kinshasa, DRC, in order to investigate the proposed relationship between the human capital components of education, work experience and venture performance.

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Findings: Several variables pertaining to education and prior work experience were related to different aspects of venture performance, allowing for support of the hypotheses. Nonetheless, when clustering was conducted some surprising results were observed in that owner-managers tended to have little work experience even where their venture was performing well.

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Implications: Research into human capital and links to performance in Africa and emerging markets is valuable as recent research has found that the matching of entrepreneurial human capital with opportunities for growth is the essence of economic development.

Orientation: According to the human resources literature, academics may need to 'balance' certain issues in order to enable career progression.

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Research purpose: This research sought to test the theory that predicted differences between individuals by designation cohort membership (Mr/Ms, doctoral and professorial designation) in order to make recommendations for how academic staff could better facilitate their career development.

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Motivation for the study: This research attempted to identify certain 'crisis milestones' that reflect potential role conflicts that may constrain academic career progression.

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Research design, approach and method: Academic staff of a large South African university (with over 30 000 students) provided the sampling frame for an empirical study. Using logistic regression, three career markers that reflect different career cohorts - Mr/Ms designation, doctoral designation and professorial designation - were each regressed on a range of biographical and contextual factors derived from the literature and a comparative analysis was performed.

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Main findings: Findings suggest that these cohorts differ significantly according to: satisfaction with teaching; satisfaction with administration; research self-efficacy; and dependent children. 'Crisis milestones', potentially related to role conflicts, might need to be resolved before career progression to doctoral and professorial designations can occur.

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Practical/Managerial implications: Knowledge of these 'crisis milestones' can be used to help academics to manage role conflicts and issues. This might remove unnecessary constraints to academic career progression.

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Contribution/Value add: This study provides new insights into certain 'crisis milestones', or role conflicts or issues, that may need to be resolved or balanced before the career progression of academics can typically occur.

Purpose: The ubiquitous pace of innovation is spawning a multitude of information and communications technology (ICT) products that are both redefining the manner in which organisations operate and have the potential to engender organisations with strategic advantage through the adoption of these products. However, the challenges that this presents to organisations include developing agile strategies that cater for market instabilities, determining what technology to adopt and ensuring that the appropriate technology is adopted. Thus, the purpose of this article is to perform a critical analysis of ICT adoption in an attempt to determine the influence that the pace of technology has on organisations in their endeavour to stay abreast of their market environment and to develop a comprehensive ICT adoption framework.

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Design/methodology/approach: This is exploratory research that concentrates on ICT adoption studied through the strategy-as-practice lens. Through critical analysis, the scientific literature was analysed to determine ICT adoption factors and to gain a better understanding of ICT adoption in the modern context. The principles of grounded theory were applied where repetitive reading of selected articles made it possible to identify factors that are associated with ICT adoption.

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Findings: The study identified three key factors of ICT adoption, namely 'external', 'innovation' and 'organisational'. A number of ICT adoption characteristics were identified which were categorised against the three factors. In addition, the study identified critical management challenges associated with ICT innovation and the adoption thereof in the modern business context.

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Research limitations/implications: The proposed ICT adoption framework is based on scientific literature only and no popular writings, blogs or forums were included.

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Practical implications: Strategists need to understand that developing agile strategies involves more than discipline; it embraces an in-depth understanding of ICT adoption factors, insight into the daily operations of managers and an awareness of innovations in ICT.

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Originality/value: The article aims to enable organisations to better understand the effects of ICT innovation and the influence this has on management roles. Additionally, it presents a comprehensive ICT adoption framework that can aid strategists in understanding the factors that influence ICT adoption.

Purpose: This study was motivated by the need to better understand the effects of the global financial crisis in 2008 on the relationship between company financial performance and CEO guaranteed cost to company (CTC). The aim of this study was to understand the relationship between company financial performance using DuPont analysis and CEO guaranteed CTC in the South African retail and consumer goods sector.

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Design: The research was a quantitative, archival study of companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), measured over a period of six years (2006-2011). The statistical analysis included regression and correlation analysis.

