This study covers an investigation into project management best practices in Southern Africa. The purpose of the research was to determine which of the current accepted project management tools and techniques are seen as critical in the region. It also focuses on determining any external or internal factors that hamper effective development of project management in the Southern African region. The study further tries to determine whether there are any noticeable differences between accepted project management practices in the developed world and practices used in the region. The study was conducted using a survey with a mix of open and scaled questions and was sent out to a number of companies selected because they employ established project managers. A total number of 400 questionnaires were sent out and 42 completed questionnaires were received from respondents. The study found that there are no significant differences between the techniques used for project management in Southern Africa and techniques used in the rest of the world. There are, however, several factors influencing project management development in the region that are unique to the region including a severe shortage of skilled people and infrastructure problems. There is also a lack of knowledge about project management practices amongst respondents and amongst other members of their organizations including senior management. This lack of knowledge combined with the shortage of skilled people can result in serious problems with the execution and management of projects in the Southern African region. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / MBL

Evidence of the interest in enterprise architecture (EA) is seen in the number of enterprise architecture frameworks (EAF) in existence. An EAF is responsible for the realisation of an EA, and therefore acts as a container for the terminology of EA. The lack of acceptance of terms and definitions, coupled with the phenomenon of the large number of EAFs, indicate a silo type understanding of what EA is, which leads to a lack of clarity in the conceptual foundations of EA. By following a design science research (DSR) approach, a conceptual artefact (an enterprise architectonic (EAt)) is created to address the lack of clarity in the conceptual foundations of EA thinking and practice. The EAt serves as a conceptual device to represent the fundamental understanding of EA in terms of concepts and their relationships. The content of the EAt is derived from applying a structured interpretation method (SIM) to three prominent EAFs (The Open Group Architecture Framework, the Department of Defense Architecture Framework and the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture). The SIM’s results are an EA understanding that consists of an EA claim: EA is similar in intent to the enterprise as a worldview is to the world. It is supported by six EA propositions:  Proposition 1: EA’s underlying theoretical knowledge is in a pre-suppositional state.  Proposition 2: EA is a description of the structure of the systems of an enterprise.  Proposition 3: EA represents the enterprise in time-oriented architectures such as an as-is, to-be and has-been architecture.  Proposition 4: EA translates the values/strategy of the enterprise into operational systems appropriate to the information society.  Proposition 5: EA provides a means to manage decisions about the IT/IS management and implementation in the enterprise.  Proposition 6: EA captures a representation of the enterprise in the form of a model or set of models. The six EA propositions are analysed through the lens of Heidegger's equipment analysis, to produce a set of architectonic elements. These elements are arranged in the EAt to create a conceptual device to support the fundamental understanding of EA. / Centre for Applied Information and Communication / Ph.D. (Information Systems)

A strong risk culture is critical for any organisation to manage its risks. Recent reports from the Auditor-General about a South African government institution (Auditor General of South Africa, 2014) demonstrated that its risks were not being adequately mitigated. The purpose of the study reported on here has therefore been to put this judgement to the test and, because no recognised instrument could be found to evaluate the risk culture, an instrument was developed. Many of the risk culture assessment frameworks available have been developed by consulting companies which could be of value to organisations however this study chose to focus mainly on academic literature. In this descriptive study we used a focus group to identify the possible strengths and weaknesses of the prevailing risk culture, following which a questionnaire was designed and used to assess the current risk culture of the organisation. The results were used to evaluate the risk culture with the aim of proposing steps in which to embed a risk culture. We found that the existing risk culture does not contribute to this organisation’s capacity to manage its risks. We also found that managers in this organisation are not encouraged to take risks to achieve their objectives and employees are not held accountable for the management of risks. In agreement with previous studies which found that training in risk management is important, this study suggests that training should be compulsory for all senior management. This study also found that factors of tone at the top, accountability, communication, risk competence and risk capacity are critical to embed a risk culture in an organisation. This study contributes to the existing literature by suggesting ways in which a risk culture could be embedded in an organisation. The results of this research could be useful to organisations, boards, and risk committees.

A strong risk culture is critical for any organisation to manage its risks. Recent reports from the Auditor-General about a South African government institution (Auditor General of South Africa, 2014) demonstrated that its risks were not being adequately mitigated. The purpose of the study reported on here has therefore been to put this judgement to the test and, because no recognised instrument could be found to evaluate the risk culture, an instrument was developed. Many of the risk culture assessment frameworks available have been developed by consulting companies which could be of value to organisations however this study chose to focus mainly on academic literature. In this descriptive study we used a focus group to identify the possible strengths and weaknesses of the prevailing risk culture, following which a questionnaire was designed and used to assess the current risk culture of the organisation. The results were used to evaluate the risk culture with the aim of proposing steps in which to embed a risk culture. We found that the existing risk culture does not contribute to this organisation’s capacity to manage its risks. We also found that managers in this organisation are not encouraged to take risks to achieve their objectives and employees are not held accountable for the management of risks. In agreement with previous studies which found that training in risk management is important, this study suggests that training should be compulsory for all senior management. This study also found that factors of tone at the top, accountability, communication, risk competence and risk capacity are critical to embed a risk culture in an organisation. This study contributes to the existing literature by suggesting ways in which a risk culture could be embedded in an organisation. The results of this research could be useful to organisations, boards, and risk committees.

Under de senaste åren har gamification blivit alltmer förekommande i företags-sammanhang. Grundidén bakom gamification är att använda spel-element i icke-spel kontexter, med avsikt att motivera och engagera anställda. Dagens arbetsplats har genom åren genomgått en omfattande förändring, och i dagens organisationer förväntas anställda vara kreativa och använda sina entreprenöriska egenskaper för att bidra till organisationens företagsmål och affärsnytta. Enligt undersökningar speglar detta tyvärr inte dagens verklighet. Det rapporteras att så lite som 13% av alla anställda är engagerade i sitt arbete, och så mycket som 24% är aktivt likgiltiga till deras arbete. Det är alarmerande siffror som företag har försökt att motverka med hjälp av gamification, men det är få som lyckas. Denna studie presenterar genom en kvalitativ metod, begränsningar och möjligheter vid tillämpningen av gamification i företagssammanhang, och vilka faktorer som är avgörande för framgång. Studien syftar även på att undersöka hur organisationer kan gå tillväga för att hålla anställda motiverade på lång sikt. Vi kunde urskilja att det finns fyra huvudområden som utmärkte sig som bidragande faktorer: spelar types, spelarresan, motivation och utvärdering. Detta resulterade i att vi kunde urskilja vilka faktorer som främjar användarmål och vilka som främjar verksamhetsmål. Båda dessa aspekter ska bidra till att lösa organisatoriska problem och gynna företagsmål. För att lyckas med gamification måste man kunna motivera de anställda, men även bidra till affärsnytta. Vi identifierade att utvärderingsaspekten är en avgörande faktor för lyckad gamification och att bristen av forskning kring detta område kan utgöra en anledning till varför vissa misslyckas. Utifrån dessa framgångsfaktorer presenterar vi därefter ett ramverk, Enterprise Gamification Evaluation Framework, vars syfte är att fungera som ett stöd för implementation av gamification.

ABSTRACT Small and Medium Size Enterprise (SMEs) have long been recognised as the major drivers of economic activities due to their entrepreneurial traits of being innovative which lead to job creation, sustaining economic growth, export expansion, and efficient allocation of resources in line with their competitive goals and their respective country’s objectives. In their pursuit as major economic drivers in their respective economies, SMEs are barely exposed to hostile environments triggering fierce competition from Multinational Corporations. This has entailed that SMEs need to enhance their capabilities in such environments to sustain their competitive advantage by reconfiguring their internal and external competences and resources in response to changing environments. Surprisingly, literature on how SMEs develop dynamic capabilities in such markets is limited and inconsistent. Therefore, this thesis explores how SMEs develop dynamic capabilities in emerging markets specifically in African markets.   The central purpose of the study is to explore how SMEs in emerging markets such as Africa develop dynamic capabilities to compete alongside MNCs. Building on prior researches which conceptually suggested that market orientation, learning orientation, and entrepreneurial orientation in separate cases, enables SMEs to build dynamic capabilities in dynamic environments, this study explored this viewpoint through a qualitative case study data. Comparative multiple case studies are developed in order to have a holistic understanding of how SMEs across sectors develop dynamic capabilities. The study employs empirical data collected through the use of semi-structured interviews in which samples are purposively selected from 10 firms from separate industries in Africa, in which five were drawn from Cameroon and other five drawn from Zambia. The study follows a qualitative-deductive approach.   Findings indicate that SMEs develop dynamic capabilities in emerging market principally through the lenses of market orientation and learning orientation. While entrepreneurial orientation is found lacking the potential to enable SMEs build-up the required dynamic capabilities due to the fact that it places huge demand on SMEs who are short of adequate financial resources to meet up with the contingencies of being fully entrepreneurial. That is to say, market orientation and learning orientation other than entrepreneurial orientation are the enablers of dynamic capabilities in emerging market. The findings contribute to existing literature by building an empirically-grounded synthesis of the constructs of market orientation, learning orientation and entrepreneurial orientation involved in the development of dynamic capabilities which validates earlier claims on the development of dynamic capabilities in dynamic environment. Second, the results contribute to theory by advancing an original model which brings together all standalone models in the field of dynamic capabilities development into one, thereby harmonising the polarisation of facts. Furthermore, the findings bear potential for researchers and entrepreneurs intending to invest in emerging markets such as Africa.   To improve on this study, we suggest undertaking a related cross-comparative case study on similar grounds which takes into account homogeneity and age parameters at industry level from two or more countries. We believe this might provide an additional explanation on how SMEs in emerging markets develop dynamic capability and may also shed more light on whether age of a firm has an effect on the build-up of dynamic capabilities.

Recently, one of the major problems in various countries is the management of complicated organisations to cope with the increasingly competitive marketplace. This problem can be solved using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems which can offer an integrated view of the whole business process within an organisation in real-time. However, those systems have complicated workflow, are costly to be analysed to manage the whole business process in those systems. Thus, Long Running Transaction (LRTs) models have been proposed as optimal solutions, which can be used to simplify the analysis of ERP systems workflow to manage the whole organiational process and ensure that completed transactions in a business process are not processed in any other process. Practically, LRTs models have various problems, such as the rollback and check-pointing activities. This led to the use of Communication Closed Layers (CCLs) for decomposing processes into layers to be analysed easily using sequential programs. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to develop an advanced approach to implement and analyse the workflow of an organisation in order to deal with failures in Long Running Transaction (LRTs) within Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems using Communication Closed Layers (CCLs). Furthermore, it aims to examine the possible enhancements for the available methodology for ERP systems based on studying the LRT suitability and applicability to model the ERP workflows and offer simple and elegant constructs for implementing those complex and expensive ERP workflow systems. The implemented model in this thesis offers a solution for two main challenges; incompatibilities that result from the application of transitional transaction processing concepts to the ERP context and the complexity of ERP workflow. The first challenge is addressed based on offering new semantics to allow modelling of concepts, such as rollbacks and check-points through various constraints, while the second is addressed through the use of the Communication Closed Layer (CCL) approach. The implemented computational reconfigurable model of an ERP workflow system in this work is able to simulate real ERP workflow systems and allows obtaining more understanding of the use of ERP system in enterprise environments. Moreover, a case study is introduced to evaluate the application of the implemented model using three scenarios. The conducted evaluation stage explores the effectiveness of executable ERP computational models and offers a simple methodology that can be used to build those systems using novel approaches. Based on comparing the current model with two previous models, it can be concluded that the new model outperforms previous models based on benefiting from their features and solving their limitations which make them inappropriate to be used in the context of ERP workflow models.

