Agricultural entrepreneurship development as strategy for economic empowerment: The case of small-scale farmers in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa
- Authors: Akinwale, Olusola Mokayode
- Date: 2020-11
- Subjects: Sustainable development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , South Africa -- Economic conditions
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/20241 , vital:45637
- Description: This study emanated from the struggle for economic empowerment among small-scale farmers in South African. The study advocates for the establishment of a viable environment where agricultural entrepreneurship can thrive. While the South African Nation Development Plan (NDP) proposed to create one million jobs through agricultural sector by 2030, the majority of small-scale farmers in South Africa are struggling to grow beyond the level of subsistence farming, and the youths appear not to be interested in the farming. It is therefore become necessary to conduct this current study that is exploratory in nature; it explored several factors and barriers to agricultural entrepreneurship development, as well as factors that can contribute to the development of prosperous and sustainable agricultural entrepreneurship among small-scale farmers in South African. The study was conducted in two district municipalities of Eastern Cape Province of South Africa – OR Tambo and Chris Hani. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to make findings. Findings from the study shows that economic empowerment can be achieved through agricultural entrepreneurship development by giving adequate attention to specific factors like individuals’ attitude, production skills, access to market and marketing skills, management skills. Empirically, basic components like personal interests, adequate training and background, efficient extension service, famers’ network and communication, specific goal-oriented, understanding market, farmers’ collaboration, and access to sufficient funding are few of the factors that will make the small-scale farmers grow to the level of commercial farming. The study concluded that prerequisite to developing a sustainable agricultural entrepreneurship climate among small-scale farmers in South African is the combination of basic components aforementioned. Suggestions were made for strong collaboration between government and private sectors to provide development assistance for small-scale farmers as they struggles to develop their small-scale farming to sustainable entrepreneurship level. , Thesis (DPhil) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2020
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- Date Issued: 2020-11
A personality-based behavioural model: Susceptibility to phishing on social networking sites
- Authors: Frauenstein, Edwin Donald
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: Phishing , Social networks , Personality , Self-presentation in mass media , Internet fraud , Internet users Habits and behavior , Big Five model , Human information processing , Heuristic-Systematic Model (HSM)
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190306 , vital:44982 , 10.21504/10962/190306
- Description: The worldwide popularity of social networking sites (SNSs) and the technical features they offer users have created many opportunities for malicious individuals to exploit the behavioral tendencies of their users via social engineering tactics. The self-representation and social interactions on SNSs encourage users to reveal their personalities in a way which characterises their behaviour. Frequent engagement on SNSs may also reinforce the performance of certain activities, such as sharing and clicking on links, at a “habitual” level on these sites. Subsequently, this may also influence users to overlook phishing posts and messages on SNSs and thus not apply sufficient cognitive effort in their decision-making. As users do not expect phishing threats on these sites, they may become accustomed to behaving in this manner which may consequently put them at risk of such attacks. Using an online survey, primary data was collected from 215 final-year undergraduate students. Employing structural equation modelling techniques, the associations between the Big Five personality traits, habits and information processing were examined with the aim to identify users susceptible to phishing on SNSs. Moreover, other behavioural factors such as social norms, computer self-efficacy and perceived risk were examined in terms of their influence on phishing susceptibility. The results of the analysis revealed the following key findings: 1) users with the personality traits of extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism are more likely to perform habitual behaviour, while conscientious users are least likely; 2) users who perform certain behaviours out of habit are directly susceptible to phishing attacks; 3) users who behave out of habit are likely to apply a heuristic mode of processing and are therefore more susceptible to phishing attacks on SNSs than those who apply systematic processing; 4) users with higher computer self-efficacy are less susceptible to phishing; and 5) users who are influenced by social norms are at greater risk of phishing. This study makes a contribution to scholarship and to practice, as it is the first empirical study to investigate, in one comprehensive model, the relationship between personality traits, habit and their effect on information processing which may influence susceptibility to phishing on SNSs. The findings of this study may assist organisations in the customisation of an individual anti-phishing training programme to target specific dispositional factors in vulnerable users. By using a similar instrument to the one used in this study, pre-assessments could determine and classify certain risk profiles that make users vulnerable to phishing attacks. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Commerce, Information Systems, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
Development and assessment of rifampicin loaded self-microemulsifying drug delivery systems
- Authors: Mphaphuli, Mashudu Theodore
- Date: 2021-04
- Subjects: To be added
- Language: English
- Type: thesis , text , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/178503 , vital:42945
- Description: Access restricted until April 2023. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Pharmacy, Pharmacy, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-04
Lifting the veil on the "Untouchable": a study of Muslims living with HIV in Durban, South Africa
- Authors: Shaik, Shabnam
- Date: 2023-10-13
- Subjects: AIDS (Disease) Religious aspects Islam , HIV infections Religious aspects Islam , AIDS (Disease) (Islamic law) South Africa , Muslims South Africa Durban , Traditional medicine South Africa , Integrative medicine
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/432518 , vital:72877 , DOI 10.21504/10962/432519
