Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The research assignment was conducted to evaluate the influential dimensions for building high performing teams in virtual organisations. The new business unit, Middle East and Africa has the challenge of operating globally for the first time. The leadership has the daunting task of getting the virtual team to become a high performance team. An intensive literature review was conducted to draw on the knowledge of previous theory for both high performance teams as well as virtual organisations. A representative sample of the organisation’s leadership was interviewed by means of an online questionnaire, whilst employees were survey by means of both physical and online surveys. The results provided insights into the dimensions that strongly influence high performance teams in virtual global organisations. A deeper understanding of success factors that influence team performance and virtual organisations were learnt and recommendations was made to the company.

published_or_final_version / Management Studies / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

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This thesis develops an analysis of the prevalence and determinants of financial fraud as identified in the Chinese listed firms over the period 1996 to 2007. First, theoretical analysis on the determinants of financial fraud, from its subjective, objective and conditional aspects, provides an understanding of why financial fraud happened as it did.  The conditional aspect (corporate governance mechanisms) is highlighted since it is controllable in reducing the probability of fraudulent reporting.  Data from the Chinese stock market is accessed, organised, and analyzed to support the analysis. Second, the prevalence and nature of fraud uncovered in the supervision of listed companies in Chinese stock exchanges is identified.  From data reported by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the incidence and prevalence of cases of fraud identified through regulation is investigated. I show how fraudulent activity can be categorised, how its nature has evolved over time, how business sectors are differentially prone to fraud, and what modes of fraudulent activity have been recorded. Third, the key interest of this research lies in the investigation of the argument that companies are more, or less, prone to fraudulent reporting by reason of:  Their ownership structure; Their corporate governance characteristics; and/or Their numerical characteristics in financial reporting. 82 fraudulent financial statements from 40 listed companies identified by the China Securities Regulatory Commission are selected as the study sample, and 82 control peers are selected, to correspond to the study sample as closely as possible, regarding the assets size and industries.  Findings challenge the conventional arguments which have been supported based on data from western countries.  Conventional arguments show financial fraud is associated with weakness of governance in western companies (e.g. <i>Beasley et al., 2000</i>) and with patterns of ownership that would indicate reduced agency control by shareholders.  However, my finding reveals that in China ownership concentration is negatively associated with reported fraud; and as for some oft-discussed corporate governance characteristics (e.g. the supervisory board, audit committee, independent directors), the fraud firms and their non-fraud peers are not statistically distinct, suggesting that corporate governance mechanisms that are designed to reduce the probability of financial fraud fail to work in the Chinese market.  The negative results in this research contribute by updating our understanding of the determinants of financial statement fraud; the supervision of China’s equity markets; and whether it can be considered effective in uncovering financial fraud.

This work explores the relationship between corporate and economic growth within the United States since 1929. The corporate share of GDP climbed from 52.5 percent in 1929 to 59.7 percent in 2005. Depending upon the years included and the method of estimating respective growth rates, this increasing share of GDP accounts for up to 14 percent of real domestic corporate growth. However, the domestic corporate share of GDP can never exceed 100 percent. Subject to numerous assumptions, the models presented here estimate that this source of corporate growth could be exhausted as early as the year 2032. Given the lack of discussion of this issue in the relevant literature, it is unlikely that current stock valuations account for the eventual loss of this source of growth. The actual effect on stock prices of such a slowdown of domestic corporate growth will depend not only on how far into the future such an event occurs, but also on how successful these corporations are at finding new growth opportunities overseas. More research is needed to better model

Today, multinational corporations demonstrate commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by adopting global voluntary initiatives and codes of conduct and by publishing annual reports on their social behaviour. This research examines how the cross-­‐ country variation of CSR behaviour of firms can be explained by the ‘Varieties of Capitalism' theory, and explores whether the CSR behaviour of firms changes when operating across borders. A large-­‐N sample of the Fortune global 500 firms and a small-­‐N sample of five multinational oil companies operating in Nigeria were taken to test the research hypotheses, using quantitative and qualitative research methods. Some support was found for the Varieties of Capitalism theory. In particular, firms from the United States, a liberal market economy, are less likely to adopt global voluntary initiatives compared with firms from coordinated market economies or Mediterranean-­‐type economies. State-­‐owned firms, which are mainly headquartered in non-­‐OECD countries, are also less likely to adopt global initiatives, but the ones that do have high levels of adherence. External actors, such as international organisations, civil society organisations and philanthropic organisations are important in influencing a firm's commitment to CSR. Content analysis reveals that, in general, all corporations report on the same topics, with emphasis placed on what is perceived to be important to the stakeholders. This research found that the adoption of global initiatives and the reporting on social behaviour are headquarters-­‐orientated activities, and that there is often a disconnection in corporate social behaviour between the headquarters and the subsidiary. Because the CSR behaviour of firms clearly changes when operating across borders, the participation in voluntary initiatives should be done at a local and at headquarter level. Furthermore, the lack of participation in global initiatives by US firms and subsidiaries raises questions about the effectiveness and purpose of these initiatives.

The purpose of this investigation is to describe and document certain behavioral characteristics of the multinational corporations and to point out some of the special problems they create for economists. Theirs is a new way of organizing and controlling international business units and relatively little is known about the consequences for economics and politics. The primary area of study with which this investigation is concerned is the multinational corporations' economic power and the inability of nations to effectively control it.