Performance and documentation have a complex historical relationship, based around perceived binaries of ephemerality and endurance, liveness and fixedness, originality and representation. This thesis explores this relationship and the ontological perspectives which underpin it, but moves beyond this by building on those contemporary theories which consider the potential of the performance documentation in relation to the performance moment, and the expanded, continuing performance artwork. Using the example of Tate as a contemporary art museum which has a history of creating and collecting performance documentation, this research engages the lens of value as an analytic tool through which to understand the positions and purposes of performance documentation in the contemporary art museum. Rather than attempting to measure the amount of value a performance document is perceived to have in economic terms, the intention here is to understand the nuanced types of value those within the museum apply to the performance document, based on an understanding of valuations as subjective, context-dependent, pluralistic and changeable. This thesis will explore both the museum’s creation of performance documents, tracing the variety of practices across Tate’s numerous departments, and how those within the museum approach acquiring, conserving, and displaying existing performance documents. Six case studies will be used to explore how different models of temporality, materiality, and authorship impact on the actions individuals and departments within Tate have taken around the creation, collection, and use of performance documents, and will explore what these indicate about the multiple, changeable types of value a performance document is perceived to have. The thesis will end by proposing how these findings around value and valuation can feed back into strategies and practices which are being developed at Tate to provide centralised, reflexive, mobile and easily accessible documentation of those live art works in the museum collection.

M.Comm. / The objective of this dissertation is to examine the desirability of implementing place of supply rules as an instrument to reduce uncertainty in the South African value-added tax system, specifically with respect to cross border transactions. Value-added tax systems have been introduced in many countries, and experienced a marked increase in popularity, especially since the 1970's. Value-added tax systems often replaced sales taxes due to the many benefits a purist value-added tax system has to offer. The opening up of the world economy brings the importance of cross border transactions to the fore. Many countries recognised the fiscal uncertainty and imbalances an ever-increasing number of cross border transactions can bring to a country's value-added tax system. Place of supply rules were introduced into the value-added tax systems of many of these countries to enhance legislative certainty, to avoid double taxation and to increase equity of the overall tax system. However, when South Africa introduced value-added tax in 1991, South Africa was to a large extent still isolated from the world economy. Since the earlier 1990's, particularly since 1994 when South Africa instated its first democratically elected government, the world economy started opening up to South Africa. South Africa's value-added tax system did not and still does not have certainty on place of supply rules. Though, technically, South Africa's value-added tax system seeks to tax most, if not all, transactions with a South African connection, vendors in South Africa, tax consultants and the South African Revenue Service are experiencing difficulty (to some varying degree) on interpreting the value-added tax consequences of cross border transactions. Place of supply rules have been mooted by various role-players, the South African Revenue Service and value-added tax practitioners alike, as a possible solution to the current uncertainty in respect of cross border transactions. The relevance and desirability of introducing place of supply rules in South Africa need to be assessed.

This thesis focuses on the issues of value engineering and aplication of its metods on product of a selected company. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze product and propose new solutions of the product to achieve improved satisfaction and customer value through the procedures and metods of value engineering. Result of this thesis serves as an input for a decision making that should lead to better market position of the product and the company.

Financial market integration, in particular, portfolio allocations from advanced economies to South African markets, continues to strengthen volatility linkages and quicken volatility transmissions between participating markets. Largely as a result, South African portfolios are net recipients of returns and volatility shocks emanating from major world markets. In light of these, and other, sources of risk, this dissertation proposes a methodology to improve risk management systems in funds by building a contemporary asset allocation framework that offers practitioners an opportunity to explicitly model combinations of hypothesised global risks and the effects on their investments. The framework models portfolio return variables and their key risk driver variables separately and then joins them to model their combined dependence structure. The separate modelling of univariate and multivariate (MV) components admits the benefit of capturing the data generating processes with improved accuracy. Univariate variables were modelled using ARMA-GARCH-family structures paired with a variety of skewed and leptokurtic conditional distributions. Model residuals were fit using the Peaks-over-Threshold method from Extreme Value Theory for the tails and a non-parametric, kernel density for the interior, forming a completed semi-parametric distribution (SPD) for each variable. Asset and risk factor returns were then combined and their dependence structure jointly modelled with a MV Student t copula. Finally, the SPD margins and Student t copula were used to construct a MV meta t distribution. Monte Carlo simulations were generated from the fitted MV meta t distribution on which an out-of-sample test was conducted. The 2014-to-2015 horizon served to proxy as an out-of-sample, forward-looking scenario for a set of key risk factors against which a hypothetical, diversified portfolio was optimised. Traditional mean-variance and contemporary mean-CVaR optimisation techniques were used and their results compared. As an addendum, performance over the in-sample 2008 financial crisis was reported. The final Objective (7) addressed management and conservation strategies for the NMBM. The NMBM wetland database that was produced during this research is currently being used by the Municipality and will be added to the latest National Wetland Map. From the database, and tools developed in this research, approximately 90 wetlands have been identified as being highly vulnerable due to anthropogenic and environmental factors (Chapter 6) and should be earmarked as key conservation priority areas. Based on field experience and data collected, this study has also made conservation and rehabilitation recommendations for eight locations. Recommendations are also provided for six more wetland systems (or regions) that should be prioritised for further research, as these systems lack fundamental information on where the threat of anthropogenic activities affecting them is greatest. This study has made a significant contribution to understanding the underlying geomorphological processes in depressions, seeps and wetland flats. The desktop mapping component of this study illustrated the dominance of wetlands in the wetter parts of the Municipality. Perched wetland systems were identified in the field, on shallow bedrock, calcrete or clay. The prevalence of these perches in depressions, seeps and wetland flats also highlighted the importance of rainfall in driving wetland formation, by allowing water to pool on these perches, in the NMBM. These perches are likely to be a key factor in the high number of small, ephemeral wetlands that were observed in the study area, compared to other semi-arid regions. Therefore, this research highlights the value of multi-faceted and multi-scalar wetland research and how similar approaches should be used in future research methods has been highlighted. The approach used, along with the tools/methods developed in this study have facilitated the establishment of priority areas for conservation and management within the NMBM. Furthermore, the research approach has revealed emergent wetland properties that are only apparent when looking at different spatial scales. This research has highlighted the complex biological and geomorphological interactions between wetlands that operate over various spatial and temporal scales. As such, wetland management should occur across a wetland complex, rather than individual sites, to account for these multi-scalar influences.

In the numerical solution of the two point "boundary value problem, [ equation omitted ] (1) the usual method is to approximate the problem by a finite difference analogue of the form [ equation omitted ] (2) with k = 2, and the truncation error T.E. = O(h⁴) or O(h⁶), where h is the step-size. Varga (1962) has obtained error bounds for the former when the problem (1) is linear and of class M . In this thesis, more accurate finite difference methods are considered. These can be obtained in essentially two different ways, either by increasing the value k in difference equations (2), or by introducing higher order derivatives. Several methods of both types have been derived. Also, it is shown how the initial value problem y' = ϕ(x,y) can be formulated as a two point boundary value problem and solved using the latter approach. Error bounds have been derived for all of these methods for linear problems of class M . In particular, more accurate bounds have been derived than those obtained by Varga (1962) and Aziz and Hubbard (1964). Some error estimates are suggested for the case where [ equation omitted ], but these are not accurate bounds, especially when [ equation omitted ] not a constant. In the case of non-linear differential equations, sufficient conditions are derived for the convergence of the solution of the system of equations (2) by a generalized Newton's method. Some numerical results are included and the observed errors compared with theoretical error bounds. / Science, Faculty of / Mathematics, Department of / Graduate

The goal of the thesis is to find if and how active corporate social responsibility can increase the value of company together with identification of the most impactful activities in this regard. For this purpose, the thesis is structured into three parts. The first part provides overview of theoretical approaches to the company value with specific focus on Corporate Social Responsibility, sustainability and communication. In the second part, initiatives in the area of sustainability in a case company are reviewed. For this purpose, a leader and innovator in the area of CSR has been selected with variety of best practices that have been mapped. Based on the conducted research, the third part summarizes recommendations from both theory, as well as practice on those activities that should be considered by other companies for incorporation.

This thesis investigates the viability of two boundary element methods for solving steady state problems, the continuous least squares method and the Galerkin minimization technique. In conventional boundary element methods, the singularities of the fundamental solution involved are usually located at fixed points on the boundary of the problem's domain or on an auxiliary boundary. This leads to some difficulties: when the singularities are located on the problem domain's boundary, it is not easy to evaluate the solution for points on or near that boundary whereas if the singularities are placed on an auxiliary boundary, this auxiliary boundary would have to be carefully chosen. Hence the methods studied here allow the singularities, initially located at some auxiliary boundary, to move until the best positions are found. These positions are determined by attempting to minimize the error via the least squares or the Galerkin technique. This results in a highly accurate, adaptive, but nonlinear method. We study various methods for solving systems of nonlinear equations resulting from the Galerkin technique. A hybrid method has been implemented, which involves the objective function from the least squares method while the gradient is due to the Galerkin method. Numerical examples involving Laplace's equation in two dimensions are presented and results using the discrete least squares method, the continuous least squares method and the Galerkin method are compared and discussed. The continuous least squares method appears to give the best results for the sample problems tried. / Science, Faculty of / Computer Science, Department of / Graduate

A one-dimensional, single phase Stefan Problem is considered. This problem is shown to have a unique solution which depends continuously on the boundary data. In addition two algorithms are formulated for its approximate numerical solution. The first algorithm (the Similarity Algorithm), which is based on Similarity, is shown to converge with order of convergence between one half and one. Moreover, numerical examples illustrating various aspects of this algorithm are presented. In particular, modifications to the algorithm which are suggested by the proof of convergence are shown to improve the numerical results significantly. Furthermore, a brief comparison is made between the algorithm and a well-known difference scheme. The second algorithm (a Collocation Scheme) results from an attempt to reduce the problem to a set of ordinary differential equations. It is observed that this set of ordinary differential equations is stiff. Moreover, numerical examples indicate that this is a high order scheme capable of achieving very accurate approximations. It is observed that the apparent stiffness of the system of ordinary differential equations renders this second algorithm relatively inefficient. / Science, Faculty of / Statistics, Department of / Graduate

This study examined the business results of companies that won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (NQA). It used performance data before and after the award to determine if there were significant differences in three key performance indices after adoption of those business techniques that enabled these companies to win their NQA. The three key indicators were return on assets (ROA), earnings per share (EPS) and the current ratio. The study examined the data in two ways; first tests were made by comparing company performance before and after winning an NQA. The second way of testing was by comparing the NQA-winning company's performance with its key competitors within their market segment. Using both parametric and nonparametric hypothesis testing techniques, the preponderance of evidence suggests there was no significant difference in performance after winning the NQA than before, using the three performance indicators used in this study. Likewise, there was no evidence to suggest that the NQA-winning firms outperformed their key competitors within their market segment, for the three performance indicators used.

