Bridging skills demand and supply in South Africa: The role of public and private intermediaries

ABSTRACT

Demand-led skills development requires linkages and coordination between firms and education and training organisations, which are major challenges considering that each represents a ‘self-interested’ entity. The need for a ‘collaborative project’ involving government, firms, universities and colleges, and other bodies is thus increasingly recognised. However, the crucial role of intermediaries has been largely overlooked. The article addresses this gap by investigating the main roles of public and private intermediaries across three case studies: sugarcane growing and milling, automotive component manufacturing, and the Square Kilometre Array sectoral systems of innovation. The research highlights the need for a move towards systemic thinking, to bridge across public and private objectives. It shows that private intermediaries play a larger role than is recognised in policy; that public–private intermediaries play crucial roles in coordination; and the potential for public intermediaries to contribute more effectively to systemic functioning.     

Consumer substitution decisions: an integrative framework

Substitution decisions have been examined from a variety of perspectives. The economics literature measures cross-price elasticity, operations research models optimal assortments, the psychology literature studies goals in conflict, and marketing research has examined substitution-in-use, brand switching, stockouts, and self-control. We integrate these perspectives into a common framework for understanding consumer substitution decisions; their specific drivers (availability of new alternatives, internal vs. external restrictions on choice); the moderating role of a consumer’s commitment to an initially desired alternative; and the affective, motivational, cognitive, and behavioral outcomes of substitution. We use this framework to recommend new avenues for research.     

The distinctiveness of the European tradition in entrepreneurship research

Several previous studies have investigated creativity as an enhancer of innovation, their results showing that there is a positive relationship between the organizational creative climate and innovation. However, no research has been conducted on whether there is a saturation point beyond which an increase in creativity makes innovation performance decrease. In this article, we question the traditional positive relationship between creativity and innovation, and suggest that such a relationship is not linear, but has instead an inverted U-shape due to a saturation effect. We have developed a conceptual model to explain innovation performance considering creativity and network centrality, and it has been tested in the ceramic industrial cluster in Spain. Empirical findings support the inverted U-shaped relationship between creativity and innovation. The implications of these results in relation to creativity and innovation theory and practices are discussed.     

Josh Lerner: recipient of the 2010 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research

This article describes the academic contributions of the 2010 recipient of the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research, Professor Josh Lerner of the Harvard Business School. Lerner’s empirical research on the inter-relationship between venture capital, innovation and entrepreneurship has greatly extended and improved our understanding of one of the major drivers of growth in modern economies. The first part of this article explains Lerner’s contributions as regards the structure and organization of the venture capital industry. Later, his most important publications on entrepreneurship, innovation and intellectual property rights are surveyed. Several aspects of Lerner’s policy-oriented work are then outlined, before the article closes with a brief conclusion.     

Turning unplanned overpayment into a status signal: how mentioning the price paid repairs satisfaction

We investigate how mentioning the price paid to others (which we refer to as price-dropping) can be used to assuage the negative experience that occurs when consumers realize they unintentionally overpaid for a product. Specifically, we show that by engaging in price-dropping, consumers re-appropriate the overpayment into a conspicuous consumption signal that improves their satisfaction. Two studies demonstrate that the effect of price-dropping is mitigated when consumers who overpaid have low sensitivity to status cues, and also when the audience of the price-drop is unreceptive to status cues. We discuss how price-dropping has implications for retailer pricing policies and customer experience, along with avenues for future research.     

Discretionary policy in a monetary union with sovereign debt

This paper examines the interactions between multiple national fiscal policymakers and a single monetary policy maker in response to shocks to government debt in some or all of the countries of a monetary union. We assume that national governments respond to excess debt in an optimal manner, but that they do not have access to a commitment technology. This implies that national fiscal policy gradually reduces debt: the lack of a commitment technology precludes a random walk in steady-state debt, but the need to maintain national competitiveness avoids excessively rapid debt reduction. If the central bank can commit, it adjusts its policies only slightly in response to higher debt, allowing national fiscal policy to undertake most of the adjustment. However, if it cannot commit, then optimal monetary policy involves using interest rates to rapidly reduce debt, with significant welfare costs. We show that in these circumstances the central bank would do better to ignore national fiscal policies in formulating its policy.     

Transforming brand management from a functional activity into a core process

The erosion in the authority of brands within consumer markets brings into question the orthodoxy of traditional marketing practices across all markets. By adopting an “if‐we‐were‐to‐start‐again” policy, such elementary questions are currently being addressed in a number of major corporations. Using this approach, the notion of redefining branding policy and practice emerges as a fundamental and, arguably, the dominant core process in business redesign. In this paper, the skills required to manage this new process are delineated as value chain activities. The Integrated Brand, as this core process has been termed here, requires a multifunctional management cohesion if the new doctrine of customer retention is to be realized. Whilst these retention strategies may vary in execution across the stakeholder groups, each serve to reduce replacement costs. By also managing system costs and building primary customer share for revenue, the Integrated Brand organization can emerge with a balanced financial performance and brand equity managed as an asset. Amongst successful re‐engineered organizations, price premiums would be an acknowledgment of a superior offer but not a necessity in sustaining this balanced financial performance.     

Cross‐cultural tourist behavior: An analysis of tourist attitudes towards the environment

In a cross‐cultural tourist behavioral study, skiers from three different countries were surveyed in order to understand their environmental awareness and knowledge. The contingent valuation method (CVM) was also used to discover their willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for environmentally‐friendly skiing products. The results point to a general lack of knowledge and even confusion amongst skiers about environmental issues pertaining to skiing. However, skiers say they will be more likely to visit a resort that is environmentally‐responsible. Use of the CVM indicated a strong correlation between WTP and the cost of the holiday, level of income and level of environmental conscience. The majority of skiers would pay more for a “greener” ski resort, but significant differences in responses were found between the three cultures. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.