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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) top management is responsible for the risk management in their company. In today‟s world, businesses are relying more and more heavily on IT and often this can be seen as a huge risk. As a potential risk factor and an integral part of any business, IT therefore falls under the portfolio of top management. However, there is a general perception, especially among dedicated IT professionals, that there is a gap between business, that is top management, and IT and that successful communication is not always achieved. The lack of successful communication between top management and IT role players could have a negative impact on a business‟ ability to operate fully. This study is therefore concerned with the investigation of how top management (the IT decision makers in a company) engage in the discourse of IT. It aims to identify whether a communication gap between business (top management) and IT truly does exist and, if so, why. The data for this study takes the form of recorded, semi-structured interviews with IT role-players and directors/managers who have IT as part of their portfolio, from ten SMEs in the greater Cape Town area. This study is undertaken in the framework of semantic discourse analysis, concentrating on two notions of coherence, that of van Dijk‟s (1985) model of macrostructures and Brown and Yule‟s (1983) notion of „discourse topic‟. This approach is used in order to analyse the transcribed interviews with both top management and IT role players in order to determine whether the perception of a communication gap between business (top management) and IT is true and if so, what the reasons for this communication gap are. The analysis of the transcriptions allows the researcher to confirm the perception that a communication gap does exist and to identify two possible reasons as to why this communication gap exists, firstly, that there seems to be a lack of communication between IT and top management and, secondly, that top management‟s interpretation of what IT means to their company differs from that of their IT role players. / AFRIKAANSE OPSMOMMING: In klein tot mediumgrootte ondernemings (KMOs) is topbestuur verantwoordelik vir die risikobestuur in hul maatskappy. In vandag se wêreld, maak besighede meer en meer staat op IT en dit kan dikwels beskou word as 'n groot risiko. As 'n potensiële risikofaktor en' n integrale deel van enige besigheid, val dit dus onder die portefeulje van die top bestuur. Daar is egter 'n algemene persepsie, veral onder toegewyde IT-profesionele, dat daar' n gaping tussen die besigheid, in ander woorde die topbestuur, en IT bestaan en dat suksesvolle kommunikasie nie altyd bereik word nie. Die gebrek aan suksesvolle kommunikasie tussen topbestuur en IT kan 'n negatiewe impak op' n onderneming se vermoë om ten volle te funksioneer he. Hierdie studie is dus gemoeid met die ondersoek van hoe topbestuur (die IT-besluitnemers in 'n maatskappy) betrokke raak in die diskoers met IT. Die doel is om vas te stel of 'n kommunikasie gaping tussen die besigheid (topbestuur) en IT werklik bestaan, en indien wel, waarom te identifiseer. Die data vir hierdie studie neem die vorm van aangetekende, semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude met rolspelers en direkteure / bestuurders wat IT as deel van hul portefeulje het in tien KMOs in die groter Kaapstad-gebied. Hierdie studie is onderneem met die raamwerk van`n semantiese diskoers-analise, en konsentreer op die twee begrippe van samehang, dié van Van Dyk (1985) se model van makrostrukture en Brown en Yule (1983) se idee van `n 'diskoers onderwerp'. Hierdie benadering word gebruik om die getranskribeerde onderhoude met beide topbestuur en IT-rolspelers te analiseer en ten einde te bepaal of die persepsie van 'n kommunikasie gaping tussen die besigheid (topbestuur) en IT-rolspelers waar is en indien wel, wat die redes vir hierdie kommunikasie gaping is. Die ontleding van die transkripsies stel die navorser in staat om die persepsie dat 'n kommunikasie gaping bestaan te bevestig en om twee moontlike redes daarvoor te identifeer, in die eerste plek dat dit lyk asof daar' n gebrek aan kommunikasie tussen IT-rolspelers en die topbestuur bestaan, en tweedens, dat die topbestuur se interpretasie van wat IT beteken vir hul maatskappy verskil van dié van hul IT-rolspelers.

The lack of positive communication between parents and educators in the Texas district under study is a problem because it interferes with learners' academic success. The purpose of this mixed method study was to understand the communication gap between educators and parents in Title I elementary schools in that district. Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems and Epstein's parental involvement model formed the theoretical framework to address the importance of communication between educators and parents as related to student academic achievement. The quantitative portion of the study was carried out through descriptive survey research. The case study method was used for the qualitative portion of the study with data gathered from interviews. The data represented responses from the parent (n = 42) and educator (n = 119) surveys, interviews (n = 10), and a focus group (n = 8) to uncover both educators' and parents' perceptions of communication in the learning environment. Results revealed constructive concerns associated with lack of accessibility, education trust, parent educational background knowledge, collaborative partnerships, continuous communication, and guides to blueprints of learning expectations. The findings indicated the need for an intervention involving a 4-session parent-educator training program designed to implement positive partnerships and to eliminate and bridge the existing communication gap. This project study could promote social change in Title I schools because it conveys an improved understanding of communication gaps within the learning environment. Specifically, this study provides a plan to help parents and educators engage in positive communication to support students' academic success.

