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M.Com. (South African and International Taxation) / The concept of permanent establishment (PE) is a fundamental concept in international tax law, as it establishes the right to tax business profits of non-resident entities in the country where business activities are carried out. This study was motivated by the challenges governments and business entities face in the allocation of taxing rights in the digital economy. This study considers the history and the meaning of the current Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) permanent establishment concept, and analyses its effectiveness in the digital economy. The digital economy and the event of e-commerce have changed the way in which business transactions are conducted and how multinational entities are structured. The digital economy has created different means of value creation for business entities, and new challenges are being confronted internationally regarding the taxation of such value created. This directly affects revenue collection by governments globally. A largely qualitative approach was undertaken in conducting the research. This included a detailed reading on the topic to support any inferences and conclusions. This study finds that the current OECD concept of permanent establishment is no longer an effective concept in the current digital economy. The event of e-commerce is challenging the core elements of “physical presence” and “fixed place of business”. Large multinational entities have low effective tax rates on their profits, and governments are being deprived of tax revenue that would normally have resulted from increased productivity. Data and data collection are important value creators in the digital economy, and there is an increasing need to tax digital company profits. The OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project announced in 2013, means to address resultant issues, such as tax-base erosion, tax abuse, and artificial avoidance of permanent establishment status. This study concludes that either the concept of permanent establishment needs to be redefined to ensure its effectiveness in the digital economy, or a completely new concept needs to be created.

This dissertation investigates the dynamic economic structure transformation and its corresponding environmental consequences at the Austin-San Marcos Metropolitan Statistical Area (Austin MSA) from 1990 to 2008. Input-output (IO) analysis is the major methodology and environmental problems are defined as emissions of industrial point air pollutants. Both three-and seven-segment IO models of Austin MSA for the years of 1990, 1994, and 1999 are constructed. Direct and total pollution coefficients of six major pollutants are calculated, hypothe tical extraction measurement and structural decomposition analysis are implemented, and the quantity and pattern of pollutant emissions are simulated based on four major assumed development scenarios from 2000 to 2008. This study finds: 1) the digital economy has emerged in the Austin MSA during the 1990s, 2) the manufacturing process of Austin MSA tended to be more environmentally friendly, which supports the hypothesis of dematerialization and decarbonization, 3) consumption-driven and non-production segments related environmental problems becomes more significant in the emerging digital economy. This study predicts that industrial point air pollutant emissions will grow moderately from 2000 to 2008, assuming that the direct pollutant coefficients will change at the average rates of the 1990s and the final demand will grow at the half rates of the 1990s?? average. Pollution contribution from production segment will generally decrease and contribution from other segments such as ICT and Information will increase, however, emission contributions of the segments will vary in terms of pollutants as well as development scenarios. This study argues that the shift of the source and nature of environmental threats of in the digital economy mandates parallel reform of the current environmental policy. A new generation of policy should be cooperative rather than confrontational, integrated rather than fragmented, flexible rather than rigid. It should also facilitate innovative management initiatives to achieve sustainability. More fundamentally, it is expected to deal with environmental impacts of intangible information flows (bits) which are possibly more essential than flows of tangible goods and services (atoms) in the context of the digital economy and the information age.

The “camera eats first” phenomenon has become a worldwide popular culture which affects our everyday life. The study is committed to look at the foodie behavior on Instagram in Hong Kong, a renowned gourmet paradise. Through a qualitative study of five Instagram foodies, it aims to explore and add an academic dimension of understanding of the culture from the foodie’s perspective and their online behaviors of running a public profile about daily food consumption on Instagram. The results suggested that some foodies see their profiles as the extension of themselves, a space to showcase their works and preferences; but they do not see their profile as a future business opportunity. Even though the foodies on Instagram are mostly amateur instead of professionally trained food photographers, they keep enhancing their skills by learning from their peers and constant practices, for the sake of producing attractive photos. Flat-lay is one of the most popular styles of photography on Instagram which is appreciated by the foodies, as well as the audience. Attractive food visual content and skillful labeling hashtags have made Instagram a platform to satisfy intense desire for food consumption. A foodie’s interaction with audience further enhances the consumer’s desire by offering personal comments. The findings imply that there is a wide scale of foodies with different attitudes towards their practice of posting food images on Instagram. It is crucial for food marketers to understand their attitudes and preferences for better communication. Future research can be conducted on a broader scale of foodies to examine foodies and their influence on social class, giving marketers more ideas of effective positioning and segmentation.

