scholarly journals CHALLENGES FACING SMALL TO MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN METSIMAHOLO MUNICIPALITY, SOUTH AFRICA

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-23
Author(s):  
Jeremiah Madzimure ◽  
◽  
Lebereko Phillip Tau ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Unit Price ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Management Skills ◽  
Business Skills ◽  
The Social ◽  
Medium Enterprises ◽  
Further Development

In South Africa, the failure rate of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) amounts to 75% in an estimated interval of 42 months of operation. The purpose of this study is to determine the challenges facing SMEs in Metsimaholo municipality, Free State province of South Africa. Quantitative data was acquired from 102 Metsimaholo SME owners or their representatives, utilizing questionnaires which were completed, returned, and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26.0 software. It was then established that economic factors have realistic control on the sustainability of SMEs. In addition, further development of SMEs is restrained by competition from immigrant businesses, transportation of inventory, inadequate management skills, substandard marketing, miserable manipulation of financial activities and business, unreachable loans. Notwithstanding the afore-said outcome, SMEs must carefully look at obtaining business skills coaching and support, enlarge or vary the range of products, put back any profits made by a business into it in order to make it more successful. Cooperation amongst SMEs would be a strategy for them to challenge rivalry. Therefore, SMEs will bargain from transportation of goods bought in large quantities for a unit price that is lower than usual.

The Everyday in a Time of Transformation: Exploring a Single South African Lifeworld after 20 Years of Democracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-54
Author(s):  
P. Conrad Kotze ◽  
Jan K. Coetzee
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Contemporary Debate ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Ontological Turn ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Epistemological Framework

Transformation has come to be a defining characteristic of contemporary societies, while it has rarely been studied in a way that gives acknowledgement to both its societal effects and the experience thereof by the individual. This article discusses a recent study that attempts to do just that. The everyday life of a South African is explored within the context of changes that can be linked, more or less directly, to those that have characterized South Africa as a state since the end of apartheid in 1994. The study strives to avoid the pitfalls associated with either an empirical or solely constructivist appreciation of this phenomenon, but rather represents an integral onto-epistemological framework for the practice of sociological research. The illustrated framework is argued to facilitate an analysis of social reality that encompasses all aspects thereof, from the objectively given to the intersubjectively constructed and subjectively constituted. While not requiring extensive development on the theoretical or methodological level, the possibility of carrying out such an integral study is highlighted as being comfortably within the capabilities of sociology as a discipline. While the article sheds light on the experience of transformation, it is also intended to contribute to the contemporary debate surrounding the current “ontological turn” within the social sciences.

scholarly journals RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IN-STORE PROMOTIONS AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN SHOPPING MALLS IN SOUTH AFRICA

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinessa Naidoo ◽  
◽  
Nkhumeleni Mathivha
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Consumer Behaviour ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Shopping Malls ◽  
Price Discounts ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Point Of Purchase ◽  
Spss Software

Promotions of products and services close to the point of purchase is a reality to many companies. These promotions include the demonstration of products, price discounts and free samples. This paper sets out to determine the influence of in-store promotions on consumer behaviour. The study sampled 200 middle-of-the-month and month-end shoppers in four of the largest shopping malls in Polokwane, South Africa among. The paper was designed along quantitative method dicta and the primary data were collected by means of a questionnaire. Data were analysed via IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software, and presented in graphs and tables for easy interpretation. The results and knowledge gained from this study add to the existing body of knowledge in the discipline, and it might assist shop managers in finding the most suitable methods for in-store promotions. All ethical requirements were considered during the course of the study. The outcome of the study indicated a statistically significant relationship between consumer behaviour and in-store coupon offers. However, the association analysis results for the enjoyment of in-store promotions, in-store free samples, in-store buy-one-get-one-free offers, and in-store price discounts, failed to provide any evidence of association with consumer behaviour.

Positivism in the social sciences

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Kincaid
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Social Research ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Methodological Individualism ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Social Convention ◽  
The Social

Positivism originated from separate movements in nineteenth-century social science and early twentieth-century philosophy. Key positivist ideas were that philosophy should be scientific, that metaphysical speculations are meaningless, that there is a universal and a priori scientific method, that a main function of philosophy is to analyse that method, that this basic scientific method is the same in both the natural and social sciences, that the various sciences should be reducible to physics, and that the theoretical parts of good science must be translatable into statements about observations. In the social sciences and the philosophy of the social sciences, positivism has supported the emphasis on quantitative data and precisely formulated theories, the doctrines of behaviourism, operationalism and methodological individualism, the doubts among philosophers that meaning and interpretation can be scientifically adequate, and an approach to the philosophy of social science that focuses on conceptual analysis rather than on the actual practice of social research. Influential criticisms have denied that scientific method is a priori or universal, that theories can or must be translatable into observational terms, and that reduction to physics is the way to unify the sciences. These criticisms have undercut the motivations for behaviourism and methodological individualism in the social sciences. They have also led many to conclude, somewhat implausibly, that any standards of good social science are merely matters of rhetorical persuasion and social convention.