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Findings: The research found that CEO guaranteed CTC has shown no sensitivity towards company financial performance in terms of DuPont analysis over the six-year period, which included the global financial crises in 2008. Furthermore, a negative relationship existed between the return on equity and the guaranteed CTC of CEOs in the retail and consumer goods sector during this period.

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Practical implications: The findings suggest that there is misalignment between company strategy and performance and the guaranteed CTC of CEOs. A practical implication would be to have independent and competent remuneration committees ensuring alignment of the interests of a company with those of its leaders in this regard.

Problem investigated: The objective of this study was to assess the differences in the levels of entrepreneurial intent and its antecedents of the master's business students who had no exposure to entrepreneurial education from two culturally different countries, South Africa and Poland. A validated entrepreneurial intent instrument was administered to final-year master's business management students from a university in South Africa and a university in Poland.

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Methodology: A cross-sectional survey design with two samples, one from each country, was used. A previously validated questionnaire developed from Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour model was administered. The results were factor analysed and new scales extracted. These refined scales were used to assess the differences between the two countries. A total of 182 questionnaires were collected from the two universities, University of Johannesburg in South Africa and Krakow Business School in Poland.

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Findings/implications: From the t-tests statistically significant differences between the two groups were found on 10 of the newly defined scales. Except on one scale, the South African students scored higher than the Polish students.

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Originality/value of research: This is the first study comparing differences between master's business management students from two culturally diverse countries, South Africa and Poland, in terms of entrepreneurial intent and its antecedents.

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Conclusion: Possible reasons for the differences were offered as gleaned from other research, but further research is required to identify the determining factors for the differences.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of transformational leadership, organisational citizenship behaviour and quality of work life on job performance amongst supply management professionals employed by the South African government.

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Rationale: The depressed job performance of supply management professionals in the South African government presents an impetus to generate new empirical information on the subject in order to find solutions.

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Methodology: A quantitative survey approach was followed using a sample of 264 supply management professionals employed in the South African government and were based in Gauteng Province. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted to assess psychometric properties of the measurement instrument. Hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM).

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Findings: Transformational leadership had positive and significant relationships with organisational citizenship behaviour and quality of work life. Quality of work life exerted a greater influence of job performance than organisational citizenship behaviour.

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Value of research: The study provides current evidence of the influence of transformational leadership on organisational citizenship behaviour and quality of work life, as well as the influence of organisational citizenship behaviour and quality of work life on job performance amongst supply management professionals.

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Conclusion: Transformational leadership has a positive influence on organisational citizenship behaviour and quality of work life amongst supply management professionals in the government. Both organisational citizenship behaviour and quality of work life exert a positive influence on the job performance of supply management professionals in the government. Future studies should be extended to other professional cohorts in both the private and the government sectors.

Orientation: Industrial and organisational (I-O) psychologists are responsible for workplace counselling. Workplace counselling requires specific skills and training for the I-O psychologist.

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Research purpose: The main aim of the study was to explore the role of training the I-O psychologist as workplace counsellor.

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Motivation for the study: Studies show that the I-O psychologist does not feel adequately prepared for their role as workplace counsellor. It is important to explore which skills and training are needed to equip the I-O psychologist as counsellor.

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Research approach, design and method: A qualitative research design with convenience and snowball sampling was used to identify I-O psychologists (n = 22) from different business sectors in Gauteng and North-West. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data and content analysis was utilised to extract themes and sub-themes from the results.

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Main findings: The findings showed that the participants know about the process of counselling, but they did not feel adequately prepared for their role as workplace counsellors. From the findings, recommendations for the training of future I-O psychologists are made.

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Practical implications: This study adds to the knowledge about ensuring that the I-O psychologist is equipped during their training for the workplace to address the counselling needs of employees in the workplace in South Africa.

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Contribution/value-add: This study contributes towards ensuring that the I-O psychologist is sufficiently prepared for their role as workplace counsellor by making knowledge available regarding the skills required by I-O psychologists to be applied in practice.

Purpose and problem: Governments through their policy support of new and growing enterprises continue to emphasise economic incentives as if most members of the population prioritise material gain. This article argues that high levels of government policy support for new and growing enterprises crowd out the population's need for autonomy when potential entrepreneurs perceive government to be controlling.

