Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master in Technology: Marketing, Technikon Natal, 2000. / This research has aimed to explore the impact of clustering on the ability of small manufacturers in the clothing industry in Port Elizabeth to enhance their competitiveness. The research study was conducted in two stages, which included both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Firstly, an exploratory qualitative study using the Delphi method was employed to identify the key problems currently being experienced by small manufacturers in the clothing industry. Finally, the application of a structured questionnaire to small manufacturers in the clothing industry followed, exploring the awareness of and interest in clustering as a strategy for enhancing competitiveness. A key observation to emerge from the qualitative research is that significant differences were evident between the responses of academics, professionals in small business development and small business owners. An analysis of the problems experienced by small manufacturers in the clothing industry revealed that high labour costs and low I productivity were the frontrunners. The lack of knowledge was cited as the most important problem preventing the wide scale implementation of horizontal clustering. Another key observance to emerge from the quantitative study is the fact that very few significant differences are evident between the two groups viz. small business owners and experts. The research indicated that although in the minority, horizontal linkages exist between small clothing manufacturers in Port Elizabeth. The results indicated furthermore that the majority of small clothing manufacturers in Port Elizabeth are / M

This research analyses the expansion and transformation of higher education in Asia, focusing in particular on Chinese universities. It shows the rising of the so-­‐‑ called global university, that is, above all, an inclusive process which makes academic knowledge production something heterogeneous, complex and composite – characterised by different actors both private and public, institutional and non-­‐‑institutional. The global university is a point of multiplicity that places our view in the midst of the transformation of educational policies and knowledge taken as whole. It reveals a ‘global knowledge order’ parallel to a ‘new international division of labour’, where the higher education is becoming an important device in the filtering, restriction, and return of population and skilled workers around a whole set of internal national/transnational borders based on knowledge. Developing the concepts of stratification and differentiation, I investigate how the transformation of the educational system brings out and multiplies, rather than mitigates, the differences between universities, while this same segmentation refers to an original and powerful method of management of the increasingly qualified workforce. Higher education and its internationalization nowadays is an important dispositive to segment population within globalization, reconfigures hierarchies and manages the complex displacement of the present having the same force (or even more) as those of gender and race. Moreover, the Global University represents the most interesting terrain to observe the development of an original measurement of labour in its metamorphosis and the value form in cognitive capitalism. The growing intra-­‐‑regional mobility in Asia and the internationalisation of higher education characterise the innovative cartography of the present, wherein knowledge production becomes spatially dispersed and globally integrated. Knowledge, geographically embedded, defines the order of the current post-­‐‑ colonial space, while the Global University describes not only this kind of order, but also how this imbalance is used by the skilled workforce to survive in the local labour market.

Post independence land tenurial reform

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This study is an investigation of aspects of tourism planning and management in Europe. In particular it is an examination within three distinct and complementary case study areas in the European coastal zone, of factors that may contribute to tourist area success. The historical development and the current problems of the tourism industry at international and national levels are discussed and the framework of European Community and national government approaches to tourism planning are analysed. Based on studies of the planning and management framework and extensive field work undertaken in Weymouth, the Algarve and Malta the thesis provides an interpretation of the mechanisms of development and control in operation at destination areas. It considers the extent to which the aims presented in the planning documentation for the area have been met in terms of visitor, resident and business success, and explores the relationships between these factors. The study concludes that, in general, the planning mechanisms and support for tourism development have been implemented only as a reaction to market failure and that resort managers are ill-equipped to deal with many of the problems that are evident in the tourism system. In particular the study highlights the importance of information and monitoring within the process of planning and control, and argues for greater emphasis on the role of residents, businesses and the quality of the environment in the tourism planning process.

The development of new products in the personal finacial services (PFS) sector is an area that is being increasingly relied upon by organisations to provide competitive differentiation in the highly competitive environment that they now operate within. Despite this reliance, relatively little is known about how new product development (NPD) activity is undertaken within the PFS sector. The literature in this area is inundated with different models and techniques to aid development programmes, but how closely they are followed and implemented in the reality facing personal financial service companies is questionable. The first stage of the research therefore examines the implementation of planned new product development in the sector, in order to highlight the gap between theory and practice, and provide for a more contingent approach to development activities. The second and third stages of this study are concerned with providing a detailed investigation of the development, launch and distribution of a particular new PFS product. Specific attention is paid to the organisational and behavioural factors that influenced its development and eventual market outcome. Such factors are given very little consideration in the existing literature supporting NPD activity, yet it is shown that the consequences that they can have for the success of new PFS products in the marketplace can be critical. The overall value of the research is found in its questioning of the universal nature of the existing provision of theoretical approaches to, and support techniques for NPD, in addition to determining the need for companies, both within and outside of the PFS sector, to take into account highlighted behavioural and organisational factors when involved in development programmes.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-100). Also available via the Internet.

