This study, which is based on the private sector perception of urban regeneration initiatives in the Johannesburg Inner City, critically evaluates the current strategy employed by the City of Johannesburg which elevates private sector investment as the mainstay for inner city revival and the pillar for achieving what it calls “a world-class African city”. It argues that, in spite of the positive outcomes that have occurred in the inner city since the advent of urban regeneration, the initiatives informed by the current strategy and designed to induce private sector investment have contributed to urban change only in limited ways. The motives behind the urban regeneration initiatives and the private sector perception do not correspond. General market factors and trends such as the high demand for space, relatively low property prices, perceived financial returns on investment, risk diversification and have been the main motivating factors for private sector investment decisions and subsequent urban growth. Conversely, the urban regeneration initiatives, while making a noticeable impact, are perceived to have played only a secondary role. Factors perceived to be acting as deterrents to private sector investment also relate largely to those aspects at which various urban regeneration initiatives are targeted. For instance, factors such as poor by-law enforcement, neglected degenerating buildings, crime and inadequate delivery of municipal services are increasingly seen to be contributing to limiting investment in the inner city. This suggests that urban regeneration initiatives are perceived as not achieving the intended objectives or as needing strengthening. In addition, policy instruments such as the Urban Development Zone, City Improvement District, the Johannesburg Development Agency, the Better Building Programme and crime prevention measures, which are the pillars of Johannesburg’s regeneration strategy, are each generally perceived to have yielded significant benefits and advantages in the inner city. However, these instruments are also perceived to have some shortcomings and limitations both as concepts and in practice. There is a pervasive perception that the effectiveness of these instruments is marred by, among other things, the fact that they do not embrace the wider inner city, but parts thereof, and have not been implemented in an integrated manner. The findings of the study, particularly around inadequate delivery of municipal services and lax by-law enforcement, also raise serious questions about the plausibility of the competitive cities approach that underpins the City of Johannesburg’s urban regeneration strategy, suggesting that more work is required around the relevance of the competitive cities approach in the Johannesburg Inner City. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Town and Regional Planning / unrestricted

The challenge of the twenty first century is to enable economic growth and increase both the environmental quality and social inclusiveness, while mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change. The need for a transition to more sustainable consumption and production patterns is undeniable, and sustainable economic growth must be placed at the heart of future development for all citizens – private and public. The South African private sector is under enormous pressure to remain competitive within the context of the global financial crisis while balancing the interests of society, the environment and its shareholders. It has been suggested that there are discrepancies between what companies say and what they actually do, as they are challenged to move from policy to action. This study aimed to research the role and utilisation of voluntary climate change mitigation mechanisms within the South African private sector, to gain insights into the potential market barriers impeding the large-scale uptake of such mechanisms. The study was guided by three research objectives: <ul> <li> To identify thematic clusters of market barriers for voluntary climate change mitigation in the South African private sector.</li> <li> To identify potential market barriers for voluntary climate change mitigation in the South African private sector.</li> <li> To provide recommendations to increase the implementation of climate change mitigation by the corporate sector in South Africa.</li></ul> This research process involved exploring market barriers in the climate change mitigation market through a literature review, and developing a questionnaire with experts in the climate change sector. Thereafter, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) Sustainability Reporting Investment (SRI) Index 2010 companies were surveyed using the questionnaire, followed by semi-structured interviews to provide further depth to the findings. The research findings suggest that the South African private sector has adopted a “take position, wait and see approach”. This approach places them in a position to take advantage of, and influence, the opportunities and risks associated with climate change without having a negative impact on the bottom line. The primary barrier to voluntary climate change action concerns the lack of local and international policy frameworks. Additionally, the different rules and resultant uncertainty around local and international frameworks seems to impede consistent and meaningful action. While this uncertainty does not prevent the private sector from taking voluntary action, it does appear to negatively affect the overall scale and type of climate change mitigation efforts. Furthermore, companies are continually improving the quality of sustainability reporting and public disclosure, the challenge still lies in translating these strategies into daily operations and sustainable practice beyond ad hoc actions. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Business Management / unrestricted

