The research project investigated the trade-off between profit and social welfare objectives and whether metrics existed to measure the social welfare objectives set and the impact made. The study was conducted with leading brands within their respective categories and that are currently active in the South African BoP consumer market. The BoP market is widely recognised as an opportunity for business in developing markets to gain penetration of their brands and grow profits. How much of this ambition is married with social welfare objectives that aim to give back rather than just take out of the communities that they operate in? The challenge has been on what social impact to target and how to measure this. The research project was done using a quantitative research method, sampling brands that are within the top three sellers of their respective categories for LSM 1-4 consumers as measured by AMPS. This was supported by a thorough literature review to highlight the gaps that exist in the current way of interacting with BoP markets. The main finding is that profit is still the primary objective for most brands operating within this space and goals and associated social welfare metrics are still a distant third to marketing and business metrics measured within a business. The study ends with some recommendations for brand and business leaders to consider as they continue their incursions into BoP markets. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

This study describes a sustainable empowerment process used to mobilise, capacitate and sustainably empower communities.An approach to unlock the potential of the high number of unemployed youth within the emerging markets was investigated. These unemployed youth do not have the correct skills, experience and opportunities to become productive citizens of a country. This research looked at methods used to enable the youth to contribute sustainably to the formal economy as a key to empowering the community.The success factors for community empowerment and the contributions made by stakeholders were explored.The research was based on exploratory research of a South African company, Next S and their operations within local communities. Next S was used because of their innovative and dynamic operations and long history with community projects. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Purpose – The purpose of the study is to map out the top-down and bottom-up perspectives and investigate the information strategies on how it relates to daily operations in three case companies. To fulfill the purpose, the following three questions have been answered:   What approach do the organization have on information strategies and what  characterizes them? To what extent do the case organization use the information strategies?   What opportunities and difficulties do organizations see with the information strategies?   Method – To fulfill the purpose, a case study was carried out on three case companies. The empirical data has been collected through interviews and surveys. The theoretical framework together with the empirical data, has then contributed to achieving the purpose.   Findings – First the map out was conducted within three case companies and how the information strategies have been chosen in relation to the daily operations perspective. Based on the mapping, it has then been framed the potential possibilities and difficulties with the respective strategy choices and its implementation. Limitations – The definition of the information strategies within the study is defined as Top-down and Bottom-up and how the choice in how companies choose to coordinate and be responsible for tasks. The authors do not know whether the study can be adapted to the business of other organisations when mapping information strategies.   Keywords – information strategies, top-down, bottom-up, information flow, communication.

The participation of businesses and major corporate companies in poverty stricken lower income markets has been met with opposing, and at times controversial views. The Bottom of the Pyramid proposition is one such idea that encourages business people to get involved in the market. However, the commercial viability of the BOP proposition has yet to be proven. The literature review from this study focuses on the ideas surrounding the appropriate business models that have been put forward through academic literature in order for companies to operate successfully in the lower income market segment. Consequently, the literature also focuses on the developments of the BOP proposition as it relates to the business proposed models. Specific attention is paid to the areas of innovation and replication as strategic focus areas within the BOP business models. The research seeks to highlight the fact that the BOP market segment is a commercially viable market for companies to pursue, and that the business model focus for companies should be centred around the dual application of innovation and replication principles as part of the company’s business model. The research study made use of interviews with expert executives and supporting documentary evidence from two case study organisations from within the FMCG industry in South Africa. The results of the research were documented and used to address the primary and secondary research objectives. The research findings ultimately enabled the author to construct a model, which companies interested in pursuing the BOP market could implement in order to operate profitably within the BOP market segment. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The purpose of the research study was to build a deeper understanding of negative brand experiences for consumers at the Bottom of the pyramid segment. The research took an approach of looking at a negative brand experience from end to end, by focusing on elements such as brand contacts, triggers and customer response across different experience dimensions. The literature asserts that for companies to succeed at the Bottom of the Pyramid they need to forego existing assumptions, companies must realise that low income consumers are brand conscious in order to build successful brands. Building successful brands at this market involves offering more than just a functional offering but creating an emotional bond through positive experiences. Such experiences are created each time one is in contact with one of the brand touch-points. The qualitative study showed that consumers value being treated with respect in addition to the provision of a product or service. It also shows that negative brand experiences can happen at various points for both products and services irrespective of whether a product is regarded as hedonic or utilitarian. The nature of negative word of mouth within this segment needs to be explored further as the study showed that there are other factors that influence one to spread negative word of mouth. The research study also shows that consumers are sensitive to brands that demonstrate not to care or those that break trust as such experiences lead to strong negative emotions. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Raman spectroscopy is among the most widely employed methods to investigate the properties of materials in several fields of study. Evolution in materials science allowed us to fabricate suitable substrates, at the nanoscale, capable to enhance the electromagnetic field of the signals coming from the samples which at this range turn out to be in most cases singles or a few molecules. This particular variation of the classical technique is called SERS (Surface Enanched Raman Spectroscopy). In this work, the enhancement of the electromagnetic field is obtained by manipulation of the optical properties of metals with respect to their size. By using electroless deposition (bottom up technique), gold and silver nanoparticles were deposited in nanostructured patterns obtained on silicon wafers by means of electron beam lithography (top down technique). Rhodamine 6G in aqueous solution at extremely low concentration (10-8 M) was absorbed on the resultant dimers and the collection of the Raman spectra demonstrated the high efficiency of the substrates.

