Technology-based economic development has been a highly sought-after objective for regions in developed and developing countries alike. The wealth created by regional knowledgebased economies like Silicon Valley is an attractive outcome. Without understanding clusterbased economic strategy, the different types of technology-based economic development approaches, the factors that dictate success or failure, and how those factors interrelate within a particular region, then the probability of success is minimal at best. Economic Development is a process and hence lends itself to a Systems Engineering approach, which was chosen as the methodology for analyzing and designing a better model for studying regions around the world to identify Factors that were both common and key to successful regional development. Each region was viewed as a system with inputs and outputs. The challenge in developing a useful system model is the development of the required Factors and Processes to be used. In the development of the model most of the Factors are internal to the system, but many may be affected by external events. The weighting (importance) of these Factors is the topic of much debate. To develop a baseline of Factors the Delphi method was used. Fortunately, a number of world-wide experts agreed to participate in one on one interviews to analyze these Factors, which in itself added a great deal to the body of knowledge of economic development beyond just the Factors. One obvious result was the essentially unanimous opinion of the group that leadership was the most important factor. A less obvious outcome, but one of equal importance was that there are two classes of regional economic development: one for mass job creation and another for the creation of a knowledge-based regional economy. Often regions undertake economic development without understanding this significant difference. While the model developed can be used for either goal it is extremely important that developers know in advance which goal is being pursued, which is also one of the critical outcomes of strong leadership. While all indications are that this model is a major improvement over current approaches, because this is a new approach until this research is followed by additional interviews, and by applying the model to actual regional technology-based economic development environments it's validity remains unproven.

D.Com. (Econometrics) / The main aim with the thesis was to outline the use of regional econometric modelling as a technique for the modelling of the interdependency in the development regions of South Africa. In particular, an regional econometric model of Region H was constructed. There is no doubt that modelling is here to stay - as part of the analytical process used in scholarly studies and in applications, especially for making policy in both the public and privatedomain. Although macro-econometric modelling has been withus for sometime, the art of building large-scale· regional economic models is relatively new, especially in South Africa where such models have never been in use. The problem of forecasting regional economic activity has become an important component of regional research. The most frequently used forecasting techniques have been input-output model. A regional econometric model can be defined as a set of equations, sometimes highly simultaneous, describing the economic structure of a regional economy. The parameters of the equations are estimated economically largely by regression equations.

This study focuses on the role of Zimbabwe‘s indigenisation and economic empowerment policy in community development. In particular, it investigates the contribution of community ownership of mineral resource wealth to community development with particular reference to the Zvishavane Community Share Ownership Trust (ZCSOT) in Zvishavane District, Zimbabwe. The study is situated within the framework of participatory community development and seeks to explore whether the ZCSOT stimulate broad-based participation at community level in the ownership and utilisation of natural resource wealth as envisioned in the indigenisation policy. The research utilised methodological triangulation, using a questionnaire and in-depth interviews for data collection. The findings of this study suggest that the community ownership of mineral resource wealth through community share ownership trusts (CSOTs) is capable of bringing positive social and economic transformation in resource-rich communities much better than state-centred and/or corporate-led development. However, the study also highlights that because of certain irregularities in the indigenisation policy and the subsequent operational imperfections evident in the operation of the ZCSOT, community engagement in the process of development is quite marginal. Instead, what we see is political manipulation of the CSOT, lack of transparency and corruption due to the non-representation of ordinary community members in the CSOT, thus impeding their full participation. The involvement of traditional leaders in CSOTs has promoted the entrenchment of relations of domination, paternalism and stifling of democracy, thereby contradicting with the principles of participatory community development. In the end, the study establishes that the success of community ownership of mineral resource wealth in the socio-economic transformation of mineral-rich communities needs need to be anchored on the full participation of local communities.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. 01 December 2016. / Pressure on water as a resource is increasingly becoming inherent and unavoidable as economies continue to expand globally. The challenges experienced in water resource management inspired the need to understand institutional frameworks holistically. This lead to the primary purpose of this study: to explore perspectives of governance in sustainable policy development. The study intended to increase understandings of the strengths and weaknesses within governance structures in relation to contextual institutional operations and mandates. A comparative analysis of various governmental tiers in South Africa, with particular interest in Gauteng, was examined. Within Gauteng, the study focussed on district and local municipalities. Respondents comprised of participants operating at national, provincial and local level; and included institutions associated with water resource management. The participants were selected using a purposive sampling technique: snowball sampling. In assessing the identified institutions, data was gathered through the use of a questionnaire and interview questions. Together with content analysis, data was used to supplement the Institutional Analysis and Development framework; which provided a platform to incorporate actors into the research enhancing the researchers understanding of actors involved in the policy arena, including their features and functions. Areas contributing to institutional fragmentation and poor institutional linkages were indicated as management functionality in terms of the top-down management approach. This includes management styles, lack of funds, capacity and skills relevant to the implementation of IWRM. Emphasis on the development of the NWRS2 was noted to be a major driver of sustainable water resource management, rather than the IWRM. Control and coordination of cooperative governance is strongly emphatic of management functionality. Overall, key findings highlight the importance placed toward economic development, moreover than social and environmental development. Integration of institutional structures is highly recommended for successful policy implementation. / MT2017

