Tertiary educational institutes have had many Information Systems developed and implemented for the use of students and lecturers. The problem is that more often than not, the impacts of Information Systems on social communities of organisations have not been taken into account, or insufficient attention has been paid to them. The social impact of Information Systems are rarely taken into account when systems are being designed or implemented, and as a result lead to many Information System failures. This research explores the issues of the interface between information systems and society, and addresses the social impact of these systems. A thorough investigation of the Information Systems and users of those systems at the University of South Africa has been undertaken in this study Details regarding certain social impact of Information Systems will be discussed. This research proposes a set of guidelines to help ensure that the social impacts of tertiary institutes’ Information Systems are taken into account in the design and implementation of these systems, thereby increasing the chance of success of those systems. Those who stand to benefit from information contained in this study include various tertiary institutes’ faculties of Information Systems and Technology, the departments responsible for the development of those Information Systems, users of those systems, and the social community encompassing those systems.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Allen M. Featherstone / Best Maid is a middle-sized regionally orientated company, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. It is currently owned and operated by the fourth generation of the Dalton family. The company specializes in the production of pickles and condiment products and currently holds the title of #1 retail brand of pickles in the state of Texas. In addition to the Best Maid label, products are also produced under the Del-Dixie label. The objective of this thesis is to analyze a potential capital project: a bucket line replacement. The analysis will be completed by using net present value to determine the cost and benefits of the project. The focus of the project will be the food service bucket line. The current line was designed and installed over 20 years ago. Currently, this line and supporting resources require a staff of 17 employees to operate. The process is looking to be improved through advances in technology including vibratory conveyors, more complex PLC programming, and increased accuracy of scaling equipment. Implementing these advancements has the potential to reduce the employee labor cost as well as decrease over-scaling. The goal of this project is to inform the Best Maid owners of the investment costs, labor savings, benefits, and the financial viability of the proposed capital investment. Best Maid has consistently grown at a high single digit to low double digit rate each year. Businesses must continually identify and react to the needs of tomorrow, today. Formal processes within the business will be established to evaluate and prioritize future potential projects. The conclusion of the analysis resulted in a positive NPV of about $567 thousand and a favorable IRR. The recommendation is to adopt the new technology.

abstract: This dissertation consists of two essays that deal with the development of open developing economies. These economies have experienced drastic divergence in terms of economic growth from the 1970s through the 2010s. One important feature of those countries that have lagged behind is their failure to build up their domestic innovation capacity. Abstract The first chapter discusses the policies that may have an impact on the long-run innovation capacity of developing economies. The existing literature emphasizes that the backward linkage of foreign-owned firms is a key to determining whether FDI is beneficial or detrimental to a domestic economy. However, little empirical evidence has shown which aspects of FDI policies lead to a strong backward linkage between foreign-owned and domestic firms. This paper focuses on the foreign ownership structure of these foreign-owned firms. I show that joint ventures (i.e, firms with 1%-99% foreign share) have stronger backward linkages than MNC affiliates (i.e, firms with 100% foreign share) with domestic firms. I also find that the differences in backward linkages are strong enough to translate into a positive correlation between domestic innovation and the density of joint ventures and a negative correlation between domestic innovation and the density of MNC affiliates. Finally, I find that the channel through which foreign ownership structure affects domestic innovation raises innovation TFP in domestic firms. My results suggest that policies that affect the foreign ownership structure of foreign-owned firms could have a persistent effect on domestic innovation because they shift the comparative advantage of an developing economy towards the innovation sector in the long run. Abstract The second chapter provides a unified theory to study what causes the divergence in economic growth of developing economies and how the innovation sector emerges in the developing countries. I show that open developing economies become trapped at the middle-income level because they tend not to specialize in sectors that generate spillover or factor accumulation (the innovation sector). Using a dynamic Heckscher-Ohlin (H-O) model, I show that the fast growth of developing economies tends to end before they can fully catch up with the developed world, and the innovation sector will not operate in the developing countries. However, the successful growth stories of Korea and Taiwan challenge this view. In order to explore the economic miracle that happened in Korea and Taiwan, I generalize a dynamic Heckscher-Ohlin (H-O) model by introducing technology adoption and explore how it generates spillovers to domestic innovation. I show that countries with policies that encourage technology adoption will benefit most from FDI: in addition to the fact that foreign technology raises productivity in the host country, the demand for skilled labor to adopt these technologies raises the education level in equilibrium, which benefits domestic innovation and leads to catch-up in the long run. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Economics 2015

This article investigates the evolution of a customer involvement concept and how Web 3.0 technology can contribute to it. We intend to answer the questions how do manufacturing companies involve customers into innovation processes, how they can benefit from Web 3.0 technology and we also rather general look upon adoption process of new tools. Information was obtained through executing intervention experiments in three manufacturing companies in the bathroom industry operating at the web 3.0 platform. The main part of the experiment includes ‘educational session’ by which we intend to create awareness about new Web 3.0 technology and observe changing perception of managers towards its possible use. We found out, first, that manufacturing companies mainly get ideas for new products from information deriving from their retailers, market surveys and fairs participation. Second, that Web 3.0 technology might be a complementary and alternative solution to traditional marketing research tools. Further, we drew conclusions and implications for both manufacturing companies and Web 3.0 technology providers. It was concluded that besides advantages of Web 3.0 technology over other customer involvement tools, Web 3.0 provides constant interaction between company and customers which is a valuable source for innovative ideas, thus, creating innovation in general. However, currently the process of new technology adoption is rather slow which is determined by a number of barriers discussed in the research.