scholarly journals Qualitative Inquiry: A Key Element for Assessing the Social Impact of Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (8-9) ◽  
pp. 948-954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Sordé Martí ◽  
Ramon Flecha ◽  
José Antonio Rodríguez ◽  
José Luis Condom Bosch
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
European Union ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Positivist Approach ◽  
The Eu

The need to develop adequate methodologies to comprehensively assess the impact of research, especially the social impact of European Union (EU)-funded research, is one of the main concerns within the European Commission as well as for EU citizens, who are more active than ever. This article discusses the rationale behind using a qualitative approach to better address these concerns. Drawing on the FP7 IMPACT-EV research project, the present article discusses how to overcome a positivist approach that evaluates the social impact of research conducted only for its economic objectives and using only quantitative data. The focus on what is needed and what research is expected to bring to society are emphasized and made possible through qualitative inquiry of the social impact of the EU social sciences and the humanities (SSH) research. Thus, the development of qualitative-based analysis of the social impact of research is increasingly required to be conducted in dialogue with citizens.

scholarly journals Factors influencing the operational performance of co-operatives in South Africa: A case study of uThukela District Municipality

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nhlanhla Kenneth Buthelezi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Simple Random Sampling ◽  
School Level ◽  
Operational Performance ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Management Skills ◽  
High School Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
Long Time

Co-operative enterprises are regarded as a vehicle to fight poverty, create employment and boost economic growth in South Africa. A high number of co-operatives in the country were created through initiatives of government agencies. However, co-operative enterprises have for a long time been experiencing operational performance difficulties. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that affect the operational performance of co-operatives in South Africa. Primary data were collected from 136 co-operative members based in uThukela District Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal, using a structured questionnaire. A probability sampling method was used in this study, focusing on simple random sampling. Moreover, a quantitative approach was used for data collection and the data was analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 for windows. The data were presented in tabular form followed by the researcher’s interpretations thereof. The demographic findings of this study reveal that the majority of participants are middleaged adults, most of whom are women and who have attained a high-school level of education. Moreover, the findings show that the majority of co-operatives have been in operation for less than five years. In addition, the findings reveal that a larger number of cooperatives in uThukela District Municipality are in the agricultural sector. The findings also reveal that the majority of participants feel that management skills remained the crucial factor to co-operatives’ operational performance. Moreover, a large number of participants highlight that co-operatives operational performance is enhanced by teamwork. In addition, the majority of participants highlight that technical skills affect the operational performance of co-operatives.

scholarly journals An Analysis of the Effect of Plunger Barrel Performance of High Pressure Pumps and Fuel Against the Main Engine Injector Performance

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agus Tjahjono ◽  
Vega Fonsula Andromeda ◽  
Boedojo Wiwoho ◽  
Saifudin Afandi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
High Pressure ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
High Pressure Pump ◽  
Pressure Pump ◽  
The Social ◽  
Main Engine

This study aimed to analyze the magnitude of the performance correlation value of a plunger barrel of high pressure pump (X1) and fuel (Y1) in the main engine injector performance (Y). This study applied SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) analysis which produces quantitative data to describe the object under the study. The data were collected through a questionnaire by using a Likert scale approach. The results showed that the X1 coefficient on variable Y was moderate but the correlation value of X2 to Y was low. The correlation value of the influence of variables X1 and X2 together on the variable Y was also low. This variable can be used as an analysis in assessing the performance of the main engine injector in commercial vessels.

Conservation servitudes in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 105-133
Author(s):  
Marthán Theart ◽  
Kirstin Meiring
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Access To Finance ◽  
Insolvency Law ◽  
The Social ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
African Context ◽  
Medium Enterprises

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in the economy of developing countries. Although SMEs contribute to economic growth, they still struggle with access to finance and cash flow constraints. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic worsened this situation, making it necessary for countries to develop rescue regimes suitable for financially distressed SMEs. Focusing on Nigeria and Kenya – which represent the largest economies in West Africa and East Africa respectively – this paper critically sheds light on the socio-legal challenges posed by extant insolvency law regimes in both countries and their unsuitability for driving SME rescue. As a conversation starter in the African context, the authors identify transplanted concepts and structures which make SME rescue a futility, in the light of local circumstances, while proposing solutions tailored to the social milieu of both countries.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document