GROWTH,EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

The high rate of unemployment in South Africa stands out in an otherwise vastly improved set of macroeconomic fundamentals compared with the situation in the early 1990s. One might be tempted to argue that by this single indicator alone, the government's macroeconomic policies have been a failure. This paper explains why jumping to such a conclusion would be a mistake. Annual time series data on total formal sector employment is constructed dating back to 1946. The relationship between economic growth and formal sector employment is then measured and changes in the employment coefficient over time are described. The employment coefficient was found to be relatively stable, with a long‐term average value of 0.5. It returned to this value after a short‐lived collapse in the mid‐1990s. It is concluded that the main reason for the persistently high and rising rates of unemployment in South Africa since the mid 1990s was the very large increase in the labour force and not a historically deficient growth or employment performance of the economy.     

Sensation seeking and the prediction of attitudes and behaviours of wine tourists

Although socio-economic variables are commonly used for market segmentation and are widely applied in describing winery visitors, increasing awareness is evident in the literature that personality might also be useful for that purpose. The present study examined whether, compared with socio-economic variables (age, gender, education level, personal income, and household income), the personality variable sensation seeking adds to the ability to predict differences in various attitudes and behaviours of wine tourists. With the effects of the former controlled, sensation seeking was observed to be significantly related to spending on wine, and wine drinking, as well as to the frequency of visits to wineries and the number of activities engaged in at wineries, the use of the internet as a source of information about wineries, venturing off the beaten track during a visit to a wine region, and the strength of opportunity for learning, stimulation, or indulgence as incentives to visit a wine region. Sensation seeking was also observed to be significantly related to all but one of those variables when the effects of another variable which is receiving increasing attention as a means by which to characterize wine tourists, “involvement”, were controlled. The practical significance of the results for winery and wine region marketing and management is discussed, and several requirements for further research are identified.     

Corporate Groups in Australia: State of Play

While a number of studies and reports (for example, CASAC 2000 ; Clarke and Dean 2007 ; Ramsay and Stapledon 1998; 2001 ) have identified the importance of corporate groups on the commercial landscape, both in Australia and internationally, little is known about the nature, incidence, composition or rationale for commercial enterprises to adopt specific types of group structures. Understanding the differences in the accounting for each separate company within a group and the process of consolidated group enterprise data used in most empirical works is a prius for researchers undertaking large‐scale empirical work. It underpins the ability to generalise about findings based on samples of publicly listed companies, arguably randomly selected from the population of listed corporate groups. This paper reports findings of an extensive empirical study using 2007 data in order to illuminate the current situation in relation to the nature, incidence and composition of corporate groups in Australia. It adopts a similar structure to that used by Ramsay and Stapledon (1998; 2001) . The current data will allow tests of stability regarding the way corporate groups are structured.     

Injustice in Mobile Leisure: A Conceptual Exploration of Pokémon Go

In augmented reality, video games and the physical world converge as individuals participate in digital leisure overlaid on physical spaces. In Pokémon Go, game play in the physical world is impacted by constraints that limit access and play of marginalized groups. The global popularity of Pokémon Go created an opportunity to explore experiences of marginalized groups participating in augmented reality game play. Grey literature surrounding Pokémon Go is rich with accounts of constraints experienced by marginalized groups, particularly individuals self-identifying as White women, Black women, or Black men. Their experiences with Pokémon Go illustrate the need for social justice in digital leisure. Because the lifespan of mobile applications is limited, the gradual process from research to social change may be insufficient in addressing ever-evolving digital platforms. Researchers need to strategically work with industry partners to identify needs for social justice during the planning and designing stages.     

Management Accounting Education In Australian Universities: A Review Of The Current State

The teaching of management accounting at tertiary institutions drew criticism in the mid-to-late 1980s on the grounds that course content and teaching methods were not keeping pace with changes in manufacturing technologies and the business environment. A study of management accounting programs in 30 Australian universities shows that the criticisms are largely being addressed, with most programs being well up-to-date in their coverage of many of the new topics and practices that have emerged in management accounting in recent years. Nonetheless, management accounting educators continue to see a number of constraints on effective teaching in this area.