Social media offers numerous opportunities to companies, organizations and government agencies to communicate with people outside their organization, to promote their interests and to better serve their customers, or as in the case with government agencies, to better serve their citizens. However, little is known about how police departments in particular use social media. This research study explores why police departments use social media, how they manage their social media tools, and the problems and challenges experienced as they use social media. This qualitative study is largely guided by grounded theory. The data were collected from a study population using local police departments in the Dallas-Fort worth (DFW) area principal cities using both individual interviews with police departments’ social media officers and observations of these departments’ online social media tools (in particular, Facebook and Twitter). This study has shown that the DFW area city police departments are using social media quite extensively to keep the public informed and often for investigative purposes. There are some success factors to adopting and using these tools, such as the motivation of department staff and their benefits, successful implementation of the tools, the simplicity of using tools and that it is absolutely free.

State policy incentives for solar power have grown significantly in the past several years. This paper examines the effectiveness of policy incentives to increase residential solar PV capacity. County-level solar adoption data and controls for demographic characteristics, solar resources, and pro-environmental preferences are used to estimate a model of residential solar adoption. Empirical findings show that financial incentives, solar-specific mandates, and loan financing programs are important drivers of residential PV capacity growth. Incentives that reduce the up-front cost of adoption and that are subject to low uncertainty are found to have the largest impact. Results also point to a significant positive relationship between hybrid vehicle sales and residential PV capacity growth, indicating the importance of pro-environmental preference as a predictor of solar PV demand.

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When do consumers adopt digital personal assistants like Cortana, Siri, or Alexa? This thesis proposes to add to the current technology adoption literature on digital assistants by examining the moderating impact of the purpose for which the device is used. Building on the theory of uses and gratifications, it was expected that devices viewed with high cognitive appraisal would be more likely to be chosen for cognitive purposes than devices viewed with high affective appraisal, while devices viewed with high affective appraisal would be more likely to be selected for affective purposes than devices viewed with high cognitive appraisal. Two experiments were conducted that supported these hypotheses.

MCom (Business Management) / Department of Business Management / Consumer mobile phone adoption is on the rise exponentially, and offers marketers with many new opportunities to reach and serve customers. The South African mobile phone market has increased rapidly and a significant proportion of mobile services usage in South Africa is the youth. South African youths are following international trends as well as becoming the fastest-growing group in terms of technology adoption in the country. The prevalence of mobile technology as well as its capability to enable laser precision marketing on an individual basis has directed marketers to consider the adoption of mobile marketing. However, the question remains whether consumers are ready for uptake of mobile phone marketing. The purpose of this study was to bring light and create an understanding of the factors affecting university students’ willingness to participate in mobile phone marketing in South Africa. This study used a positivist paradigm that ensures that there is a gap between the researcher’s subjective bias and the objective reality being studied. The study was descriptive in nature with survey method being used to complete the study. The quantitative research technique was applied with data being collected from respondents by a self-administered questionnaire targeted at youth students from selected South African Universities. The questionnaire was pre-tested in a pilot study involving the research participants to identify errors in the research questionnaire and to ensure that the data collected would be relevant and as precise as possible. Findings from this study revealed how consumers want to participate in mobile marketing as well as the contributory factors influencing the acceptance of mobile marketing. Furthermore, this study supplements to the increasing body of evidence on mobile marketing acceptance. The study can also assist managers to utilise the potential of this marketing medium amongst university students in South Africa. More essentially, this study also provided information that can be used to monitor decision making towards mobile advertisements and marketing planning.

This aim of this study was to establish if individual characteristics have an impact on the adoption of cellphone banking amongst low-income (Mzansi) consumers. The second component of the study then set out to assess the impact that cellphone banking adoption has on the financial behaviour of these consumers. This data was obtained using the data mining technique. Data from one of the local banks was extracted and analysed. In addition to using descriptive statistics, the ANOVA was used. The ANOVA is an inferential statistical method. It establishes whether there is a relationship with the defined variable and the adoption of cellphone banking. Race, age, income, gender, number of bank products and channel of registration where the variables that were analysed. With the exception of age, no other variable had an impact on adoption for both Mzansi customers as well as the entire base. The subsequent post adoption behaviour analysis that was conducted identified some key behaviour changes. Consumers who adopted cellphone banking significantly increased (>300%) their demand of prepaid products. Secondly, the demand for cash amongst adopters was lower than the demand from non-adopters which could signal a shift towards cashless solutions. And finally, the cellphone banking adopters were found to perform more transactions prior to adoption when compared to non adopters thereby demonstrating a higher need for a mobile banking solution. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted