This thesis is a phenomenological exploration of female surfers' lived experiences in the surfing culture and economy of Muizenberg, South Africa. The research design includes a review of literature, participant observation and semi structured in-depth interviews. The approach was qualitative so as to gain deep insights into women's lived experiences participating in a predominantly male sporting culture and economy. Thereby, the everyday experiences, feelings, victories and constraints of female surfers were central to the investigation. Even though some athletes showed active resistance to gendered identities and contest stereotypical femininities, this research demonstrates that females still feel marginalized in what they see as the continued male-dominant sport of surfing. The results reveal that identity creation of female surfers is influenced by the media representation of women as well as the masculinity of the sport. The female surfers of the study face structural, interpersonal as well as intrapersonal constraints in their surfing lives. It is striking that most of the interpersonal constraints refer to attitudes of male surfers towards women. Furthermore, it has been revealed that female surfers are active participants in and drivers of the surfing economy. However, women often are socially and economically devalued and continue to be a minority in the surfing community. There is little to suggest that female surfers' constraints and gendered identity creation at Muizenberg will change significantly as long as there is no combined effort of media, professional surfing organizations and men in positions of influence to work towards an improvement of support for female surfers from beginner to professional. In order to move towards advancing female surfing, gender equality has to be addressed across multidimensional structures.

This mixed-methods study focused on the internal human factors responsible for data breaches that could cause adverse impacts on organizations. Based on the Swiss cheese theory, the study was designed to examine preventative measures that managers could implement to minimize potential data breaches resulting from internal employees' behaviors. The purpose of this study was to provide insight to managers about developing strategies that could prevent data breaches from cyber-threats by focusing on the specific internal human factors responsible for data breaches, the root causes, and the preventive measures that could minimize threats from internal employees. Data were collected from 10 managers and 12 employees from the business sector, and 5 government managers in Ivory Coast, Africa. The mixed methodology focused on the why and who using the phenomenological approach, consisting of a survey, face-to-face interviews using open-ended questions, and a questionnaire to extract the experiences and perceptions of the participants about preventing the adverse consequences from cyber-threats. The results indicated the importance of top managers to be committed to a coordinated, continuous effort throughout the organization to ensure cyber security awareness, training, and compliance of security policies and procedures, as well as implementing and upgrading software designed to detect and prevent data breaches both internally and externally. The findings of this study could contribute to social change by educating managers about preventing data breaches who in turn may implement information accessibility without retribution. Protecting confidential data is a major concern because one data breach could impact many people as well as jeopardize the viability of the entire organization.

Efforts in the marketing sciences can be distinguished between the analysis of individual customers and the examination of portfolios of customers, giving scarce theoretical guidance concerning the strategic allocation of promotional investments. Yet, strategic asset allocation is considered in financial economics theory to be the most important set of investment decisions. The problem addressed in this study was the application of strategic asset allocation theory from financial economics to marketing science with the aim of improving the financial results of investment in direct marketing promotions. This research investigated the components of efficient marketing portfolio construction which include multiattribute numerical optimization, stochastic Brownian motion, peer index tracking schemes, and data mining methods to formulate unique investable asset classes. Three outcomes resulted from this study on optimal diversification: (a) reduced saturative promotional activities balancing inefficient advertising cost and enterprise revenue objectives to achieve an investment equilibrium state; (b) the use of utility theory to assist in the lexicographic ordering of goal priorities; and (c) the solution approach to a multiperiod linear goal program with stochastic extensions. A performance test using a large archival set of customer data illustrated the benefits of efficient portfolio construction. The test asset allocation resulted in significantly more reward than that of the benchmark case. The results of this grounded theory study may be of interest to marketing researchers, operations research practitioners, and functional marketing executives. The social change implication is increased efficiency in allocation of large advertising budgets resulting in improved corporate performance.

The international knowledge management field has different ways of investigating, developing, believing, and studying knowledge management. Knowledge management (KM) is distinguished deductively by know-how, and its intangible nature establishes different approaches to KM concepts, practices, and developments. Exploratory research and theoretical principles have formed functional intelligences from 1896 to 2013, leading to a knowledge management knowledge science (KMKS) concept that derived a grounded theory of knowledge activity (KAT). This study addressed the impact of knowledge production problems on KM practice. The purpose of this qualitative meta-analysis study was to fit KM practice within the framework of knowledge science (KS) study. Themed questions and research variables focused on field mechanisms, operative functions, principle theory, and relationships of KMKS. The action research used by American practitioners has not established a formal structure for KS. The meta-data-analysis examined 385 transdisciplinary peer-reviewed articles using social science, service science, and systems science databases, with a selection of interdisciplinary studies that had a practice-research-theory framework. Key attributes utilizing Boolean limiters, words, phrases and publication dates, along with triangulation, language analysis and coding through analytic software identified commonalities of the data under study. Findings reflect that KM has not become a theoretically saturated field. KS as the forensic science of KM creates a paradigm shift, causes social change that averts rapid shifts in management direction and uncertainty, and connects KM philosophy and science of knowledge. These findings have social change implications by informing the work of managers and academics to generate a methodical applied science.