Spatial development policy: changing roles for local and regional authorities in the Netherlands

Implementation of spatial policy involves intervention in the land market. In the Netherlands local government also acts as a land developer. Due to an increase in activities in the land market by private actors and an increase in the geographical scale of economic and social processes, this practice is under threat. This paper analyses the background and evolution of Dutch spatial development policy during the last ten years, from the perspective of governmental directive function for spatial policy. It focuses on the multi-level governance between local and regional governments and between local government and private actors.     

POST‐TRANSITION POVERTY TRENDS BASED ON AN ALTERNATIVE DATA SOURCE1

This paper analyses a previously unused source of data – the All Media and Product Survey (AMPS) – to arrive at alternative estimates of the post‐transition poverty path. The motivations for using this non‐official data source are twofold: concern over the comparability of the existing official post‐transition datasets – the Income and Expenditure Survey (IES) and Population Census – and a desire to extend analysis of poverty trends beyond 2001. While official data sources are generally preferred for purposes of poverty analysis, the IES and Census collect data at long (5 or 10 year) intervals, and additional years pass before these datasets become available to the public. In some cases there is also concern about data comparability between surveys. The expenditure data contained in the General Household Survey are available annually, although data are captured in a small number of categories that are not very conducive to analysis at the lower end of the income distribution. Analysis on AMPS data confirms the large decline in poverty implied by an increase of R18 billion (in 2000 Rand) in social grant payments between 2000 and 2004. The direction of this trend is consistent with recent research findings based on more frequently analysed data sources, including the work done by Agüero, Carter and May (2005), Seekings (2006 ) and Meth (2006 ).     

The perceived value of mobile devices to passengers across the airline travel activity chain

This paper investigates the determinants of air travellers ‘readiness’ to interface with airlines via mobile devices. A multi-dimensional measure is used based on factors influencing consumer adoption and use of mobile devices as well as perceptions of value across the air travel activity chain. The findings indicate that consumers' mobile readiness is directly related to their perception of the value of receiving information or making bookings on their mobile devices, but that certain predictors such as the purpose and frequency of travel and certain demographic characteristics are significant.     

Securing small farmer participation in supermarket supply chains in South Africa

Urbanisation and a growing middle class with changing consumption patterns provide an ideal setting for supermarkets to prosper. With South Africa's urban population approaching 60 per cent, supermarket retail chains are now important players in the agro-food sector. Over the last two decades they have begun to purchase produce from in-house sourcing companies who buy mainly from large-scale farmers. Together with the strict requirements of the retail groups, this makes it difficult for small-scale farmers to supply these retailers. This paper highlights the market changes that could continue to exclude small producers from mass consumer markets. It uses a case study to show how small farmers can be integrated into the urban retail market and, using evidence from this study, proposes a number of strategies to help them participate in the mainstream agro-food supply chains and an innovative model for including them while maintaining profitable business operations.     

The Influence of Culture and Biographical Variables on the Brand Image of Google and Baidu: An Exploratory Study in Guangzhou,China

The study found significant correlations between the culture dimensions of Confucian work dynamism, human - heartedness and moral discipline and the brand image dimensions of online search engines. It was also found that several significant relationships exist between the biographical variables of age and education and the brand image dimensions, and that culture and bi- ographical variables have a linear relationship with brand image. The findings highlight that culture and biographical information can influence Chinese consumer perceptions of an international or local brand. Organizations thus need to align their brands with the culture and biographical profile of their target markets.     

Emotional confidence levels and success of tourism development for poverty reduction: The South African Kwam eMakana home-stay project

Poverty reduction is a central component of South African government local economic development (LED) programmes. The Grahamstown Kwame Makana pilot project for promotion of tourism home-stays aims to assist disadvantaged women to become self-reliant entrepreneurs. However the project has only met with partial success. This paper uses an emotional intelligence (EI) methodology to assess the empowerment and confidence levels of the women. The major findings are: a) the home-stays are lacking entrepreneurial steering, reflected by absence of marketing strategies and a heavy reliance on one distribution channel; b) a majority (74.3%) scored low on self and social awareness, self-management and social skills. The paper argues that disadvantaged groups with low emotional confidence levels will struggle to capitalize on opportunities for economic advancement. It concludes that in order to achieve LED, and hence poverty reduction, through tourism home-stays there is a need to focus on building confidence and empowerment of the women.     

Framework for the classification of service standardisation

Literature on services refers to standardised services without describing what a standardised service is. This becomes problematic when attempting to apply a practice suited to standardised services to services that may not be standardised. A framework is developed to assess if a service is standardised or not. The methodology used is to use literature and apply examples to each dimension of the framework to give guidelines in assessing the level of standardisation of the individual dimensions and thus the overall service. The outcome is a qualitative framework with guidelines related to each dimension in improving the assessment of a service’s level of standardisation. This framework is applied to a case study to illustrate the application of the dimensions. The dimensions used as the basis of the framework are shown to be relevant as dimensions that describe the level of service standardisation.     

Broiler production in South Africa: Is there space for smallholders in the commercial chicken coup?

It is agreed that agriculture provides avenues for impoverished households to produce and trade their way out of poverty. However, this requires market access and value chain integration of small-scale farmers. This paper explores the possibilities for integration of small-scale farmers into the mainstream commercial broiler value chain in South Africa. Production costs of small-scale producers are evaluated within the context of their commercial counterparts, with a case study approach. It revealed that small-scale producers pay more for inputs but also receive a substantial premium for sales of live birds in the informal market. This results in attractive gross margins for small-scale producers. There is, however, a production ceiling, due to demand and production considerations, associated with small-scale broiler production. This ultimately results in a dualistic industry with an informal (live sale) value chain at the one end of the spectrum and a sophisticated large-scale commercial value chain at the other. Given the salient production features and investment requirements associated with large-scale broiler production, organic growth from the small-scale value chain into the commercial value chain seems improbable. The dual nature of this industry should therefore be considered when developing policy geared towards development, poverty alleviation and value chain integration.     

The economics of education in Bophuthatswana

Education usually correlates with economic development. In the transformation process of any traditional society education is most often assumed to provide the solution to or stimulus for development. Many governments are convinced that education or, more generally, capital investment in human beings contributes as much to economic growth as does investment in capital equipment. As a result the proportion of public expenditure on education in developing countries is often very high. This paper is an attempt to point out what the effects of public expenditure on education in Bophuthatswana are, given constraints such as economic efficiency and equity. In Bophuthatswana these economic effects of education tend to go beyond the borders of the country.