Faculty of Accounting and Informatics
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Item The inclination to pursue fashion and beauty digital entrepreneurship amongst selected final year Diploma students in a South African university(2024) Maphanga, Ezile; Moyane, Smangele Pretty; Nkomo, NtandoIn the age of digital transformation, the inclination to pursue digital entrepreneurship has become rampant, bringing about a broader acceptance of the idea of conducting business online especially by young people. In that regard, entrepreneurs are seizing the opportunity through digital entrepreneurship, with the fashion and beauty industry being a prominent sector for online business. Despite the growth in online fashion and beauty trading, there is limited research and understanding with the discourse surrounding it. The aim of the study was to examine the inclination to pursue fashion and beauty digital entrepreneurship amongst selected final year Diploma students in a South African university. The objectives of the study were: to establish the level of interest in pursuing digital entrepreneurship with regards to fashion and beauty amongst selected final year Diploma students, to determine factors that would influence the uptake of digital entrepreneurship with reference to fashion and beauty amongst selected final year Diploma students, and to assess using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) the inclination to pursue digital entrepreneurship in fashion and beauty amongst selected final year Diploma students. The study employed the Technology Acceptance Model to determine whether students intended to accept digital entrepreneurship. Methodologically, the study implemented the positivist research paradigm. The research approach chosen was quantitative. A survey research design was conducted through a questionnaire, as a data collection tool, from a census of the 29 final year students studying their Diploma in Fashion Design and 65 studying for their Diploma in Somatology. Instruments were pre-tested on 10 students, 5 in the Advanced Diploma in Fashion Design and 5 in the Advanced Diploma in Somatology at DUT. Findings showed a strong interest to pursue digital entrepreneurship in the fashion and beauty space. However, hesitations related to ‘customer satisfaction’ and ‘trust’ negatively influence the uptake of digital entrepreneurship. The findings also revealed that respondents were most likely to incorporate digital technologies in their businesses and saw the importance of administrative functions and advertising skills to have when venturing into digital entrepreneurship. The study recommends the youth to: be encouraged to consider entrepreneurship by South African universities; familiarize themselves with digital entrepreneurship and get education and knowledge in that regard; acquire the necessary skills in order to venture into digital entrepreneurship.Item Factors that determine the continuance intention of people to use online social networks for business transactions(2015-01-15) Assensoh-Kodua, Akwesi; Olugbara, Oludayo O.Social computing researchers are devoting efforts to understand the complex social behaviour of people using social networking platforms, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, so as to inform the design of human-centered and socially aware systems. This research study investigates the factors of perceived trust, user satisfaction, social norm and perceived behavioural control, to develop a model for predicting the continuance intention of people to use online social networking for business transactions. In order to validate the predictive capability of the model developed, an online survey was used to collect 300 useable responses from people who have used LinkedIn and Twitter social networking platforms for business transactions at least once. The Partial Least Square (PLS) mathematical analysis tool was thereafter used to perform confirmatory factor analysis, analysis of measurement and structural models. The study results provide significant evidence in support of the factors of perceived trust, social norm and user satisfaction, as determinants of the continuance intention of people using online social networking platforms for business transactions. Perceived trust was found to exhibit a strong relationship with social norm and explains a variance of (R2=0.47). In addition, social norm explains a variance of (R2=0.44) and user satisfaction explains a variance of (R2=0.42), resulting in the model predicting (R2=0.56) continuance intention. In addition, the research model was tested for the moderating effects of usage habit, which were found to significantly moderate relationships between continuance intention and perceived trust, PBCand social norm, resulting in an improved predictive capability of (R2=0.89). The moderating result indicates that a higher level of habit increases the effect of perceived trust, Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC) and social norm on continuance intention. This result confirms the theoretical argument that the strength of user satisfaction to predict continuance, is strengthened by usage habit. The results of this research study generally have practical implications for individuals who desire to offer commercial services on online social networking technologies, to seriously consider building trust and maintaining user satisfaction to sustain their businesses. They should also think of strategies embedded in peer pressure, to attract, retain and establish trustworthy relationships with customers.