Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from title page. Richard Phillips, committee chair; Larry Wall, Harold Skipper, Robert Klein, Martin Grace, committee member. Electronic text (155 p. : ill. (some col.)) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 8, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 104-116).

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Thesis (MDF)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: It is accepted that financial sector development contributes to economic growth, equality and poverty alleviation. Economic development in many developing economies is constrained by the failure of financial markets to provide appropriate financial services products to enable these economies to address structural transformation and enable sustainable economic growth. Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) have emerged as an effective institutional vehicle to provide financial services to support the development and financing needs of market segments, particularly in developing economies, which the commercial financial sector is unable or unwilling to serve. DFIs provide financing to markets with a perceived high investment risk by developing appropriately structured innovative financing solutions and risk mitigation instruments needed to address the infrastructure and development financing gaps within these economies. DFIs are able to address commercial financial market failure by providing financing to support long-term private sector investment in infrastructure, financing products that service high-risk market sectors that lack collateral and financing to support public sector efforts to provide adequate social and economic infrastructure in countries with a high-risk investment rating. Specialist advisory skills are a critical resource that DFIs deploy to identify, package and finance sustainable and bankable solutions to support transformative growth. For DFIs to operate optimally they need to implement an integrated loan approval process that enables effective investment decision-making. By deploying specialist advisory services at each stage of the investment value chain, DFIs comply with international best practice standards, package development finance solutions to meet potential clients’ needs and ensure financial sustainability. An extensive literature review on DFI practice revealed that the predominant literature on DFIs focuses on the mandate and governance relationships within these institutions. This research assignment addressed the gap in available DFI literature. The research assignment aimed to build on the available literature on DFI investment decision-making and to contribute to the body of knowledge of the DFI investment value chain. The research assignment focused on DFI operations and investment decision-making procedures and considered how DFIs deploy specialist advisory services to enhance the application of an integrated loan approval process, mitigate investment risk and enable the optimal allocation of scarce resources to enhance sustainable development. The assignment identified the various institutional approaches and methodologies DFIs adopt to utilise specialist advisory services and identified the challenges, opportunities and limitations within the process. Chapter 1 introduces the key themes addressed in the research assignment. Chapter 2 provides a literature review of DFI practice and application of best practice considerations in investment decision-making. Chapter 3 details the research methodology deployed to conclude the research assignment. Chapter 4 addresses the research findings emanating from a case study analysis of the specialist advisory services deployed by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Land Bank of South Africa. The assignment concludes with findings and recommendations. The research assignment found that limited investigation has been conducted on the operational execution of specialist advisory services within the investment value chain. Specialist advisory services provide DFIs with a key resource to assist in assessing potential loan applications in ensuring that clients meet mandate criteria to qualify for DFI loan applications, assist in assessing whether clients meet investment standards, and ensure that financially sustainable transactions are supported. To enhance DFI practice, further research is required to unpack the various investment modules applied within the investment value chain.

This study identifies the various elements and factors that a financial services company needs to consider when implementing activity-based costing. This study evaluates the appropriateness of activity-based costing for financial services and proposes an implementation framework for activity-based costing in this environment. Management, in today’s constant changing and competitive world, needs management information to support strategic and pricing decisions. Traditional financial accounting information sometimes hides the economic reality of client profitability and product costs, and does not supply sufficient information for pricing decisions. This study confirmed that activity-based costing can assist in addressing this problem. Activity-based costing was originally developed for the manufacturing environment. By studying available literature, this study proved that activitybased costing can be used successfully in a financial services environment. A manufacturing environment has a higher direct cost input than a services environment. The cost structure in a services environment allows a higher percentage of cost to be allocated by identifying activities and using cost drivers to allocate these costs to cost objects. Activity-based costing models add value to management by supplying them with information that supports strategic decisions, pricing decisions, understanding client profitability and product costs. This study points out that there are crucial success factors that need to be considered before embarking on the implementation of activity-based costing. Finally the study proposes that activity-based costing be implemented in a financial services environment to support management decision making. / Prof. A.L. Boessenkool

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is an internationally accepted process of assessing non-formal learning with the intention of matching it to academic credits. This allows the candidate to earn either a full or partial qualification based on knowledge and/or skills acquired outside of the formal classroom. The South African insurance sector was faced with legislation requiring all financial advisers to earn academic credits before they could continue in the industry. The sector believed that the RPL process would suit their circumstances because most financial advisers had many years of workplace experience and had mostly attended many internal, but often unaccredited, product training programmes. However, there was no RPL implementation model to guide a workplace implementation of this nature as most RPL models followed the practices set by formal higher education providers and there was no consideration of the many variables that have an impact in the workplace. This research set out to design a logic model to guide the implementation of workplace RPL in the insurance sector. The data was collected during the evaluation of an RPL implementation programme that had good results but which used the more individualistically inspired RPL approach of formal education. The data was analysed using grounded theory data analysis techniques (Strauss & Corbin, 1998 and Glaser & Strauss, 1967) and the result was the identification of 18 broad categories. Further analysis reduced these to five categories, i.e. reaction to the circumstances requiring the RPL, personal mastery, team support, changing perceptions towards the RPL process, and perceived outcome of the RPL process. These categories were researched by looking at the most influential traditional and workplace learning theorists, as well as the most influential RPL theorists. Finally, a secondary data analysis was conducted on 18 workplace RPL case studies described by Dyson and Keating (2005). The results of this research were formulated into a logic model to guide RPL implementation in the insurance sector. Using this logic model as a guide, further recommendations were made to guide workplace RPL implementation in the future. / Prof. W.J. Coetsee Dr. L. Beekman

