The influence of information quality, system quality and service quality on student’s self-efficacy at institutions of higher learning in South Africa

The notion of improving student self-efficacy at institutions of higher learning has become a priority matter. There is a growing realization among institutions of higher learning that one way of achieving this, is by encouraging learners to make the best out of information technology use. It is therefore in this regards that this paper seeks to investigate the influence of information quality, system quality and service quality on student’s self-efficacy at institutions of higher learning in South Africa. To address this dearth, this study proposed three hypotheses that were validated using a sample of 271 university students in the Gauteng province. The findings indicated that there are positive relationships between the posited research variables. Managerial implications of the findings are discussed and limitations and future research directions are indicated.KIM201

Organisational support and its influence on teachers job satisfaction and job performance in Limpopo province of South Africa

The importance of organisational support is increasingly being recognized because of its potential positive influence on employee performance. However, studies that seek to investigate the influence of organisational support on the teachers’ job satisfaction and consequently their workplace performance at high school level have largely remained scant, particularly in developing countries of Southern Africa. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to fill this void. Three research hypotheses are posited and a sample data of 162 collected from the Limpopo Province of South Africa is used to empirically test the hypotheses. The results of this study show that, organisational support positively influences teachers’job satisfaction and their job performance. Managerial implications of the findings are discussed and limitations and future research directions are indicated.KIM201

The fostering role of information technology on SMEs’ strategic purchasing, logistics integration and business performance

Scholarly concerns about the fostering role of information technology (IT) in supply chain management have increased dramatically over the past decades. Nevertheless, there are significant issues yet to be addressed and resolved, one of which relates to the influences of IT on strategic purchasing, logistics integration and business performance in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In view of the importance of IT in today’s business world, and supply chain management in particular, the current study seeks to investigate the influence of IT on SMEs’ performance and the mediating role of strategic purchasing and logistics integration. Four hypothesised relationships are tested with a sample of 162 SMEs in Zimbabwe. The results suggest that IT positively influences SMEs’ strategic purchasing, logistics integration and business performance in a significant way. The managerial implications of the findings are discussed, and the limitations and future research directions are indicated.Key words: strategic purchasing, information technology (IT), logistics integration,business performance, small and medium enterprises (SMEs

Customers’ perceptions on ESKOM’s pre-paid billing system and the effects on their satisfaction and trust

Despite the increasing awareness of the paramount importance of customer satisfaction and trust in the context of large firms, research efforts focused on the investigation of the role of electricity pre-paid system performance on customer satisfaction and trust have largely remained scant, particularly in developing countries of Southern Africa. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to fill this void. Three research hypotheses are posited and a sample data of 151 collected from ESKOM company’ electricity pre-paid system customer is used to empirically test the hypotheses. The results of this study show that, the performance of the ESKOM prepaid billing system positively influences the customers’ satisfaction and trust in a significant way. Managerial implications of the findings are discussed and limitations and future research directions are indicated.KIM201

Does customer satisfaction lead to customer trust, loyalty and repurchase intention of local store brands? The case of Gauteng Province of South Africa

Notwithstanding the increasing researches on consumer behaviour, there is a dearth of studies that have investigated the influence of customer satisfaction on customer trust, loyalty and repurchase intention in the African retailing context. Therefore, using a data set of 151 from retailers in Gauteng Province of South Africa, this study examines these relationships. All the posited five hypotheses are supported. The results indicate that the relationship between customer satisfaction and their trust, customer satisfaction and their loyalty, customer trust and their loyalty, customer loyalty and their repurchase intention and customer trust and their repurchase intention are positive in a significant way. The research paper discusses both academic and managerial implications of the results and future research directions are suggested.KIM201

Implicit-explicit multirate infinitesimal GARK methods

This work focuses on the development of a new class of high-order accurate methods for multirate time integration of systems of ordinary differential equations. Unlike other recent work in this area, the proposed methods support mixed implicit-explicit (IMEX) treatment of the slow time scale. In addition to allowing this slow time scale flexibility, the proposed methods utilize a so-called `infinitesimal' formulation for the fast time scale through definition of a sequence of modified `fast' initial-value problems, that may be solved using any viable algorithm. We name the proposed class as implicit-explicit multirate infinitesimal generalized-structure additive Runge--Kutta (IMEX-MRI-GARK) methods. In addition to defining these methods, we prove that they may be viewed as specific instances of generalized-structure additive Runge--Kutta (GARK) methods, and derive a set of order conditions on the IMEX-MRI-GARK coefficients to guarantee both third and fourth order accuracy for the overall multirate method. Additionally, we provide three specific IMEX-MRI-GARK methods, two of order three and one of order four. We conclude with numerical simulations on two multirate test problems, demonstrating the methods' predicted convergence rates and comparing their efficiency against both legacy IMEX multirate schemes and recent third and fourth order implicit MRI-GARK methods

The influence of e-service quality on customer perceived value, customer satisfaction and loyalty in south africa

While researches on online shopping behaviour have been steadily increasing, they seem to be a paucity of studies that investigate the importance of E-service quality; customer perceived value and customer satisfaction that result in customer loyalty in online shopping perspective. The present research is an attempt to fill this gap by examining the relative influence of three antecedents of customer loyalty — e-service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer perceived value on consumer online shopping behaviour, using a sample of consumers in Gauteng Province of South Africa. The central argument of this paper is that online shopping behavior can be understood from the strength of loyalty outcomes. Six hypotheses are posited and in order to empirically test these hypotheses, a sample data set of 150 was used. Three hypotheses were supported while three (H1,H2 and H5) was rejected. Drawing from the study findings, this study provide tentative empirical support that online shopping behaviour can be influenced by e-service quality, customer satisfaction, loyalty and perceived value outcomes in Africa - a context that is often less researched on.KIM201

Predictors of student beer brand choice at institutions of higher learning : a case study of the Witwatersrand University

In a quest to ascertain why students prefer specific beer brands over other beverages and what perceived benefits are associated with their preferred brands, the current study was established to investigate the key factors that drive student beer brand choices at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits University). Irrespective of the rich body of literature on this subject, the problem of what brands really mean to students and what antecedents influence brand choice still remain unanswered. Consecutively, another important line of research reveals that in spite of a plethora of studies on this issue, available literature still remains inconclusive and is greatly confined to developed countries. In light of these two research outlines, the current study aims to ascertain, firstly, which beer brand is the most preferred amongst students and to quantitatively establish the main factors prompting Wits students to prefer a specific beer brand over another. Through these and other objectives, this study managed to fill the lacuna that exists in current literature, particularly with regards to South Africa. To realise the objectives of this study, a conceptual model was formulated and from this model, hypotheses were derived and later tested using Path Modelling. A structured survey questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 273 students registered within the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (CLM), at Wits University. Thereafter, the data was coded and analysed using SPSS 22 (for descriptive statistics) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) (for inferential statistics). AMOS 21 statistical software was used for SEM. The results suggested that Heineken was the most preferred beer brand in comparison with the fifteen listed brands and other brands that were specified by respondents. Brand advertising was found to be the key antecedent that influences student beer brand choices. The findings of the current research provided several theoretical and managerial implications and these will serve to boost and guide future research endeavours within the student beer brand domain. The contributions of this study will undoubtedly improve managerial practices in terms of effective branding strategies, while simultaneously and positively shaping policies relating to the field under study