scholarly journals Export intensity and the competitive intelligence of exporting companies: evidence from South Africa1

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludo Cuyvers ◽  
Michel Dumont ◽  
Wilma Viviers ◽  
Patrick De Pelsmaker ◽  
Marié-Luce Muller ◽  
...  

The present paper investigates the relationship between Competitive Intelligence (CI) factors, characteristics, information sources, needs, requirements and the export intensity of exporting companies in South Africa. We establish whether there are significant differences between firms, grouped according to export intensity with respect to awareness, use, information sources and attitude towards CI activities. A questionnaire was developed and sent to exporting firms, resulting in a usable sample of 309 South African respondents. These firms are grouped according to export intensity, and CI practices between groups are compared. The results show that export intensive firms appear to be more aware and supportive of CI activities than less export intensive firms.

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey J. Bagraim

The emigration of skilled nurses from South Africa exacerbates the crisis in the provision of public health services. A descriptive, quantitative design was applied to investigate the relationship between intention to emigrate and employee commitment. Over 400 registered nurses (N = 419), working within public sector tertiary hospitals in the Western Cape, responded to a cross-sectional survey questionnaire. Three foci of employee commitment (organisational, professional and national) were examined but only national commitment significantly helped predict intention to emigrate from South Africa in the regression model (beta = -0.0525, p < 0.0001). The implications of the results obtained in this study are discussed.Die emigrasie van verpleegkundiges uit Suid-Afrika vererger die krisis in die verskaffing van gesondheidsorgdienste in die land. ’n Beskrywende, kwantitatiewe ontwerp is gebruik om die verwantskap tussen werknemertoewyding en die voorneme om te emigreer te ondersoek. Meer as 400 verpleegsters (N = 419) wat in openbare tersiêre hospitale in die Wes-Kaap werk, het op die vraelys gereageer. Drie fokusareas van toewyding (organisatories, professioneel en nasionaal) is gemeet, maar net nasionale toewyding het daartoe bygedra om emigrasievoorneme te voorspel (beta = -0.0525, p < 0.0001). Die implikasies van hierdie resultate word bespreek.


Author(s):  
A. S. A. Du Toit

Using competitive intelligence (CI) can help developing countries to increase their competitiveness. This paper compares the CI activities between two retail banks in Brazil and South Africa. An e-mail survey in a sample of 2550 employees in a retail bank in Brazil and 847 employees in a retail bank in South Africa was carried out in which CI practices were measured. Respondents in both countries were not very effective to conduct effective CI analysis. Respondents from Brazil consider information on operational risks as the most important while for South African respondents the most important information was on changing regulatory requirements. Although there is a culture of competitiveness in both organizations, it is recommended that if they want to compete effectively in the global economy, they should create CI awareness by organizing CI training sessions for employees.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riley Carpenter ◽  
◽  
Lily Roos ◽  

The South African accounting profession needs racial transformation. Consequently, students pursuing the chartered accountant (South Africa) (CA(SA)) designation, especially at-risk Black students, require adequate support. To be successful, the support must be driven by factors influencing students’ academic performance. As prior academic performance is one such factor, this study examines the relationship between the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams and the National Benchmark Test (NBT) for students enrolled in an accounting degree at a South African university. Due to numerous moderate and strong correlations between NSC and NBT results, without multicollinearity, it was concluded that both sets of results should be considered as factors contributing to students’ academic performance. The findings highlight the need for further empirical research on NSC and NBT results as determinants of success for accounting students.


Author(s):  
Masilonyane Mokhele

Background: The concentration of development around airports is a topical subject on the relationship between transportation, accessibility and the distribution of land use. Notwithstanding the existing literature on the analysis of airports and surrounds, and normative models of airport-led development, extensions are required on the empirical analysis of spatial economic attributes of airports and surrounds.Objectives: Objectives of the article were twofold: firstly, to establish the economic activity mix and reasons for the location of firms on and around O.R. Tambo and Cape Town international airports; and secondly, to analyse linkages between firms on and around the two airports as well as linkages those firms have with their metropolitan, regional, national and international contexts.Method: The article focused on the South African case studies of O.R. Tambo and Cape Town international airports and used a telephone survey as the primary data collection method.Results: The article discovered that the developments around O.R. Tambo and Cape Town international airports are spatial clusters that are also linked with other airports in South Africa and beyond.Conclusion: The article extended existing knowledge by providing insights on the spatial economic characteristics of airports and surrounds. The findings can be improved upon with work on other case studies, and potentially be used as bases for extending a theoretical framework that describes and explains the spatial economic forces that drive development on and around airports.


