Includes bibliographical references / There is a plethora of academic literature on the relationship between a collective investment scheme's (or mutual fund) size and its risk-adjusted performance but the research has produced contradictory results with no apparent consensus. Data from a sample size of 100 (one hundred) collective investment schemes in the Association for Savings and Investments (South Africa) ("ASISA"), SA Equity General Fund classification group over a 10 (ten) year period was analysed using regression techniques and ranking analysis to examine whether there was any prime facie relationship between the fund size and the risk-adjusted performance of South African collective investment schemes. The regression analysis found no statistically significant correlation between fund size and risk-adjusted performance. However, the results of the ranking analysis suggested a possible inverted U-Shape relationship between collective investment scheme fund size and risk-adjusted performance. This therefore presents an argument for an optimal fund size range of between R912,267,649.3 and R1,930,696,676 (about 1 - 2 billion Rand) in assets under management to maximise risk-adjusted performance.

This research paper investigates whether or not the Price-to-Book/ Return on Equity ratio is constant across the banking, retail, pharmaceutical and manufacturing sectors. The study makes use of statistical tests to determine if the ratio is constant. In addition, the research paper investigates the explicatory powers of the DuPont model, the Federal interest rate, and Consumer price inflation of the Price-to-Book/ Return on Equity ratio. This research documents evidence that the Price-to-Book/Return on Equity ratio is not constant across sectors and that the explicatory powers of the DuPont model differ from sector to sector. The implications of these findings are that investors cannot apply the same Price-to-Book/ Return on Equity ratio across sectors when evaluating stocks relative to each other.

This study analyses earnings forecast accuracy and bias, and the determinants of earnings forecast accuracy, for firms listed on the Alternative Exchange (AltX) in South Africa.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / This paper pays special attention to banking the unbanked population in the developing markets through branchless banking. This form of banking is defined as the delivery of financial services outside conventional bank branches using information and communications technologies and nonbank retail agents. The services offered take a variety of forms including long-distance remittances, micropayments, and informal airtime bartering schemes for example: mobile banking, mobile transfers, and mobile payments. Using Kenya’s M-PESA as the lead case study, the impact of combining the use of mobile network operators and banks has proved to be effective.

New evidence suggests that share returns are cross-sectionally predictable in that shares which appear to be inexpensive relative to the company's underlying values (value shares), out-perform those shares that are perceived to provide substantial growth in the long run (growth shares). The magnitude of the return premium suggests that these returns are induced by factors other than risk or perhaps suggests that our measures of risk are incorrect. There now seems to be little doubt that the new evidence indicates that the cross-section of average returns are predictable and that abnormal returns can be obtained by holding value shares. This is the value-growth phenomenon. The existence of this phenomenon casts doubt on the two major paradigms of modem finance, the Capital Asset Pricing Model and the Efficient Market Hypothesis. There has been limited empirical testing in South Africa as to the existence of this internationally observed phenomenon. This study's objective is to investigate whether or not this value-growth phenomenon exists on the JSE. The study examined monthly excess returns on portfolios of value and growth shares over the period 1987 to 1996. The ratio of a company's market value to its book value of common equity was used as the measure of value and growth. The conclusions of this research study indicate that a value-growth phenomenon does exist on the JSE and that the existence of superior returns by value shares is especially marked in the period post 1992 when South Africa returned to the international financial arena.

