Can models for knowledge management be successfully implemented to manage the diversity of indigenous knowledge?

With the dawn of the new political dispensation in South Africa, new frameworks emerged on macro level for a better understanding of equality, empowerment and development. Among these were the Reconstruction and Development Programme, the government's Macro-economic Strategy (GEAR), the National System for Innovation and the African Renaissance. This set the scene for reconstruction, innovation and the establishment of human rights, sustainable development and democratization in South Africa

Business intelligence and the telecommunications industry : can business intelligence lead to higher profits?

Organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to increase profits as competition in the marketplace continually pressurizes margins. Organizations will have to do more to enjoy sustainable profits in the future and information technology could arguably be the key to assisting management with the task of increasing profits on a sustainable basis. Business intelligence (BI) could be the competitive advantage for organizations to increase profitability. South Africa is faced with an unemployment rate of over 40% and it is not desirable that costs are contained by reducing staff. It is clear that innovative ideas should be looked at to ensure that organizations continue to make profits. Information management programmes offer the necessary tools to ensure that efficient and strategic decisions are made

Impact of bank competition on the interest rate pass-through in the euro area

This paper analyses the impact of loan market competition on the interest rates applied by euro area banks to loans and deposits during the 1994-2004 period, using a novel measure of competition called the Boone indicator. We find evidence that stronger competition implies significantly lower spreads between bank and market interest rates for most loan market products, in line with expectations. Using an error correction model (ECM) approach to measure the effect of competition on the pass-through of market rates to bank interest rates, we likewise find that banks tend to price their loans more in accordance with the market in countries where competitive pressures are stronger. Further, where loan market competition is stronger, we observe larger bank spreads (implying lower bank interest rates) on current account and time deposits. This would suggest that the competitive pressure is heavier in the loan market than in the deposit markets, so that banks under competition compensate for their reduction in loan market income by lowering their deposit rates. We observe also that bank interest rates in more competitive markets respond more strongly to changes in market interest rates. These findings have important monetary policy implications, as they suggest that measures to enhance competition in the European banking sector will tend to render the monetary policy transmission mechanism more effective.

A new approach to measuring competition in the loan markets of the Euro area.

This paper is the first that applies a recently introduced measure of competition, the Boone indicator, to the banking industry. This approach is able to measure competition of bank market segments, such as the loan market, whereas many well-known measures of competition can consider the entire banking market only. A caveat of the Boone-indicator may be that it assumes that banks generally pass on at least part of their efficiency gains to their clients. Like most other model-based measures, this approach ignores differences in bank product quality and design, as well as the attractiveness of innovations. We measure competition on the lending markets in the five major EU countries as well as, for comparison, the UK, the US and Japan. Bearing the mentioned caveats in mind, our findings indicate that over the period 1994-2004 the US had the most competitive loan market, whereas overall loan markets in Germany and Spain were among the best competitive in the EU. The Netherlands occupied a more intermediate position, whereas in Italy competition declined significantly over time. The French, Japanese and UK loan markets were generally less competitive. Turning to competition among specific types of banks, commercial banks tend to be more competitive, particularly in Germany and the US, than savings and cooperative banks.

Intellectual capital management in a South African retail company

This research commenced with a study of the concepts of knowledge management and intellectual capital to establish a clear understanding of the importance of the management of intellectual assets of a company. In the review of existing measurement models the strengths and weaknesses and primary uses of each model were explored to understand the different goals for using different models. After the need for an intellectual capital management tool was established, different models were considered and recommendations were made for developing an intellectual capital management tool in retail companies in South Africa

Comment on "The Jones-Hore theory of radical-ion-pair reactions is not self-consistent" (arXiv:1010.3888v3)

A short comment on "The Jones-Hore theory of radical-ion-pair reactions is not self-consistent" (arXiv:1010.3888v3) is presented. In the comment, it is pointed out that the paper includes a misconception about the Jones-Hore approach in Chem. Phys. Lett. 488 (2010) 90-93. The re-formulation is presented and it is demonstrated that the Jones-Hore theory is consistent at least on the point claimed by I. K. Kominis in the paper

