The New Breed of Black South African Senior Managers: Helping South African Businesses Meet the Challenge of a Transforming Economy

Blacks, while still not an integral part of the management structure in the South African economy, are making gains. As management composition changes, cultural issues will become more salient. Early senior black managers were well versed in the Anglo/American cultures due to foreign education and work experience. Future gains will likely come from internal promotion. This new breed of black managers will be more immersed in their native culture. We posit that, although conflicts between Anglo/American business customs and customs based on the African ubuntu tradition may occur, South African firms will become stronger through increased diversity in senior management ranks and the blending of both Eurocentric and Afrocentric values and customs

The price of corporate social responsibility: the case of black economic empowerment transactions in South Africa

Since the demise of apartheid in South Africa, corporations have been encouraged to participate in the governmental goal of increasing corporate ownership by the black majority population. One vehicle that has arisen to help facilitate an increase in corporate ownership has been black economic empowerment (BEE) transactions. BEE transactions are essentially private placements of equity. Firms that have taken this socially activist position of selling portions of their equity, usually at a substantial discount, to black empowerment groups have received positive media attention in the name of “good corporate citizenship.” ; This study investigates the market performance of these BEE transactions, specifically addressing three questions. The first question is whether BEE transactions create or destroy wealth. To address this question we use an event study methodology to calculate the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) associated with public announcements of BEE transactions. The second question is whether specific types of BEE transactions did better or worse than others. We address this question by analyzing the cross-sectional variation in the CARs associated with public announcements of BEE transactions. The third question is whether firms that engage in BEE transactions experience negative post-announcement price performance. This last question is motivated by popular press accounts of the exploitation of black empowerment groups by white-owned South African corporations. To address this question, we test whether BEE transactions have benefited white corporate South Africa at the expense of the participating black empowerment groups.