published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Engineering to the Graduate School of Engineering and the Built Environment of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg March 2017 / Large-scale strategic ventures to build, add or improve an asset are being delivered in different sectors of industries around the world. These ventures resort to the intensive use of capital and resources and are mostly referred to as “capital projects”. Because of the large-scale nature of these capital projects, they have profound effects on their host countries, and their impact is larger than simply client and turnover, thereby influencing different areas of surrounding society. The nature and extent of this impact are (i) environmental, (ii) political, (iii) socio-economic and (iv) cultural. Amongst the socio-economic objectives is the capability to provide on-the-job training and create more job opportunities than would otherwise be possible. Recently there has been a surge of these capital projects in sub-Saharan Africa. However, sub-Saharan Africa continues to experience high levels of unemployment and a lack of skillsets. In an attempt to help address these problems, this research project evaluates employment creation and skills transfer during the delivery of capital projects in sub-Saharan Africa. Three case studies (researched between October 2013 and February 2015) were selected to collect data for this research project: (1) Nacala Corridor Railway Project (Malawi), (2) the Medupi Power Project (Republic of South Africa) and (3) the Gautrain Project Phases 1 and 2 (Republic of South Africa). The research findings illustrate clearly that there has been a significant positive shift in the creation of employment and skills transfer on capital projects. However, there are areas of weakness which have been identified even though the three case studies produced different results. In conclusion, the main weaknesses identified in all three projects are the lack of local high-level skilled employees and a clear indication that these capital projects are not being capitalised efficiently to develop skills amongst the locals, which are essential for such projects. Recommendations are provided for the sustainability of skills development and employment creation on capital projects. / MT 2017

Yau Cheuk Man. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-47). / Lists of figure --- p.iii / Acknowledgment --- p.iv / Chapter / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Model1 --- p.6 / Chapter 2.1 --- The basic model --- p.7 / Chapter 2.2 --- The modified model --- p.11 / Chapter 2.3 --- Coordination policy --- p.19 / Chapter 2.4 --- Capital mobility --- p.21 / Chapter 3 --- Model2 --- p.23 / Chapter 3.1 --- The basic model --- p.24 / Chapter 3.2 --- The modified model --- p.28 / Chapter 3.3 --- Coordination policy --- p.35 / Chapter 3.4 --- Capital mobility --- p.37 / Chapter 4 --- Conclusion --- p.39 / REFERENCES --- p.46

Moral Hazard and the Agency Costs thereof have long been accepted arguments in venture finance theory and have therefore long been accepted shortcomings in the venture capitalist / entrepreneur relationship. In psychological experiments ??? including economic ??? it has been shown that human beings prefer to act in a reciprocal manner that reduces any inequity in a relationship. Humans who expect to receive an unfair and inequitable position in a relationship, will take steps to rectify that position. Specifically, if a venture capitalist expects the entrepreneur to unfairly extract private benefits from the investee company post investment by the venture capitalist, then he or she will impose costly controls and monitoring mechanisms in place to prevent that. All relationships that impose controls and monitoring mechanisms are inefficient, as opposed to Advising the investee which draws upon the skills of the venture capitalist and is generally efficient. The venture capital industry is comprised of intelligent and professional people who can recognise inefficiency easily. Indeed, this is how they make poorly managed companies into profitable trade sales or IPO???s. The online survey completed for this thesis poses questions that attempt to show that venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are not locked in an antagonistic relationship where each merely acts in a self interested way. This thesis concludes that venture capitalists and entrepreneurs do work in a reciprocal relationship recognising the substantial efficiency gains to be made by doing so.