No abstract / Mini Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Taxation / MCom (Taxation) / Unrestricted

One of the most striking trends in individuals’ careers over the last decade has been the dramatic increase in the proportion of the labor force working beyond their employers’ physical boundaries because of the digital revolution in the gig economy. This trend has drawn much attention in the changing nature of work, workplace and careers. However, little empirical research has explored how and why individuals behave in the interface between online platforms and traditional organizations. In my dissertation, I explore these questions by studying medical professionals’ digital careers in the Chinese healthcare crowdsourcing industry, also known as “mobile doctors.” First, by analyzing approximately 240-hour observations and 43 interviews with Chinese physicians, I identify a key issue in this new career – time conflict between crowdsourcing and traditional work. The findings show that physicians respond to time conflict in a variety of ways, including time theft, an essential yet under-researched construct in the crowdsourcing literature which reflects the tension between traditional work and crowdsourcing. Second, by analyzing archival data of 4,034 doctors’ 3.1 million time records on a Chinese healthcare platform across half a year, I show that time theft for crowdsourcing is related to the traditional work context, including hospitals’ boundary control and offline crowd worker social groups. Finally, I further explore, via interview data, why such seemingly costly and deviant time theft is adopted by mobile doctors. The findings reveal that medical professionals assume the extra burden of working for crowdsourcing with the hope of answering unfulfilled occupational callings in traditional work and adding meaning to their work. Overall, these findings contribute to a better understanding of the shifting nature of work and careers in the digital economy by documenting and explaining mobile doctors’ participation in this new world of work.

Innovation hub organizations - or 'hubs' - have become a prevalent form of support for technology entrepreneurship in Africa. About 170 African hubs have been established, most since 2010. Practitioners have argued either that hubs are transformative network infra-structures for Africa's fledgling digital economy or that they are ineffective business incubators. This thesis steps back from this debate about whether hubs work. Instead, it asks how African hubs work, specifically how they shape relationships of technology entrepreneurs. Literature on intermediation and incubation is reviewed to establish a theoretical framework. The thesis then tests and extends the framework based on an extensive, grounded empirical inquiry. In-depth case study data (including 119 interviews with 133 participants) on six hubs were collected during field studies in Kigali, Harare, and Accra from September-December 2014. The thesis finds that the analyzed hub organizations were defined by nested, fluidly bounded entrepreneurial communities. Communities varied by their level of activation: mem-bers of active communities had concern for each other and recognized communities as social entities, while inactive community members only shared a loose purpose. The six hubs followed two distinct organizational patterns: the technology hub (depending on active core communities) and the entrepreneurship hub (relying on active peripheral communities). Based on these results, the thesis theorizes hubs as assemblers of technology entrepreneurs: hubs assemble previously distant and different actors into entrepreneurial communities. Assembly is unique to hubs: it is related to but different from incubation and most forms of intermediation. Assembly theory addresses important meso-level analytical gaps in prior research on the coordination and organization of entrepreneurship. The thesis underscores limitations in African technology entrepreneurship environments, advising hub practitioners to acknowledge that 'only what is there can be assembled.' Ultimately, it highlights that hubs have been critically misunderstood, and clarifies what hubs can and cannot do for technology entrepreneurs.

No abstract / Mini Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Taxation / MCom Taxation / Unrestricted

