The audit expectations gap is a prominent issue in the private sector. However, in the public sector, the audit expectations gap is an emerging issue that has received little attention by reseachers. To date, only a limited number of studies on the audit expectations gap in the public sector are available, either in the context of a financial audit or a performance audit. This study focused on the audit expectations gap in the context of the latter. The importance of the performance audit function in the Malaysian public sector, combined with recent developments related to this type of audit in the country (such as increasing expectations among the users and associated problems in practice) were the reasons for conducting the study in this area. Thus, the study aims to identify the existence of the audit expectations gap in the Malaysian public sector. In achieving this objective, it explores the perceptions of auditors and Public Account Committee (PAC) members, auditees and ‘other users’ (consisting of journalists, politicians and academics). The conceptual framework in this study was developed based on Chowdhury’s (1996) and Porter’s (1993) approaches. Utilising the accountability-based framework as suggested by Chowdhury, six audit concepts (auditor independence, auditor competence, audit scope, auditor ethics, audit reporting and auditing standards) were examined. Porter’s model was subsequently utilised to identify the nature and the components of the gap. This study employed two types of research methods: interviews and audit report analysis. Interviews were conducted with 37 participants comprising of auditors, PAC members, auditees and ‘other users’. The second research method involved the examination of four performance audit reports. The findings of this study indicated that the audit expectations gap exists in the Malaysian public sector in the context of performance auditing. The analysis of interviews and audit reports clearly suggest that the audit expectations gap exists over a number of auditing issues. These comprise fraud detection exercises, the influence of management, executive and other parties on auditors, outsourcing the audit to private audit firms, content and format of the audit report and extending the audit mandate to cover the question of merits of policy.

M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

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 Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation Johannesburg, 2017 / The aim of this study was to analyse and investigate the link between organisational antecedents that enhance corporate entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial orientation, followed by entrepreneurial orientation’s impact on firm growth and performance. The study focused primarily on recent graduates in companies operating in South Africa. The organisational antecedents analysed were management support, work discretion, rewards and reinforcement, time availability, and organisational boundaries. The entrepreneurial orientation factors used were proactiveness, risk-taking, and innovativeness. The impact of entrepreneurial orientation was measured against firms’ growth and performance. A sample of 193 recent graduates, employed in an array of sectors in South Africa was analysed. The findings reveal that recent graduates place a particular emphasis on management support, and rewards and reinforcement as particular enablers for creating the context for corporate entrepreneurship. A significant positive relationship between these antecedents and entrepreneurial orientation, and a strong association between entrepreneurial orientation and firm growth and performance was found. Population trends reflect that 58.13 percent of South Africans are under the age of 29 (Stats SA, 2016), reflecting that young people, under the age of 30, will serve as the dominant demographic in the workforce in South Africa, over the next 15 years. This study was thus particularly relevant as it aligns the changing external environment that compels companies to become more entrepreneurial, with the perspective of a new generation of workforce that will be primarily responsible for driving this change. / MT2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. Johannesburg, 2016 / This research report addresses the question: Is BRM (Benefits Realisation Management) a valid method for MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) development and implementation? While the technical aspect of implementing MES is standardised and well documented, a clear approach to tackling the activity on a company specific level is missing. Literature shows that there is ambiguity in where ownership should lie and further details common organisational problems that companies experience. Limited guidance is given to how these problems can be tackled. An evaluative case study is conducted at the WMMEA (WEIR Minerals Middle East and Africa) machine shop to determine whether BRM methodology is able to improve the MES system and its implementation by adding a previously unexplored structure to the undertaking. The research method focuses on two aspects of the case. The initiative, where the researcher aims to identify whether BRM methodology is able to specify a complete set of requirements for MES implementation. The outcomes, where the researcher quantifies the benefits gained from the implementation. This report describes an adapted BRM methodology and the outcomes of its application. These outcomes consist of the issues faced by the company, the enablers developed to overcome these issues, and the benefits derived from MES. The BRM methodology is shown to be valid in the case of WMMEA by the confirmed realisation of predicted benefits. The business objectives achieved are an improved on-time delivery to customers and an increased part value. / MT2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Engineering, 2017 / Manufacturing companies have challenges implementing business process improvements and innovations (BPI) on support service processes effectively and find it difficult to measure the impact of such interventions on the overall performance of the organisation. Measurement of the impact of BPIs on overall performance of manufacturing companies is problematic due to the inadequacy of BPI metrics for support services. Furthermore, there are no universally accepted frameworks available for the measurement of the impact of