M.Comm. (Economics) / Gender wage inequality in South Africa from 2001 to 2010 is investigated in this dissertation. This is done through the decomposition of the gender wage gap and quantile regression. It is shown that the gender wage gap in South Africa is highest both at lower and higher parts of the wage distribution. Moreover, the gender wage gaps at the 50th and 75th quantiles are either not statistically significant or they are in favour of women. It is shown that the gender wage gap is largely driven by the size of the coefficients component, even in the face of a positive characteristics component indicating that there is a level of discrimination along the wage distribution. In the assessment of the gender wage gap between black females and white males, it is shown that the gender wage gap is always in favour of white males. However, since it is lowest at higher points of the wage distribution, the conclusion is that black women at lower points of the wage distribution face the most adverse effects of the intersection of race and gender in terms of the gender wage gap. Moreover, black women at higher points of the wage distribution have been the most likely beneficiaries of the employment equity policies.

The research paper is an analysis of the South African equity market and sector return-risk relationship. The following two basic questions, addressed in the research paper, pertain to the South African equity market for the period January 1990 to December 2002: (1) how did equity prices behave; and (2) what were the fundamental factors that caused these price movements? Two contrasting sub-periods are identified, namely, Period 1 (January 1990 to June 1997 and Period 2 (July 1997 to December 2002. Period 1 is the pre-Asian financial crisis period and Period 2 is the post-Asian financial crisis period. During the thirteen-year period (1990 to 2002) a market index explained most of the effect on market and sector returns. However, the composition of this market index varied between Period 1 and Period 2. During Period 1, when equity prices and the rand exchange were relatively stable, the market index was composed of domestic systematic risk. This signified that investors were looking 'inwards' or were more concerned about domestic fundamentals i.e. domestic financial stability. Contrastingly, during Period 2, when equity prices and the rand exchange were relatively volatile, the market index was composed of foreign systematic risk. This signified that investors were looking 'outwards' or were more concerned about global fundamentals i.e. global financial stability. It was further found that over the course of January 1990 to December 2002, South African equity sector returns from the resource, financial and non-resource/financial sectors had experienced abnormal returns. The abnormal returns indicate sector inefficiency and/or cognitive biases in investor behaviour. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

In recent years, private investment has been recognised as a vital engine for economic growth. This growing significance of private investment is largely due to the need to revive global economic growth and consequent job creation following the 2008 global recession. Governments are operating at, or close to, the limits of their respective fiscal budgets because of the stimulus packages. It has therefore become critical to completely understand the drivers of private investment given the different macroeconomic contexts of different countries. Historically, much of the policies to stimulate private investment were based on investment theories established in the developed economies. However, performance of the investment theories in developing countries yielded mixed results. That led to studies focussed on developing countries with a view to develop relevant neoclassical investment theories for developing countries. Initially, such studies were based on a group of developing countries such as Sub-Saharan African countries. The heterogeneity of developing countries within the group impacted on the validity of the results, necessitating the need for a focus on specific individual countries. This study follows this latter approach and is an attempt to estimate the private investment function for South African economy using the multiple regression model. This study is relevant because recently, private investment in South Africa has declined from the peak of 74% of total investment in 2005 to the current level of 63%. This study contributes to the debate on how to reverse this declining trend of private investment. To this end, the relevant data was collected and analysed. The results of the study revealed that private investment in South Africa is positively influenced by an increase in public investment, in savings rate, and the narrowing of the output gap while negatively influenced by increasing uncertainty, interest rates and to a limited extent real exchange rate appreciation.These empirical results suggest that public investment in core infrastructure— though declining—does ‘crowd in’ private investment. Reduction of uncertainty, together with improved quality and policy certainty, will enhance South Africa’s international standing as an attractive investor destination. This way, South Africa will be able to attract some of the huge global savings for domestic investment- one of the benefit of being an open economy. This is despite South Africa’s relatively low domestic savings rate. The significance of economic growth cannot be overemphasised in terms of creating investment opportunities. Economic growth creates investment opportunities. Further, managing inflation and inflation expectations should be conducted with due consideration for impact of monetary policy on private investment. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / ccgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / Sustainable Investors Capital (SiC) will capture a niche within the South African Private Equity industry in two ways. Firstly SiC is different by having a large network of selected members who help generate deal flow, offer their expertise if they choose in ex-post management, and who enjoy the benefit of relevant proprietary research and focused networking events. The second and main differentiating factor is the fact that the members as investors have the ability to invest on an opt-in basis. When joining SiC, members are offered the opportunity to commit capital to the Discretionary Fund. This is a fund managed by SiC in the typical private equity fashion where the member has limited to zero input in the investment decisions made. However, by committing capital to the Discretionary fund, members’ ipse facto get access to the opt-in investments made by SiC. The opt-in investments allow members to select on a deal-by-deal basis whether they want to invest or not. This has the benefit of increasing the flexibility and agility with which SiC can make investments, as well as granting the advantage to would be investors to optimise the returns on their capital which would be committed (and paying fees) but undrawn under normal private equity model circumstances. The amount that a member is allowed to invest in on an opt-in basis is directly proportional to the capital committed to the Discretionary Fund. This is done to enable SiC to actively and effectively pursue deals with the confidence that capital is available. It is reasonable to assume that the Discretionary Fund will be coinvesting with the opt-in funds.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in the field of Strategic Marketing Johannesburg, 2017 / Customer lifetime value (CLV) is important for all businesses. Increased customer lifetime value means increased profit, so it is in a company’s interest to increase customer lifetime value as much as possible through any appropriate methods. The relationship between post-purchase dissonance and customer lifetime value has not been explored in the studied literature but it has been found that, when dissonance is cause by a consumer’s experience of a product not living up to their expectations, loyalty decreases. This led the researcher to hypothesise a correlation between dissonance and customer lifetime value, which this study aimed to investigate. The research was conducted in the South African car industry and aimed to add the existing knowledge and, practically, to inform businesses whether taking action to decrease dissonance would have a significant positive effect on customer lifetime value, thereby better informing marketing strategies and budgets to have the most beneficial outcome. Using the data set of 116 respondents from around South Africa from a variety of age groups, the data collected was analysed to assess the potential relationships. / GR2017

Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Strategic Marketing March 2016 / The banking industry is adopting a holistic and customer centric approach in order to match the evolving customer banking preferences; this study has set out to examine Customer Equity as an antecedent of Perceived Brand Authenticity and Purchase Intentions amongst the South African youth in the banking sector using Social Exchange Theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour. An empirical model was conceptualised to examine the relationships between Customer Equity and Perceived Brand Authenticity on purchase intentions. Four research hypotheses were developed and a data set of 253 was collected from a sample of Witwatersrand students to empirically test these hypotheses using Structural Equation Modelling (Amos 22 and SPSS). The findings indicated that from the relationship between Customer Equity and Perceived Brand Authenticity, Value Equity and Brand Equity had a significant and positive effect, however Relationship Equity had no significant influence. The relationship between Perceived Brand Authenticity and Purchase Intentions had significant positive effects. The findings from this study provide useful contributions to practitioners measuring marketing efforts and maximising Customer Equity in the banking industry and builds on existing literature on the Customer Equity framework in the South African context. Recommendations are outlined and future research direction is suggested. / GR2018

This thesis analyses the doctrines of the sham and the alter-ego and their application to the law of trusts in South Africa. Following an initial examination of the historical development of the law of trusts in English law and the principles of equity law, the study focuses on the current legal status of the trust inter vivos in South Africa and the similarities to its English forerunner. The work traces the sham doctrine back to its origins in English law, where the term “sham” was first used in the context of fraud and dishonesty in cases involving matters arising from hire-purchase agreements, and explains how it gradually began to find its place in the law of trusts. During the exploration, the work highlights the cornerstone of the sham doctrine’s development, the Snook test, which in effect became the internationally accepted guideline for any sham trust enquiry. In terms of the alter-ego doctrine, the work highlights the birth of the principle in Australian law and the doctrine’s immediate reception into other common law jurisdictions and its resultant development. The growth, maturity and popularity of the doctrines are key to the thesis and, in the course of the investigation, the study provides a legal-comparative analysis of the treatment of the doctrines in the context of trusts against that in other common law countries. The study then shifts its focus to South Africa’s interpretation and application of these doctrines in trust law, and reveals the erroneous judicial development in which the courts have in some instances mistakenly replaced the sham doctrine with the company law doctrine of piercing the corporate veil or, in other instances, have erroneously conflated the two trust doctrines. The results highlight a breach of a fundamental rule observed overseas – the “no half way house” rule, which specifically cautions against South Africa’s chosen direction when allowing the lifting of a trust’s veil. The study closes with suggestions as to how the country could reconcile the problems underlined in the thesis by means of law reform, as well as offering practical advice for settlors, trustees and beneficiaries, the core of which is given in the handbook that accompanies this thesis.

