In fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters of Management by Research degree
Wits Graduate School of Business
Faculty of Commerce, law and Management
University of the Witwatersrand / The pressure on the current mining sector in South Africa has forced South African explosives
companies to expand their activities into Sub-Saharan countries in order to sustain and grow
their sales and profits.
The purpose of the research was to assess the efficiency of the existing strategic frameworks
presented by the literature and deployed by the explosives companies expanding operations in
Sub-Sahara and to understand if and how they need to be adapted to suit the explosives
market. The research was thus guided by the following research questions:
How effective are actual strategic frameworks for the development of an African strategy for
South African explosives companies willing to expand operations in Africa?
Why aspects of current strategic frameworks do not apply to the commercial explosives
business in Africa?
Why would it be necessary to include other key variables in existing strategic frameworks to
develop an effective strategy for the explosives business?
How do other non-manageable variables such as politics, legal, cultural and administrative
barriers impact on the shaping of the final strategy for South African explosives companies
willing to expand their operations into Africa?
The research method followed was a single case study research approach leading to the
conclusion that, despite developing different strategies by existing explosives suppliers, they
performed well and showed growth in sales and profits. Notwithstanding their success, the
investigation revealed that some challenges and specific aspects of the explosives market were
not addressed by either the explosives companies’ strategies or the main strategic frameworks
described in the literature. Furthermore, the analysis identified external factors, such as
commodity prices, which contributed more to the success of explosives companies than the
strategies they implemented.
The results of the analysis described above led to the development of a strategic framework
which included the elements of strategies used by explosives companies, relevant model
elements from existing strategic frameworks, external factors (rival explanation) such as
commodity prices and variables which take into account the challenges encountered by
explosives companies in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as specific aspects of the explosives market.
It is believed that the strategic framework developed in the last section of the present research
takes into account the particular aspects of the explosives market and empowers South African
explosives companies with a framework which addresses the specific aspects of the explosives
markets to develop successful businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/20930 |
| Date | 25 August 2016 |
| Creators | Kaninda, Bernard |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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