Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-125).

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-88).

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-55). / Within a context of political posturing and intimidation it can become difficult for fruitful discussion to emerge and real debate can be stifled. The nationalisation of mines in South Africa is a discussion that has been debated in such an environment. The aim of this dissertation is to cut through the political posturing and get to the fundamental question surrounding nationalisation of mines in South Africa. Would nationalising the South African mining industry enhance its contribution to the achievement of poverty and inequality reducing economic growth? This is the central question to the debate because the twin objectives of the South African government are to eradicate poverty and substantially reduce inequality.

Derivative instruments that rely on the price of gold are traded in large volumes. A significant number of these instruments are influenced by the volatility of gold price movements. Hence, it is important to understand the volatility of this commodity when developing successful trading and hedging strategies. In this thesis, use is made of various GARCH models that are evaluated using both in-sample and out-of-sample criteria.

Includes bibliographical references.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-102). / The study's objective was to analyze the effect of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) on the dairy sector through the use of the grounded theory process. The central thread of reasoning in the entire paper is based on the S-C-Q-A-R-E Situation, Concern, Question, Answer, Rationale and Evaluation] principle. The Situation is that Zambia has chosen to negotiate the EPAs under the group called Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) configuration comprising 16 member countries that belong to COMESA with the exclusion of Egypt, Libya and Tanzania. Out or the six main areas of negotiations, Agriculture has been one or the most contentious clusters because of the high levels of subsidies on the part of the EU and it is also one of the sectors ESA has considered to be a sensitive sector. Because of the high levels of subsidies on various agricultural products on the part of the EL, milk and its products have been placed under the sensitive product list meaning that the region will not reduce tariffs on this as a way of protection.

Includes bibliographical references. / This study aims to explore the role of social media in HIV/AIDS communication, by investigating the relationship between perceived need utilities of social media and the design utilities of the communication channel. Following the media richness theory (MRT) and channel expansion theory (CET), a model is proposed that suggests that need utilities drive social media utility. It is furthermore suggested that social media utility is positively associated with the design appropriateness of social media to create or consume HIV/AIDS content. The proposed model presents the interpersonal consumer expectations of message control, privacy, trust and endorsement as need utilities, while social media as a place to interact and a place to which to escape, are identified as social media utilities. As a high at-risk HIV- group, the research approach is outlined within the demographic segment of university students in the Western Cape, between the ages of 18 to 24 years. The constructs of social change (communication objective), social capital (product of communication) and social influence (targeted communication), are operationalised within a social media context to explore consumer motivations to interact or escape. The benefits and limitations of using social media for effective HIV/AIDS communication are also assessed, as these practically influence the perception of the role of a communication channel within a particular communication context. The research methodology firstly comprised of six qualitative focus group discussions, which assisted in the generation of the hypotheses and facilitated the formulation of the conceptual model. Secondly, data from 991 online surveys were analysed to quantitatively test the formulated hypotheses and gauge support for the proposed model. The results support the hypotheses and proposed model, by indicating that need utilities drive social media utility, which in turn drive design appropriateness. Furthermore, the results also reveal that the social media utility of being a place to interact is positively associated with the design appropriateness of social media for HIV/AIDS content creation and consumption. The perception of social media as a place to which to escape, however negatively affects the design appropriateness of social media for HIV/AIDS content creation and consumption. The study discusses the implications for health communication from an integrated marketing communications approach and puts forward recommendations for strategy development, as well as monitoring and evaluation. Lastly several recommendations are put forward for future research.

This dissertation focused on two therapy-driven programmes operating in the disability and rehabilitation sector in the Western Cape, South Africa. One programme is an inclusive education programme with a classroom component and parenting component to it and the other is a vocational rehabilitation programme. These two programmes, implemented by the Chaeli Campaign (CC), are aligned with the community-based rehabilitation model of service delivery. These programmes are implemented by personnel with a variety of qualifications, including community workers and occupational therapists. Key goals for programmes of this nature are to ensure that all persons with disabilities are active participants of socio-economic life, to ensure that the rights and dignity of all persons are respected and upheld and to reintegrate persons with disabilities into family and community life. Another goal of these programmes is to transfer skills from highly-skilled professionals to workers with less training and lay persons. With respect to the last mentioned goal, the skills required to services persons with disabilities are redistributed, so that professionals such as occupational therapists are no longer solely responsible for serving these persons. Both programmes under evaluation in this document are implemented either exclusively or with help from occupational therapists. Problem Statement: The problem statement is made up of two components. First, the underlying programme theories of the two therapy-driven programmes were not well articulated. According to CC’s director, this poor articulation made it difficult for programme staff to describe their programmes to potential programme donors. Second, the organisation struggles to obtain funding from potential programme donors to finance the use of occupational therapists in their programmes. The difficulty in obtaining funding is assumed to be due to potential donors’ belief that these programmes could be implemented at a reduced cost by community workers. Method: The evaluator decided to conduct two programme evaluations to address the two aspects mentioned in the problem statement. First, programme theory evaluations were done to address the poor articulation of the programmes’ theories. The programme theory evaluation aimed to elicit and articulate the underlying logic of each of the programmes, thus enabling the evaluator to assess their plausibility. Following this, three multi-criteria decision analyses (MCDAs) using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) were conducted. The MCDAs were intended to establish which implementer (an occupational therapist or a community worker) is most preferred by CC’s current programme stakeholders. The participants of the MCDA included programme beneficiaries, current programme donors, field experts, programme facilitators and programme staff. Results: Programme theories were made explicit and articulated. These were then depicted as logic models. Results indicate that when assessed against social science and evaluation literature, the programme theories elicited in this dissertation are plausible. The MCDA results indicate that programme stakeholders prefer occupational therapists for technical aspects of programme delivery and prefer community workers for psychosocial aspects of rehabilitation, such as relationship-building and providing emotional support. Of note is that stakeholders weighted the perceived benefits of occupational therapists and community workers as more important than the costs associated with each implementer. The results from the MCDA highlight that programme stakeholders perceive the benefits of implementers (occupational therapists and community workers) to be more important than their associated costs. The evaluator assessed these results against social science literature and found that in general, stakeholders value benefits more than costs of implementing personnel. Recommendations: Recommendations are made to the organisation to describe their programmes’ theories more coherently and more clearly express their need for both community workers and occupational therapists Conclusions: Rather than considering cost, potential donors should consider that occupational therapists and community workers serve specific purposes in programme implementation. Their purpose, rather than their cost, should be prioritised in order for programmes to be effective. The field should be made aware of this disjuncture, while costs are important considerations, stakeholders in the field of disability and rehabilitation should not compromise on the quality of services in order to reduce programme costs.