The growth of mobile penetration in Africa has seen a rise in marketers seeking new ways of using mobile marketing to improve their business and develop sustainable marketing strategies. An empirical study on BOP consumers living in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, comprising a survey of a sample of 385 respondents, was conducted. The measurement items were assessed through six hypotheses using Structural Equation Modelling with Smart PLS 3 software. The results confirm that there is a significant relationship between social influence and trust, price sensitivity and purchase intention, service quality and trust and lastly, between service quality and satisfaction. The relationship between trust and purchase intention and the relationship between satisfaction and purchase intention are not significant. The relationship between service quality and satisfaction showed the strongest significance amongst the hypotheses, whereas the weakest relationship showing the least significance effect amongst the hypotheses is between satisfaction and purchase intention. Implications of the study suggest that managers should consider the BOP consumer differently when marketing to them as they have different consumer behaviours to other market segments. For future research, more research should be done on the BOP with regard to their adaptions to mobile marketing as this will help marketers to find better marketing strategies for their businesses to better serve this market segment. Recommendations and limitations on mobile marketing adoption within BOP are discussed.

Despite making up over 80% of the matter in the universe, very little is known about dark matter. Its only well-established property is that it interacts gravitationally, but does not interact with ordinary matter through any of the other known forces. Specific details such as the number of dark matter particles, their quantum properties, and their interactions remain elusive and are only loosely constrained by experiments. In this dissertation I describe a novel search for a particular type of dark matter that couples preferentially to heavy quarks, using LHC proton-proton collisions at ATLAS. With a model-independent framework, comparisons are made to results obtained from other dark matter searches, and new limits are set on various interaction strengths.

Large amounts of dredged sediment are removed from ports and river channels annually to maintain necessary depths in the maritime industry. The most common management approach for dredged soils throughout the southeast US is disposal in confined facilities. This may be the most feasible approach for ports with modest amounts of dredged soil and ample capacity for disposal. However, there is likely a more feasible option for some ports desiring to increase dredged soil containment capacity. This thesis evaluates the beneficial reuse of dredged soils after lightly cementing with 5.0% or less cement by slurry mass. A previously conducted survey was interpreted prior to performing a literature review, testing, and performing sustainability calculations for reuse of dredged soil when lightly cemented. There were 239 experiments performed as part of this thesis to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing dredged soils after lightly cementing for beneficial reuse projects near ports.

Syftet med denna uppsats har varit att undersöka hur olika vändpunkts processer i en kristen kontext kan se ut. Resultatet av studien visar att en betydande push-faktor ut ur missbruket för våra informanter bestått av de negativa konsekvenserna som missbruket fört med sig, initialt försämrad hälsa. Parallellt med detta upplevde informanterna att det var någonting utanför deras egen kontroll som ”drog” dem ur missbruket. Våra informanter har haft känslan av att någon leder dem och manar gott för dem. Studien ger vid handen att frälsningen och mötet med Gud har givit vägledning för informanterna i hur man kan bygga upp ett liv utan alkohol och narkotika. I denna process har vi sett hur kristna vänner och stödpersoner spelat en betydande roll i processen mot ett liv utan droger. Våra informanters utsagor säger oss även att omvändelse/frälsning inte automatiskt innebär befrielse från missbruk, ty en del har haft återfall, men det tycks som att den kristna livsåskådningen underlättar den dagliga kampen. / God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, Courage to change the things I can, and then wisdom to know the difference.