Moral Hazard and the Agency Costs thereof have long been accepted arguments in venture finance theory and have therefore long been accepted shortcomings in the venture capitalist / entrepreneur relationship. In psychological experiments ??? including economic ??? it has been shown that human beings prefer to act in a reciprocal manner that reduces any inequity in a relationship. Humans who expect to receive an unfair and inequitable position in a relationship, will take steps to rectify that position. Specifically, if a venture capitalist expects the entrepreneur to unfairly extract private benefits from the investee company post investment by the venture capitalist, then he or she will impose costly controls and monitoring mechanisms in place to prevent that. All relationships that impose controls and monitoring mechanisms are inefficient, as opposed to Advising the investee which draws upon the skills of the venture capitalist and is generally efficient. The venture capital industry is comprised of intelligent and professional people who can recognise inefficiency easily. Indeed, this is how they make poorly managed companies into profitable trade sales or IPO???s. The online survey completed for this thesis poses questions that attempt to show that venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are not locked in an antagonistic relationship where each merely acts in a self interested way. This thesis concludes that venture capitalists and entrepreneurs do work in a reciprocal relationship recognising the substantial efficiency gains to be made by doing so.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 177-178).

There has been a significant rise in the provision of television and video services over IP (IPTV) in recent years. Increasing network capacity and falling bandwidth costs have made it both technically and economically feasible for service providers to deliver IPTV services. Several telecommunications (telco) operators worldwide are rolling out IPTV solutions and view IPTV as a major service differentiator and alternative revenue source. The main challenge that IPTV providers currently face, however, is the increasingly congested television service provider market, which also includes Internet Television. IPTV solutions therefore need strong service differentiators to succeed. IPTV solutions can doubtlessly sell much faster if they are more affordable or low-cost. Advertising has already been used in many service sectors to help lower service costs, including traditional broadcast television. This thesis therefore explores the role that advertising can play in helping to lower the cost of IPTV services and to incentivise IPTV billing. Another approach that IPTV providers can use to help sell their product is by addressing the growing need for control by today's multimedia users. This thesis will therefore explore the varied approaches that can be used to achieve viewer focused IPTV implementations. To further lower the cost of IPTV services, telcos can also turn to low-cost, open source platforms for service delivery. The adoption of low-cost infrastructure by telcos can lead to reduced Capital Expenditure (CAPEX), which in turn can lead to lower service fees, and ultimately to higher subscriptions and revenue. Therefore, in this thesis, the author proposes a CustOmisable, INcentive (COIN) driven Video on Demand (VoD) framework to be developed and deployed using the Mobicents Communication Platform, an open source service creation and execution platform. The COIN framework aims to provide a viewer focused, economically competitive service that combines the potential cost savings of using free and open source software (FOSS), with an innovative, incentive-driven billing approach. This project will also aim to evaluate whether the Mobicents Platform is a suitable service creation and execution platform for the proposed framework. Additionally, the proposed implementation aims to be interoperable with other IPTV implementations, hence shall follow current IPTV standardisation architectures and trends. The service testbed and its implementation are described in detail and only free and open source software is used; this is to enable its easy duplication and extension for future research. / TeX output 2012.03.02:1241 / Adobe Acrobat 9.2 Paper Capture Plug-in

Organisations are spending a large sum of capital by investing on physical assets in order to improve productivity and gain competitive advantage. It has become imperative that business leadership turn their attention to the development, implementation and sustenance of physical assets management strategies in order to eliminate operational and reliability risk.