Title: Enhancing Swedish Large MNEs’ Strategies in Chinese Market -By Analyzing the Perspectives of Consumers in Sweden and China Authors: Cheng Han and Xiaojing Gu Supervisor: Svante Andersson Level: Master Dissertation in International Marketing, 15 credits Keywords: Consumer behavior, Multinational enterprise, Marketing strategy, Swedish and Chinese market Background: With the trend of globalization, multinational enterprises noticed the potential market in China. Base on previous research, researchers indicated consumer behaviors have a sort of relationship and influence on MNEs’ strategies. Purpose: Investigate the distinctions between Swedish and Chinese consumer behaviors, due to the distinction, explore the way to enhance MNEs’ strategies in Chinese market. Research Questions: Q1: What are the differences between Chinese consumers and Swedish consumers evaluating same enterprises? Q2: How Swedish large MNEs develop their strategies for adapting the distinctions of Chinese consumers? Theoretical Framework: The theoretical framework includes theories regarding what factors of consumer behaviors are considered as influencing on enterprises’ strategies and the theories of general enterprise strategies. Methodology: This dissertation is a quantitative study accompany with case study. Empirical Framework: The empirical framework presents case descriptions and statistics. Analysis: The five hypotheses are analyzed and critical examined. Conclusion: Since consumers from different countries have different consumer behaviors, enterprises need to alter their strategies by adapting the distinctions of consumers.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The increase in the use of Enterprise Resource Planning systems in organisations has created an industry which impacts organisations significantly, whether it may be positive or negative. Waltons Namibia has gone through the process twice in a four year period. The processes were handled in a different manner which resulted in different outcomes. The financial impact and general performance of the company were thus significantly different as a result of the different approaches. The study analyzes and assesses the process that was followed during the second implementation process by identifying and evaluating the critical success factors which were addressed successfully and not-successfully. These critical success factors are analyzed in a framework of phases of which the implementation process consists with specific focus on how stakeholder relationships impacted and can impact the critical success factors during an implementation process. The research question can thus be stated as follows: Does the management of relationships between stakeholders in the ERP implementation process play a significant role in the success of the outcome? A secondary result of the research is the creation of a document which can be utilized by organisations to assist in the planning and execution of an ERP implementation by utilizing the framework of phases and identification of critical success factors to manage the project. The study was qualitative in nature utilizing data collected through observation, discussions with participants and personal participation during the project. An encompassing literature review was done prior to the project and the study as well as an assessment of the organisations strategic architecture and the impact it has on the project. The result of the study shows that the management of relationships throughout the project plays a major role in determining the outcome of the project and has

The growing global presence of China’s state-owned enterprise (SOEs) has captured much of the world’s attention. Continuous waves of SOEs’ overseas ventures, a result of government-led transnationalization officially dubbed the “Going Out” strategy, have generated great uneasiness in international relations. This dissertation, The Politics of China’s “Going Out” Strategy: Overseas Expansion of Central State-owned Enterprises, seeks to answer the following question: how the Chinese central state and central SOEs interact with one another as the “Going Out” strategy has evolved. This dissertation finds that the transnationalization of SOEs is by no means a coherent policy but rather is fraught with power struggle, with various bureaucratic agencies setting different goals for SOEs on the one hand and with SOEs managers defending corporate interests without incurring political setbacks on the other. The state’s advocacy of the overseas expansion of SOEs was aimed at achieving national economic and security goals, but SOEs, with their expanded autonomy gained from the new state-market relationship, have been able to ignore state directives that were detrimental to firms’ financial performance. This dissertation also finds that negotiation and bargaining between China’s fragmented bureaucracy and SOE managers over the terms of firms’ “going out” grow more intense as corporate autonomy become increasingly institutionalized with the progress of reform. Over time, SOEs’ overseas expansion reflected more the firms’ corporate strategy than the state’s policy objectives. / text