A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts / In this thesis I argue that with the move to postfordism and the adoption of postfordist production techniques, small businesses have become important components in an economy. I look specifically at Japan and the Third Italy where the small business sector has thrived in order to provide a comparative framework for the South Africa case study. The fieldwork component of the research looks into a specific subsector in the South African economy - that of the electronics industry, with a specific locus on the manufacture of security equipment. This subsector was evaluated in terms of how it relates to the ideal types of Japan and Italy, and whether postfordism is in any way present in this industry. The findings have been mixed. The subsector under consideration is dynamic and is moving into international markets where it is able to compete successfully. There are, however, several aspects that are lacking; most notable is the lack of coherent networks and industrial districts. Institutions that could play a role in assisting firms and facilitating the growth of networks are either still being set up, unable to assist the sector because of lack of knowledge or are focused on larger corporations. However, the growth of small businesses in the electronics industry, particularly the security equipment manufacturing, with very little support indicates that there are tremendous opportunities for this sector in the future. / Andrew Chakane 2020

Thesis (Ph.D. (Marketing))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic & Business Sciences, 2017 / The purpose of this research was to study the relationship between firm‟s commitment to green, green marketing capability, green relationship learning, green human resource investments and firm performance for electronics manufacturers in South Africa. Despite the increased focus on on green marketing, there has been little focus on research relating corporate commitment to green and how it relates to green marketing capabilities and firm performance. This study fills this research gap by proposing and testing hypotheses relating firm commitment to green, green marketing capability, green relationship learning, green human capital investment and a firm‟s performance. To answer the research questions, primary data for n=212 respondents covering a range in firm size, gender, race, and age for electronics manufacturers in South Africa was used to test the hypothesis relating corporate commitment to green, green marketing capability, and a firm‟sperformance. The structural equation modeling approach was used to test the model fit and hypothesis testing. The software SPSS 24 was used to analyse the descriptive statistics and AMOS 24 was used to test the research model. The results showed that firm commitment to green was a predictor of firm performance and green marketing capability, green relationship learning, and green human capital investments was found to be mediators in the relationship between firm commitment to green and firm performance. Indeed, the hypotheses stated in this study were found to be true. The main contribution of this study is showing how corporate governance commitment to green can enable firm performance (both marketing and financial) through mediating variables of green marketing capability, green relationship learning and green human capital investment. The study further shows that corporate commitment to green influences green corporate social investment positively. Key words: corporate commitment to green, green marketing capability, green relationship learning, green Human Capital Investment, Green CSI, firm performance / GR2018