2021 ◽  
pp. 213-235
Author(s):  
Nicolette Vanessa Roman ◽  
Marsha van Heerden ◽  
Eugene Lee Davids ◽  
Kerstin Adonis

This chapter provides insight into the mother–adolescent relationship in a South African context, focusing on the relationship between identity styles and the mother’s parenting. The findings revealed that maternal involvement predicted adolescent identity style in a sample of non-White South African adolescents. Identity development is an important process in the lives of adolescents, and many changes and much decision-making occur during this phase. Maternal influence, it would seem, is vital in identity development of adolescents. As an understudied area of research in South Africa, this study offers tentative insights into the potential of harnessing the mother–adolescent relationship to enhance positive development of identity style and commitment.


2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Vorster

This contribution argues that competing justice values are hindering progress in the land debate in South Africa. Two factors contribute to this state of affairs: Firstly, social justice is a multifaceted concept undergirded by a range of values. These values often stand in tension with each other, especially when it comes to intergenerational conflicts and transitional social contexts. Secondly, South African approaches to justice seem to be closely related to group identities, particular historical experiences and political interests. To address the impasse on land, we need to recalibrate our disposition to the hierarchy of justice values and the priority we assign to each value. Moreover, we need to address the relationship between justice dispositions and identities. The question posed is the following: Can reformed-theological resources add an extra ingredient to our understanding of social justice? What would be the implications of such a recalibration for our understanding of human identity? This article proposes the concept of embracing justice as orienting principle in resolving the land issue. Furthermore, it draws on reformed notions of self-denial and cross-bearing to advocate a permeable notion of identity that internalises and enacts the demands of embracive justice.


1997 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven M. Burgess ◽  
Nicola Oldenboom

South Africa's emergence from years of political and regulatory trade barriers has focussed attention on South African exporters. In a replication of Elliot Krasnostein's study of 54 Singaporean exporters, the perceptions, attitudes and characteristics of a representative sample of 321 experienced South African exporters and their decision makers were investigated. Consistent with other international studies, the results suggest that managerial, organizational and environmental forces and perceptions motivate export behaviour. However, South African firms clearly are responding to unique situational factors and national export resources as well. The findings indicate that managerial leadership, supportive attitudes and extensive exporting experience are widely available in South Africa. Secondary information sources could be improved and freight costs reduced to improve South African export effectiveness.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Donaldson

This article explores the relationship between sport and war in Britain during the South African War, 1899–1902. Through extensive press coverage, as well as a spate of memoirs and novels, the British public was fed a regular diet of war stories and reportage in which athletic endeavour and organized games featured prominently. This contemporary literary material sheds light on the role sport was perceived to have played in the lives and work of the military personnel deployed in South Africa. It also, however, reveals a growing unease over an amateur-military tradition which equated sporting achievement with military prowess.


2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben J. De Klerk

The goal of this article is to investigate the relationship between the liturgy of the worship service, where prophetic preaching is delivered, and the liturgy of life, where the gift of prophecy must be put into practice. In what way could the ‘prophets’ be equipped to become practitioners of the gift of prophecy? A short description is given of what is understood by prophetic preaching and the gift of prophecy in an effort to determine the relationship between these concepts. In a brief summary, burning questions in church life and in the South African society are addressed: in church life, the questions of extreme conservatism and extreme liberalism are scrutinised and in the South African society, corruption and inequality are investigated. In conclusion, a few guidelines are given for putting the gift of prophecy into practice in the liturgy of life.


2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nico Vorster

The secularisation theory of Max Weber states that modernisation inevitably leads to the decline of religion. This theory has in recent years been challenged by the desecularisation theories of various sociologists and philosophers. This article probes the possible link between modernisation and secularisation through a case study of the Republic of South Africa. South Africa is an important case study because it went through a rapid process of modernisation from the 1990s onwards. The first section examines the secularisation thesis of Weber and his supporters, as well as theories of desecularisation. The second section discusses the periods of anti-modernisation (1910–90) and modernisation (1990–2012) in South Africa. The third section analyses statistical data on the state of religion in South Africa, while the last section offers some concluding remarks on the relationship between modernisation and secularisation in South Africa thus far. The finding of the article is that the South African experience indicates that modernisation has an impact on religion, but the effect is not necessarily one of a decline in religion. In South Africa, modernisation has led to the decline of religion in some communities and the rejuvenation of religion in others. The effect of modernisation on religion seems to depend on its interaction with a range of other social factors.


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