It is widely accepted that the primary objective or goal of a firm is to maximise the value of its shareholders' equity. An increase in wealth increases the satisfaction of any financial market participant, or in this case, of any shareholder. In management's attempts and decision-making to increase shareholder value, they continuously influence, directly or indirectly, those variables that affect shareholder wealth. In order to increase shareholder wealth in the most efficient way, it becomes necessary to quantify the effect that each of these relevant variables has on shareholder wealth. If the value created from the assets under the control of management is to be improved, the answer lies partly in determining the real drivers of value and focusing management attention on these. The objective and value of this study lies in the fact that a meaningful mathematical relationship between these variables and shareholder value is developed. In the literature part of this study, the main emphasis fell on drawing a distinction between the accounting-based and the economic-based models of determining shareholder value. It has been demonstrated that the economic-based models, and Economic value added (EVA) in particular, have distinct advantages in determining value created (or destroyed) by the management of a company. Whilst EVA is the best internal measure of shareholder value creation. Market value added (MVA) is the external method of determining shareholder's wealth. After the variables that can determine shareholder value as represented by the EVA of a company had been identified, the research methodology, including the statistical techniques as well as the boundaries of the sample used, were set out. The results of the empirical analyses were reported and compared with the theoretical principles. The correlation between MVA and (discounted) EVA was the highest of all the variables and was at its most positive when inflation adjustments to the data had been made. Slightly lower positive correlations were also obtained from more traditional measures such as return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), earnings per share (EPS) and dividends per share (DPS). Once it has been determined that EVA is arguably the best indicator of value that has been created or destroyed by management, it is necessary to analyze EVA in terms of its variables or components. If one turns to the stepwise regression analyses done with EVA as dependent variable with a number of independent variables, various income statement ratios provided the best explanation (as represented by r2 ). No meaningful results were obtained from a number of balance sheet ratios. Using these results as a basis, recommendations to management on managing and creating shareholder wealth in the most efficient way is made. Practising valuemaximization is not easy, but EVA and its variables can be the answer. AFRIKAANS : Dit is 'n algemeen aanvaarde beginsel dat die primere doelwit van 'n onderneming die maksimering van aandeelhouers welvaart is. 'n Verhoging in welvaart lei tot verhoogde nutsbevrediging van enige deelnemer in finansiele markte, in die geval die aandeelhouers van 'n onderneming. In bestuur se pogings en besluitnemingsaksies om aandeelhouers welvaart te verhoog, word die veranderlikes wat aandeelhouers welvaart bepaal, voortdurend beïnvloed. Om aandeelhouers welvaart op die mees doelmatige wyse te verhoog, is dit nodig om te kwantifiseer welke effek elkeen van hierdie veranderlikes op aandeelhouers welvaart uitoefen. lndien die waardetoevoeging van die kapitaal onder beheer van bestuur verbeter moet word, le deel van die oplossing in die bepaling van daardie veranderlikes wat aandeelhouers welvaart bepaal, en om gevolglik bestuur se fokus op daardie veranderlikes te vestig. Die doelwit van hierdie studie is dus om 'n kwantifiseerbare verwantskap tussen hierdie veranderlikes en aandeelhouers welvaart te ontwikkel. In die literatuur gedeelte van hierdie studie val die klem op die onderskeid wat getref word tussen die rekeningkundige metodes om aandeelhouers welvaart te bepaal, in teenstelling met die sogenaamde ekonomiese gebaseerde metodes. Daar word getoon dat die ekonomiese gebaseerde metodes, en in die besonder ekonomiese waarde toevoeging (in Engels, "Economic value added" , of "EVA"), besondere voordele het bo enige ander metode om die waarde wat bestuur toegevoeg (of vernietig) het, te bepaal. Terwyl EVA as interne maatstaf van aandeelhouers welvaart dien, is markwaarde toevoeging (in Engels "Market value added" of "MVA") die eksterne of markgedrewe metode om waarde te bepaal. Nadat die veranderlikes wat aandeelhouers welvaart soos verteenwoordig deur EVA bepaal is, is die navorsings metodologie, insluitend die statistiese tegnieke wat gebruik is sowel as die bepaling van die steekproef, behandel. Die resultate van die empiriese analise is bespreek en vergelyk met die teoretiese beginsels. Die korrelasie tussen MVA en (verdiskonteerde) EVA was die hoogste en was selfs grater wanneer inflasie aanpassings aan die data gemaak was. Laer positiewe korrelasies is gevind tussen MVA en die meer tradisionele maatstawwe ter bepaling van aandeelhouers welvaart soos opbrengs op totale bates, opbrengs op aandeelhouers fondse, verdienste per aandeel en dividend per aandeel. Nadat daar bewys is dat EVA die beste aanwyser is van waarde wat deur bestuur geskep of vernietig is, is dit nodig om EVA te analiseer in terme van sy veranderlikes of komponente. lndien EVA as afhanklike veranderlike en 'n aantal onafhanklike veranderlikes by wyse van 'n stapsgewyse regressie analise ontleed word, is dit verskeie inkomste staat verhoudingsgetalle wat die beste verduideliking (soos verteenwoordig deur r2) van aandeelhouerswelvaart gee. Geen betekenisvolle resultate kon van verskeie balansstaat verhoudingsgetalle verkry word nie. Met hierdie resultate as basis word verskeie aanbevelings aan bestuur gemaak oor die bestuur en toevoeging van waarde vir aandeelhouers op die mees doelmatige wyse. Die beoefening van waardemaksimering is nie maklik nie, maar EVA en sy veranderlikes kan die taak vergemaklik. Copyright / Thesis (DBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Business Management / unrestricted