Graduate School

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has remained topical and contentious as various schools of thought are put forward on its relationship to cost versus profitability for businesses. This study explored the relevance of CSR and its effect on the survival of businesses during an economic meltdown in Zimbabwe. The study purposively sampled 31 companies that are listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and have sound CSR programmes. A total of 93 questionnaires were administered and a Chi-square was conducted to test and establish the relationship between CSR strategies and business survival. The study concluded that companies with CSR strategies had a higher chance of surviving during turbulent times. Following the findings of the study, it is recommended that government comes up with CSR policies for different industries and that organisations continue investing in CSR especially in times of economic challenges.

This study evaluated the impact of e-procurement as a strategic sourcing tool in the Beverage Industry in Zimbabwe. A quantitative survey of 57 respondents drawn from the key players in the Beverage Industry in Harare, Zimbabwe was conducted using a questionnaire. In line with the research objectives, descriptive statistics were calculated and cross tabulations were also performed in SPSS to produce outputs that provided answers to the research questions. The results show that through the use of e-procurement, companies are able to move towards partnership or lean supply with a smaller number of more technically proficient suppliers. The study concluded that there is a significant positive association between e-procurement and improvement in procurement efficiency. The study recommends that organisations develop adequate business processes to support e-procurement and the alignment of existing procurement processes with e-procurement procedures.

This study investigated factors that inform individual investors in their decision-making on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. The main objective was to identify and assess the effect of the behavioural factors on investment decisions of individual investors. A quantitative survey of 291 randomly selected individual Zimbabwe Stock Exchange investors was conducted. Multiple regression analysis was used to calculate the correlation coefficient of behavioural factors and investment decision while correlation analysis was used to measure the strength of the relationship between the independent variables. The findings of the study established that the predictor variables had a strong positive association between them and individual investor decision at a significant level of 0.01 and 0.005. The findings of the study revealed that individual investor decisions are influenced by the behavioural factors which are; anchoring, availability, gambler’s fallacy, overconfidence, herding, loss aversion...

The purpose of this study was to analyse the impact of supply chain management (SCM) on the competitiveness of the telecommunications industry in Zimbabwe. The objectives of the study were to figure out the extent to which SCM contributes to organisational competitive advantage in the telecommunications industry in Zimbabwe, to determine the level of bargaining power when making local and off shore purchases, the extent of risk exposure due to global transactions and finally, to ascertain the strategies used on supplier ratings. Interviews and questionnaires were used as the main instruments for data collection. Questionnaires were distributed to 50 respondents with 36 responding, representing a 72 percent response rate. Data were analysed using SPSS and the results presented in graphs and tables. Interviews were carried out using a structured interview guide for uniformity of questions being asked. Three interviews were conducted with procurement managers from the three organisations represented namely; Econet, TelOne and NetOne. The results showed that SCM is a strong contributor to organisational competitiveness. If organisations in the telecommunications sector prudently apply SCM policies, strategies and practices, the performance in terms of profitability realised and competitive advantage will increase. Recommendations are that quality of products; better supplier management and competitive pricing may be realised if firms can adopt SCM principles and practices.

The concept of turnaround strategy seeks to bring back profitability in a declining business. In Zimbabwe, ever since the government adopted multi-currency system industries have failed to realise any meaningful positive performance. The manufacturing sector was the most affected. It is against this background that the researchers sought to explore the extent of successful implementation of turnaround strategies in the manufacturing sector in Harare over the period 2009 to 2014 on back drop of impediments and challenges faced. The study employed triangulation approach design as it was found to be the most suitable. A stratified random sampling was used to select companies for the purposes of the study across the 14 sub-sectors of the manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe. A minimum of 2 respondents per company was selected. Data was collected using questionnaires which were administered physically and electronically. In-depth interviews were also conducted for chief executive officers an...

The study was conducted to ascertain the extent to which social media is being used by financial service customers and the extent to which customers are interacting with financial institutions on social media. The study was in the form of a quantitative survey which used self-administered questionnaires with 153 respondents. The findings of the study were that virtually all customers of financial institutions now use one or more forms of social media, and a significant proportion of these actually interact with their financial institution on social media, including accessing products and services on social media. Customers who used social media mostly enjoyed the convenience of accessing products and services on social media and readily available information provided by their financial institution, however, overall they were non-committal on the benefits received. Lack of awareness of social media activities by their financial institution was the major reason why most customers did ...