Academic literature on the topic 'Strategica management, wine industries, South Africa'

Rivers are now facing increasing pressure and demand to provide water directly for drinking, farming and supporting industries as a result of rapidly growing global human population. Globally, the most common practice for catchment managers is to limit water abstraction and changes to stream flow by setting environmental flow standards that guard and maintain the natural ecosystem characteristics. Since the development of the environmental flow concept and methods in South Africa, very few studies have assessed the institutional constraints towards environmental flow implementation. This study determined stream flow trends over time by fitting simple linear regression model to mean daily stream flow data at three selected stations in the Luvuvhu River Catchment (LRC). We also conducted a literature search to review, firstly the response of aquatic organisms (fish and macroinvertebrate) to changes in habitat conditions and secondly on local challenges affecting the sustainable implementation of environmental flow regime and related water resources management strategies. All the three stream flow stations show decreasing stream flow volume of 1 and 2 orders of magnitude faster in some stations with the possibility that flow will cease in the near future. Qualitative analyses from both local and international literature search found that the main challenges facing the implementation of sustainable flow strategies and management are absence of catchment management agency, lack of understanding of environmental flow benefits, limited financial budget, lack of capacity and conflict of interest. Rivers with changing stream flows tend to lose sensitive species. The development of scientifically credible catchment-wide environmental flow and abstraction thresholds for rivers within the LRC would make a major contribution in minimizing the declining stream flow volumes. Monitoring and reporting should be prioritized to give regular accounts of the state of our rivers.

The adoption of a full supply chain approach in the chemical industry is still relatively slow compared to other industries. Although the awareness has been kindled, very few petrochemical companies have advanced to a point where supply chain considerations and influences are proactively taken into account and incorporated in the formulation of corporate- and unit-specific business strategies/tactics, and formally structured and applied. Conventional supply chain integration concepts focus primarily on the internal and external integration of individual supply chains. Due to the highly integrated nature of petrochemical value chains, the related supply chains should also be integrated by taking account of enterprise/industry-wide synergies and interdependencies. Since not much research has been done to indicate the level of advancement in terms of supply chain planning in large-scale, South African-based petrochemical companies, this empirical research is the first of its kind. This research provides useful information regarding an understanding of the petrochemical industry, appropriate supply chain planning practices and the level of advancement in a number of related planning dimensions

Purpose – South Africa's logistics cost measurement was expanded to include externality costs, and scenarios based on the key exogenous risks were developed to inform mitigation strategies. This paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The research approach is quantitative, based on a gravity-orientated freight flow model, a road transport cost model, actual transport costs for other modes, a warehousing cost survey, an inventory delay calculation (to inform warehousing cost calculations and inventory financing costs) and an externality cost calculation. Findings – Transport cost pressures are expected to deteriorate due to the increasingly negative outlook for the oil price and the internalisation of externality costs. The nature of these forces compels transport cost challenges to be addressed strategically through collaborative, industry-wide and even nationwide initiatives. Research limitations/implications – Key limitations are inconsistent commodity classification schemes across information sources, and incomplete container content data. The researchers are collaborating with information providers to address these issues and refine model accuracy and forecasting. Practical implications – The exogenous risks strengthen the argument for new approaches to South Africa's logistics cost challenges driven by the high densities of corridor freight flows. Social implications – The inclusion of externality costs highlighted the negative environmental impact of the current modal configuration and provides impetus for change. Originality/value – Major advancements to logistics cost modelling were made by incorporating externality costs and developing scenarios for risk mitigation. Freight flow data granularity (in excess of one million records) allows both aggregation to national-level intelligence to inform policies, large-scale infrastructure investments and industrial positioning, and disaggregation to enable practical application.