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Methodology: The researchers constructed a country-level panel data set based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, World Bank Group Entrepreneurship Survey, the World Economic Forum competitiveness reports and the International Monetary Fund database for 44 countries over the period 2000 to 2007. Since we relied on eight years of secondary data, we applied panel analysis to the regressions. We used multiple regression to model the moderating effects of government policy support on the autonomy-entrepreneurship relationship.

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Findings: The findings show that government policy support tends to buffer the effect of autonomy on entrepreneurship, lending support to the article's argument.

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Implications: This research has tested one of the most important anomalies in economics on entrepreneurship data: that 'crowding out' might reverse the most fundamental economic law, namely that raising economic incentives increases the supply of entrepreneurship.

Orientation: High exchange rate volatility has implications for business and policy decisions and exchange rate movements are important in debates around trade and trade policies.

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Research purpose: The purpose of the research was to determine the impact of exchange rate volatility on exports in emerging markets.

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Motivation for the study: A lack of clarity in literature regarding this relationship increases the risk of improper planning by export organisations as well as implementing suboptimal economic policies.

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Research design, approach and method: This research analysed the effect of exchange rate volatility on emerging market exports using a sample of nine emerging countries from 1995 to 2010. Panel data analysis was conducted. Volatility was measured by Generalised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity and conventional standard deviation in order to determine if the instrument of volatility used influenced the nature of the relationship between exchange rate volatility and exports. The Pedroni residual cointegration method was used to test for panel cointegration in order to determine if there was a long-run relationship.

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Main findings: The results showed that exchange rate volatility had a significant negative effect on the performance of exports, regardless of the measure of volatility used. It was also evident that a long-run relationship did exist.

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Practical/managerial implications: The study concluded that the policy mix that will reduce exchange rate volatility (such as managed exchange rate regimes) and relatively competitive exchange rates were essential for emerging markets in order to sustain their exports performance.

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Contribution/value-add: This research provided policy makers of emerging market economies with new evidence pertaining to the relationship between exchange rate volatility and the performance of exports. This research contributed to the existing knowledge on the topic and provides a base for future research on related topics.

Purpose:The world of work is evolving and the nature of relationships between knowledge workers and their employers has changed distinctly, leading to a change in the type of rewards they prefer. The nature of these preferences in the South African, industry-specific context is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to deepen understanding of the reward preferences of Information technology (IT) knowledge workers in South Africa, specifically as these relate to the attraction, retention and motivation of knowledge workers.

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Design: The research design included a quantitative, empirical and descriptive study of reward preferences, measured with a self-administered survey and analysed using non-parametric tests for variance between dependent and independent groups and non-parametric analysis of variance.

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Findings: This study found that there are specific reward preferences in knowledge workers in the IT sector in South Africa and that these preferences apply differently when related to the attraction, retention and motivation of employees. It identified the most important reward components in the ompetition for knowledge workers and also demonstrated that demographic characteristics play a statistically significant role in etermining rewardpreferences.

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Practical implications: The study's findings show that a holistic approach to total rewards is required, failing which, companies will find themselves facing increased turnover and jobhopping. Importantly, the study also highlights that different rewards need to form part of knowledge workers' relationship with their employer in three different scenarios: attraction, retention and motivation.

Orientation: Exporting is preferred by many enterprises as the mode of foreign entry as it requires less commitment of organisational resources and offers flexibility of managerial actions. However, enterprises face a number of challenges when attempting to initiate exports or expand their export operations.

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Research purpose: This study was undertaken to determine the characteristics and composition of export barriers constraining exporting by Lesotho-based manufacturing enterprises.

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Motivation for the study: Lesotho is faced with low destination diversity and low diversity in export products.

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Research design, approach and method: Data was collected from 162 Lesotho-based manufacturing enterprises through a self-administered questionnaire.

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Main findings: In its findings, the study firstly identified international constraints, distribution constraints and financial constraints as factors constraining exporting. Secondly, it was determined that three exporting constraints, all internal to the enterprise and all related to one factor (namely financial constraint) hampered exporting. Lastly, the ANOVA results revealed that the perceptions of export constraints differed according to the enterprise characteristics, enterprise size, ownership and type of industry.