Titel: Den ofrivilligt digitala ledaren – en studie om den av Covid-19 pandemin påtvingade digitala omställning av ledarskap och styrning i kommunikations- och informationsväxling Nivå: Kandidatuppsats i företagsekonomi (Examensarbete på grundnivå) Författare: Mats Andersson & Marcus Bjuhr Handledare: Akmal Hyder Examinator: Aihie Osarenkhoe Datum: 2022-05-25   Syfte: Syftet är att undersöka och förstå hur Covid-19 pandemin påverkat ledarskapets digitala omställning i svenska företag samt att förklara hur verksamheterna hanterat den snabba förändringen av kommunikations- och informationskanaler. Metod: Denna studie använder en kvalitativ metod med en hermeneutisk kunskapssyn vilken erkänner komplexiteten i sociala strukturer och tolkar möjliga sanningar genom verkligheten. Vidare används en flerfallsstudie för att undersöka hur ledarskap och styrning förändrats, detta genom att intervjua chefer med personalansvar via semi-strukturerad intervjumetod. Resultat & Slutsats: De resultat som studien påvisar menar att den problematik som den påtvingade omställningen inneburit har varit mindre än förväntad och snarare inneburit förbättringspotentialer genom den ökade användningen av digitala verktyg. Detta relateras till den rapport som EU-kommissionen presenterat kring Sveriges högpresterande och digitala utveckling som land samt det ökade informationsflöde som detta möjliggjort. Examensarbetets bidrag: Arbetets bidrag till den aggregerade kunskapen relateras främst till att stödja VUCA-teorin som avser ökad komplexitet kring ledarskap i en volatil omvärld. Ett andra bidrag är att ge stödjande argument till att satsa på ökad digital infrastruktur verkar positivt för konkurrenskraft i relation till digitaliseringen samt den anpassningsbarhet som moderna ledare och organisationer behöver enligt aktuell forskning. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Denna studies förslag till framtida forskning är att undersöka andra länder, särskilt sådana som har en lägre digital mognad enligt EU-kommissionens bedömningsmatris (Digitaliseringsrådet, 2022).  Nyckelord: Business process management, Covid-19, Digitalization, Digital economy, Process innovation, Leadership, Manager / Title: The involuntary digital leader – a study on the Covid-19 pandemic´s forced digital transformation of leadership and organization in communication and information exchange  Level: Bachelor’s degree in business administration (student thesis) Authors: Mats Andersson & Marcus Bjuhr Supervisor: Akmal Hyder Examiner: Aihie Osarenkhoe Date: 2022-05-25   Aim: The purpose of the thesis is to investigate and understand how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the leadership digital transformation in Swedish businesses and explain how the organizations managed the rapid change of communication and information channels. Method: The thesis applies a qualitative method with a hermeneutic view of knowledge in which identifies the complexity of social structures and interpret the potential truths. The method also implements a multi-case study to examine the leadership and organizational change by interviewing managers with personnel responsibilities with a semi-structured method. Results and conclusions: The results this thesis presents point towards smaller problems with the forced digital transformations than expected. It also tends towards improvement potentials due to the increased usage of digital tools. This can be linked to the report that the EU-commission revealed where Sweden is a high-performance country with a high level of digital maturity. Contribution of the thesis: The contribution this thesis offers to the aggregated knowledge relates foremost towards the VUCA-theory which explain the complexity of leadership in a volatile world. A second contribution is the supportive claim of investing in a country’s digital infrastructure which affects the competitiveness in relation top the digitalization and the adaptability of modern leaders and organizations. Keywords: Business process management, Covid-19, Digitalization, Digital economy, Process innovation, Leadership, Manager

The emergence and progression of the digital economy has distorted the core principles of international taxation. Foreign multinational companies now have the ability to fundamentally operate in market jurisdictions without having a ―physical presence‖. This poses a various challenges to the current international tax regimes because it enables businesses to have a ―significant economic presence‖ without a taxable nexus. Therefore, it becomes extremely difficult to ―ring-fence‖ the digital economy. The Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has attempted to address these challenges in Action 1 of its Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) Plan report entitled ―Addressing the Tax Challenges of the Digital Economy - Action 1: 2015 Report‖. Action 1 recommended a few proposals to address the challenges presented in taxing the digital economy, but they were not agreed upon. In the absence of a consensus on the proposals in Action 1, especially from a direct tax perspective, a number of countries began to explore unilateral measures in order to protect their tax base. South Africa is referred to as the ―getaway to Africa‖ and considering South Africa‘s importance in the global economy, it is imperative to ascertain South Africa‘s approach to taxing the digital economy. This study will assess South Africa‘s approach to taxing the digital economy within the international tax spectrum. This assessment will be based on a review of the unilateral approaches taken by other jurisdictions, to determine whether South Africa has taken the correct stance in not taking direct tax measures so far, as well as to assess whether there is anything else South Africa can do to protect its tax base as it awaits global consensus on the taxation of the digital economy. The observations of this study discovered that the unilateral measures taken by the various countries have caused retaliations by trade partners, impractical implementation issues and has created greater uncertainty. This study affirms that South Africa‘s subtle approach to taxing the digital economy was correct and that the expansion of its current source taxation rules should be considered in order to protect the South African tax base whilst a ―global consensus‖ on taxing the digital economy is still to be reached. / Mini Dissertation (MPhil (International Taxation))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / pt2021 / Taxation / MPhil (International Taxation) / Unrestricted