Beekeeping and Public Private Partnerships (PPP) are the key words in this study. The study investigates the effectiveness of the use of PPP for the development of commercial beekeeping for the small-scale beekeepers in selected rural areas of the Amathole District Municipality. The small-scale beekeepers do not seem to be achieving the required results of meeting market demands for honey and other bee by-products, due to challenges associated with production and marketing of these products. Significant investment (physical, human and financial) is required to develop the capacity of the small scale beekeepers in order to generate honey for the market and associated revenue in any significant quantity. While job creation and poverty alleviation are key issues on the government’s service delivery agenda, specifically through entrepreneurial development, government alone does not have the capacity to provide all the necessary resources for the establishment of commercial beekeeping to the resource-poor small-scale beekeepers. Based on the results of this study, all respondents (beekeepers and officials) in the study had a general understanding of “Public Private Partnerships”. However, the general interpretation of PPP was where government, business and civil society are working together in areas of mutual interest to achieve common or complementary goals than the regulated PPP arrangements guided by the specialized Treasury PPP Unit, whereby contractual obligation between different role players is paramount. In the context of small-scale beekeeping, all respondents were in support of type of PPP, whereby the association or partnership would involve the transfer of substantial financial, technical and operational risks. Besides the numerous limitations faced by the small-scale beekeepers in the running of their beekeeping operations, the study identified the following as the major factors believed to be compromising and limiting the proper functioning of PPP.

The post-apartheid developmental state of South Africa had a challenge of turning around an economy that was on deficit which it inherited in 1994, to a positive growth that will be sustainable and shared. The process followed in creating a sustainable economic development was first establishing a constitutional democratic government which was constituted in terms of the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, as three equal spheres of government, viz: the national, provincial and local spheres of government. Initiatives on innovative economic development become a reconstruction programme not only of the national and provincial spheres of government, but also of the local sphere of government which is closest to the people it governs and deliver municipal goods and services to. For an example, section 152 (1) (c) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, provides that the local sphere of government which is constituted by 283 wall-to-wall municipalities must “improve social and economic development” of the people. Out of the 283 municipalities, 6 are metropolitan municipalities, and are the: City of Cape Town, City of Johannesburg, City of Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Ethekwini, and Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. This research project is limited to the City of Cape Town (CCT) and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipalities (NMBM). In the second process, a number of legislations and policies providing for external mechanisms to be used to improve local economic development (LED) in an inclusive, shared and equitable manner were introduced. Policies that were introduced by the democratic government and serve as policy directive for economic development are: the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) of 1994; the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) of 1996; and the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGISA) of 2006. The relevant legislations to the local sphere of government which were introduced and provided for the appropriate mechanism for enabling sustainable growth of local economies by developmental local government in partnerships with other stakeholders such as private sector and civil society movements are: the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, 2000 (Act 32 of 2000); Municipal Service Policy of 2000; Guidelines on Municipal Service Partnerships of 2006-2010; and the National Framework for Local Economic Development in South Africa (NFLED) of 2006-2010. The above xviii legislations provide the following external mechanisms to improve local economic development in municipal areas, viz: public-private partnerships; public-public partnerships, and public-community partnerships. This research project is about the first external mechanism which is the public-private partnerships (PPPs) to enable municipalities to improve local economies that provide for job creations and employment for the local inhabitants. According to the National Treasury Regulation 16 (2004:1), PPP means a “commercial transaction between an institution, for example a metropolitan government, and a private party in terms of which: 1. The private party either performs an institutional function on behalf of the institution [in this regard a metropolitan government] for a specified or indefinite period or acquires the use of a state property for its own commercial purposes for a specified or indefinite period. 2. The private party receives a benefit for performing the function or by utilising state property, either by way of compensation from a revenue fund, or by charges or fees collected by the private party from users or customers of a service provided for them; or a combination of such compensation and such fees”. The first goal of this research project is to develop the most appropriate public-private partnership model for South African metropolitan government with special reference to the City of Cape Town (CCT) and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) in enabling and guiding them to improve and sustain local economic development (LED) in their respective areas of jurisdiction. The application of public-private partnerships (PPPs) as a policy strategy to achieve local economic development (LED) in CCT and NMBM was investigated, in order to determine whether these activities can be improved. Followed is the development of a conceptual framework for optimal PPP implementation in order to improve local economic development in the CCT and NMBM and other metropolitan and municipal areas in South Africa. A more appropriate PPP model called the Participatory Development Systems Model (PDSM) has been constructed for this purpose from a number of sources and proven good practices both locally in South Africa and internationally. The PDSM model uses the strategic prioritisation and management by a municipality of the integrated development of physical, economic, human and social capital in its region in a more participatory way, as a point of departure for PPPs. The PDSM model for PPPs also emphasises consistent systematic assessment of these strategies against the strategic LED goals of the municipality concerned in order to ensure that lessons are learnt from these experiences and used to refine or revise future LED and PPP strategies accordingly. This thesis makes an original contribution to the existing body of knowledge about the promotion of LED through PPPs in metropolitan municipalities in South Africa and elsewhere, by conceptualising PPPs in a clear and coherent way as an integrated dimension of strategic management processes in municipalities that need to be implemented in a more participatory way in order to achieve the overall strategic goal of sustainable LED.