The developmental challenges confronting Lesotho range from a prevalence of poverty to a lack of safety and security. These problems directly affect in many ways the well-being of the people living in this country. The belief is strong that lack of integration in tackling the challenges of subsistence and protection needs leads to poor performance on poverty reduction and an inability to guarantee public security in the Kingdom. The principal objective of this study is to investigate factors leading to lack of integration in tackling the subsistence and protection needs in the Kingdom of Lesotho. This objective is broken down into three questions: What are the factors leading to the lack of integration in addressing subsistence and protection needs of the people of Lesotho? What are the trends in tackling subsistence and protection needs in Lesotho? What are the possible strategies in the integration of subsistence and protection needs in Lesotho? The two approaches were utilised to investigate the above questions. The first advance was based on exploring data available in the form of text books, journals and official publications. The second step was based on fieldwork carried out around Maseru, Lesotho. The results were presented, analysed and discussed in the report. The findings indicated that poverty surprisingly is no simple phenomenon. In fact, it is a deadly issue with little attention paid to it. Poverty and the issue of safety and security affect everyone as they are social issues. Secondly, some people see poverty as an excuse for people to commit crime and threaten people’s safety and security. Thirdly, while there is a clear understanding about social crime prevention, there remains a problem in developing good initiatives for poverty alleviation and crime prevention. Finally, it is vital for the country to ii integrate poverty and security sector policies in order to achieve sustainable development. The research makes recommendations which would enhance an integrated approach in dealing with issues of subsistence and protection. Efforts should include better public policies intended to shape the infrastructure, economic, social, political and institutional forms in the country. This will be a pathway to improving quality of life and security as people rank poverty and crime among the top concerns that they have in everyday life. Finally, proper policies will begin to bridge the increasing gap between the rich and the poor that remains a cause for concern

No description available.

In a broad sense, an industrial policy is aimed at influencing the structure of an economy. Justin Lin (2010), argues that the best way to upgrade a country’s endowment structure is to develop its industries according to the comparative advantages determined by its given endowment structure at that time. Then he assumes that the economy would be most competitive, the economic surplus predominant, and the capital accumulation and the upgrading of factor endowment structure will be the fastest possible. He further proposes that the private enterprises should enter industries according to the country’s comparative advantages, relative factor prices must fully reflect the relative abundance of those factors as prices can only be determined through competition in a ―well-functioning‖ market. Therefore, the market should be the basic institution of the economy. The proposed essay will conduct a critical analysis of structuralism and industrial policy as propagated within the ―New Structural Economics‖ realm as proposed by Justin Lin, a former World Bank chief economist. The proposed inquiry would attempt to underline that the Newly Industrialised Countries showed that specific institutions have performed a critical role in guiding market forces towards industrial development. Notably is the state as an institution in its developmental role in guiding economic strategy and industrial policies. Therefore, the basic argument is that despite the eminence of the orthodox economic approach and its responses to the recent economic crises there are numerous contradictions, including weaknesses as advocated by Lin’s approach to developmental issues and the role of industrial policy, expressly with regard to the developing world.

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2016. / The primary aim of the microfinance initiative is to eradicate poverty especially in developing countries. This is possible through the provision of micro-loans, microsavings and insurance to previously disadvantaged communities. Entrepreneurship is the role that individuals undertake to create, an organization, product from an idea to implementation. With high unemployment and poverty levels, Swaziland is engaging the Microfinance Institutions and entrepreneurship to help drive employment, and poverty alleviation. The study assessed several issues: Does microfinance contribute to Improvements in the economic welfare of borrowers’ households, enterprise growth, diversification or stability? Do entrepreneur development programs; like training workshops have an impact on participant’s attitude and behavior in conducting entrepreneurship activities. Is there a relationship between microfinance institution growth and entrepreneurship development? Results indicated that microfinance institutions were still sorely focusing on providing credit and credit facilities, which meant that it had positive effects on capital assets but not the overall welfare of entrepreneurs. The behaviors that programs influenced were also in relation to credit, and not other aspects of entrepreneurship like innovation and technology. This meant that there’s a gap in the effect of microfinance institutions on entrepreneurship growth as indicated chisquare was significant at 9.43 indicating no effect on the sampled population. Therefore it is important that Microfinance institutions focus on the primary objective of developmental finance. They need to prioritize training programs that will cultivate a culture of building sound businesses, with proper risk management, and are willing to adapt to change. As currently the key focus seems to be on credit facilitation which could be profit driven? / GR2018