Abstract Limited information of fungicide efficacy on cultivated mushrooms and resistance development potential is available. Minor crop industries in general have a smaller arsenal of protectants to rely on and the likelihood of resistance build-up is of greater concern. This study focused on Cladobotryum mycophilum's sensitivity to carbendazim and prochloraz manganese following recent reports on decreased efficacy of both fungicides. The median effective dose (ED50) values for carbendazim ranged between 0.02 mg/L and 4.31 mg/L with 60% of the South African isolates being moderately resistant. The highest resistance factor for carbendazim was 215. Prochloraz manganese ED50 values varied from 0.00001 mg/L to 0.55 mg/L. A significant difference in mean ED50 values for both fungicides tested was observed. Using cluster analysis, no discrimination of isolates previously exposed and unexposed to prochloraz manganese was observed. A wide range of differences in ED50 values indicated moderate resistance to carbendazim and high sensitivity to prochloraz manganese among isolates under investigation. Discriminant analysis indicated significant differences between clusters contributed by one or a few variables. This study provided evidence that prochloraz manganese remains highly fungitoxic to C. mycophilum. However, prochloraz manganese is to be used in a disease management strategy in combination with strict farm hygiene management strategies to retain product efficacy and ensure crop protection.

This symposium provided an excellent forum in which to discuss the global burden of hypertension (HTN), its challenges, and approaches to best management in new frontiers. The symposium speakers also reviewed recent data for clinical practice, especially those relevant for patients at high risk of HTN. The presentations were delivered within a highly interactive setting to facilitate audience questions and discussion. The symposium was opened by Prof Bryan Williams, who gave a description of the global burden of HTN, emphasising the need for effective, simplified treatment strategies and algorithms to effectively control blood pressure (BP). Prof Gordon Thomas McInnes then gave an overview of the challenges faced when treating HTN in the developing world and the best management practices of HTN adopted across different countries. HTN control in Latin America (LA) and the Caribbean region, and its opportunities and challenges was the subject of the next presentation given by Dr Jesús Isea-Pérez. Lastly, Dr Jorge Sison discussed HTN control in Asia and the Middle East, presenting real-world data in addition to a review of the latest clinical data on optimal management of HTN, and focussing on the use of single-pill combination (SPC) therapies. This engaging and interactive symposium was facilitated by multiplechoice questions posed by speakers, allowing audience participation via an electronic voting system. The meeting closed with a lively panel discussion and concluding remarks from Prof Bryan Williams. This truly international symposium brought together more than 550 delegates from across Europe and North America, Africa and the Middle East, Asia and Pacific regions, and Central and South America, with attendees representing a wide range of clinical and professional settings.

PurposeThe aim of this study was threefold: to examine companies' e-mail handling performance, to ascertain whether companies' view corporate websites and respond to e-mail requests as mutually exclusive or complementary, and finally to gauge the strategic importance of retail investors.Design/methodology/approachThe findings are based on an analysis of the corporate websites and e-mail handling performance of the 77 smallest companies listed on a South African stock exchange. A “mystery investor” approach was employed to measure companies' e-mail handling performance in terms of responsiveness, timeliness and relevance of responses. A disclosure score was calculated for each company based on a content analysis of corporate websites.FindingsThe opportunity for improvement exists, as evidenced in the fact that only 53% of companies responded to an e-mail request from a retail investor. The results suggest that corporate websites and the e-mail functionality are not used in isolation but as complementary. Although the results suggest that companies neglect retail investors, companies that provided a dedicated investor relations (IR) contact address prioritised both their corporate websites aimed to a wide range of stakeholders, as well as responding to an e-mail request received from a retail investor.Originality/valueThis study contributes to research on the association between one-way and two-way communication channels, aimed at retail investors. It is the first study to explore these relationships using data from the smallest companies listed on the stock exchange of an emerging economy.

The “strategy gap,” as this group of missing steps is called in this research, is real and exists within most organizations. Often unseen, the gap is a threat to the future performance—and even survival—of an organization and is guaranteed to impact the efficiency and effectiveness of senior executives and their management team. