World agriculture, despite numerous supply and demand challenges, has to increase its production capacity significantly to satisfy the increased demand for food. In addition, the sector has a significant developmental role to play. Access to credit is, however, a key enabler in this regard. This paper reports on a countryspecific study performed to promote the success of agricultural value chain financing in South Africa, with a specific focus on the financing of agricultural production. The literature review provides a global overview of agricultural production, agricultural value chain financing and the potential role of leading chain actors as connecting institutions. The empirical study provides strong evidence of significant relationships between the dependent variable of the study, namely the perceived success of agricultural value chain financing in South Africa, and the intervening and independent variables. The independent variables value chain integration, strategic partnering, risk management, supporting services, sustainable production, product range and external financing positively influence the intervening variable-value chain competitiveness. In the same manner, the intervening variable of value chain competitiveness positively influences the perceived success of agricultural value chain financing in this study.
The size of the family business component of the South African economy suggests that it is the predominant way of doing business in South Africa. A large proportion of these family businesses are Greek-owned. More importantly it is estimated that approximately 95% of all Greek businesses in South Africa can be classified as family businesses. The sustainability of Greek family businesses requires that they maintain good governance practices that are both economically and environmentally acceptable to all stakeholders. It also requires that the next generation of Greek entrepreneurs effectively balance good governance of their businesses with their family commitments.The primary objective of this study was to identify and explore the internal, culturally-related factors that influence good governance to ensure the survival, growth and sustainability of Greek family businesses in South Africa. A theoretical model of good governance factors was proposed and tested using Structural Equation Modelling.The study found that perceived good governance in a South African Greek family business context needs to be managed in terms of three factors, namely risk control, the internal regulatory environment and the protection of the stakeholders' interest. The study found that needs alignment, cultural needs alignment, vision and ethnic entrepreneurial growth all impact directly or indirectly on perceived good governance in South African Greek family businesses.
This study explores South African consumers' perceptions of eco-labels on products by investigating consumers' awareness of eco-labels, consumers' ability to evaluate label information and consumers' degree of environmental concern. Over the past 20 years, eco-labels have been one of the most widely used voluntary instruments to indicate eco-friendly products. Eco-labels further help to foster and develop consumer awareness of their impact on the environment. Eco-labelling plays an important part in the consumer decision-making process because consumers are presented with the knowledge of products being environmentally friendly. Labels on products are powerful marketing tools that act as essential communication conveyers between businesses, public authorities and consumers. Environmental labels convey to consumers a sense of environmental consideration on the part of the manufacturer. Although past research has shown consumers easily adopt eco-labels and actively care about the environment, not much research has been done in the South African context. A quantitative study was employed to empirically investigate a sample of 120 respondents who completed a self-administered, structured questionnaire. The results showed that most respondents recognised the European Union energy label. Concerning eco-labels on deodorants, most respondents recognised the Ozone Friendly eco-label whereas the least respondents recognized the ALU aluminium recycling eco-label. Sufficient evidence was found that consumers are generally aware of the environmental impact of products. Consumers, however, often struggle to identify environmentally friendly goods and are unable to verify the environmental claims made by these goods. As this was an exploratory study, the results indeed assisted in identifying areas for future research.
Immigrant family businesses are one of the most unique, complex and dynamic systems in our modern-day society. The blending of two inherently different realms — the performance-based world of business and the emotion-based domain of the immigrant family — creates a system potentially fraught with confusion and conflict. Applying traditional, limited and exclusively Western views of entrepreneurship to immigrant family business creation, growth and sustainability is to ignore or discount the core cultural/ethical values and ethnic contexts in which these firms operate. The objective of this conceptual paper is to identify and explore the three variables of enterprise, ethnicity and family dynamics that influence corporate governance to ensure the survival, growth and sustainability of immigrant family businesses. Conclusions and recommendations for future research are discussed.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine affective commitment, normative commitment, and continuance commitment in a cross-national context to identify if the effect of country-specific cultural orientation on organizational commitment of faculty in higher education functions invariably in different countries.Design/methodology/approachThe work expands on Meyer and Allen’s (1991) three-component model of organizational commitment. It includes relevant literature review on ten countries and the results of a survey of university faculty members, assessing their institutions’ human resources practices and their effect on organizational commitment. Basic descriptive statistics were performed on nominal and interval data, means, medians, and standard deviations were computed, and tests of mean equivalence, including ANOVA tests, were performed. In certain instances, Pearson and Spearman correlations were computed to ascertain correlation, andχ2tests for randomized response were used, while Cronbach’sαtest helped to establish survey instrument validity.FindingsThough certain differences may exist between different countries and cultures with respect to the three-component model of organizational commitment, there is strong evidence of the existence of invariance and, thus, generalizability of the model across cultures.Research limitations/implicationsCultural studies have focused on differences in organizational commitment at national levels. Further attempts to identify the universality of factors leading to organizational commitment should account for culture in the study of employee-related globalization issues in higher education institutes. Knowledge of cultural impact is also useful from a managerial perspective, and for the design of relevant strategies.Practical implicationsNational context plays a major role in shaping the nature of educational institutions. This study brings out the need for a deeper understanding of invariance in organizational commitment (inter-alia, through the three-component model).Originality/valueThis study contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between organizational commitment and its various antecedents, including human resources management practices, for faculty in higher education institutes.
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