Magister Legum - LLM / The impact of trade policies on the pursuit of gender equality is often ignored. Recognising the link between trade and gender, this dissertation aims to enhance the capacity of policy-makers to mainstream gender in trade policy and to help identify ways for using trade to respond to women's needs in South Africa. In order to meet this objective, it analyses the impacts that trade liberalisation has had on the economy and on gender in general and in South Africa in particular. In addition, it evaluates the impacts on men and women in order to see if trade has contributed to reducing, accentuating or perpetuating gender inequality in South Africa. Findings have confirmed that Trade liberalisation has had both positive and negative impacts on women and men. But, they have also demonstrated that trade liberalisation has affected women and men differently having negative influences on the pursuit of gender equality. The research has, however, concluded that the impact of trade liberalisation on the pursuit of gender equality is influenced by other key factors. As strategy to mainstream gender in trade policies, the research suggests that policy-makers should analyse the implications for women and men of any trade policy before adopting such policy. This analysis would help him/her to see the possible imbalances of the new policy and implement policies and programmes to eradicate them. Also, it will help him/her to identify possible ways for using trade to empower women. The research is based on the idea that the elimination of the existing inequalities will put women at the same stage with men and will, therefore, contribute to women's empowerment in South Africa. / South Africa

Over and above the fact that South African automotive business firms do not have the advantages of a major domestic market and are far removed from the major world markets, they face the challenges of operating in a tough and ever-changing environment. This environment is characterised by a global recession, aggressive global competition, high inflation and more demanding customers. To overcome these obstacles and to ensure their continuous success and existence, these domestic firms need to create a competitive advantage. The establishment of such a competitive advantage is dependent on a number of factors which mainly include sourcing from a world-class supplier base in terms of price, quality and service delivery. The main objective and central theme of this study is to determine the factors that are required by a supplier in the South African automotive industry to be classified as a world-class supplier. In support of the main objective, it was necessary to source the reasons why a firm would find it important to trade with a world-class supplier base, and to determine whether the current levels of supplier performance as experienced by buying firms in the Eastern Cape automotive industry, could be regarded as world-class. Furthermore, the study set out to determine the consequences to customer firms of inferior supplier performance, as well as the actions currently taken and support programmes in place to bring suppliers in line with world-class standards. As a starting point to the study, a literature review was undertaken which revealed the definite interdependence between a business firm and the environment in which it operates. The review underlined the need for environmental scanning as a means to proactively manage the impact of environmental changes on a firm. Porter’s value chain and business process re-engineering, as discussed in the study, are also perceived as means to manage environmental changes. The literature study further revealed some of the latest business trends followed by automotive business firms, as well as the expected supplier buy-in to ensure success. A statistical analysis on the quantitative data gathered, grouped specific items (questions) that relate to the study’s main objective with three respective individual supplier performance areas. A confirmatory factor analysis which focused on the three factors, namely quality, pricing and service delivery was carried out to assess the validity of the questions used for gathering the research data. The Cronbach Alphas determined for the three factors portrayed the reliability of the research instrument as acceptable. The empirical study revealed a few main factors that automotive business firms strongly perceive as being key to the establishment of a world-class supplier base. These factors are: a culture of continuous improvement; consistently meeting delivery deadlines by being able to respond to customer schedule changes; quoting fair prices and having respect for business ethics; as well as the consistent application of a quality policy which leads to conformance to specifications and subsequent high levels of product reliability. The empirical study also identified the following benefits enjoyed by customer business firms when trading with a world-class supplier base: Firms are able to be more flexible to customer schedule changes; they receive products that meet specifications; and they are able to operate at lower costs. The empirical findings with regard to the current level of supplier performance in the Eastern Cape Province automotive industry highlighted mainly three problem areas. These are late deliveries; the inability of suppliers to respond to customer schedule changes; as well as a lack of continuous improvement. Late deliveries which lead to production stoppages, with its resultant high costs, as well as the receipt of below-par quality products, were revealed as the main consequences when dealing with suppliers whose performance are not world-class. The main actions taken and programmes or incentives offered by automotive business firms to bring inferior suppliers more in line with world-class performance, include the rewarding of good suppliers by granting them more business; applying formal supplier performance evaluations; and having regular supplier audits.

