There are many obstacles to survival and growth of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) dealing in services, one of which is the financial aspect. The current study evaluates how these four aspects fair with regard to SMMEs as well as how they contribute to performance. The findings from the literature review enabled the researcher identify the financial aspect as being composed of funding, financial planning, financial records maintenance, and working capital management. The findings from the primary study enabled the researcher identify working capital and funding as being the two aspects of financial aspect that contributed immensely to the performance of SMMEs in the services sector. Funding was also identified as being the biggest challenge to survival of SMMEs. / Thesis (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2010

Housing is one of the cornerstones of rebuilding our social structures and creating wealth in the economy of South Africa. The lack of access to finance in the low-income market has been viewed as a stumbling block in the delivery of affordable housing. Several policies have been introduced in the past to meet the promise that the government made in the White Paper on Housing Policy and Strategy in 1994, where they promised to successfully eradicate the housing challenge by increasing the delivery of houses; none of the results inspire confidence. The purpose of this exploratory research was to analyse the impact of the Financial Sector Charter in the creation of housing stock for the low-income market. The researcher interviewed seven passionate, experienced experts in low-income housing, using in-depth face-to-face interviews. These interviewees were secured using a snowball sampling technique. The key findings from the study revealed that there has been an improvement in the access to finance within the low-income market. Banks have moved a step further from the traditional approach by coming up with innovative products. Although this is encouraging, there are a number of inhibiting factors that negatively impact the delivery of housing; these include the flawed legislative procedures in rezoning of land, the process for township establishment and inefficiencies that exist within government housing structures. New policies can continue to be introduced, but if these inhibiting factors are not addressed the results will remain disappointing. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 promised the most fundamental reform to be made in U.S. financial services regulation in more than half a century. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB) removed barriers that forced separation between commercial banks, investment banks, and insurance companies; and it allowed subsidiaries of banks or insurance companies to engage in a broad range of financial activities that were not permitted for banks or insurers themselves. Few doubted the potential for GLB to have a profound impact on financial service providers and on the financial market. However, there is a striking lack of empirical research on the effects of diversification by financial firms. The first goal of this dissertation is to identify domestic “assurbanks” (insurers owning banks) and “bancassurers” (banks owning insurers) and to identify the unique subsidiaries of financial services companies licensed as commercial banks, thrifts, or insurance companies in the U.S. We construct a unique dataset that links the banking and insurance regulatory datasets. A second objective is to investigate the effects of integrating the banking and insurance sectors of the U.S. economy. We evaluate the market structure and operating performance of financial institutions in the integrated banking and insurance industry. Gains from exploiting scope economies and product mix efficiencies are often cited as motives for financial institution integration. A third objective is to estimate efficiency effects from the economies of scope across the two formally separate sectors by estimating multi-product costs, revenue, and profit functions. The final objective is to test whether scope economies exist for firms that jointly produce financial products across multiple sectors and to explain the variation of scope economy estimations. The empirical evidence suggests that both domestic assurbanks and bancassurers are large in size and count for a significant portion of the banking and insurance market share. These firms are also more diversified in terms of their traditional products with a focus on personal line products. Large bancassurers appear more interested in investing in small-size life and property-liability subsidiaries. Large assurbanks are more interested in acquiring small-size thrifts. Banks prefer to affiliate with life insurance more than property-liability insurance, and insurers are more likely to affiliate with thrift saving banks than to affiliate with commercial banks. Diversified firms have higher profitability in their traditional lines of business. Bancassurers perform well in the insurance business, but most assurbanks lose money in their banking division. The scope economy results; investigating consumption complementarities suggests that a significant number of cost scope diseconomies, revenue scope economies, and weak profit scope economies exist in the post-GLB U.S. integrated banking and insurance sectors. The scope economies are variant among firms, and certain firm characteristics (size, business portfolio, geographic diversification, product mix and diversification, insurance distribution system, and X-efficiency) are the determinants of scope economies.

