Research Publications (Accounting and Informatics)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://ir-dev.dut.ac.za/handle/10321/212

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African women entrepreneurs and COVID-19 : towards achieving the African Union Agenda 2063
(AOSIS, 2022-01-01) Anwana, Emem O.; Aroba, Oluwasegun Julius
Research on the challenges facing African women entrepreneurship and the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is scant. This article explored the challenges and the impact of COVID-19 on African women-owned businesses and the effect thereof on the 17th goal of the African Union (AU) Agenda 2063. African women entrepreneurs experience many social inequalities, ranging from cultural norms to family to legal and regulatory measures to accessing finance. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these challenges as many African women entrepreneurs have been forced out of business because of measures taken by African governments to halt the spread of the disease. The article reviewed current literature on African women entrepreneurs and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic using two databases and is based on a total of 104 published articles. The article provided a foundation for post-COVID-19 policy directives in Africa. The authors recommend measures to mitigate these challenges and discuss strategies for policymakers to re-position African women entrepreneurs for the post-COVID-19 era towards achieving AU Agenda 2063 and realising the Africa we all want. Contribution: The study aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of ending poverty in Africa and the AU Agenda 2063 goal of achieving gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls to achieve the Africa we all want.
Challenges impeding women into leadership roles in a student-led organization at the South African higher education institution
(Business Perspectives, 2021-12) Jali, Nokwanda; Suknunan, Sachin; Bhana, Anrusha
The study shows that a patriarchal society where women are still in the minority when it comes to leadership positions is still dominating. A few studies are exploring the role of women in leadership in government and industry, and very little focus is paid on higher education institutions and more especially – from a female leadership perspective. Therefore, this paper aims to determine the factors that hindered female students from attaining leadership positions and simultaneously make recommendations to create more leadership opportunities in a nationally recognized student-led organization known as the Student Representative Council at a large public South African higher education institution – the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The target population was 16 female leaders who served in the University’s Student Representative Council from 2019 to 2020 of which 13 had responded. A qualitative approach was followed and interviews were conducted. The study employed inductive qualitative thematic analysis using NVIVO 12. Findings revealed that the Student Representative Council structure at the university was patriarchal with little commitment to gender equality. Males outnumbered women in leadership roles. Portfolios assigned to women were mainly administrative rather than leadership. Females were subjected to stereotypical behavior. The study recommended ways to promote female student leadership whereby policy and constitution change is required to facilitate gender equality and the implementation of quotas. Women should be empowered to enhance their leadership skills via effective leadership development programs specifically designed for females to address the leadership gap between males and females.
Change-point analysis : an effective technique for detecting abrupt change in the homicide trends in a democratic South Africa
(Hindawi Limited, 2020-04-21) Monyeki, Phirime; Naicker, N.; Obagbuwa, Ibidun Christiana
South Africa is considered the murder capital of the world. The challenge for the South African government is to attract foreign investment to boost the economy in a country plagued by homicide. In this study, a change-point analysis was used to pinpoint significant changes in the murder trends in each of the nine provinces in South Africa from 2005 to 2015. This analysis will assist authorities to gain a better understanding of the big picture view in order to mitigate against this crime. Two methods were used in the analysis, namely, CUSUM and Bootstrap. CUSUM was used to analyse data trends, and Bootstrap was used to calculate the occurrence of change points based on the confidence level. The results of the analysis clearly show the abrupt shifts in murder data across the provinces of South Africa. In addition, we used the South African population statistic dataset from 2005 to 2015 to evaluate the relationship between population of the nine provinces and contextualise the murder crime rates year to year and province to province.
Effects of total quality management implementation in a manufacturing industry
(Virtus Interpress, 2016) Assensoh-Kodua, Akwesi; Imrith, Ashwin
In today's highly competitive market, the demand for quality is important factor for companies to survive in the ever-expanding global marketplace. The unprecedented pace of globalisation, trade liberalisation, and technological changes in addition to human capital movement in the later years profoundly poses serious challenges for African companies to compete in an open market. African trade liberalisation through the elimination of intraregional tariffs, imposed to serve as a protective barrier to local industries have also worsen the plight of local infant industries. African Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) poses challenges for South African companies as they have to compete with more industralised and older companies. The concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) developed as a result of intense global competition has therefore become a compelling concept for African companies seeking to survive in an uneven grounds of competition. This paper seeks to examine whether the implementation of TQM has effect on LMI in Durban by developing a research model to uncover the barriers and benefits of TQM. A sample population of employees from a manufacturing industry were selected to participate in this study. It became clear that, this study have found a significant relationship between the positions at the manufacturing industry and their opinion of TQM. The Spearman correlation coefficient indicated a significant relationship between TQM and factors such as Management and Commitment Leadership Importance, Work Environment and Culture Importance, Customer Focus Importance, Customer Focus Practice, Resource Management Importance. These findings are in agreement with other studies of scholars that highlights the benefits and barriers of TQM.