Responsible Tourism (RT) implies that all parties involved in the tourism sector are responsible for making sure that all activities taking place are of a sustainable nature, and that consideration is given to environmental conservation, economic growth and social integrity. The Kruger National Park (KNP) and the South African National Parks (SANParks) are key role-players in the tourism and conservation sectors in South Africa, and have acknowledged and started to implement Responsible Tourism practices into their strategic model. One major hurdle in reaching their RT goals is a lack of funding, which they are currently addressing by expanding and diversifying their tourism product offerings. As stakeholders play a key role in RT, this study aimed to determine stakeholder perceptions of RT development in the KNP, in order to assist SANParks achieve their RT goals. The philosophical assumption under which this study was undertaken was the pragmatic research paradigm, in which one aims to understand the truth concerning whatever questions are investigated. The methodology was applied through questionnaires that were completed by KNP visitors, and interviews based on SANS 1162:2011 that were conducted with KNP employees. The study found that there is some misalignment between RT aspects that visitors consider as important, and those that are highlighted in SANParks' strategic documentation. It was also noted that despite generally good performance with regard to RT aspects, employees find that insufficient funding and the lack of awareness of stakeholders are two of the challenges faced in achieving RT. In order for SANParks to reach their RT goals, they can consider addressing these gaps, as the core of RT is that of behaviour and actions taken. Emphasis must be on how all those involved in the KNP and SANParks can alter their behaviour to make better places for people to live in, and better places for people to visit. / Environmental Sciences

Machine learning algorithms are increasingly used by decision making systems that affect individual lives in a wide variety of ways. Consequently, in recent years concerns have been raised about the social and ethical implications of using such algorithms. Particular concerns include issues surrounding privacy, fairness, and transparency in decision systems. This dissertation introduces new tools and measures for improving the social desirability of data-driven decision systems, and consists of two main parts. The first part provides a useful tool for an important class of decision making algorithms: collaborative filtering in recommender systems. In particular, it introduces the idea of improving socially relevant properties of a recommender system by augmenting the input with additional training data, an approach which is inspired by prior work on data poisoning attacks and adapts them to generate `antidote data' for social good. We provide an algorithmic framework for this strategy and show that it can efficiently improve the polarization and fairness metrics of factorization-based recommender systems. In the second part, we focus on fairness notions that incorporate data inputs used by decision systems. In particular, we draw attention to `data minimization', an existing principle in data protection regulations that restricts a system to use the minimal information that is necessary for performing the task at hand. First, we propose an operationalization for this principle that is based on classification accuracy, and we show how a natural dependence of accuracy on data inputs can be expressed as a trade-off between fair-inputs and fair-outputs. Next, we address the problem of auditing black- box prediction models for data minimization compliance. For this problem, we suggest a metric for data minimization that is based on model instability under simple imputations, and we extend its applicability from a finite sample model to a distributional setting by introducing a probabilistic data minimization guarantee. Finally, assuming limited system queries, we formulate the problem of allocating a query budget to simple imputations for investigating model instability as a multi-armed bandit framework, for which we design efficient exploration strategies.

Kenya has over the last few years witnessed tremendous growth as an emerging market with the GDP growing at 5% and the capital markets having a year on year growth of 19%. Despite the growth and sophistication of the financial markets, a host of hurdles have kept Kenya off the mainstream Responsible Investing agenda. This has resulted in no Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) fund assets and none of the market players being signatories to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI). One of the building blocks to this journey could be introducing a Sustainability Index for listed companies on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). This would form a basis for integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) aspects into the private sector and other proponents of the society, including the public sector. This research is thus aimed at linking the growing sophistication of the financial markets in Kenya with the possible creation of a Sustainability Index. In this sense, financial markets are seen to have the power to affect social, economic, and environmental outcomes in which a Sustainability Index could become a good tool in measuring such outcomes. The study adopted a qualitative research design which was used to obtain information based on the key research questions of the study. The research findings suggest that Responsible Investing (RI) is understood within the realm of business ethics and corporate governance. RI is inferred to as a manner of doing business that goes beyond short term financial returns and also takes into account the needs of other stakeholders. ESG aspects identified from the study provide for the requisite issues out of which a Sustainability Index can be developed for measuring the impact of Responsible Investing. Within the framework of a Sustainability Index, it is clear that companies will be made more accountable; redefine their corporate boundaries and through shared value, measure the social and environmental impact of their business model. However, there is still need for increased awareness on RI, stakeholder activism and an improved regulatory framework. Embedding Responsible Investing in Kenya will entail understanding the system of actors, so as to look at opportunities of Creating Shared Value whilst setting this up in the right disclosure model.