Title: Strategic Alliances: Performance Measurement in the Financial Service IndustrySubtitle: Case study: The Beneficial Life Insurance S.A. and Microfinance Institutionsin CameroonAuthors: Chi Jonathan Dze & Anouar SoldiSupervisor: David GilbertBackground: Due to the globalization, companies choose different strategies in order tosurvive. Some run towards the vertical integration in order to control the wholeproduction process, others outsource in order to reduce the productions costs, others gofor strategic alliances aiming to strengthen their market positions by bringing the lackedresources and competencies.Aims: To find a defined combination and set of factors that lead to the success of thiskind of partnerships, and to cover the lack of inexistence of one vision of measuring thesuccess of strategic alliances, especially in the service industry.Definition: We find in Varadarajan and Cunningham (1995) that strategic alliances aredefined as "the pooling of specific resources and skills by the cooperating organizationsin order to achieve common goals, as well as goals specific to the individual partners".Completion and Results: The success factors of strategic alliances in general aredifficult to be concretely measured. Still, we managed to find a model that can be usedby these companies as a guideline for the evaluation.Search terms: Strategic alliances, collaboration, success measurement, success factors,service industry

In this thesis, we propose architecture for a SaaS model in Cloud that would provide service to the financial investors who are not familiar with various mathematical models. Such finance models are used to evaluate financial instruments, for example, to price a derivative that is currently being traded before entering into a contact. An investor may approach CSP to price a particular derivative and specify the time, budget and accuracy constraints. Based on these constraints specified by investors, the service provider will compute the option value using our proposed FSM. To evaluate our proposed model, we compared pricing results with the classical model that provides a closed-form solution for option pricing to meet the accuracy constraints. After establishing the accuracy of our pricing results, we further ensured that the SLA between the FSP and the investors is honoured by meeting the constraints put forth by the investor who uses the Cloud service.

In this thesis, we propose architecture for a SaaS model in Cloud that would provide service to the financial investors who are not familiar with various mathematical models. Such finance models are used to evaluate financial instruments, for example, to price a derivative that is currently being traded before entering into a contact. An investor may approach CSP to price a particular derivative and specify the time, budget and accuracy constraints. Based on these constraints specified by investors, the service provider will compute the option value using our proposed FSM. To evaluate our proposed model, we compared pricing results with the classical model that provides a closed-form solution for option pricing to meet the accuracy constraints. After establishing the accuracy of our pricing results, we further ensured that the SLA between the FSP and the investors is honoured by meeting the constraints put forth by the investor who uses the Cloud service.

In the first part of the thesis I focus on credit markets in developing countries, and describe the competitive interaction between Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). Microfinance has recently attracted a lot of attention from investors, politicians, scholars and, most of all, people working on development. As a results, a huge number of MFIs are being created all over the world so that, as of today, practitioners reckon that about 100 millions of customers are being served. Remarkably, about 67% of them are women. The reason of this extraordinary effort is that Microfinance is considered the most promising development tool currently available. This belief is based on two important features of Microfinance: (i) It promises to be financially viable (and in some cases even profitable) since poor people have proven to be reliable clients. As a result, Microfinance is potentially a zero-cost development tool. (ii) It hinges on the entrepreneurial abilities of the poor. It is designed to help the poor to help themselves, in their own home countries, by allowing them to use their skills, ideas and potentials. This should progressively make developing countries independent of rich ones' help. The growth of Microfinance has been so fast that many issues and related research questions are still not answered. In my thesis I try to address one of them, that I believe particularly important: the increase of competition between MFIs. As economic theory predicts, competition can have dramatic consequences in terms of borrower welfare, profitability of the institutions and, therefore, on the attractiveness of the business for potential investors, donors and entrants. I use the tools of industrial organization and contract theory to understand these effects, measure them, and give some interesting policy advice. In the first paper, I analyze the effects of entry of a new MFI in a previously monopolistic microcredit market. In order to catch the salient features of financial markets in developing countries, I use a model of asymmetric information and assume that institutions can offer only one type of contract. I consider different behavioral assumptions for the MFIs and study their influence on equilibrium predictions. The model allows showing that competition can lead to equilibria in which MFIs differentiate their contracts in order to screen borrowers. This process can, unfortunately, make the poor borrowers worse off. Interestingly, the screening process we describe creates a previously unexplored source of credit rationing. I also prove that the presence in the market of an altruistic MFI, reduces rationing and, via this channel, affects positively the competitor's profit. In the second paper, I study the effects of competition in those markets in which, due to the absence of credit bureaus, small entrepreneurs can simultaneously borrow from more than one institution. As in the first paper, I analyze an oligopolistic microcredit market characterized by asymmetric information and institutions that can offer only one type of contract. The main contribution is to show that appropriate contract design can eliminate the ex-ante incentives for multiple borrowing. Moreover, when the market is still largely unserved and particularly risky, a screening strategy leading to con- tract differentiation and credit rationing is unambiguously the most effective to avoid multiple borrowing. The result of this paper can also be read as important robustness checks of the findings of my first paper. In the last part of the thesis, I depart from the analysis of developing countries to consider, more generally, the corporate governance of financial infrastructures. The efficient functioning of financial markets relies more and more on the presence of infrastructures providing services like clearing, settlement, messaging and many others. The last years have been characterized by interesting dynamics in the ownership regime of these service providers. Both mutualizations and de-mutualizations took place, together with entry and exit of different players. Starting from this observation, in the last paper (with Joachim Keller), we analyze the effects of competitive interaction between differently owned financial providers. We mainly focus on the incentives to invest in safety enhancing measures and we describe the different equilibrium market configurations. We use a model in which agents need an input service for the financial market they operate in. They can decide whether to provide it them selves by forming a Cooperative or outsource it from a Third Party Provider. We prove that the co-existence of differently governed infrastructures leads to a significant reduction in the investment in safety. In most cases, monopolistic provision is preferable to competition. Moreover, the decision rule used within the Cooperative plays a central role in determining the optimal market configuration. All in all, throughout my thesis, I use the tools of industrial organization and contract theory to model the competitive interaction of the different actors operating in financial markets. Understanding the dynamics typical of developing countries can help in gaining a deeper comprehension of the markets in richer countries, and vice-versa. I am convinced that analyzing the differences and the similarities of financial markets in different regions of the world can be of great importance for economic theorists, in that it provides a counterfactual for the assumptions and the results on which our predictions and policy advices are based.

