This dissertation reports the findings of a study which sought to investigate the experiences of people who were exposed to multiple restructurings in the South African oil industry. Although there is a substantial amount of research on restructurings worldwide, an extensive review of available literature highlighted a dearth of research on multiple restructurings. Investigation of this research question was undertaken using a case study and qualitative research method. In-depth interviews of six employees of an oil company in South Africa were undertaken. Through these interviews, the personal experiences of employees who had been exposed to multiple restructurings were analysed. Similarly, interviews were undertaken with two members of senior management responsible for the implementation of a number of the restructurings. Their interview responses provided insight into the company's rationale for undertaking multiple restructurings. The results of the research indicated that distrust and cynicism grew amongst employees with repeated exposure to restructurings. The interview participants perceived that many remaining employees suffered from feelings of survivor's guilt and low morale and results indicated that the company did little to assist these employees to cope with these feelings. The research findings indicated that loss of corporate memory created role ambiguity and tension between departments as portfolios were redistributed amongst employees. Employee workloads were dramatically increased resulting in further stress and stress-related health problems, absenteeism and resignation. Participants of the research believed that the senior leadership team were ill-equipped to run a restructuring process and the employee consultation process appeared to do nothing to improve employees' trust in management. The results of this research highlighted the perception of the participants that repeated restructurings fail to achieve performance improvement at companies. Instead, the results indicated that repeated restructurings appear to lead to poor employee morale, resultant poor productivity and a high level of intention to quit. Companies should explore alternatives before embarking on a restructuring process as a first choice to alleviate cost pressures (Burke and Nelson, 1997; Von Krogh & Kameny, 2002). Where restructuring is inevitable, it is a recommendation of this research that training and counselling of remaining employees be given priority to assist with the management of stress and other symptoms of survivor sickness.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-44). / This research paper sets out to determine whether domestic investors, constrained by capital controls, can minimise the adverse effects of a volatile ZAR by constructing stock portfolios based on three classifications. Stocks are defined as either hedge, leverage or play, according to the currency denomination of revenues earned and costs incurred by the company. Beta coefficients are estimated for the three groups and expected returns are calculated for the different investors, which are predetermined by their future exchange rate expectations vis-a.-vis purchasing power parity (PPP).

Bibliography: pages 247-263. / The dissertation begins with an historical overview of aspects of the Western art market, and continues with a discussion of financial and economic aspects of the art market. Throughout the factors and intermediaries that come into play in the determination of economic value and the price of exchange are considered. There are two common threads to the dissertation in relation to both art history and financial theory: firstly, the analysis of the role of intermediaries and institutions; and secondly, the valuation of art works in relation to the Components of Value of art works. In the Introduction the concept of intermediation in the context of the art market is discussed, as is the financial and economic definition of an art work. The historical overview that follows is a descriptive analysis of the various support systems and intermediaries in the Western art market from the Renaissance through to the late twentieth century, the guilds, patrons, academies, and dealers, that have and still do function as intermediaries to expedite the transfer of works of art in primary and secondary markets. Five art markets have been selected to provide an historical overview of the structure and functioning of the Western art market. These are Italy in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries [Chapter One]; the Low Countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries [Chapter Two]; England from the seventeenth through to the late nineteenth centuries [Chapter Three]; France from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries [Chapter Four]; and the U.S.A. in the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries [Chapter Five]. These periods and geographical locations have been chosen to draw attention to the historical shifts in the structure and functioning in the art market. In Chapter Six the Components of Value of art works through history and in the art market of recent years are analysed. The Components of Value are those factors, aesthetic, historical, economic, and otherwise that, depending on the art work and period in which it is exchanged, influence the economic value of art works. This chapter then considers in detail the range of Components of Value that each contribute in a different manner to the price of exchange. The concluding chapter provides an analysis of the 'supply' of art works in. terms of the suppliers, the artists; and the demand, the consumers; and the linking of the supply and demand by art market intermediaries in terms of the Components of Value.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-79). / This thesis reviews the origins, development and uses of asset-liability modelling, as well as existing largely stochastic investment models, notably those of the Maturity Guarantees Working Party (1980), Wilkie (1986,1995) and Thomson (1996). A stochastic investment model is developed which describes returns from equities, bonds and cash, as well as inflation and economic growth. The model is consistent with economic theory, adequately fits past data, and is relatively parsimonious compared with other models. A series of assumptions about the causal relationships between inflation, economic growth and interest rates are made based on standard economic theory. It is noted that consensus does not exist on some of the economic theory. Similarly a series of assumptions on the pricing of assets are made based on financial economic theory on market efficiency, expectations and asset pricing. Notably, it is assumed that financial markets are efficient. An economic model is described for inflation, economic growth and interest rates based on the set of assumptions. Each variable is modelled such that its value in one period is a function of its value in the previous period, the value of the other economic variables in the current and previous period, and a normally distributed residual. The model is a mixture of a random walk and autoregressive process that has two special cases of a (non-mean-reverting) pure random walk, and a (mean-reverting) pure autoregressive process. A financial market model is described for bond and equity returns based on the set of assumptions. Expected returns are derived from the expected real interest rate plus a risk premium, where the risk premium is linearly related to the standard deviation of real return. Bond yields are modelled as the sum of expected future short term real interest rates, expected future inflation, and a risk premium. Share prices are modelled as the present value of expected future distributable earnings, discounted at a rate equal to the sum of expected future short term real interest rates, expected future inflation, and a risk premium. The growth in earnings per share is modelled as the sum of inflation, real economic growth and a normal residual, and is also linked to real interest rates. Dividends are modelled as a smoothed function of earnings, with unit-gain from earnings to dividends. Annual data for a 15 year period is used to parameterise the model for the United States, Britain and South Africa respectively. The modelled volatilities of financial market returns, together with the economic data, are used to fit the economic model. The procedure is similar to the method of moments for statistical estimation. Parameters in the economic model that are not statistically significant or are not consistent with the assumptions are excluded. It was found that neither the random walk nor the autoregressive special case models could adequately explain observed volatility in financial markets, so the general case (mixture model) was adopted for economic variables. The parameterised models for the three countries studied exhibited a ""cascade structure"" where all variables are a function of one or two ""driving variables"", without any circularity/""feedback"". The models for the United States and Britain all have inflation as the driving variable, whereas the South African model has both inflation and economic growth as driving variables. The model achieves the objectives of consistency with economic theory as well as parsimony (when compared to Wilkie (1995)). With regards to the criterion of producing reasonable output, the model has advantages over existing models. These include that financial market returns simulated by the model are non-normal and exhibit significant leptokursis (fat-tails) with higher probabilities of severe down-market returns than are predicted by normal or log-normal distributions. Simulated returns also exhibit the weak and slow mean reversion that is observed in markets, and the simulated yield curve exhibits non-parallel shifts and inversions. However, simulated interest rates (particularly nominal interest rates), and even bond yields can become negative, although the probability of negative nominal interest rates is small in the model, and that of negative bond yields is negligible. Two areas where a good fit was not achieved were in the models of risk premiums and dividends. It is recommended that alternative approaches for estimating risk premiums be used. The poor fit to dividend data is not regarded as a significant weakness because modelled equity returns are not dependent on dividends.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / Academic institutions (particularly historically White tertiary institutions) are experiencing challenges in attracting and retaining Black African and femail academic staff. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Black African academic staff at historically White universities in South Africa experience more resistance from students than White staff do. This study consequently investigated whether students rate lecturers differently on first impression, based on the lecturers' and students' race and gender.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / With three major stock market crashes in less than two decades, understanding the forces at work in the modern stock market is more important than ever before. The anchoring and adjustment heuristic has often been described as one of the psychological forces influencing investment decisions but little research has been done to support this belief. The aim of the present dissertation is to empirically study the presence of anchoring and adjustment in stock market decisions. To do this, a small group of equity analysts from South African investment firms were used for a pilot study before a survey was presented to a sample of 295 fourth year actuarial and finance students from the University of Cape Town. An experimental research design was used with a salient peak or trough on a share chart (the anchors) as the independent variable and participants’ estimates of a firm’s fundamental value as the dependent variable. No significant relationship between the anchor and participants’ estimates of fundamental value was found. More specifically, the research results suggested that participants experienced an anchoring effect but were debiased before providing an estimate of fundamental value. This is believed to have occurred due to the inclusion of multiple salient anchors in the research materials consistent with the nature of information available to analysts in real-world investment decision-making contexts. As these findings contradict those of most studies in anchoring and adjustment, it is recommended that more research is conducted on the relationship between the anchoring bias and stock market decisions in realistic investment settings. Additional research is also needed to clarify the effect that multiple anchors have on the anchoring bias.