The business world continues to be plagued by incidents of leadership failure, including that of Chartered Accountants (CAs). Responsible Leadership (RL) theory was in part conceived in response to misconduct by business leaders. RL competencies overlap with many competencies expected of CAs, according to international education requirements that inform the CA curriculum. Yet studies continue to show that accounting students are underdeveloped in many competencies affiliated with RL. Furthermore, an institutional strategy for developing RL competencies in accounting students is currently lacking. The purpose of this study is to explore how to incorporate the development of RL competencies into the CA curriculum. The study is grounded within RL, Transformative Learning, curriculum, and curriculum change theories. A qualitative research method was adopted. Interviews were conducted with thirteen South African CA leaders holding a variety of societal and business roles, and eleven CA educators from several South African universities. The study identifies a strategy for RL competency development comprising seven core concepts known as the RESPOND model. Strategic considerations relating to 'what', 'which', 'when', 'where', 'who' and 'how', are addressed in the model. Practical recommendations based on the RESPOND model are provided. The study's findings may assist accounting academics deliberating on adaptations to their curricula to achieve competencies and graduate outcomes synonymous with RL. In addition, the RESPOND model provides a theoretical contribution to the advancement of both accounting education and RL theory by both connecting and expanding knowledge within these research fields.

This thesis examines health promotion discourse in Ottawa during the COVID-19 pandemic to explore what it means to be a responsible citizen. Using press releases/special statements and tweets from January 2020 to November 2022 from city officials and city departments in Ottawa, this thesis employed critical discourse analysis (CDA) to explore potential changes in health promotion discourse and meaning-making, asking how citizenship was remade in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings support claims that health is increasingly neoliberalized, with a greater emphasis placed on individual health as a condition of responsible citizenship. This increased neoliberalization ultimately shifts our attention away from state responsibilities vis-à-vis citizens, and in this case, the neglected role of local governments in managing health crises.

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For students who want to make a difference in college and beyond, involvement in a variety of available leadership positions while in college can lead to gains in many areas-and most importantly, the ability to work respectfully, flexibly, and effectively with an increasingly diverse population. While it is widely acknowledged that leadership qualities and skills are principally learned and developed (rather than inherently innate to the individual), scholars are less certain as to the specific variables and values that result in socially responsible leadership skills among college students. The Resident Assistant (RA) represents a pivotal student leadership role on campus-but it is not the only way for students to assume an influential and skills-building leadership role. Other student leaders (OSLs), encompassed herein under the umbrella title of "peer helpers," include peer counselors, peer educators, and tutors. College and university educators are striving to develop leaders to be effective in an increasingly diverse society through a variety of methods including co-curricular opportunities. The implementation of targeted leadership development opportunities represents another way to meet this goal. The Social Change Model (SCM) of Leadership Development, which consists of seven core value (citizenship, collaboration, common purpose, controversy with civility, consciousness of self, congruence, and commitment), was created to help educate college students by focusing on positive social change through leadership. Given the lack of research examining leadership outcomes from serving in the RA position, this quantitative investigation was designed to compare SCM values in RAs to the analogous values in OSLs to determine if there were differences between the two cohorts with respect to socially responsible leadership. In short, are outcomes associated with socially responsible leadership due to being a student leader in general, or will serving in the RA role be more advantageous in developing those skills? An additional goal was to determine to what degree elements of the Social Change Model (SCM) could predict a student leader serving as a RA or in another role as an OSL. Findings from this investigation were based on responses from the 2012 iteration of the Multi-institutional Study on Leadership (MSL). A careful analysis of the data revealed that the SCM value of "citizenship" was the only one among the seven that could predict a student leader serving as an RA over an OSL; in contrast, RAs did not score significantly higher than OSLs on any of the other remaining six values. Although there is a large body of work related to RA performance, further research is needed to understand the relationship between the performance of student leaders who serve in this role and SCM values. / Ph. D.

Yes / A major challenge for supply chain managers is how to manage sourcing relationships to ensure reliable and predictable actions of distant suppliers. The extant research into sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has traditionally focused on the transactional and collaboration approaches through which buyers encourage suppliers to act responsibly. However, little effort has been devoted to investigating the factors that underpin and enable effective implementation of these two approaches, or to exploring alternative approaches to help sustain an acceptable level of social performance from suppliers. Building on organisational justice theory, we developed a framework in which we propose that buyers’ justice (i.e. distributive, procedural and interactional) as perceived by suppliers can serve as an alternative and complementary vehicle to the conventional sustainability governance approaches for driving the social justice exhibited by suppliers. The paper sheds new light on an alternative relational approach to help to restrain potentially harmful acts of suppliers. It provides a foundation for new research avenues in the SSCM context and supports more informed decision making by practitioners.