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This research focuses on corporate entrepreneurship within the sales unit of a multinational corporation. The multinational corporation sets the frame for the research where the realization of CE as a management concept is analyzed in the sales unit. The purpose of this thesis is to gain an in depth understanding of entrepreneurship, and corporate entrepreneurship as a management concept. Additionally it is supposed to increase the literature on the topic of corporate entrepreneurship within a sales unit. It aims to bring the research areas of selling and sales behavior as well as corporate entrepreneurship closer together. In order to gain the in depth knowledge required for this thesis an extensive literature review on the topic of entrepreneurship has been conducted. Corporate entrepreneurship builds on the research of entrepreneurship and is referred to as a management concept. The management concept of change management is introduced and its’ link to corporate entrepreneurship is established. The literature review also covers general research on the multinational corporation as well as the sales unit and the entrepreneurial actions already existing in the sales unit. Furthermore a case study approach has been realized to increase the understanding of corporate entrepreneurship in real life. Therefore eight employees of a multinational corporation, who work in the sales unit, have been interviewed with semi structured interviews. The semi structured interviews were approximately one hour long, resulting in taped material of 9 hours. This material has been transcribed and with the help of the analyzing software NVivo clustered. The clusters of NVivo formed the base to answer the research questions. Elements such as sales innovativeness and creative selling, knowledge sharing, an entrepreneurial mission statement, an employee suggestion scheme, freedom resulting in innovation and an active change management are elements realizing corporate entrepreneurship within the sales unit. Sales innovativeness and creative selling is realized in the sales unit through new selling approaches such as cross selling and value based selling. Knowledge sharing holds a great advantage for the employees where successful ideas and tactics for example form country regions are applied to other regions or even the headquarter. Knowledge share also sparks innovation. The entrepreneurial mission statement is necessary to provide guidelines and describe the desired behavior. The entrepreneurial orientation mission statement refers to the overall entrepreneurial orientation of the company. Freedom according to the data of the case study results in innovation and motivation. Therefore general freedom in the work routine characterizes corporate entrepreneurship in the sales unit. Furthermore an active change management which is also present in the sales unit of the case company supports the process of including corporate entrepreneurship as an overall management concept. These results lead to the conclusion that corporate entrepreneurship is realized to a certain degree within the sales unit, but still holds room for improvement. In the end the generalizability of the thesis as well as advices for future research are given.

Nowadays, hierarchical organizational structure, which has been created and dominated in 20th century, still remain widely used. The success of hierarchy in organizations in a period of time from 1960 to 2000 had been justified by such factors as: the relatively steady environment and preference of transparency and predictability over flexibility. However, in 21th century the business environment changed, therefore, the relevance of hierarchy becomes questionable. The given study provides a comparison between the hierarchical organizational structure and a modern holacratic structure. The research problem for this study is the lack of scientific and empirical data on how organizations can embrace the change in its structure and increase its vitality and adaptivity. The purpose of the current master’s thesis is to resolve the stated problem by investigating the organizational change of US-based company Zappos that was established in 1999 as a pioneer of online retail company and became a large corporation 10 years later. Following the process of expanding in 2013, the company switched from hierarchical organizational structure to the holacratic. The study is divided into three historical embedded cases in order to evaluate the reasons and outcomes of the organizational change. According to the research findings, the premises of Zappos organizational change was exceptional culture, orientation on long-term perspective and the influence of CEO visionary leadership. Additionally, the outcome of this study indicated that for large organizations that have hierarchical organizational structure the transformation to holacratic structure is too risky due to the complexity and long duration of shifting process. It has also been stated that emerging and scaling enterprises should have a holacratic structure in order to support the growth of adaptivity by eliminating the hierarchical ladder, distributing authority to all employees, while ensuring the encouragement of active involvement into company’s operations and strategic developments.