The notion of Decent Work has been broadly advocated since 1999 by means of various International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions. Through these Conventions and as part of its Decent Work Agenda, the ILO strives to foster the creation of social and economic systems, capable of ensuring basic security and employment and adaptable to rapidly changing local and global economic circumstances. The Decent Work Agenda has been widely accepted as an important strategy to eradicate poverty and enable socio-economic development. It is submitted that the concept of Decent Work as contemplated by the ILO, firstly focuses on the payment of an income, which allows the working individual a good life. It secondly strives to ensure that everybody has an equal chance to develop themselves; that working conditions are safe; that there is no instance of child and forced labour; and that discrimination does not occur. The elimination of discrimination in the workplace is not only an ever-evolving pursuit, given that it continues to manifest in innumerable forms, but it has also proven to be an extremely pervasive pursuit as evidenced by the jurisdiction-specific literature review in this study. The jurisdictions focused on in this study are the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Australia. This study concerns itself with pay-related discrimination which strains ILO Conventions No 100 and 111. Convention 100 focuses on equal pay for equal work and Convention No 111 focuses on the elimination of all forms of discrimination in the workplace. In spite of extensive legislative developments in the various jurisdictions which form part of this study, enhanced by the creation of various practical mechanisms to enable the elimination of pay-related discrimination, the stubborn problem of discriminatory pay practices has survived structured and deliberate attempts to get rid of it. In South Africa, the amendment to section 6(4) of the Employment Equity Act, assented on 1 August 2014, specifically describes a difference in conditions of employment between employees of the same employer performing the same or substantially the same work or work of equal value based on any one or more of the grounds listed in section 6(1), as unfair discrimination. This amendment therefore seeks to prohibit such unfair discriminatory practices. Based on the newness of this amendment and the fact that courts have not yet delivered judgments arising from litigation related to this particular amendment, a sense of uncertainty exists with respect to the adequacy of the amended section 6 in the Employment Equity Amendment Act. If progress in the other jurisdictions in this regard is anything to go by, there is no reason to believe that the amendment to section 6 will be a panacea capable of addressing all alleged discriminatory pay practices.

Employment, economic growth and self-reliance are the appetites of every country. Small enterprise development is seen as an effective solution towards this goal depending on the availability of resources. Private equity finance is one of the key resources to enterprise development in a country. International case studies have shown that private equity finance can lead to enterprise development in a country. The aim of the study is to determine the contribution of private equity finance to enterprise development in South Africa. In order to get views from other role players in the private equity finance market, questionnaires were distributed to 200 private equity finance players and the response rate was 39%. The sample size comprised 61.5% males and 38.5% females. The majority of the participants were in the age group 25–34 and constituted 53% of the respondents, whilst those aged 35–49 years constituted 35.9%. A smaller number of respondents were in the age group 18–24 and 50 and above, which both comprised 11.5% as an aggregate. The results revealed that there is a positive correlation between enterprise development and private equity capital with 83% of the respondents agreeing and strongly agreeing that the business skills and expertise brought by private equity investors increase business performance. Of the respondents, 74.4% strongly agree and agree with the notion that most Small and Medium Enterprises do need the intervention of private equity investors. It is recommended that the government, through relevant legislation, needs to promote and encourage private equity investment. Some form of private equity investment such as angel investment needs to be formalized, as is available in other countries such as the United States of America and some countries in Europe. / MBA. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2010.

The aim of this study was to determine employees' perceptions of the fairness of employment equity practices. It was conducted in an organisation in the Health Services industry, using a Diversity Questionnaire. The sample size was 520 and 245 responses were received, constituting a 47% response rate. Employees' responses were measured along 10 dimensions of employment equity. The unit of analysis was the group according to gender, race, age and job level. Independent t-tests and analysis of variance techniques were used to determine any statistically significant differences in perceptions between groups. Statistically significant differences were found between race groups and job levels. Gender and age did not significantly affect employees' responses. The research concluded that compliance with organisational justice requirements is as important as compliance with legislative requirements. Ultimately, every organisation should adapt its employment equity strategy according to its specific demographic and environmental context. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Admin.