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Magister Legum - LLM / South Africa

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Historically organisations have had the "luxury" of being able to anticipate future developments and respond to them in good time due to, firstly, the comparatively slow pace of change and, secondly, the past being a relatively good predictor of the future. The second half of the 20th Century bears witness to some of the most dramatic changes and developments experienced by mankind. Most notable of these were globalisation, de-regulation, the emergence of the information/knowledge economy and, perhaps most significant of all, the changes brought about by the Internet. The underlying assertion of this report is that, given the current, complex, dynamic and sometimes volatile nature of changes in the external environment, in order to ensure a sustainable competitive advantage, organisations will be forced to consider carefully the dynamics of the environment in which they operate and to build their plans around these dynamics. This report briefly traces the evolution of strategic planning to its current status prior to providing a detailed analysis of the nature of environmental scanning and its applicability to strategic planning. The report provides a theoretical rerview of environmental scanning and a discussion of some of the tools and techniques of environmental scanning. Within this context the report provides a brief indication of the extent of the practice of environmental scanning within the financial services sector of South Africa. The conclusion assesses the findings of the current state of the practice of environmental scanning against the theory, with the view to providing an insight into the extent to which environmental scanning is applied in South Africa. Possible future directions of research and development of the practice are also identified. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Histories gesproke, het instansies oor die "luukse" beskik om toekomstige ontwikkelinge vooruit te kon waarneem en betyds op hulle te reageer, eerstens weens die betreklike stadige pas van verandering en tweedens, omdat die verlede 'n betreklike goeie voorspeller van die toekoms was. Die tweede helfte van die 20ste eeu getuig van sommige van die mees dramatiese veranderinge en ontwikkelinge wat deur die mens ondervind is. Die mees uitstaande was globalisering, deregulering, die verskyning van die inligting/kennis-ekonomie en, dalk die mees uitstaande van almal, die veranderinge wat deur die Internet teweeggebring is. Die onderliggende stelling van hierdie verslag is dat, gegewe die huidige, komplekse, dinamiese en soms onbestendige aard van veranderinge in die eksterne omgewing, om 'n mededingende voordeel te verseker, sal instansies geforseer word om die dinamika van die omgewing waarin hulle werk, versigtig te oorweeg en om hulle planne om hierdie dinamika te bou. Hierdie verslag speur kortliks die ewolusie na van strategiese beplanning tot sy huidige status gevolg deur 'n omvattende analise van die aard van omgewingsondersoeke en die toepaslikheid daarvan op strategiese beplanning. Die verslag voorsien 'n teoretiese oorsig tot omgewingsondersoeke en 'n bespreking van sommige van die instrumente en tegnieke van omgewingsondersoeke. Binne hierdie konteks voorsien die verslag 'n kort aanduiding van die omvang van die uitvoering van omgewingsondersoeke binne die finansiele dienstesektor van Suid-Afrika. Die slot som die bevindings op van die huidige toestand van die praktyk van omgewingsondersoeke volgens die teorie, met die oog op voorsiening van 'n insig in die mate waartoe omgewingsondersoeke in Suid-Afrika toegepas word. Moontlike toekomstige rigtings van navorsing en ontwikkeling van die praktyk word ook geidentifiseer.

1 Title: Client Protection in Financial Services Key words: client, consumer, financial service, deposit, credit Abstract The present diploma thesis focuses on the client protection in financial services. It introduces relevant legislature and provides a reader with the analysis of the level of legal protection. Introduction part explains my motivation for the choice of the topic, mostly influenced by current debate over certain forms of financial services. It also presents a processing method of the thesis and kinds of resources used. The first chapter of the thesis is dedicated to an elaborate definition of the analysed key terms - the client and the financial services. In the contewxt of this work is client understood as a consumer. First part provides the reader with comparison of legal definitions of consumer presented in various legislation. A broad term of finacial services is hereby narrowed to accepting deposits and providing credit loans. The second chapter consists of analysis of legislation which regulates client protection in this field. Substantial part is provided for the proper decription of the EU legislature. Last part of the chapter sketches a short summary of changes brought by the new legislation in the field of private law, that comes into force in January 2014. Chapter Three concernes...

The thesis deals with valuation of shares of financial service institutions. This process is specific due to the characteristics by which financial service institutions differ from non financial service institutions. The thesis focuses on these characteristics and on the methods of fundamental analysis suitable for valuation of shares of financial service institutions. The aim of the thesis is valuation of the Erste Group's share considering selected international, macroeconomic, sectoral and corporate factors and determination of an investment advice. The thesis focuses on financial service institutions of the EU and financial markets at which they are present. The analysis of interdependence of financial markets of the EU is done in the thesis.

<p>Background: In the existing branding literature there is no distinction made between theories for building product- and services brands although services have very different characteristics compared to products. The services characteristics imply that the customer has a high need of reassurance that the right brand choice is being made, which ought to bring forth the role of trust in the relationship between the customer and the service brand. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose is to analyze the process of building a service brand and the role of trust in this process. </p><p>Delimitations: The study will include the financial service sector since the complexity of services is brought to its head in this case. Realization: In total, 13 interviews were conducted with company representatives at SEB and Östgöta Brandstodsbolag, a Brand Consultant and customers of financial service companies. </p><p>Results: We suggest that when it comes to the process of building a service brand, the emphasis of the elementsdiffer somewhat compared to the building of product brands, where the emphasis is put on brand identity and in particular trust. When it comes to trust, a positive reputation could initially serve to signal trust but it is the actual encounter with the staff that determines the trustworthiness of the service brand.</p>

Background: In the existing branding literature there is no distinction made between theories for building product- and services brands although services have very different characteristics compared to products. The services characteristics imply that the customer has a high need of reassurance that the right brand choice is being made, which ought to bring forth the role of trust in the relationship between the customer and the service brand. Purpose: The purpose is to analyze the process of building a service brand and the role of trust in this process. Delimitations: The study will include the financial service sector since the complexity of services is brought to its head in this case. Realization: In total, 13 interviews were conducted with company representatives at SEB and Östgöta Brandstodsbolag, a Brand Consultant and customers of financial service companies. Results: We suggest that when it comes to the process of building a service brand, the emphasis of the elementsdiffer somewhat compared to the building of product brands, where the emphasis is put on brand identity and in particular trust. When it comes to trust, a positive reputation could initially serve to signal trust but it is the actual encounter with the staff that determines the trustworthiness of the service brand.

Nowadays, the service industry, especially banks, faces increasing competition. In such environment, differentiation is necessary. The general purpose of this thesis is to understand how a bank can achieve differentiation based on a marketing approach. Two research questions will respectively examine the three additional P’s of the marketing mix (People, Presentation or Physical Evidence and Process) and the Customer Relationship Management as possible differentiators. To fulfill the purpose, the authors of the thesis introduce an extended model of the CRM concept, including the three additional P’s. Further, the researchers of the thesis interview the four major banks in Sweden SEB, Svenska Handelsbanken, FöreningsSparbanken and Nordea, to test their model. After an analysis of the interviews, the authors come to the conclusion that the extended model of the CRM concept is actually used as a differentiator. However, as the four major Swedish banks have a similar strategy; it then appears really difficult to differentiate to a large extent.