This study concerns ‘value’ and how this leads to the ‘decision’ of whether to stay in farming, or to exit the industry. Most of the research into the ‘value’ of farming is based upon the quantitative economic evaluation of either farmland income or production modelling. This study proposes that there is additional ‘value’ beyond the income received. ‘Value’ is deemed to be ‘customer perceived value’ (‘value’) on the basis that farmers are considered to be consumers of the system of farming within a professional environment. Farming is a “way of life” and this is the first study that investigates whether the ‘personal values’ (‘values’) of farmers effect the ‘value’ they perceive from farming as suggested by Schoon and Te Grontenhuis (2000). This study investigates the relationship between ‘values, value, risk, satisfaction and decision’. The research model posits that ‘values’ (each one separately) impacts on the formation of ‘value’ (which is treated as a higher-order construct of the benefits [“get”] and sacrifices [“give”] components, each of which comprises a number of dimensions), ‘risk’ (also conceptualised as a higher-order construct) impacts on ‘value’ and ‘decision’, ‘value’ is a determinant of ‘satisfaction’ which in tum affects ‘decision’ of whether or not to remain in farming, The competing model although it maintains the above structure treats the two ‘value’ components as separate constructs (that is, tests for differential impact of ‘value’ and ‘risk’ on the “get” and “give” components and for the differential impact of these two components on ‘satisfaction’). The relationships between the constructs were tested via data collected from a postal and internet survey sent to farmers within Great Britain. The empirical investigation involved the use of Partial Least Squares (structural equation modelling). Examination of the solutions obtained for the research and competing model led to the adoption of the latter because of is greater sensitivity and analytical clarity. Overall, the findings confirm the relevance of ‘perceived value’ in a person's decision to remain within a given professional domain. Specifically, the following contributions to extant knowledge are made: • The differential behaviour of the two ‘value’ components (i.e., “give” and “get”) indicates that ‘value’ should not be conceptualised and consequently examined as a unidimensional higher-order construct. Instead each of the ‘value’ components should be free to relate to other constructs. • The research has confirmed the link between personal ‘values’ and value. However, the form of this relationship is considered to be context specific (i.e., in this study only Self Direction, Tradition and Benevolence were found to be a significant determinant of the ‘value’ components). • Risk has been found to impact significantly only on the “give” component of ‘value’. • Of the two components, only the “get” to satisfaction relationship was supported. This implies that the benefits received rather than the “give/sacrifices” made are the main driver of personal satisfaction with the chosen professional domain (in this case farming). • As expected the satisfaction to decision to remain in the chosen profession relationship has been confirmed. Based on the above policy suggestions are put forward regarding actions that could engender farmer's satisfaction with their profession and consequently ensure continuation with their chosen profession.

This study investigates motivations for Corporate Social Reporting (CSR). Considering that CSR remains a largely unregulated phenomenon, calls for normative and empirical research contributing to its theorisation are increasing. However, most frequently single theoretical interpretations are offered, which ignore the potential variety of explanations for the practice in diverse contexts. Concerns are also often expressed over the use of Content Analysis (CA) in CSR research. Although authors generally agree on the decisions with regard to sampling, they do not agree on the measurement units, and there is also a lack of studies reviewing issues pertaining to the context in CA. Thus, this study aims to contribute to the CSR literature by (a) introducing a framework that synthesises the relationships between the theoretical explanations for the phenomenon, and (b) reviewing the use of CA in CSR research, with a focus on CA decisions regarding sampling, recording and context. In pursue of the theoretical objective (a), a number of frequently employed theoretical explanations are reviewed and amalgamated in a revisited legitimacy theory framework, which identified three prime potential drivers for CSR. These include an ethics-focus approach, where legitimacy is achieved by discharging accountability to all identified stakeholders, and two image-focus approaches, where organisations are either interested in maintaining their legitimacy by retaining a positive image, or in opportunistically extending their legitimacy and image. To investigate the applicability of these suggestions, a case study design is adopted, whereby the reactions of five aviation organisations to major legitimacy threats in the form of air crashes are examined. The organisations considered are British Airways, Air France, American Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Scandinavian Airlines. Considering the methodological objective (b) of the study and the fact that the nature of the research, thus, requires measuring the levels of CSR, a mixed-method CA is employed, which (building on a systematic review of the literature) considers not only the variations in the measured levels of CSR prior to, and following, the accidents, but also what is actually stated in the disclosures. The study finds little support for the ethics-focus approach. The majority of the quantitative and qualitative evidence indicates instead that CSR is most often externally driven. Organisations appear to primarily engage with it to ensure they are seen as acting legitimately, in order to minimise existing and potential image threats and maintain profitability. The study, contrary to the literature, also finds that the recording units employed were not consistent in their findings and thus suggests that future studies should consider a variety of recording units. As regards the context, the organisations appear to adopt a 'pecking order' disclosure approach with regard to their reporting media, reporting their substantive positive CSR news via the AR to their most 'critical stakeholders', whilst disclosing "their substantive negative CSR news in the more 'ephemeral' stand-alone reports, which potentially have smaller audience.