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Wits Business School 4 November 2016 / Sub-Saharan Africa faces severe infrastructure deficits including in power generation, water facilities, transportation, and telecommunications. These deficits compound the socio-economic challenges of the most impoverished region in the world. It is estimated that funding of US$ 90 billion per annum is required to address infrastructure deficiencies. Other developing regions including Asia, the Middle East, and South America, have with varying degrees of success utilised the project finance framework to address similar infrastructure deficiencies, and also develop other commercial ventures. Africa has lagged behind in this respect, and still accounts for less than 3% of international project finance flows. The ability to attract and access international and domestic project finance capital, and execute the underlying ventures is an important opportunity to address the challenges noted above. The study contributes to knowledge by deepening our understanding of project finance in South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe in the following ways. Firstly, it offers a model through which to monitor key contextual factors that influence the success, failure, and shaping of project and infrastructure ventures. Secondly, it interrogates the main capital structure theories including the static trade off and pecking order theories, and their applicability and relevance for project and infrastructure finance in the selected jurisdictions. It then compares capital structure theory with actual practice of capital structure formulation in the 7 cases studies investigated. This yields important insights as to the most important factors influencing capital structure in project finance in the three selected countries. In particular the constrained supply of capital is observed as the top factor determining capital structure. It further enhances our understanding of why ventures using project finance in these countries may have significantly lower leverage than other similar ventures in developed regions of the world. Thirdly, the study extracts key insights into how stakeholder interactions evolve in the projects by applying stakeholder agency theory to project sponsors, managers, contractors, state institutions, and community organisations. Collectively these insights should contribute to attracting increased capital to project finance in Sub-Saharan Africa, and arranging projects with greater prospects of operational success. / MT 2017

Thesis (MComm (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The objective of almost all firms should be to maximise the wealth of shareholders. To achieve this goal, firms should use an optimal combination of debt and equity, which will consequently result in the lowest weighted average cost of capital. Firms therefore need to determine their target capital structure. This will require firms to be aware of the various factors that can influence their decision-making regarding capital structure. The effects of firm characteristics and economic factors on capital structures have been researched in many countries. Various South African studies have been conducted on this topic; however, limited research was found where both the firm characteristics and economic factors were included in the same study. The majority of South African studies furthermore either focused on a specific industry on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange Limited (JSE) or their focus was predominantly on the theory of capital structure applied by South African firms. Most of the studies were also conducted for the period prior to the demise of apartheid in 1994. Six firm characteristics (profitability, asset structure, liquidity, business risk, growth and size) and three economic factors (interest rate, inflation and economic growth) were identified for this study. The primary objective was to determine the effect of firm characteristics and economic factors on the capital structure of South African listed industrial firms. External databases were used to obtain the data needed for statistical analysis. McGregor BFA (2008) was used to obtain the data required to calculate the measures for the firm characteristics. This database contains annual standardised financial statements for listed and delisted South African firms. INET-Bridge (2005), Statistica South Africa (2006) and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) website were used to obtain data for the economic factors. The study was conducted for a period of 14 years, from 1995 to 2008. Focusing only on those firms that are listed at the end of the selected period would have exposed the study to a survivorship bias. The census for this study, therefore, included all firms listed on the industrial sector of the JSE, as well as those firms that delisted during the selected period. Firms had to provide financial data for at least five years in order to be included in this study. This requirement was incorporated since the data set contains cross-sectional and time-series dimensions. The final census included a total of 280 firms (170 listed firms and 110 delisted firms), providing 2 684 complete observations for the firm characteristics and 14 complete observations for the economic factors. The results from this study indicated that the growth of firms and the interest rate may be the most important firm characteristic and economic factor, respectively, to consider in financing decisions. The