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Research Publications (Management Sciences)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://ir-dev.dut.ac.za/handle/10321/217

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    Globalisation and convergence of food taste in the case of South African pizza
    (AJHTL, 2016) Balkaran, Rishi; Giampiccoli, Andrea; Mtapuri, Oliver
    Globally food is central to cultures and this brings uniqueness and diversity to global cuisines. The aim of this article is to analyze the contribution of globalisation to convergence/divergence of food taste using pizza as a proxy. To that end, the article specifically makes comparisons between pizzas from Italian cookbooks with South African and franchised United States ones. The article is primarily based on secondary data. The article posits that beyond pizza names, the impact of globalisation has been profound on the culinary and gastronomic landscape using the South African pizza as a case in point. Franchises have adapted menus as a strategic way to penetrate new markets. This has been done through the adoption of local ‘geographic’ names to name the pizzas and the introduction of local varieties of pizza. The article also observes patterns of uniformity and dis-uniformity of food production, the standardisation and de-standardisation of pizza to produce adulterated versions, changes in consumption patterns and lifestyles and the replacement of local cuisines and homogenisation of tastes via the migration of pizza. Pizza has morphed and universalised to become an everyday food through the ‘pizzarisation’ of gastronomies throughout the world. Global firms through their franchises can influence the speed and direction of changes in menus, eating patterns, taking out, or eating on site, regularity of eating, eating with bare hands or utensils and so forth.
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    Community-based tourism affinity index: a visitor’s approach
    (AJHTL, 2015) Giampiccoli, Andrea; Jugmohan, Sean; Mtapuri, Oliver
    Community-based tourism (CBT) is a model of community development which places the community at the centre of that development. It attempts to harness the effort of communities through their empowerment for the benefit of the community. This article develops a Community-based Visitors Affinity Index (CBTVAI) based on perusal of extant literature in which only secondary was used in terms of research methodology. The key contribution of this article is the development of a CBTVAI which is an instrument useful to owners/managers of CBT entities in evaluating their CBT businesses from a visitor perspective. The index does not include all possible items because CBT ventures exist in different contexts with different requirements. This index merely provides sample items related various basic aspects linkedto the attractiveness of CBT to visitors. As such, the index represents a flexible framework which can continuously evolve and be reformulated based on specific needs of a CBT entity. The CBTVAI has some strengths and weaknesses. Some of its strengths include the provision a visitor perspective grounded in real life experience; a framework for profiling CBT ventures; a platform for receiving visitor feedback in the form of immediate ‘post-trip’ feedback; and a tool for assessing broad visitor/customer (dis)satisfaction with CBT offerings. The weaknesses include: failing to take into account the visitor’s demographics and psychographics; ignores prices per item; places an extra burden on communities to undertake technical data analysis which skills could be deficient in communities.
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    Dividing the spoils? Mining and tourism in South Africa
    (MCSER Publishing, 2014-01) Giampiccoli, Andrea; Mtapuri, Oliver
    This article looks at the mining and tourism sectors through the prisms of a society still attempting to redress the evils of the apartheid past. In so doing, it provides a typology of the dominant characteristics active in both sectors to upack the structural factors which oppress the precariats in these sectors. Precariats are the employees in a precarious situation in these sectors trying to eke out a living under extermely difficult working conditions. From the analysis, the common denominator in the two sectors is the low ‘slavery’ wages. The poor has not benefited materially from economic growth such that unemployment, poverty and inequality still remain as the country’s major challenges. The Black Economic Empowerment policy has been found wanting in empowering previously disadvantaged groups due partly to the co-option of black elites by white capital resulting in the maintenance of the pre-1994 concentration patterns. This article advocates a paradigm shift towards a system in which redistributive justice should be instituted, including a balanced distribution of power/control, resources, knowledge, capacities and benefits in these sectors for the benefit of all.
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    Dividing the spoils? mining and tourism in South Africa
    (MCSER Publishing, 2014-01) Giampiccoli, Andrea; Mtapuri, Oliver
    This article looks at the mining and tourism sectors through the prisms of a society still attempting to redress the evils of the apartheid past. In so doing, it provides a typology of the dominant characteristics active in both sectors to upack the structural factors which oppress the precariats in these sectors. Precariats are the employees in a precarious situation in these sectors trying to eke out a living under extermely difficult working conditions. From the analysis, the common denominator in the two sectors is the low ‘slavery’ wages. The poor has not benefited materially from economic growth such that unemployment, poverty and inequality still remain as the country’s major challenges. The Black Economic Empowerment policy has been found wanting in empowering previously disadvantaged groups due partly to the co-option of black elites by white capital resulting in the maintenance of the pre-1994 concentration patterns. This article advocates a paradigm shift towards a system in which redistributive justice should be instituted, including a balanced distribution of power/control, resources, knowledge, capacities and benefits in these sectors for the benefit of all.