Although renewable energy technology has received much attention over recent years the depletion of known fossil fuel reserves and the volatility of international fuel prices require that society looks beyond the current coal-dominated electricity generation methods. Investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency is important to reduce the negative economic, social and environmental impacts of energy production and consumption in South Africa. Currently, renewable energy contributes relatively little to primary energy and even less to the consumption of commercial energy. The challenge of transforming entire economies is enormous, especially if a country is as fossil-fuel-based and emission-intensive as South Africa. However, as it is already facing climate change impacts in an increasingly carbon constrained world; South Africa must drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emission intensity soon. The South African electricity sector is a vital part of the economy and at the same time contributes most to the emission problem. Transforming this sector is therefore urgently needed. First steps have been taken to enhance energy efficiency and promote renewable energy, but they have failed to have any large-scale effects. The two major barriers to investments in renewable energy technologies are based in the South African energy innovation system and its inherent power structures and in the economics of renewable energy technologies. Subsequently the private sector will have to play a significant role in closing the human resources gap by providing funds and expertise. Furthermore, the creation of employment opportunities and actively promoting structural change in the economy are seen, especially in industrialized countries, as goals that support the promotion of renewable energy. Moreover, with more support and assistance from the government and partnership with the private sector will be of immense help to achieve renewable energy goals.

This thesis deals with employee training in detail. In the theoretical part, it looks at education as an investment in human capital, from which in the ideal case both the employee and employer benefit. Next, it covers education as a tool of employment and the growth of labour productivity. The analytical part examines companies, including their approach to human resource development and more specifically scrutinizes which type of education the companies demand most and in which professions. The results from the statistical survey, done among various companies in the Ústecký Region, form the most important basis for the analytical part of this work. A questionnaire has been done to find out in which professions and for which positions would the companies welcome the expansion of the education supply. The thesis focuses on the possibilities of employee training offered both by the employment bureaus and private sphere and on drawing the money from European Union Funds. Lastly, the analytical part connects the actual need for further education with the real drawing of European Union Funds allocated for education in the Ústecký Region.

The diploma thesis deals with the topic of the Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) projects, as a tool for mutual financing of the public projects by private sector. Its main goal is to confirm or disprove the hypothesis, that the PPP projects are more effective form of the financing of the public projects and solve the problem of the debt trap into which countries entered in last decades. The thesis also defines the problem of the PPP project, their advantages and disadvantages and possible risks, analyses their usage in the Czech Republic and compares the experiences from the Great Britain in first two decades of the 21st century. The theoretical part of the thesis copes with the topic of financing of the projects of public sector and PPP projects. The descriptive and comparative methods will be used. In the practical part of the thesis will be performed the comparison of the chosen projects by synthetic analysis and the recommendation for the Czech Republic will be formulated based on the findings.

The study addresses: (1) changes in Canada's science-policy climate over the past two decades; (2) impacts o f such changes on the conduct and organization of academic science; and (3) publicinterest implications of promoting, in public institutions, research 'relevant' to private sector needs. Working within the interdisciplinary traditions of science studies, the conceptual framework draws on the cross-cutting tensions at the intersection of public and private space, and basic and applied science. These tensions are articulated in two opposing models: 'open science' and 'overflowing networks'. Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) program provides the study's empirical focus. Founded in 1988, the NCE program rests on dual goals of research excellence and commercial relevance. It promotes a national research capacity that 'floats across' existing provincial institutions. The first part of the study investigates the evolution of the NCE program against the background of Canadian science policy. The second part problematizes the notion of 'network' while investigating one of the NCEs in depth, examining the scientific, commercial, cultural, and spatial-structural practices that are the outcomes of policy. Examination of these practices reveals not only the cultural and commercial shifts sought by policy, but also unintended consequences such as regional clustering; elitism and exclusion; problems with social and fiscal accountability; tensions with host institutions; and goal displacement between science and commerce. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate

Work motivation is one of basic methods of management, it is a specific scientific field containing many scientific theories. An Effective motivation must be focused on characteristics of both the subject and the target. The greatest economic subject is the national economy with two cooperating sectors -- private, based on private ownership, and public sector financed by public sources. People engaged in one of these sectors can have various ideas and claims. For all managers, it is essential to know these claims and interests in order to apply a convenient motivation method. The aim of the proposed diploma thesis is to contribute to a solution of the following question -- is it necessary to motivate employees in public sector differently than employees in private sector? For this purpose I designed and evaluated a questionnaire. In last chapter, I suggest what measures are most convenient in order to reach the most effective motivation of employees in a public sector as well as in a private sector.

The master thesis answers the following question - Are the public or the private employees more effective in their work? In terms of the structure, number of majour factors driving the effectivness of employee's working styles are mentioned in the theoretic section of the paper. Followed by empirical research that investigates which employees display the type of behaviour that leads to superior performance. Final section presents recommendations on how such findings can help companies improve the behaviour of their workforce.