study furthermore indicated that differences exist between the results obtained for book value leverage and those obtained for market value leverage. An important observation is that the results are stronger when the performance of the variables in the preceding year is included. Not only are the R² values higher, but the independent variables also reported to be more significant when one-year lag variables are included. This may indicate that capital structure takes time to adjust. Differences between listed firms and delisted firms are also evident from the results. Lastly, it appears that the firms included in the study overall, lean more towards the pecking order theory than towards the trade-off theory. Based on these results, it appears that firm characteristics and economic factors do have an effect on capital structures of listed industrial firms in South Africa. Firms should, therefore, take these factors into consideration when making their optimal capital structure decisions. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Dit behoort die doelwit van byna alle firmas te wees om die welvaart van aandeelhouers maksimaal te verhoog. Om hierdie doelwit te bereik, moet firmas 'n optimale kombinasie van geleende kapitaal en ekwiteit gebruik, wat gevolglik sal lei tot die laagste geweegde gemiddelde koste van kapitaal. Firmas moet dus hulle beoogde kapitaalstruktuur bepaal. Dit sal van firmas vereis word om bewus te wees van die verskillende faktore wat 'n invloed op hul kapitaalstruktuur-besluite kan hê. Die uitwerking van 'n firma se eienskappe en ekonomiese faktore op kapitaalstruktuur is al in baie lande nagevors. Verskeie Suid-Afrikaanse studies is in dié verband gedoen, maar daar is beperkte navorsing waar beide firma eienskappe en ekonomiese faktore in dieselfde studie ingesluit is. Die meerderheid Suid- Afrikaanse studies het gefokus op 'n spesifieke nywerheid op die Johannesburg Sekuriteite-beurs Beperk (JSE) of die hooffokus was op die teorie van kapitaalstruktuur soos deur Suid-Afrikaanse firmas toegepas. Die meeste van die studies is ook gedoen vir die tydperk voor die afskaffing van apartheid in 1994. Ses eienskappe van firmas (winsgewendheid, batestruktuur, likiditeit, sakerisiko, groei en grootte) en drie ekonomiese faktore (rentekoers, inflasie en ekonomiese groei) is vir die studie geïdentifiseer. Die primêre doelwit was om die uitwerking van firmas se eienskappe en ekonomiese faktore op kapitaalstrukture van genoteerde nywerheidsfirmas in Suid-Afrika te bepaal. Eksterne databasisse is gebruik om die data wat vir statistiese ontleding nodig was, te bekom. McGregor BFA (2008) is gebruik om die nodige data vir die berekening van die maatstawwe vir die firma se eienskappe te bekom. Hierdie databasis bevat jaarlikse, gestandaardiseerde finansiële state vir genoteerde en gedenoteerde Suid- Afrikaanse firmas. INET-Bridge (2005), Statistica South Africa (2006) en die Suid- Afrikaanse Reserwebank (SARB) se webtuiste is gebruik om die data vir die ekonomiese faktore te bekom. Die studie is uitgevoer vir 'n tydperk van 14 jaar, van 1995 tot 2008. Deur slegs op daardie firmas wat aan die einde van die navorsingstydperk genoteer was, te fokus sou die studie aan 'n oorlewingsydigheid blootstel. Die sensus vir die studie het, dus, genoteerde firmas op die nywerheidsektor van die JSE asook daardie firmas wat gedurende die geselekteerde tydperk gedenoteer is, ingesluit. Firmas moes finansiële data vir ten minste vyf jaar verskaf om by die studie ingesluit te word. Hierdie vereiste is gestel aangesien die datastel beide deursnee- en tydreeksdimensies bevat het. Die finale sensus het 'n totaal van 280 firmas (170 genoteerde firmas en 110 gedenoteerde firmas) ingesluit, waaruit 2 684 volledige waarnemings vir die firma se eienskappe en 14 volledige waarnemings vir die ekonomiese faktore gemaak kon word. Die resultate van hierdie studie dui moontlik daarop dat die groei van firmas en die rentekoers, onderskeidelik die belangrikste eienskap van 'n firma en ekonomiese faktor is om te oorweeg by finansieringsbesluite. Die studie dui verder daarop dat die resultate, onderskeidelik verkry vir boekwaarde-hefboomwerking en markwaardehefboomwerking, verskil. 'n Belangrike opmerking is dat die resultate sterker is wanneer die prestasie van die veranderlikes in die voorafgaande jaar ingesluit word. Nie alleen is die R²-waardes hoër nie, maar die onafhanklike veranderlikes blyk ook om meer beduidend te wees wanneer een-jaar-vertraagde veranderlikes ingesluit word. Verskille tussen genoteerde firmas en gedenoteerde firmas is ook duidelik uit die resultate van die studie. Laastens wil dit blyk dat die firmas in die studie oor die algemeen meer leun na die pikorde-teorie ("pecking order theory") as na die kompromis-teorie ("trade-off theory"). Op grond van hierdie resultate wil dit voorkom asof 'n firma se eienskappe en die ekonomiese faktore wel 'n uitwerking het op die kapitaalstrukture van genoteerde nywerheidsfirmas in Suid-Afrika. Firmas moet dus hierdie faktore in ag neem wanneer hulle besluite neem rakende hul besluite oor optimale kapitaalstruktuur.