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Contribution/value-add: With the majority of enterprises in this study being identified as micro-enterprises, the government of Lesotho needs to pay particular attention to addressing the export needs of these enterprises in order to enable them to participate in exporting activities - especially considering that they can play a pivotal role in the alleviation of poverty, job creation and economic rejuvenation.

Orientation: Customer relationship management (CRM) is important to organisations striving for competitive advantage through building relationships with their customers.

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Research purpose: This study identified the factors preceding CRM and assessed selected South African small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises' (SMTEs) readiness for CRM.

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Motivation: CRM is likely to enhance SMTEs' competitiveness. However, successful adoption and implementation of CRM is unlikely unless the organisation is ready for it.

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Research design, approach and method: A quantitative research approach and survey questionnaire yielded primary data from 332 respondent organisations selected by systematic sampling. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the latent factors preceding CRM readiness. Organisational CRM readiness was assessed based on CRM maturity in terms of data collection, use and sharing throughout the organisation.

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Main findings: Respondent-organisations performed well on the four factors preceding CRM readiness - business strategy, customer strategy, touch points and competencies, skills and technology and also on data collections and use, but not on data sharing.

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Practical/Managerial implications: CRM practice is believed to assist organisations in tailoring products and services to customers' needs, providing customer satisfaction, enhancing customer retention and ultimately improving the organisation's competitiveness and profitability. CRM might fail if SMTEs do not have CRM-enabling conditions in place and a CRM readiness audit should therefore be performed.

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Contribution: The study contributes to a largely under-researched area concerning CRM in SMTEs by providing an improved understanding of the factors that will enable SMTEs to engage in CRM activities.

Orientation: Increasing competition has resulted in clothing retailers placing more emphasis on expensive relationship marketing tactics to retain customers. The retailers often use customers' loyalty programme membership and the duration of their support to identify and target them in relationship-building efforts.

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Research purpose: This study determines the viability of relationship intention by measuring and categorising clothing customers according to their relationship intentions. The study also explores the duration of customer support for a clothing retailer, membership of their loyalty programme and the relationship thereof with customers' relationship intentions towards that retailer.

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Motivation for the study: Relationship building efforts would be better directed at customers with relationship intentions.

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Research design, approach and method: Quantitative in nature, this study followed a descriptive research design and used an interviewer-administered survey to collect data from511 clothing retail customers residing in the greater Pretoria metropolitan area.

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Main findings: Clothing retailers can effectively determine and categorise customersaccording to their relationship intentions. The duration customers have supported a clothing retailer and its loyalty programme has no relationship with their relationship intentions.

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Practical/Managerial implications: Clothing retailers should focus their relationship buildingon customers with relationship intentions, as they are more likely to respond favourably. They are more likely to be retained by the clothing retailer and provide a return on investment.

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Contribution/value-add: This study gives clothing retailers a reliable and valid measuringinstrument that can be used to identify customers with relationship intentions, rather than relying on the duration of the customers' support and their loyalty programme membership.

Orientation: Logo-leadership development challenges leaders to move beyond financial or individual gain to accepting leadership as a calling.

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Research purpose: The objective of the study was to ascertain whether an intervention embedded in the life and teachings of logo-therapist Viktor Frankl affects the way aspiring leaders construct leadership in terms of meaning (logo-leadership).

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Motivation for the study: A consideration of Frankl's life gives rise to the question of whether aspiring leaders can learn from and use his life teachings as an inspiration in the discovery of meaning for themselves as leaders.

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Research approach, design and method: Participants comprised 20 students registered for an MCom degree at a South African metropolitan university. The research process involved three phases : (1) a pre-intervention questionnaire, (2) an appreciative inquiry intervention and (3) a post-intervention questionnaire. Framework analysis and a comparative method were used to analyse the data.

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Main findings: A meaning-centred leadership development intervention may impact the leadership role orientation of aspiring leaders, changing it from a predominantly career orientation to a calling. However, this effect largely occurred on an explicit (extrinsic) level.