improvements on support service processes on the performance of manufacturing companies. While there are frameworks available for performance measurement in general, they are not specific to measurement of the impact of BPIs in manufacturing support service processes. An initial exploratory study, based on an online survey of 50 companies that would typically conduct BPI or where known to the researcher to have conducted BPIs recently, was conducted to explore the nature of BPIs in manufacturing support service processes in South Africa. A second longer online survey was then conducted with 1000 respondents in manufacturing companies selected through expert sampling to further explore the nature and impact of BPIs in manufacturing support service processes considering selection of support service processes, the types and number of support service processes as well as BPI traditions and methodologies in use within manufacturing companies. In addition, four companies were selected for in-depth case studies in which ten projects were analysed by applying within case and cross case analysis The results of the surveys, the case studies and a revisit to the case companies were used to refine successive iterations of a theoretical framework initially developed from the literature. The framework provides a set of guidelines and actions for manufacturing companies to effectively conduct BPIs on manufacturing support service processes a basis from which the impact of improvements in manufacturing support service processes on manufacturing companies can be measured by providing the measurement areas to consider and a set of high level measures to use as high level indicators. Finally, the framework was checked for completeness using recommended criteria derived from the literature and was found to be complete and suitable as it met all the criteria for good measurement systems defined in the literature sources used in this study. / MT 2017

A South African university has obligations to societal stakeholders. One dimension of these obligations is research productivity. The extent to which these societal obligations can be met is a function of how innovative research outputs are, and of the extent to which constraints to research output, or productivity, are known, and can be managed. An extensive body of literature, including the Global Leadership and Organisational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) studies, have demonstrated the influence of organisational cultural values on organisational outcomes. Hofstede’s cultural values research studies have also demonstrated the influence of societal cultural values on societal outcomes. However, despite this body of literature, there is a lack of knowledge of the influence of organisational culture on the research productivity of academic fields. This research attempts to address this lack of knowledge through a qualitative and a quantitative study of the relationships between organisational culture and research productivity. This analysis is undertaken at the level of the academic field, which is proxied in this study as the level of the academic school. A corresponding analysis is also undertaken at the individual level. The relationship between individual values and research productivity is also investigated, to provide a holistic perspective of the relationships between both organisational cultural, as well as individual values, and research productivity, differentiated by level of analysis. On the basis of the qualitative analysis, a model of context-specific individual-level factors is also derived, which are predicted to influence research productivity. A qualitative study of research-productive academics from the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Cape Town, the University of Johannesburg, the University of South Africa and the University of KwaZulu-Natal was used to develop theory for testing quantitatively. The quantitative study, which sampled the University of the Witwatersrand, was used to test the theory and the propositions that were developed in the qualitative portion of the study. In the quantitative study, at the level of the academic school, relationships between organisational cultural values and research productivity predicted by GLOBE organisational cultural values theory were tested quantitatively. At the individual level, relationships between individual motivational values theory and research productivity that were predicted by Schwartz’s values theory were also tested quantitatively. The model of factors that were predicted by the qualitative analysis to contribute to research productivity was also tested quantitatively. The iii qualitative and quantitative results of the study are taken to support Kuhn’s argument; that academic research outputs are not necessarily innovative, and do not necessarily represent innovative knowledge creation in this context. Findings also indicate that particular values configurations may constrain research productivity. Specifically, configurations of values associated with lower levels of innovativeness might constrain specific non-peer reviewed forms of research productivity. The results reveal a context dominated by a conflict between two societal needs, one associated with increasing enrolments of students that are not necessarily matched by infrastructure increases, or a process of massification, and the other associated with the need for more research productivity. The conflict between these two needs was found to correspond with differences between individuals that relate to the extent to which they derive their primary job satisfaction from research versus teaching. Teacher-satisfied individuals were found to be signficantly less research productive. On the basis of the research findings, recommendations are made to improve research productivity in this context. On the basis of these and other findings discussed in the main text of the thesis, recommendations for practice and for futher research are made. It is concluded that specific value configurations appear to constrain research productivity in this context and that individuals and the academic institutions for which they work need to take the potential effect of such value configurations into account in their management of research productivity.