- Description: HIV and AIDS has been prominently studied, by both biomedical and social scientists, since the 1980s. Despite the extensive research that has emerged globally, Muslims have largely been absent in much of the discourse on HIV and AIDS. While the disease is said to be under control in many parts of the world, hidden populations pose a risk to increase in prevalence. Muslims living with HIV are one such hidden population and are only recently gaining representation in studies on HIV and AIDS. Quantitative studies reflect a sharp increase in HIV prevalence in countries with significant Muslim populations, however, more in-depth qualitative studies are needed to garner an understanding of the nature of the disease among Muslims. Muslims have a long history in South Africa, beginning with indentured slavery in Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) in 1860. There are no specific HIV and AIDS prevention campaigns directed at Muslims in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Muslims in Durban do not regard HIV is a significant concern for them due to religious doctrine, which they believe if followed will keep them safe from infection. My findings suggest that there is cause for concern over the spread of HIV and AIDS amongst Muslims in Durban. The hidden nature of the disease in the Muslim community has created challenges to curbing the spread of the disease due to the concealment of its presence and the marginalisation of Muslims living with HIV and AIDS. This study conceptualises the HIV and AIDS lived experience amongst Muslims in Durban, South Africa, and uncovers the social and cultural context of the disease. The qualitative study used life histories with ten Muslims living with HIV and semi-structured and unstructured interviews with ten caregivers, five health care professionals and two religious leaders to gain a detailed understanding of the lived experiences of Muslims in Durban. Through the lenses of Purity and Danger, Stigma and Spoilt Identity, and Social Death, this study found that religion [Islam] and its strong moral code influences understandings and perceptions of HIV and AIDS which, in turn affects diagnosis, treatment, care, social identity, and the social well-being of Muslims living with HIV who face stigma, discrimination, shame, and ostracisation from their own community. This study highlights the gaps in the literature on Muslims living with HIV and by providing insight into the lives of participants, the study draws attention to the plight of Muslims living with HIV and AIDS (MLWHIV) and encourages more qualitative studies to be conducted so that a multifaceted understanding of Muslims living with HIV can be created. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Anthropology, 2023
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- Date Issued: 2023-10-13
A social media analytics framework for decision-making in citizen relationship management
- Authors: Yakobi, Khulekani
- Date: 2022-12
- Subjects: Social Media Analytics -- South Africa , Decision making --Mathematical models , Service delivery
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/60048 , vital:62815
- Description: Globally social media has shown unprecedented levels of adoption and Social Media Analytics (SMA) is a rapidly growing topic. For governments, SMA holds the promise of providing tools and frameworks to collect, monitor, analyse and visualise social media data, usually driven by specific requirements from a target application. However, social media data is noisy and unstructured, and organisations struggle to extract knowledge from this data, and convert it into actual intelligence. This study argues that SMA can support intelligent decision-making for Citizen Relationship Management (CzRM). CzRM is a growing effort of governments around the world to strive to respond rapidly to their citizens by fostering a closer relationship thereby creating more effective and efficient service delivery. However, there is a little evidence in literature on empirical studies of any existing decision-making framework for CzRM and SMA adoption. In particular, there is a gap with regards incorporating SMA into decision-making for CzRM of governments, particularly in developing countries like South Africa. The aim of this study was to develop a framework that provides guidelines, including methods and tools, incorporating SMA into decision-making for CzRM in the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) and the Free State Provincial Government (FSPG) of South Africa. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and conceptual analysis method was conducted to design the Social Media Analytics Framework for Decision-making in the context of CzRM (the SMAF). The findings from the literature review revealed several benefits and challenges with SMA, in particular the shortage of skills, guidelines, methods and tools for SMA. These challenges were used to draft guidelines that were included in the framework, which consists of five components that can be used to derive intelligent information from SMA. The pragmatic philosophy and a case study design was used to generate an in-depth, multifaceted understanding of the underlying problems in the case of the GPG and the FSPG. The German North-West Metropolitan region was used as a third case study to provide a more global perspective and a case of a developed country in terms of Gross Domestic Product. The scope of the study was limited to social media posts by provincial citizens related to CzRM and service delivery. Both formative and summative evaluations of the proposed theoretical framework were conducted. The formative evaluation was conducted v | Page as an Expert Review to receive feedback of the framework from the experts in the field of Computer Science and Information Systems. The findings validated the framework and some minor improvements were made based on the experts’ recommendations. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with participants from government managers and decision makers in the three cases were conducted. Case documents for the three cases were collected and reviewed. All collected data was analysed using the Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) method and common categories and themes were identified. Summative evaluations were conducted in the form of a Field Study, which consisted of an analysis of Twitter data from the three cases, and a closing FGD with Business Intelligence (BI) experts at the primary case of the e-Government department of the GPG. The findings revealed that SMA has been adopted in all three cases; however, while their strategies are comprehensive their implementations are very much in their early stages. The findings also highlighted the status of SMA in government and some potential gaps and areas for implementing the framework. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Science, School of Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics, 2022
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- Date Issued: 2022-12