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Managerial implications: Organisations that wish to develop logo-leadership may consider using the life teachings and work of Frankl as a development tool.

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Contribution/value-add: This study contributes theoretically to a relatively new development within the field of Frankl's logotherapy, leadership with meaning (logo-leadership). On a practical level, this study introduced the concept of logo-leadership for leadership development and suggests that leadership may be influenced by exposure to a leadership intervention.

Orientation: The NAMPO Harvest Day is the largest festival of its kind in the southern hemisphere. To sustain the festival's success, it is important to assess which 'festivalscape' factors influence visitors' loyalty.

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Research purpose: What combination of 'festivalscape' factors contributes to the loyalty of visitors to an agri-festival in South Africa?

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Motivation for the research: Agri-tourism is a relatively new concept and limited research has been done; thus this research makes a contribution to the current literature base on the topic.

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Research approach and method: A probability sampling method was used during NAMPO Harvest Day 2014 to distribute 422 questionnaires by means of stratified sample. Factor analysis was performed to identify the 'festivalscape' factors that influence loyalty, after which structural equation modelling was applied to identify the relationships between the factors and loyalty.

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Main findings: Nine loyalty factors were identified. The analysis revealed a direct positive relationship between loyalty and lifestyle, escape and socialisation as well as loyalty and agricultural exposure and education.

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Practical implications and contribution: This research gives valuable insights into the 'festivalscape' factors that influence loyalty to an agri-festival in South Africa. Loyalty amongst visitors can be created through the management of a variety of factors. The findings from this research can be used by similar agri-festivals in the country to create loyalty amongst visitors as well as to give exposure to the agri-sector.

Objective: This study focuses on an assessment of managerial job satisfaction and commitment in the context of a vibrant and rapidly changing public utility from a positive organisational behaviour (POB) perspective. It aims at contributing towards an in-depth understanding of positive micro-organisational behaviour.

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Problem investigated: The aim of this study was to gain deeper insights into the relationship between job satisfaction (JS) and organisational commitment (OC) in terms of the 'how and why' at a selected public utility in the Eastern Cape Province.

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Design: This single case study uses a mixed-method approach within the pragmatism research paradigm.

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Findings: Findings show that managers across cultures share a positive organisational psychology approach on JS and OC. The JS of managers is mainly influenced by their satisfaction with working with colleagues and supervisors, and with strategies of motivation, as well as their dissatisfaction with the use of power, pay and promotion. OC was mainly influenced by positive collegial relationships, the organisation's positive influence on the environment and on others, the enabling work environment and the location of the organisation.

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Originality/value: The article introduces new ideas in positive organisational behaviour research and reconstructs the image of South African organisational behaviour based on qualitative and quantitative data.

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Conclusion: This article shows that post-modern African organisations are opening new frontiers to building positive-oriented organisational cultures whilst creating constructive and future-orientated mindsets, which may spill over into society.

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to determine the influence of race and income on the preferred payment instrument at pay points in a retail store in Pretoria Gauteng.

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Problem investigated: The method of payment, as well as the way these payment methods have been utilised, has evolved throughout history. Cash has stayed at the top of the payment instrument deck as a payment choice for the past 10 decades. With the expansion of technology payment instruments evolved to facilitate exchange between merchant and consumer. The preferred method of payment at a retail store in Gauteng, indicating whether consumers prefer cash payments or the use of cards was investigated. Further to this the difference in payment method between the different races and income groups was identified.

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Methodology: A quantitative survey research method was used. The statistical analysis entailed correlations using the Cramer's V to test the dependency between two variables and the degree of dependency of variables, after which the Chi-Square test was also applied.

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Value of the research: The indication of consumer preference of payment method will have implications on which possibilities are available at the point of sale. Cash is no longer the only possible payment instrument; cards, debit and credit, are as easily used by consumers. Both banks and merchants will find this information important, since they need to make provision for different payment options. The results further distinguished consumer behaviour amongst different race groups and income groups.

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Conclusion: The research confirmed the previous findings in other countries that consumers have preconceived ideas on which payment instrument they would utilise at point of sale (POS.)