Includes bibliographical references. / This study considers the completeness of Ferreira and Otley's (2009) evaluative framework, designed to identify the performance management and management control issues in organisations. There is growing criticism in the literature that Ferreira and Otley's (2009) framework is essentially technocratic in nature, ignores socio-ideological controls such as organisational culture and clans, and needs to be combined with a social science perspective. Consequently, this study reviews the literature pertaining to certain socioideological controls, using a multi-disciplinary approach which focuses particularly on the social sciences. Combining insights obtained from the literature, the study then applies Ferreira and Otley's (2009) framework in an empirical case study setting, assessing the extent to which the framework can identify the performance management and control issues in a small South African knowledge-intensive company. Findings from the study suggest that Ferreira and Otley's (2009) framework is indeed deficient in that it is not able to identify cultural controls, clan controls and personnel controls. The possible implications of the cultural paradigm for control system design, contingency theory, and the general management control framework are also discussed.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-134). / The airline Industry has been recognised as a high value industry. The market carrying over 2 billion passengers each year and occupied over 35% of global merchandise in trade by value.Studies have been conducted globally to investigate the feasibility and return on investment for local or international airlines, with several analytical methodologies in use. The focus of this dissertation is to analyse the impact of financial risk factors, including interest rate exposures, currency fluctuations, and fuel price changes on the airline industry. This study investigates risk exposures in the South African airline industry and uses data on South African Airways (SAA) and Comair to calculate the impact of risk factors on exposure significance. The key results show that, on average, the exposures are more significant over the short-term horizons which becomes fundamental as the horizon length increases. In cases where the non-linear coefficient is slightly strengthened as the return horizon is lengthened, the sign of the exposure point coefficient does not necessarily point in the favourable direction of returns. Thus, a positive coefficient indicates a tendency of the risk factor and returns to move in the same direction, while a negative sign means that the impact on returns decreases as the exposure increases. Based on the financial ratio analysis of the airline characteristics, the results indicate that SAA shows a better return on investment better than Comair. Particularly SAA (SAA Annual Report: 2005) shows an improvement in performance with an increase in revenues and stable cost bases, despites the unexpected increase in oil dollar prices by 42%, which contrib tes to a large increase in returns. Lastly, structural changes in exposures are investigated, focusing on an extraordinary event of the global aviation industry the terrorist attack in New York on September 11 , 2001. No impact on SAA or Comair was found during the study period, which indicates that our study subjects may be less risk impacted by U.S. influences in comparison to other international airlines. The common financial speculation of higher risks are accompanied by higher returns may not be feasible to the airline industry, but strategic planning changes and future financial management adaptations to fit the global economy may bring a positive impact on the industry. This brings opportunities for further research.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 72-77). / This study investigates whether executives backdate share option grants to their advantage in South Africa. Using data of 175 option grants to executives among the 41 top companies in South Africa between 2001 and 2006, a pattern of negative cumulative abnormal stock returns before the grant dates but positive and increasing returns thereafter is observed. This pattern is much more pronounced for unscheduled grants. Statistical testing shows the mean cumulative abnormal returns are significantly different from zero after the grant date, but are not significantly different from zero before the grant date. The mean differences in average cumulative abnormal stock returns between pre- and post- grant periods are significantly different. The results suggest that some opportunistic behavior might have taken place around the executive option grants, including backdating.

This study investigates the prevalence of emotional biases that influence South African students' decision-making in an investment context. This study advances the understanding of whether the future financial professionals of South Africa are susceptible to irrational decision-making due to the influence of emotional biases. A questionnaire-based survey was employed to test whether a sample of South African finance students exhibit emotional biases that influence their investment decision-making. The questionnaire posited investment scenarios to which the students would answer intuitively based on the information that was provided to them. This study asked the students to respond using their "gut-feel" to test whether emotional biases were inherent in their decision-making process. It was found that the respondents were influenced by market trends, otherwise known as the representative bias, making them more susceptible to notice patterns in truly random sequences of data, or making them think that future patterns will resemble previous patterns. 85% of respondents did not show a tendency to anchor to a particular reference point. However, the data showed that 15% of the respondents did not give an answer when asked to answer intuitively, while 100% of the students gave a response when a reference point was introduced. Just over half of respondents exhibited traits of overconfidence, and, consistent with historical research, males exhibited greater overconfidence than females. However, male and female responses showed mixed results in respect of loss aversion scenarios. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that 58% of respondents were partial to choosing options that were framed positively. Finally, there was no significant evidence that respondents were influenced by the herding bias or the illusion of control bias. In summary, this study found at least prima facie evidence of some emotional biases that influence investment decision-making. This conclusion demonstrates a viable basis for future research on the role of emotion (and, pertinently, emotional intelligence) in investment decision-making.

Bibliography: pages 234-247. / The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) postulates that beta is a quantitative measure of a company's undiversifiable risk, the determinants of which are of considerable interest to financial managers and investors alike. Analytical research has shown that beta is a positive function of a company's unlevered or asset beta and its market value debt to equity ratio (i.e. financial leverage). In turn, unlevered beta has been shown to be a positive function of a company's operating leverage, and the trade-off between operating and financial leverage proposed as a means of stabilising beta. The objective of this research was to empirically determine the nature of the relationships · between: beta and financial leverage; beta and operating leverage; and financial and operating leverage. A significant level of positive association was hypothesised between beta and both financial and operating leverage, while a significant negative association was hypothesised between financial leverage and operating leverage.