Dynamics and equilibria under incremental horizontal differentiation on the Salop circle

We study product differentiation on a Salop circle when firms relocate incrementally due to bounded rationality. We prove that, under common assumptions on demand, firms relocate only when two or more firms target the same niche. In any other case, there is no incentive for any firm to relocate incrementally. We prove that all distributions in which firms are sufficiently far apart in product space are unstable Nash equilibria. We prove, in particular, that the classical equidistant distribution is an unstable Nash equilibrium that cannot emerge from another distribution. However, we show that if each firm is engaged in head-on rivalry with one other competitor, the industry converges to a ’equidistantesque’ equilibrium of clusters of rivals

Een veelbelovend verbondsprediker : een historisch en homiletisch onderzoek naar de preken van Wilhelmus à Brakel (1635-1711)

In deze scriptie staan de preken van Wilhelmus à Brakel (1635-1711) centraal, een bekende predikant uit de kringen van de Nadere Reformatie. Zijn preken worden zowel historisch als homiletisch onderzocht, omdat gebleken is dat eerder onderzoek hiernaar veel vragen open heeft gelaten. Het eerste onderdeel van de scriptie is authenticiteitsonderzoek naar de zeventien postuum gepubliceerde preken van À Brakel. Hierbij is bijzondere aandacht voor de Dordtse publicist Johan Hofman, die tussen 1710 en 1713 vijftien preken van À Brakel uitgaf. Gebleken is dat twaalf van de vijftien preken authenticiteitsproblemen kennen. Minstens drie van de twaalf preken zijn (vrijwel) volledig vertaalde preken van Engelse puriteinen die Hofman op naam van À Brakel heeft gezet. De negen andere preken zijn in meer of mindere mate aangevuld met vertaalde puriteinse teksten. Hofman gaf echter ook drie preken van À Brakel uit die wel als authentiek bestempeld kunnen worden. Twee andere postuum gepubliceerde preken kennen geen authenticiteitsproblemen. In het tweede onderdeel van de scriptie zijn deze vijf authentieke preken homiletisch onderzocht. Daarbij is op verschillende punten afstand genomen van de conclusies van eerdere onderzoekers. Deze hebben zich veelal gebaseerd op preken waarvan in deze scriptie duidelijk is geworden dat ze niet authentiek zijn. In dit onderdeel is geconcludeerd met een typering van À Brakels prediking. À Brakels prediking kent vijf karakteristieken. Allereerst is het voetiaanse prediking, wat methode betreft. Ten tweede is het verbondsprediking, gezien de centrale rol die het genadeverbond speelt. Dit houdt verband met de derde karakteristiek; het is belofteprediking. Niet alleen wordt het heil beloofd aan allen die willen, begeren en zoeken; bovendien worden er heel concrete beloften gedaan naar onderscheiden staat en stand. Ten vierde is het pastorale prediking; À Brakel had oog voor de pastorale nood in de gemeente, in het bijzonder voor hen die worstelden met de toe-eigening des heils. Ten slotte is het bevindelijke prediking: de toepassing en de beleving van het heil krijgen veel aandacht

Knowledge sharing via enterprise intranets – asking the right questions.

The corporate intranet is a common feature of both public and private sector enterprises today. It has been found that once the infrastructure and architecture are in place, the real challenge for enterprises is to get users to contribute their own knowledge willingly and to use that of others. The culture of the enterprise needs to promote it. To stay competitive, enterprises need relevant and current knowledge from a variety of sources to allow them to innovate and create new knowledge and consequently new products or solutions for their clients. The enterprise intranet could be the ideal tool to make this possible. For effective knowledge sharing to take place, a knowledge sharing culture and proper knowledge sharing tools and facilities are required