Bibliography: leaves 184-207. / This study contributes to the understanding of the role of relational governance and formal contractual governance within short-term new product development focused alliances and proposes relevant managerial implications.

Bibliography: leaves 165-169. / The purpose of the research is to develop a strategic planning approach apropos the structuring of business combinations on the basis of empirical research as well as relevant strategy approaches and concepts. Business combination with other firms through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), joint ventures and strategic alliances represents the major external versus internal organic growth route and provides the firm intent on external growth with a considerable range of combination vehicles, through which it can implement specific combination strategies to achieve its defined corporate vision and objectives.

Includes bibliographical references. / Industrial Relations theory presents a dualism of approaches to explanation, that is of Subjective and Objective paradigms of explanation. Utilising Giddensian Structuration theory, a Structuration theory of industrial relations is developed and utilised to bridge the epistemological divide. Structuration theory is then utilised to establish the ontological character of collective bargaining for three regions of the South African Garment Manufacturing Industry. This 'character' is shown to be encapsulated in the notion of maintaining a high level of managerial prerogative. The managerial prerogative has been maintained and perpetuated by the lack of militancy on the part of the Unions, and an explanation of the observed lack of militancy is provided by the examination of action around the bargaining in the respective industrial councils.

Bibliography: leaves 285-295. / The application of newly developed information technology to managerial decision making has given rise to a new discipline known as Decision Support Systems (DSS). While considerable development of DSS has taken place since the mid-seventies, in such areas as applications, conceptual clarification of goals and characteristics, and developmental methodology, there are still certain areas which remain relatively unexplored.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 502-531). / This research explores an "inside the black box" view on how IT enables sustainable competitive advantage. Most researchers have investigated IT competitive competencies that make up a firm's strategic framework to understand competitive advantage. However, Resource-Based Theory (RBT) probes into the inner workings of a firm, suggesting that a firm's IT assets and resources are the basis of a firm's "rare" core competencies to compete successfully. Using RBT and research in the economics, strategy, and IT literatures, an initial "Framework of Sustainability" was created, against which the case studies were conducted. This framework was used as foundation to develop semi-structured questionnaires in which 45, 90 minute (on average) interviews were conducted with managers in the four firms. Both internal and external documents about the firms and the industry were used as sources of corroborating evidence. In addition, a "bottoms up" view was obtained with evidence gathered from a short questionnaire and focus groups discussions held with 178 staff employees in the four firms.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-178). / I examine the effect of South African taxes, specifically the secondary tax on companies (STC) and capital gains tax (CGT) on investor measures of expected return and firm value, firm cost of capital and optimal capital structure. The discussion, findings and models presented in this study are entirely original in the field of South African corporate finance research. I model the relationship between STC, CGT and expected return and use this relationship to formulate an hypothesis of the expected behaviour of ex ante measures of implied cost of capital for a sample of listed South African companies.

The purpose of this case study is to empirically investigate the phenomenon of initial public offerings (IPOs) by applying it to Tencent Holdings Limited (Tencent). Tencent is a Chinese internet and telecommunications value-added service provider that launched its IPO on 16 June 2004. Tencent is China’s largest internet firm and Asia’s most valuable brand, boasting a current market capitalization of HK$1.224 trillion (US$157.9 billion). The origins of Tencent’s success story trace back to its IPO decision, an important topic in the field of finance. The aim of this study is to investigate the structure of Tencent’s IPO, its listing decision and determining an intrinsic value of its IPO shares on its listing date. It was found that Tencent’s IPO extensively relates to academic literature surrounding IPO under-pricing and valuing unlisted companies. The results reveal that Tencent left money on the table by underpricing its offer shares and exercised its over-allotment option as a form of price stabilization. It was further found that Tencent’s underpricing was not influenced by competitor IPOs but rather by stringent IPO allotment policies and other signals of firm quality. It was also discovered that there might have been bias in the allocation of Tencent’s shares. An investigation into Tencent’s listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) revealed that while its competitors listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market, there was a clear correlation between Tencent’s operations and corporate structure to the HKEx listing and regulatory requirements. The decisive factors included domiciling in the British Virgin Island and Cayman Islands, the cost of listing on the HKEx Main Board versus the NASDAQ National Market as well as the effects of US GAAP and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The study was concluded with the application of a relative valuation and discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation. The relative valuation estimated a price range of HK$14.40-HK$18.72 for Tencent’s IPO shares, while the DCF estimated the intrinsic value of the shares to be HK$18.68. The analysis was comprehensive and in-depth and suggests that Tencent’s IPO shares were five times undervalued and were offered to shareholders at a deep discount.

Bibliography: leaves 97-100. / The study of intraweek share return patterns has received considerable attention in the field of international research. This research has shown that share returns tend to be higher than average on the last trading day of the week and lower than average on the first. This anomaly has come to be known as the Weekend Effect. Explanations proffered for this phenomenon have failed adequately to justify the pattern of returns across the weekdays. These explanations include settlement period delays, dividend effects, measurement error in share prices, institutional features and the tendency for firms to release unfavourable information over the weekend. This study investigates day of the week effects on returns of the All Share Index, Industrial Index and Gold Index on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Bibliography: leaves 79-87. / This research explored the experiences of work-family conflict amongst a group of twenty single working mothers with pre-school age children. Dubin's (1992) theory of Central Life Interests was utilised to fully understand how the differential importance of the roles played by the women informed the level and nature of the conflict experienced. A two-phase research design was employed, in which questionnaire responses from the first phase formed the basis for the second phase of in-depth qualitative interviews. Results indicated that participants viewed motherhood as their Central Life Interest and that this priority could lead them to experience greater conflict between work and family demands. Although work was rated second in importance when compared to family, it was still seen as being of great significance, not only for instrumental reasons but also for the intellectual stimulation provided and opportunities for participants to exercise independence and resposibility.

Bibliography: pages 373-389. / This thesis deals with the topic of corporate social responsibility and represents an effort to treat it as a management issue in the context of a large insurance society. Today we live in a world of increasing complexity, growth and change. Attempts to gain a greater understanding and insight into the functioning of our world have led to the development of an analytical method called the 'systems approach', whereby instead of explaining the whole in terms of its parts, the parts are explained in terms of the whole. The systems approach is a holistic method of analysing systems. The outputs of one system form the inputs to another. The analysis of any system must deal with the twin phenomena of complexity and interrelatedness. Each system is in itself quite complex but nevertheless has many interrelated elements organised to achieve the set objectives of the system. The systems approach is potentially useful when considering the complexities of a modern business organisation. Indeed, the conscious recognition of the business organisation as a dynamic whole brings with it the awareness of the difficulty of the managerial process. Systems thinking compels management to realise that their organisation is only a subsystem of a larger system - the society whose mandate legitimises their organisation's purpose and existence. The organisation's outputs are its inputs to the society, and vice versa. This interrelationship imposes certain obligations and restrictions on the manner in which the organisation conducts its business to ensure the increased well- being of the society as a whole.