Title: “Starting to close the communication gap in technology transfer to the PRC” Level: Final assignment for Master Degree in Business Administration Author: Jiani Yang,  Zhouni Lin Supervisor: Ernst HOLLANDER Examiner:  Akmal HYDER Date: 2012-May Purpose — We have double purpose of promoting SME’s involvement in PRC’s development and technology transfer for sustainability in this research. From the double perspective of Chinese business economics and long run cooperation with Swedish enterprises, we investigate and analysis the main problems faced by SMEs when taking technology transfer to China.  By doing this to help SMEs to overcome the barriers during technology transfer and promote the international technology transfer cooperation in the long run, as well as appeal technology transfer agencies to adopt a holistic approach to help SMEs to plan and implement technology transfer projects effectively and sustainably. Design/methodology/approach — We use the technology transfer project in China’s sewage market as our research case to illustrate our research problems. The discussion is based on the existing literatures regarding technology transfer, former researches and authentic cases about technology transfer to China, and interviews with relevant people. Findings — The findings indicates there is huge potential business opportunities in China’s sewage treatment market. Information transparency plays a critical role to foster the cooperation between transferor and transfers, as well as promoting SME’s involvement in China. Get directly to the leader taking the decisions is one effective way to get access to China’s market in short term. Communication gap becomes one of the main concerns for SMEs when taking technology transfer to China. In mid-term, organize workshop, get to learn with the local employee, promote the understanding between each other; get to the person who is capable to understand the technology and its effect is necessary; For the long run cooperation, technology transfer process transparency needs to be improved. Originality/value — This paper is of value through draw out the fact of common problems of taking technology transfer to China’s sewage market and analysis the reason. Transparency problem during the technology transfer process is drawn and analyzed.  Key points for accessing China’s market by SMEs are produced.

A number of nanomachines that cooperatively communicate and share information in order to achieve specific tasks is envisioned as a nanonetwork. Due to size and capabilities of nanomachines, the traditional communication paradigms cannot be used for nanonetworks in which network nodes may be composed of just several atoms or molecules and scale on the orders of few nanometers. Instead, the molecular communication is a promising solution approach for nanoscale communication paradigm. However, molecular communication must be thoroughly investigated to realize the nanoscale communication and nanonetworks for many envisioned applications such as nanoscale body area networks, nanoscale molecular computers. In this thesis, a simulation framework (NanoSim) for nanoscale molecular communication networks is presented. The objective of the framework is to provide a simulation experimental tool in order to create a better understanding of nanonetworks and facilitate the development of new communication techniques and validation of theoretical results. The NanoSim framework is built on top of core components of widely used network simulator (ns-2). It incorporates the simulation modules for various nanoscale communication paradigms based on diffusive molecular, motor-based and gap junction-based molecular communication channels. The details of NanoSim are discussed and some functional scenarios are defined to validate NanoSim. In addition to this, the numerical analyses of these functional scenarios and the experimental results for them are presented. The validation of NanoSim is done by comparing these experimental and numerical results.

Den nya revisionsberättelsen framkom efter finanskrisen år 2008 till följd av ett behov att öka transparensen av revisorers bedömningar. Oberoende, kompetens och förtroende påverkar bedömningarna, vilket resulterar i en viss nivå av revisionskvalité. Tidigare var det svårt för intressenter att identifiera företagens riskområden. Därför tillkom särskilt betydelsefulla områden (SBO). Dessutom ställs det ett högre krav på rapportering av fortsatt drift vid väsentlig osäkerhet. Det finns ett förväntningsgap på grund av snedvriden bild, vilket medför att intressenter missuppfattar både revisorers bedömning och förmedling. Dessutom leder ett kommunikationsgap till svårigheter för intressenter att förstå innebörden av begrepp vid revisorers uttalande i revisionsberättelsen. Syftet med den här studien var att beskriva och skapa förståelse för revisorers bedömning enligt revisionsstandarder, samt på vilket sätt bedömning kan påverka förmedlingen av information i den nya revisionsberättelsen för börsnoterade företag. Studien utgick från forskningsfilosofin interpretivism med inriktning på hermeneutik. Tillvägagångssättet var induktiv ansats med kvalitativ forskning. Vid insamling av empiri intervjuades auktoriserade revisorer från de fyra stora revisionsbyråerna. Resultatet av den här studien visade på att kvalitetssäkring säkerställer tillfredsställande revisionskvalité. Riskområden som kommunicerades till styrelsen kan möjligen bli SBO. De här kan vara bransch- och företagsspecifika. För att besluta om uttalande avseende fortsatt drift ska förmedlas, gör revisorer en helhetsbedömning av företagets fortlevnad 12 månader framåt. Dessutom visade studiens resultat på att revisionsberättelsen inte kan minska förväntningsgapet på grund av att revision är mer komplext. Därtill, användningen av svåra facktermer i revisionsberättelsens standardtext, som revisorer inte kan förändra, underlättar inte intressenters förståelse. / The new audit report was developed after the financial crisis of 2008 due to the need to increase transparency of auditors' assessments. Independence, competence and trust affect the assessments, which result in a certain level of audit quality. Formerly, it was complicated for stakeholders to identify entities' areas of risk. Therefore, key audit matters (KAM) were introduced. Moreover, there is a higher requirement addressing going concern when there is a significant uncertainty. There is an expectation gap due to a distorted image, which results in stakeholders misinterpreting both auditors' assessment and conveyance. Furthermore, a communication gap leads to difficulties for stakeholders to understand the meaning of terms in the auditors' opinions in the audit report. The aim of this study was to describe and understand the auditors' assessment according to auditing standards, and in what way assessments may affect conveying information in the new audit report for listed companies. The study was based on the research philosophy of interpretivism with an emphasis on hermeneutics. The method was an inductive approach with qualitative research. When gathering the empirical evidence, authorized auditors from four major audit firms were interviewed. The result of this study showed that quality assurance sufficiently secures the audit quality. Areas of risk, which were taken up with the board of directors, may well possibly be KAM. These can be industry- and entity-specific. In order to determine conveyance of opinion related to going concern, auditors make a general assessment of the entity's ability to continue as a going concern for 12 months. Moreover, the result of this study presented that the audit report cannot reduce the expectation gap due to the audit being more complex. In addition, the use of complicated technical terms in standard text of the audit report, which auditors cannot change, does not ease the stakeholders' comprehension.