Competitive advantage has received considerable attention. Few studies have however chosen a holistic approach taking multiple aspects and organisational levels into consideration. This research has the goal of filling parts of this void. The aim is to deepen the understanding of competitive advantage in the service industry by analysing how alignment of strategy, control and organisation structure on multiple organisational levels impacts competitive advantage of a service company over a long period of time. Based on the idea of multiple factors and the importance of connecting different levels with each other, including production level, a framework for the service industry is developed based on the ideas of Nilsson and Rapp (2005). The framework is used to analyse the rich data gathered in a longitudinal case study of an insurance group embracing the environmental changes and the choices taken as well as the resulting competitive position. According to the analysis, the Insurance Group is not ensuring an overall coordination of its activities, although there is a fit among some dimensions. The level of misalignment increased over the time, as a result of changes in the environment and less than consistent management decisions. Although the Insurance Group has been profitable and increased its market share since its foundation, the competitive advantage, measured as performance compared to market average, decreased. The declining performance combined with the increasing level of misalignment supports the assumed importance of reaching a consistent positioning among strategy, control and organisational structure. It can therefore be presumed that strategic congruence, integrated control and coherent organisational structure influence competitive advantage. However, due to the semi-protected insurance market the effects are weaker than they probably would have been in a more competitive and unpredictable market. The Insurance Group inherited valuable and unique resources at its foundation. Their apparent stable value ensures the Insurance Group a competitive advantage, although no activities are undertaken to strengthen or even to maintain them. It can therefore be concluded that an integrated approach of competitive advantage where both positioning framework and valuable resources are used as complementarities seems to be beneficial when competitive advantage is studied. / Strategy, Control and Competitive Advantage

As an alternative to commodity-based programming (in-kind aid), Cash Transfer Programming is attracting both humanitarian organizations' and institutional donors' attention. Unlike in-kind aid, Cash Transfer Programming transfers purchasing power directly to beneficiaries in the form of currency or vouchers for them to obtain goods and/or services directly from the local market. In distributing currency to beneficiaries, the private sector, especially financial service providers, plays a prominent role, due to the humanitarian sector's limited relevant resources. The present work unveils challenges for the private and humanitarian sectors, which hinder implementing Cash Transfer Programming. Based on primary and secondary qualitative data, the paper presents the main characteristics and the mechanisms of Cash Transfer Programming to explore how the private sector is involved with Cash Transfer Programming. Then, this study presents bottlenecks of reciprocal relationships between financial service providers and humanitarian organizations in Cash Transfer Programming.

No description available.