M.Comm. / VAT is a tax that is based on taxing the value added on successive transactions in the supply chain, accordingly it is a tax designed for the retail or manufacturing industries. South Africa introduced VAT that is similar to that introduced across the world and later refined it. The revisions included the introduction of VAT on banking services. The introduction of VAT to banking is a first in the VAT world but still does not find a cure for the principle dilemma of taxing a bank's value added, under VAT. The study therefore established if banks are treated fairly by investigating: • The three canons of taxation, • The eight principles on which VAT rests, • And the agreement between SARS and the Council of South African Banks. The reason of the above is to propose enhancements or an alternative design that would either increase the accuracy, equity, or simplify the calculation of VAT in the banking sector. The study found that there are several options when introducing VAT to the financial services sector, namely: • zero rate it and the fiscuss looses out on the output VAT, • tax it and increase the cost of borrowing as well as face the problems of determining the value added per transaction or; • exempt it and a practice known as cascading takes place. Neither of these solutions seemed viable although the full taxation option is conceptually the only correct method oftaxation. In most countries the exemption option was taken. The result of exempting interest is that banks have to apportion their input VAT. There are various options open to a bank when calculating the ratio of input VAT to be claimed, yet legislation has only made mention of two. To alleviate this situation the VAT authorities and the Council of South African Banks have agreed upon a methodology to calculate the ratio of input VAT to be reclaimed. This agreement is not compulsory and only applies to areas where the bank does not have an alternative apportionment technique, and in some instances is also flawed in its logic. Consequently banks have the option to apportion input VAT on what they perceive to be a fair basis. The indecision and inequities described above does not result an accurate VAT. The conclusion was that the design is urtiust and the practical calculation, when applied, does not the deliver the correct amount of tax payable. The study introduced a different form of VAT, named the Business Transfer Tax. This tax is an additive form of VAT, based on accounts that relate to interest and trading income. Interest income and trading income would be zero rated under the current VAT, and therefore entitle the bank to claim input tax incurred on expenditure. This would overcome all of the issues not resolved previously.

Thesis (M.M. (Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2016. / Purpose The purpose of this study is to assess corporate entrepreneurship behaviour and identify elements that influence and promote corporate entrepreneurship in a South African financial services organisation. The study also defines corporate entrepreneurship and assists in gaining an understanding of corporate entrepreneurship behaviour in a context of a financial services organisation in the South African financial services sector. Data collection Online questionnaires were used to collect data. The online questionnaire was sent out to via email to employees at different hierarchal levels of a financial services organisation. The email contained a link which directed the participants to the online survey. Completed responses were sent back to a centralised system for collation with only one response per computer possible. Key findings The key findings of the study elucidate corporate entrepreneurship in a financial services organisation as not perceived as demonstrated and or used. There is a neutral sentiment towards CE which is widespread across the organisation regardless of hierarchal levels. Management support for corporate entrepreneurial activities was significantly low which goes to show that there by-in-large a low acceptance for CE. Key contribution This research contributes to the further improves the understanding of corporate entrepreneurship in financial services organisations in South Africa, and benefits. The study will additionally provide an improved understanding of the financial services industry. The outcome of this study will challenge executives in the insurance sector to consider the benefits of executing on corporate entrepreneurship intentions. To this end, the study adds value to the financial iii services sector and may potentially change how the players in this sector operate. / DH2016

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, 2014. / This study, illustrates how various statistical classification models can be compared and utilised to resolve cross-selling problems encountered in a financial services environment. Various statistical classification algorithms were deployed to model for the appropriate product to sell to a financial services customer under a multi-classifier setting. Four models were used, namely: multinomial logistic regression, multinomial bagging with logistic regression, multinomial random forests with decision trees and error correcting output coding. The models were compared in terms of predictive accuracy, generalisation, interpretability, ability to handle rare instances and ease of use. A weighted score for each model was obtained based on the evaluation criteria stated above and an overall model ranking thereof. In terms of the data, banked customers who only had a transactional account at the start of the observation period were used for the modelling process. Varying samples of the customers were obtained from different time points with the preceding six to twelve months information being used to derive the predictor variables and the following six months used to monitor product take-up. Error correcting output coding performed the best in terms of predictive accuracy but did not perform as well on other metrics. Overall, multinomial bagging with logistic regression proved to be the best model. All the models struggled with modelling for the rare classes. Weighted classification was deployed to improve the rare-class prediction accuracy. Classification accuracy showed significant limitation under the multi-classifier setting as it tended to be biased towards the majority class. The measure of area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) as proposed by Hand and Till (2001) proved to be a powerful metric for model evaluation.

The thesis extends previous loyalty research by comparing the performance of brands in subscription markets, specifically financial services and insurance, on a cross-category basis. Large investments are made in these industries on cross-selling initiatives with the hope of bringing about brand growth through increased loyalty. This research found very little variation between the loyalty scores for major brands in each market, suggesting that cross selling attempts are likely to play only a minor role in brand performance. / thesis (MBusiness-Research)--University of South Australia, 2005.