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the impact of institutions on fixed capital accumulation over time in two developing countries, both former German colonies: Namibia and Tanzania. This is motivated by two recent underpinning theories: the new institutional theory, which views institutions as fundamental determinants of economic outcomes and income variations among countries (the institutional hypothesis); and the theory of irreversible investment under uncertainty, which emphasis the impact of uncertainty on investment and capital-stock accumulation. The first part of the thesis deals with the measurement and definitions of institutions. Empirical measures of political and economic institutions have been previously produced; however, most cover short periods of time. The short time span of the institutional indices makes them practical in cross-countries and panel studies, rather than in country-specific studies. The importance of country-specific studies is underscored by the notion that different historical paths led to different ways of organising economic activities and political structures, yielding the differences in economic development across countries. To overcome this challenge, this thesis presents a database on institutional measures for Namibia and Tanzania for the period 1884 to 2009. These indicators are used to assess the nature of political and economic institutional transformation from the colonial legacy to the modern outcome, using Namibia and Tanzania as a natural experiment. Relying on archival information on formal laws in Namibia and Tanzania, the thesis constructs institutional indicators that are de jure in nature representing political freedom, property rights and judicial independence. These allow for the assessment of rules the game, rather than outcome. The formal codification of rights and freedoms is of little significance if those rights cannot be enforced. Therefore, the de facto element is also considered through the construction of separate indicators on political instability and judicial independence. A clear theoretical framework on each indicator provides the selection and combination of each sub-component. A meaningful composite measure is based on the techniques of principal components and factor analysis. v The thesis argues that despite changes in colonial identity in these countries (i.e. German, then British or South African), the broader framework of institutions remained partly the same, particularly in the case Namibia. It is true that, with the attainment of independence in Namibia, many institutions did change, particularly in the areas of political freedom, and judicial and political instability. Measures such as property rights, on the other hand, are slow to change. However, the overall long-lasting effect of these colonial institutions on economic outcomes remains an empirical question. Similarly, the case of Tanzania reflects the notion of institutional persistence as the country continued to undermine political freedom even after the attainment of independence. Tanzania is among the few countries which adopted a constitution without a bill of rights at independence. Also, the new indicators for both countries, while covering a long time period (1884–2009), correlate fairly well with some of the widely used institutional indices produced by Freedom House and the Heritage Foundation. The second part of thesis establishes the impact of institutional variables on capital accumulation in Namibia and Tanzania, applying the Johansen Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) technique. The data span for Namibia is from 1923 to 2009, and that for Tanzania is from 1946 to 2009. The findings highlight the importance of uncertainty (political instability) in explaining capital accumulation over time in Namibia. The results also show that other institutional variables are important in explaining uncertainty. Rising levels of property rights and political rights lower political instability in Namibia. The empirical evidence for Tanzania indicates the importance of property rights in explaining capital accumulation over time. The most interesting result is the importance accorded to the judicial independence, which showed a positive correlation to gross domestic product (GDP). It is also shown that other institutional variables (property rights and political rights) have a positive correlation to judicial independence. A further finding is that uncertainty (political instability) has a negative effect on economic development over time in Tanzania.

M. Com. (Marketing) in the School of Economic and Business Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg / The government of Swaziland has labelled the tourism industry as one of the national priority sectors that has maximum potential to stimulate economic growth through the creation of employment opportunities, poverty alleviation, and foreign income generation. The industry has birthed several supporting business areas such as tour operators, travel agencies, a new airport, and hotels and restaurants. Tourism scholars and practitioners acknowledge the importance of the destination‘s image as an influence on tourist behaviour. However, existing studies on Swaziland‘s tourism industry have focused on the development of the tourism industry, community-based tourism, outdoor recreation activities in game reserves, and the economic impact of tourism in Swaziland. As a result, there is limited research focusing on the perceptions of both local and international tourists regarding Swaziland as a tourist destination and how the destination image has influenced tourists‘ intention to revisit or recommend the destination to others. This study aims to identify the antecedents of future behavioural intentions of tourists in Swaziland. Employing a quantitative approach, destination image was the predictor variable and was hypothesized to positively influence satisfaction, attitude toward destination, and trust in the destination as mediating variables, and behavioural intentions as the outcome variable. Non-probability was used to sample both local and international tourists that visited Swaziland between the months of August and October 2016. Tourists were interviewed at Mantenga Cultural Village, Swazi Candles, Ngwenya Glass, and departing tourists were interviewed at the Sikhuphe International Airport. A total of 431 respondents were used in study. The data analysis was performed using SPSS 22 and Amos 22 Software Package. The majority of tourists were positive regarding Swaziland as a tourist destination. Tourists further on indicated that they had satisfactory experiences in Swaziland, and most stated that they trusted the destination. A lot of the tourists had a favourable attitude towards Swaziland and indicated high revisit intentions and positive recommendations. Furthermore, the findings in this study show that there is a positive and significant relationship between the destination‘s image and satisfaction. Additionally, the study reveals that satisfaction positively influences tourists‘ trust in the destination and their attitude towards the destination. Between attitude towards destination and trust in the destination, tourists‘ attitudes toward the destination were found to have a stronger effect on their behavioural intentions. / MT2017