The shopping centre has evolved into an integral part of modern day society. New generations especially are unable to imagine a world without shopping centres. In 2008 a world wide economic down turn emphasized the competition to attract a buying market to shopping centres, some centres thrived and some centres struggled. The need to understand what creates these different responses to highly competitive scenarios is discussed in this study, with particular attention given to the tenant mix that exists in different shopping centres. Criteria that determine an optimum tenant mix are examined and the constraining factors are discussed. A literature review of shopping centres is discussed and the evolution of the shopping centre to our current day understanding of the term shopping centre is examined. Accepted definitions and categorisations of shopping centres along with a brief history of the shopping centre, as revealed by the literature, is presented. To create a tenant mix the body of tenants needs to be divided into sub- categories and various ways to achieve this are examined. The objectives of this study are to determine what strategic approaches to managing the tenant mix exists in the literature and what factors determine the formulation of this mix. Furthermore the study examines to what extent these or other strategic approaches are used in practice and finally makes recommendations to promote the optimum tenant mix in shopping centres. A literature review was conducted to determine what the theory reveals about the shopping centre industry. This was followed by an empirical survey conducted in the Port Elizabeth area of the Nelson Mandela Metropole. Finally the findings and theory were compared to make conclusions and suggest recommendation to achieve synergy in shopping centres through a optimum tenant mix.

For many manufacturing companies, equipment is the largest capital investment andeffective maintenance of these assets can impact on profitability. It extends equipment life, improves equipment availability and retains equipment in proper condition. Conversely, poorly maintained equipment may lead to more frequent equipment failures, poor utilisation of equipment and delayed production schedules. Malfunctioning equipment may result in scrap or products of poor quality. Total productive maintenance (TPM) is one of the most popular concepts for improving process dependability (Nakajima 1988). It focuses on increasing the effectiveness of maintenance which is commonly measured by the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Ford Struandale Engine Plant (FSEP) applies lean manufacturing through its Ford Production System (FPS) which consists of twelve elements. One element of FPS is Ford Total Productive Maintenance (FTPM) with the objective to maximise the overall effectiveness of plant facilities, equipment, processes and tooling through the focused efforts of work groups and the elimination of the major losses associated with manufacturing equipment. The concern for FSEP management was that although FTPM is implemented, the OEE data revealed that equipment availability targets are not achieved. The researcher identified a gap to investigate the reasons for the poor performance. A literature study was conducted to search for relevant information on the subject. A questionnaire was constructed from the theoretical information and a survey was conducted. After data collection the results were captured and analysed. The researcher made conclusions based on the data and made recommendations. The main findings were that autonomous maintenance is not functioning well, spares management is not good and the Computerised Maintenance Management System is underutilised. The recommendations were that these issues must be addressed.

This study examines the spatial characteristics of specialized (high order) retail trade within Vancouver, B.C. Conclusions arrived at are presumed applicable to most contemporary North American cities of a similar size range. Literature is examined in order to sift out existing generalizations concerning this class of retailing activities. The most persistent notions in the literature suggest: (i) that specialized (high order) retail businesses depend upon the infrequent purchases of a large threshold population for support, i.e. on an intra-city scale such businesses are oriented to a city-wide market for potential or eventual customers and their market hinterlands are thus presumed to be city-wide, embracing nests of lower order hinterlands; (ii) as a result, specialized, (high order) businesses are seen to be located centrally within the city since this is seen to be the point maximally accessible from across the entire city, and thus the optimum location for businesses depending on customers presumed scattered across the whole city. These ideas are basic to analysis of intra-city retail spatial organization in terms of distance minimizing theories, such as ecological theory and central place theory. However, close examination of the operating characteristics of specialized retail businesses questions these accepted concepts and their theoretical underpinnings. Especially it is stressed: (i) that specialized (high order) retailing tends towards monopolistic competition, since merchants attempt to attract customers through "product differentiation!' and "image projection". It is argued that this permits locational flexibility, not central fixation for specialized (high order) retail businesses: (ii) the normal background for retail activity in North America is a pluralistic socio-economic environment. Consequently, retail stores - especially specialized (high order) stores - are likely to appeal to socially distinctive and areally localized groups for custom. It is argued that this results in selective and morphologically sectoral (not indiscriminantly city-wide) market hinterlands for specialized (high order) stores. Recognition of these characteristics, and the subsequent welding of traditional geographical theories (ecological and central place theories) with insights from economic theory and sociological theory, enriches traditional geographical ideas in a context where existing ideas had hitherto been obscure or misleading. The same recognition also emphasizes that such traditional theories best explain the geography of low order retailing rather than high order retailing. The argument developed permits certain deductions about the locational and hinterland characteristics of specialized (high order) retail businesses to be made, which are phrased as hypotheses for test. Hypotheses are tested in Vancouver in terms of a number or stores identified as "high order". Hypotheses concerning the locational attributes of such stores are tested by interviews with store merchants and managers, to establish reasons for the choice of particular store locations and to discuss methods of business operation. Hypotheses concerning the hinterland characteristics of such stores are tested by the analysis of store hinterlands using credit record, sales slip and questionnaire derived data. This programme of interview and hinterland analysis yields a large number of case studies which are analysed in terms of hypotheses outlined. Many of these case studies are reported, with examples being chosen to cover all possible ramifications of the argument and a "spectrum" of "orders of good" being discussed in order to demonstrate changes in the geography of retail activities with changes in the "order of good" variable. Reporting of these case studies makes up the bulk of the study, and the evidence reported tends to confirm the hypotheses suggested and the arguments on which they rest. On the basis of the merchant interview programme, it is suggested that analysis of the cultural background and behavioural motives of merchants usefully illuminates patterns of location of high order retail businesses, now shown to be disparate, not centrally fixed. A verbal model is presented which systematizes the process of intracity retail site selection by business men, and which emphasizes this behavioural approach, to analysis of store location. Further implications of the argument concerning the internal structure of the city - especially in terms of the role of the C.B.D. in the contemporary city - are drawn out and made explicit as the study proceeds. One of these suggests that the C.B.D. may have lost its accessibility monopoly in the modern city, that centrality may have lost its value to certain traditionally core located activities, and that the historic market place in the centre of the city may have been replaced by a territorially larger area of the city (the "inner city market area") which now shares the accessibility advantages once enjoyed only by the C.B.D. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Many changes have occurred in retailing practices in Canada in recent years. These changes have been caused, in part, by socio-economic and demographic shifts in Canada's population. The movement of population to urban areas, increased disposable incomes and the mobility of the consumer have caused the retailers to respond to the changes with a number of innovations. Among the innovations are the development of the supermarket, the shopping centre and the discount house. Particular attention is focused in the thesis on the progress and adaptability of consumer co-operatives to the changes taking place in retailing in Canada. A second area studied is that of efficiencies possible through the integration by co-operatives of the functions of retailing, wholesaling and manufacturing. The response of consumer co-operatives to change is assessed first, in terms of the long-established co-operatives in Great Britain, Sweden and the United States and, secondly, with respect to the operation of consumer co-operatives in Canada. British and Swedish consumer co-operatives carry out substantial portions of the retail trade of Great Britain and Sweden while the American consumer co-operatives are a minor factor of the retail trade of the United States. The British co-operatives recognized the need to assess their operations and appointed a commission of inquiry. The Swedish co-operatives have recently been re-organized, particularly with respect to the operation of department stores. A detailed analysis of consumer co-operatives in Canada indicates that the main source of sales has been in farm supplies and consumer goods in rural areas. Progress is being made, particularly in Western Canada, in the development of consumer co-operatives in urban areas. Two co-operative wholesale societies are discussed from the point of view of the integration of co-operative enterprises. It would appear that there is a possibility that the British Columbia Co-operative Wholesale Society and Federated Co-operatives Limited could achieve a higher degree of integration than now exists. A study of the Sherwood Co-operative Association in Saskatchewan indicates that this co-operative has radically altered both its facilities and the product lines offered over a thirty-year period. An analysis of a sample of member-purchasers showed that the co-operative relies on a small minority of members for the bulk of its sales volume. A further sample was developed in order to analyze the residential location of the membership. The latter sample indicated that although the membership of the co-operative in the period up to 1944 was essentially rural, in more recent years there has been an increased participation by people in metropolitan Regina. A mail survey of British Columbia co-operatives resulted in a response from nineteen co-operatives, of which nine were vendors of food products. The nine consumer co-operatives in food products expended over one million dollars for improvement and construction of facilities in the previous five years. Projects totalling over $750,000 are planned for 1962. Three general conclusions were reached in the study. 1. Consumer co-operatives are making progress and adapting to changes in retailing in Canada. 2. Benefits of integrated operations through co-operative wholesale societies are possible but in some instances are not fully realized by the consumer co-operative associations. 3. Consumer co-operative development in the large metropolitan areas is necessary for any substantial growth in consumer co-operative sales in the future. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The activity of the tryptic enzymes occurring in the pyloric caeca of several salmons has been measured with respect to the effects of pH, ammonium chloride concentration and temperature on the enzyme bate material prepared from it. Several defferent methods of preparing a commercial bate have been investigated. From these data, an economic estimate of the feasibility of the production of leather bates from salmon pyloric caeca has been made. A sample of bate has been submitted for commercial testing. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate

No abstract included. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

The thesis presents an analysis of the influence of the international tin agreements (ITA) on the world tin industry between 1956 to 1985. The ITAs, the first of which came into effect in 1956, were jointly operated by tin producing and consuming countries. The International Tin Council (ITC) used a buffer stock and export controls to maintain the price of tin within a band. This experiment in stabilizing tin prices ended in October 1985, when the ITC was unable to continue its operations because it ran out of financial resources. The study first analyzes the market structure of the world tin industry in some detail. Then an econometric model which attempts to capture the behaviour of supply, demand and price of tin over the 30 year period is constructed. Particular attention was paid to the estimation of the tin production functions for major tin producing countries. In many of these countries, the output of the tin depended not only on the price of tin but also on the policies of the ITC as well as the internal political environment of the country. The model is then used to simulate a scenario in which the ITC does not intervene in the tin market. The differences in the price and revenue levels between the actual and simulated scenario are computed. The simulation results show that the tin agreements succeeded in their objective of reducing the variability of price and producers' revenue. In addition, the average level of price and revenues under the ITC regime was higher than under the non-intervention scenario. In evaluating policy options, it was shown that the establishment of a cartel is not viable in the long term for both economic and political reasons. The recommended policy options include improving access to futures markets, providing better transparency of tin market operations, the establishment of government policies which provide better incentives for tin mining and tin using industries in the major tin producing countries and continued efforts in research and development with the aim of lowering costs of production and increasing the uses for tin. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

When making economic analyses about a certain industry, it is essential to make some basic assumptions. One of these assumptions is either certainty or uncertainty. With certainty, predictions about economic behaviour can be made less cautiously. The petroleum industry is alleged to be influenced by elements of uncertainty, hence we expect that most of the decisions made in the industry are governed by expected uncertain outcomes. The task of this study, therefore, was to find out what the uncertainties might be in the petroleum industry of the developing countries. First, we discovered that governments of the developing countries may expect far too much from their oil resources. This expectation may be derived from various sources. One of them is the foreign exchange necessary to buy arms to defend their territories (like in the Middle East). Another source may be the pressing needs to accelerate economic growth. Finally, some of the countries may simply wish to be nationalistic. Regardless of the source, these expectations lead to some uncertainties in the industry. Secondly, some uncertainties are created by the oil producing companies themselves. By accumulating very large capital relative to companies in other industries, companies make themselves vulnerable to political policies. And one reason why this accumulation of large capital is possible is that their home governments have provided the economic incentives for them to expand. Thirdly, there is some degree of uncertainty specific to the petroleum industry. In the exploration stage, any addition to capacities is random. This randomness imposes uncertainties about the supply conditions in the industry. Also, there are a series of uncertainties about whether oil can be found in certain place or not, qualities and quantities that are of commercial values, the changes in the reservoir conditions during productions and the usual uncertainties which face any industries, i.e. price or demand conditions, and cost or supply conditions. Lastly, the governments and oil companies jointly agree to maximize the total profits of oil by seeking a common price policy but there is a reasonable degree of uncertainty about how to share this profit. We fall short of finding an optimum device for sharing the rent. However, we can conclude that the optimum rent sharing policy depends largely on the time horizon of the government of the developing country, and the type of economic growth it prefers. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate