Perceptions of Governance in Africa

Abstract

This paper reviews a survey of 800 business leaders and civil servants in Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Like most African countries, these eight countries have undertaken governance reforms over the past decade, trying to include a wider range of views expressed by organized interest groups in the formulation of economic and commercial policies. This survey aimed to learn how business and government leaders perceive those recent governance reforms.

First, do managers and civil servants see local trade associations successfully representing the broader business point of view with decision makers, and keeping their members informed of current and proposed public policies? Second, to what extent do perceived principal/agent tensions divide companies from “their” business associations? Third, how does industry structure affect perceptions of business association perfor mance? A fourth issue is whether perceptions exist of “bureaucratic capture” or of excessive state power over business associations in the sample countries.

Most respondents see major problems with governance, though across countries they report the impression of improvement and expect further gains. This raises the risk of unmet expectations should the pace of reform slacken. Business associations are reported to work reasonably well as policy advocates for better governance. They are seen as doing a fair job of keeping members updated on the policy environment. There was little difference in opinion between larger and smaller companies, and surprising overlap between the public and private sectors. These findings are grounds for wary optimism about business-government relations in the region.

Progress will not occur automatically, however. Companies in Africa need to redouble their government relations and policy advocacy activities. The region's industry and trade associations are promising vehicles for expressing the interests of the business community.     

Technological competence and team cohesiveness among travel agencies

From the perspective of collaboration, the independent travel agent has provided it makes appropriate investment in technology and creates competitive advantage. The research goals of this study were to investigate how strategic adaptation among the members of travel agent collaborations affects service performance. Data were obtained via a mailed questionnaire survey of a sample of travel agencies. The model and the hypotheses were tested using a structural equation modeling approach. The findings of this study provide interesting insights for travel agencies interested in service performance. Technological competence has emerged as an important asset in travel agent collaboration, which can be used to increase the productivity of knowledge works through the management of service performance, and different strategies are discussed in terms of different segments of partners within the collaboration.     

Entrepreneurial Challenges in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This purpose of the research was to examine how entrepreneurs experience and deal with ethical dilemmas. In so doing, the author also uncovered some interesting aspects of entrepreneurial life in South Africa. This was a phenomenological study, based on interviews with seven entrepreneurs in established service-oriented ventures. For the purposes of this research, an entrepreneur was defined as a person who has created something of value and assumed the risk of establishing and managing a business around it. Each of the participating entrepreneurs was asked to describe their business, any dilemmas they've experienced, how they were handled, and what challenges they experience as an entrepreneur in South Africa today. This paper focuses on how entrepreneurs in South Africa view the challenges facing them. These include overcoming the legacies of apartheid, containing crime, fostering an acceptable business ethic, dealing with diversity, and facilitating reconciliation between ethnic groups.     

Corporate Governance in South Africa

The King Report on Corporate Governance (1994) evoked unprecedented interest in corporate governance in South Africa. This does not mean that corporate governance was not an issue of concern before the release of this historical report. To the contrary, corporate governance in its broader sense has been at stake since the inception of the first publicly owned companies in South Africa. This article intends to give an overview of corporate governance in South Africa. It starts by making a distinction between broad and narrow conceptions of corporate governance. Before applying this distinction to the practice of corporate governance in South Africa, a brief overview of the corporate landscape in South Africa is provided. Then the South African situation with regard to broad and narrow corporate governance respectively is analysed. The article ends with a discussion of the review of corporate governance that currently is in the making in South Africa. Throughout the article both the financial and ethical dimensions of corporate governance is attended to.     

Doing business in South Africa

This survey of the South African business environment outlines the major transformations the country has experienced since 1994. The economy has been restructured, which enhanced fiscal and monetary discipline as well as domestic and global competitiveness. The general business climate has been improved, but continued progress requires (1) prioritization of social issues such as HIV/AIDS, employment, and crime and (2) accelerated privatization, market reforms, and clarity about black economic empowerment. Such changes may stimulate inflation‐rate reduction, foreign exchange stability, and an increase in foreign direct investment. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Business Ethics in South Africa

In this paper an assessment will be made of the state of Business Ethics as an academic discipline as well as on the extent to which theory on Business Ethics has been translated into practice within the South African society. First the way in which Business Ethics is defined will be examined. Then the issues within the field of Business Ethics that is considered to be most important will be addressed, as well as the reasons why it is believed to be important to address them. From there the attention will be shifted to the way in which Business Ethics has been institutionalised at tertiary education level. An overview of important initiatives taken by the business sector themselves will also be reviewed. Then co-operation between business and academia on Business Ethics will be discussed. Finally an assessment will be made of what can be learned from Business Ethics elsewhere in the world and what can be offered in this regard. Also some future prospects of Business Ethics in South Africa will be explored.     

Expo fever in South Africa

Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng welcomed the arrival of Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew yesterday and invited Lee to visit the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. Han congratulated Lee on the 15th anniversary of the Suzhou Industrial Park （SIP）, a Sino-Singaporean project. Han also said that Shanghai could learn a lot from the operation and development of SIR     

South African Managers' Perceptions of Prospective South African-US Joint Ventures

Abstract

This study explores South African managers' expectations of prospective South African-United States international joint ventures. One hundred and three middle level South African managers responded to a theory-based original survey questionnaire that included questions about various aspects of prospective US-South African joint ventures. US companies invest in South Africa to gain access to its market and South African companies get into joint ventures with US companies to tap into their financial resources. US government's imposed tariffs and South African government's administrative barriers seem to be the most crucial problems for the prospective joint ventures. Implications for international managers are offered.     

Exploring the determinants of E-loyalty among travel agencies

This study aims to explore and empirically build up an e-loyalty model for the burgeoning e-service of Taiwan's travel agencies. Mailed data and data collected in personal from multiple sources is used for helping to identify the determinants of e-loyalty between Taiwan's wholesaler and retailer travel agencies. Several statistical techniques, including confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, and a linear structural relationship (LISREL) are used, and a structural equation is implemented to test the e-loyalty model. The results indicate that Taiwan's wholesaler travel agencies might consider e-quality as well as trust as the most important antecedents to e-loyalty, whereas loyalty results in the increased transaction intentions of retailers. No related studies so far have analysed or tried to discern the cause-and-effect relationship between e-loyalty and transaction intention for travel agencies. This paper also proposes an optimal e-loyalty model that matches the essential development needs of B2B commerce transaction. Finally, the model herein illustrates how wholesalers can realise e-commerce strategic goals by acquiring the e-loyalty of retailer travel agencies.     

南非进口贸易法规概览

南非位于非洲大陆最南端,东、西、南三面濒临印度洋和大西洋,北与纳米比亚、博茨瓦纳、津巴布韦、莫桑比克和斯威士兰接壤.南非地处两大洋间航运要冲,其西南端的好望角航线,历来是世界上最繁忙的海上通道之一.面积1 22万平方公里,人口4124.2万.官方语言为英语,国内通行南非荷兰语.班图各族和科伊桑人多持传统信仰原始宗教,部分人信仰基督教.白人、有色人信奉基督教和天主教.     

Successor characteristics,organisational slack,and change in the degree of firm internationalisation

In this paper, we use chief executive officer (CEO) succession events to explore the effects of successor characteristics, including outside succession and differences between a new CEO/existing chairman on changes in the degree of firm internationalisation. In addition, we examine the moderating effect of organisational slack on the relationship between successor characteristics and change in the degree of firm internationalisation. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 2000–2005 data from 160 successive observations of listed companies in Taiwan. The results show that a firm will opt for higher levels of change on an international scale when it is characterized by the following: (1) outside succession and (2) differences between the CEO successor and the existing chairman. Further, we find that organisational slack will positively moderate the relationship between successor characteristics and the change in the degree of firm internationalisation.     

中钢非洲淘金记

<正>约翰内斯堡市中心向北15公里,17层高的中钢大厦显得突兀而豪气。这座大楼颇为冷清——中钢集团派驻非洲的中方员工仅有19人,一些楼层已对外出租。对中钢集团来说,这栋楼的象征     

The labour situation in South Africa

The following article examines the situation of the black workers in South Africa from the legal and institutional points of view and describes what their situation is like in practice.     

Corporate ethical values in South Africa

This study analyzes the influence of a number of variables on the ethical decision making process of South African marketers. Specifically, it measures the relative influences of ethical perception, idealism, relativism, and corporate ethical values on the ethical intentions of the marketers. The target respondents were practitioner members of the South African Institute of Marketing Management. The survey results indicate that perception of an ethical problem and relativism are significant predictors of ethical intentions, as hypothesized. The other two predictor variables (idealism and corporate ethical values) were not significant. The results regarding idealism are generally consistent with those from previous studies, but corporate ethical values has usually been found to be significant, and not just in the United States. These nonsignificant findings are among the most intriguing of the study. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

南非国家展览中心五大特色

会展产业已成为新的经济增长点，以展兴市已成为现代国际都市的共识。21世纪的上海展览业面临挑战与机遇，一个亚洲最大的国际博览中心正在浦东崛起，备受世人瞩目。下文介绍的一例也许能给人一种启迪。     

The impact of organisational change on the nature and extent of training in Australian enterprises

This article reports on a study investigating the relationship between the introduction of new management practices and the training provided by Australian enterprises for their employees. The new management practices investigated include teamworking, total quality management, lean production, business process re‐engineering and the learning organisation. The study involved a survey of human resource managers in medium to large size Australian enterprises. The study models the impact of the introduction of new management practices and the extent of training provision in the enterprises and on the form and nature of the training. The article concludes that whereas new management practices have a significant impact on training provision in enterprises, the effect is highly differentiated and that a critical relationship is the integration of training with the business strategy of the enterprise.     

Consumers' experiences of cold chain food packaging: A qualitative study among women in South Africa

Food packaging defines a product's uniqueness and strengthens consumers' relationship with a brand, in this way offering functional and experiential benefits. Although cold chain food is predicted to become even more important to consumers, consumers' experiences of the packaging of these products have been neglected in the literature. Thus, this exploratory study investigated these experiences of female participants in Potchefstroom, South Africa, using semi‐structured interviews and a projective technique assisted by ambiguous mock packaging. The findings reveal that despite marketers' intention to use packaging to lure consumers to purchase food products, participants also valued functionality and quality in cold chain food packaging. This study also identified a dislike of carton boxes and preference for plastic bottles for this kind of packaging, as well as further negative and positive characteristics for consideration by manufacturers. Although brand loyalty and price sensitivity were stronger considerations for some participants than the packaging, the latter seemed to play a pre‐eminent role in most participants' purchasing decisions. Therefore, it is recommended that when designing packaging for frozen and refrigerated foods, product developers and manufacturers should take into account consumers' experiences, requirements and needs of the packaging specific to cold chain food. Our research offers a starting point for designing cold chain food packaging that complies as closely as possible with consumers' expectations.     

Monetary policy and wage inequality in South Africa

The distributive consequences of monetary policy have been researched only recently and almost entirely in advanced economies. This paper sheds light on the effect of conventional monetary policy shocks on the wage distribution in South Africa, where inequality – mostly driven by the segmented labour market – remains a large issue. Impulse response functions estimated from local projections show that the wage distribution significantly worsens in response to monetary shocks. Wages in the top half of the distribution, that benefit from unanticipated expansions, are less responsive to surprise contractions, remaining protected by skill-biased technology and strong labour unions.