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering. Johannesburg 2017 / Following the involvement in a project where a bank implemented an electronic inventory management system, a need was identified for further research into the human elements influencing the success of such projects. An initial high level study of some available literature supported the idea of human factors playing an important role. The subsequent research question formulated was: What are the major human factors that influence the implementation of electronic systems to replace their manual paper-based counterparts, if any? From literature the major human factors to be analysed were identified as:  Leadership  Communication  Environment and culture  Change readiness By employing a mixed method research approach and analysing the change readiness assessment surveys, post-implementation surveys, project team observations and site key performance indicators (KPIs) of 3 implemented sites, these were all confirmed as factors influencing such implementations. These conclusions were graphically depicted in a proposed framework showing the relationship between leadership as the driving factor to influence culture and change readiness through communication. / MT2018

I investigate the association between large shareholder heterogeneity and firms' accounting quality and information asymmetry. Specifically, I construct three measures of ownership heterogeneity based on the type, size, and monitoring aggressiveness of large shareholders present in a firm. Applying these three measures of heterogeneity, I examine whether large shareholder heterogeneity is associated with the variation in firms' accounting quality and information asymmetry. I also examine new block formations to provide evidence on the consequences of large shareholder investment on firms' accounting quality and information asymmetry. I find that the monitoring aggressiveness of large shareholders is positively associated with firms' accounting quality and information asymmetry. These findings suggest that large aggressive shareholders constrain earnings management, but contribute to firms' overall information asymmetry. Further, using new blockholder data, I find that investments by large aggressive shareholders are positively associated with firms' accounting quality and firms' information asymmetry in the post investment period. This finding provides additional support to my hypotheses that large shareholders play an important role in firms' accounting quality and information asymmetry. / by Joseph E. Trainor. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Research linking marketing to financial outputs has been gaining significance in the marketing discipline. The pertinent questions are, therefore: how can marketing improve measures of firm performance and draw potential investors to the company, and where is the quantitative proof to back up these assertions? This research investigates the role of marketing expenditures in the context of initial public offerings (IPOs). The proposed theoretical framework comes from marketing and finance literature, and uses econometric models to test the hypotheses. First, we replicate the results of a previous study by Luo (2008) showing a relationship between the firm's pre-IPO marketing spending and IPO underpricing. Next, we extend the previous study by looking at the IPO's long-run returns, types of risk, analyst coverage, and market/industry characteristics. The results of this study, based on a sample of 2,103 IPOs from 1996 to 2008, suggest that increased marketing spending positively impac ts firm performance. We examine different measures of firm performance, such as risk and long-run performance, whose results are important to the firm, its shareholders, and potential investors. This study analyzes the impact marketing spending has on IPO characteristics (IPO underpricing in the short-run and cumulative abnormal returns in the long run); risk characteristics (systematic, unsystematic, bankruptcy risk, and total risk); analyst coverage characteristics (the number of analysts, optimistic coverage, and forecast error) and market characteristics (market volatility and industry type). We control for variables such as firm size, profitability, and IPO characteristics. In this paper, the results show that increased marketing spending lowers underpricing, lowers bankruptcy risk, lowers total risk, leads to greater analyst coverage, leads to more favorable analyst coverage, and lowers analyst forecast error. For theory, this paper advances the literature on the / marketing-financ e interface by extending the market-based assets and signaling theories. For practice, the results indicate that spending more money on marketing before the IPO and disclosing this information produces positive bottom-line results for the firm. KEYWORDS: Marketing-Finance, Risk, Financial Analysts, Marketing Spending, Firm Performance, Marketing Strategy Meets Wall Street, Long-Run Firm Performance, Underpricing, Stock Recommendations, Initial Public Offering, Marketing Strategy, Econometric Model. / by Monica B. Fine. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration in Project Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / Leadership is arguably the most studied discipline and yet is equally the least understood subject since it involves unpredictable human beings. In the same vein, as managers and leaders operate, they operate within the context of followers who have their own expectations from leadership. Consequently, many leadership theories have been developed and at best they are largely a variety of the other with extremities in other aspects. Because there are other people apart from the leader, it means consideration should be made of the characteristics of the followership. There is therefore a need for congruency between the leadership and the followership if the leader is to be influential. Interpersonal skills are critical for this type of leadership, and some research findings indicated that extroverts who are people centered are likely to be more effective. In the process, the leader needs to build relationships as evidenced by the way the leader will encourage, appreciate, forgive, understand others, and be prepared to listen to peers and followers. This papers posits that people oriented leaders develop closeness to the followers and are empathetic, whilst they try to get their work done. The preliminary findings established that a people focused leader will have more influence on the followership, and is most likely to be empathetic to his subordinates.