Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Mobile penetration in Ghana and the rest of Western Africa is reaching maturity. Mobile operators are looking for ways to complement their traditional revenue streams, as they cannot merely rely on voice and short message service (SMS) income anymore. Mobile value-added services are a good addition to the portfolio, bringing much needed services like transactional banking, commerce, information and entertainment, insurance, and health information services to mobile users that had difficult to no access to the above services until recently. South African mobile value-added services (VAS) companies that have a good relationship with market leading mobile providers, like MTN, have the opportunity to tap into the Ghanaian market as these services predominantly consist of mobile financial services products with limited functionality. Other specific services like agriculture, health, entertainment and insurance have been identified as mobile subscriber needs in the Ghanaian market. The benefit that South African mobile value-added companies have is that they already have developed similar well-functioning value-added services for the local market where comparisons with the Ghanaian market dynamics can be found. These companies can tailor them to the specific needs and requirements of the market in Ghana, saving them time and having the much-needed first mover advantage with regards to new or better mobile VAS in this market. Ghana is seen as the most stable country in the West African region and ease of doing business is good in comparison with neighbouring countries like Nigeria. Ghana is therefore a good entry point for South African mobile VAS companies in the West African market to truly scale their business model. The researcher chose to investigate the opportunities and best ways to enter this market by interviewing a project manager and managing director of a leading mobile value-added services company doing business in emerging economies, including Ghana. Questionnaires were also sent to employees working for various mobile VAS employers with extensive experience in the research and development of mobile VAS in these markets. The researcher derived information on the difficulty of doing business in Ghana; the current available VAS in the Ghanaian market; factors that hinder business growth in this market specifically; drivers of success; the importance of partnering with leading mobile operators like MTN to be successful; how the South African business model can be compatible; South African and other African trends that will most likely overflow to Ghana; together with the size data-enabled VAS which will form part of the portfolio of products that mobile VAS companies can offer and be market ready for in the near future. The findings of the researcher can be used as a starting framework to further investigate and determine specific market size and to conduct in-depth market analysis of the needs and requirements of mobile subscribers with regards to mobile VAS in Ghana with the vision of moving into the rest of Western Africa.

M. Tech. Business Administration / In April 2014, ICASA, South Africa's communications regulator, reduced mobile termination rates (i.e. tariffs mobile service providers can charge for terminating calls on each other's networks) from 40 cents to 20 cents per minute. Furthermore, mobile number portability has enhanced mobility of subscribers across networks. Mobile number portability means that subscribers can switch mobile network service providers without changing their mobile number despite it being issued by the network they are leaving. The price war amongst service providers means that all mobile network operators offer mobile voice calls and access to mobile data at comparable rates. There is now little differentiation between mobile network service providers, and mobile network service providers have to seek other sources of sustainable competitive advantage. It is against this background that the purpose of this research is to measure South African mobile phone consumers' perceptions and expectations of the service provided by mobile network service providers.

Performance analysis in cellular networks is the determination of customer orientated grade-of-service parameters, such as call blocking and dropping probabilities, using the methods of stochastic theory. This stochastic theory analysis is built on certain assumptions regarding the arrival and service processes of user-offered calls in a network. In the past, cellular networks were analysed using the classical assumptions, Poisson call arrivals and negative exponential channel holding times, borrowed from earlier fixed network analysis. However, cellular networks are markedly different from fixed networks, in that, they afford the user a unique opportunity: the ability to communicate while on the move. User mobility and various other cellular network characteristics, such as customer-billing, cell· layout and hand·off mechanisms, generally invalidate the use of Poisson arrivals and negative exponential holding times. Recent measurements on live networks substantiate this view. Consequently, over the past few years, there has been a noticeable shift towards using more generalised arrival and service distributions in the performance analysis of cellular networks. However, two shortcomings with the resulting models are that they suffer from state space explosion and / or they represent hand off traffic as a state dependent mean arrival rate (thus ignoring the higher moments of the hand-off arrival process). This thesis's contribution to cellular network analysis is a moment-based approach that avoids full state space description but ensures that the hand-off arrival process is modelled beyond the first moment. The thesis considers a performance analysis model that is based on Poisson new call arrivals, generalised hand-off call arrivals and a variety of channel holding times. The thesis shows that the performance analysis of a cellular network may be loosely decomposed into three parts, a generic cell traffic characterising model, a generic cell traffic blocking model and a quality of service evaluation model. The cell traffic characterising model is employed to determine the mean and variance of hand-off traffic offered by a cell to its neighbour. The cell traffic-blocking model is used to detennine the blocking experienced by the various traffic streams offered to each cell. The quality of service evaluation part is essentially afued-point iteration of the cell traffic characterising and cell traffic blocking parts to determine customer orientated grade-of-service parameters such as blocking and dropping probabilities. The thesis also presents detailed mathematical models for user mobility modelling. Finally, the thesis provides extensive results to validate the proposed analysis and to illustrate the accuracy of the proposed analysis when compared to existing methods. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