Early theories of conspicuous consumption proposed a framework in which individuals attempt to imitate the consumption patterns of others that maintain a higher social status. This results in individuals ostentatiously displaying their consumption patterns in order to reinforce their social status. The advent of social media has provided individuals with a new platform on which to display their conspicuous consumption. All consumption now has the possibility to become conspicuous consumption, displayed to a large network of friends and followers online. When individuals post content on social networking sites (SNSs), referred to as user-generated content, they hold some initial expectations regarding the response that their content will receive. This response (for example Likes and Comments on Facebook) is referred to as Social Media Performance in the current research. While research has been conducted, albeit minimal research, into measuring the performance of brand-generated content, no academic research has considered the perceived performance evaluation of individual user-generated content. Previous research has identified a link between online performance, referred to as Social Media Performance in the current research, and conspicuous consumption. This link has however been suggested to be moderated by three variables, selfesteem, social media usage and emotion, tested separately as positive and negative affect. The current research sought to evaluate the moderating influences that selfesteem, social media usage and emotion exerted on the relationship between Social Media Performance and conspicuous consumption. This was done through the lens of the Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT), as Social Media Performance is posited to follow an Expectation Confirmation Theory framework, in which SNS users are either satisfied or dissatisfied depending on their subjective evaluation of performance. A conclusive, causal research design was implemented; making use of a nonprobability sampling technique that achieved a sample size of 282 respondents. The target population consisted of young adults, between the ages of 18 and 29 years, due to the adoption of SNS usage amongst this age cohort. The results found a negative correlation to exist between self-esteem and conspicuous consumption and a positive correlation to exist between social media usage and conspicuous consumption. Furthermore, self-esteem, social media usage and negative affect were found to moderate the relationship between Social Media Performance and conspicuous consumption. In particular, in the presence of negative Social Media Performance, higher levels of social media usage and lower levels of negative affect exerted a greater influence on this relationship. Whereas in the presence of positive Social Media Performance, lower levels of self-esteem and higher levels of negative affect exert a greater influence on this relationship. This research has also confirmed the positive relationship between social media usage and conspicuous consumption.

Includes bibliographical references. / This study confirms the findings of Davies, Kat and Lu (2003) and Feldman, Chen and Goda (2002) that Global Macro and Equity Market-Neutral strategies are crucial constituents in a fund of hedge funds portfolio. When comparing optimised multi-asset class portfolios including an allocation to hedge funds, the results show that meanvariance optimisation overallocates to the hedge fund class on the basis of its high reward to volatility ratio.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-53).

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-135).