In today's globalised market, quality and productivity are essential for the survival and growth of any organisation. For service companies, the encounters between customers and company employees are a critical component of this service quality. These factors depend on the successful attraction and retention of customers. The customer has therefore become the focus for any successful business. Business success depends on organisat ions understanding and meeting customers ' expectations and demands. This study measures the dimensions of service encounters as perceived by customers of Vodacom Lesotho. The current level of service encounter quality and satisfact ion is measured for Vodacom Lesotho customers who use the company's contact centres (popularly known as Vodashops). The study reveals that customers are very keen to be involved in service improvement programs . Empirical testing identified that although the quality of network coverage is not part of the service encounter, it is very important in the customer satisfaction with the service encounter . This study has developed the following recommendations that will ensure the improvement of service encounters at Vodacom Lesotho: • Vodacom Lesotho needs to involve customers in their service design processes . • Front-line employees should be hired on their abilities to perform customer service encounters and they should continuously receive relevant training . • Customers need to be educated about the services offered by Vodacom Lesotho. The results of this study have supported the objectives of this study and it can be concluded that Vodacom Lesotho needs to improve service quality to ensure customer satisfaction . / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, 2003.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-76). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

While experiencing exponential growth worldwide, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are key factors in business today. The ubiquitous nature of the mobile phone in South Africa and the use of wireless technologies facilitate business in areas where current fixed infrastructure is limited or non-existent, thereby aiding in the development of rural areas. This descriptive study determines what factors will extend the use of mobile phone technology in business. The literature indicates business advantage can be gained from incorporating technology into a strategic framework but in so doing must consider the complexities of the technology and its lifecycle. Currently, e-mail and Internet access would be the most likely applications of data use via Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). As a technology-based study the methodology used e-mail to deliver a survey targeting staff from the three cellular network operators in Port Elizabeth. The mobile industry and Port Elizabeth were both considered good indicators of technology use and the progression of infrastructure throughout South Africa. The findings indicate that although most mobile phones have the features required by users, the current use of associated data applications is low. Email is the most appropriate application and expected to be significant in 2006. The technology is of strategic importance and can be applied to make idle time productive. Successful use depends on the removal of barriers. In the case of e-mail and Internet access; the most significant of these is the complexity of the initial set-up. Despite the complexity of technology evolution and the challenges of effective business application, substantial gains can be still be realised. Currently, technology is best deployed to meet specialised needs. The expected introduction of third generation technologies herald’s higher data transfer rates, providing the opportunity for more generalised application in business in the immediate future.

by Lam Lai-Wah. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-78). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENT --- p.iv / LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS --- p.vi / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vii / ACKNOWLEDGMENT --- p.viii / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / What is CT-2? --- p.2 / Chapter II. --- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY --- p.3 / Problem Statement --- p.3 / Research Objectives --- p.3 / Research Methodology --- p.4 / Sampling Plan --- p.5 / Chapter III. --- INDUSTRY ANALYSIS --- p.8 / CT-2 Industry --- p.10 / Paging Industry --- p.14 / Mobile Phone Industry --- p.19 / Chapter IV. --- RESEARCH FINDINGS / Analysis of Research Findings --- p.24 / Consumers' Knowledge of CT-2 --- p.24 / Corporate Image --- p.35 / Customer Loyalty --- p.36 / Consumers' Purchase Decision --- p.38 / Pricing Information --- p.42 / Characteristics of those respondents who want to buy CT-2 --- p.44 / Chapter V. --- SWOT ANALYSIS / SWOT Analysis --- p.51 / Competitor Analysis --- p.57 / Chapter VI. --- RECOMMENDATION / Marketing Strategies and implementation plan for Hutchison --- p.66 / Conclusion --- p.76 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.77 / APPENDIX --- p.82

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management specialising in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation. Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (March 2017) / Innovation is one of the core and key characteristics of entrepreneurship, which stimulates operational and financial success of a firm. Innovation is ambidextrous in nature, characterised by exploration and exploitation. This report is concerned with exploitative innovation, which is characterised by new; products, services, and processes. This Research Report investigates how human capital investments (years of schooling and years of work experience of telecoms firms’ senior managers and executives) relate to innovation performance. This paper uses the human capital theory and the resource base theory to understand the perceived impact of human capital investments on performance and also its perceived moderation effect on the nexus between innovation and performance. Research findings from 81 senior management and executives of four major telecoms firms in South Africa indicate that innovation has a perceived direct impact on the perceived success of the firm. However, a counterintuitive relationship of human capital investments with performance is observed. Furthermore, human capital investments have a counterintuitive moderating effect on the nexus between innovation and performance. Therefore, this research report discusses human capital variable configurations that are more likely to have a perceived impact on a telecoms firm performance, and human capital variable configuration that are likely to have a moderating effect on the nexus between innovation and performance. / MT2017

M. Tech. Business Administration / The objective of this study was to identify factors that are responsible for employee absenteeism in Vodacom SA, which is the largest mobile cell phone company in South Africa. In the literature, it has been extensively reported that absenteeism is a major cause of loss of income and revenues among mobile cell phone operators in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to identify the root causes of absenteeism in the cellular phone industry in South Africa. Data was collected from a random sample of 120 employees of Vodacom SA working in Midrand.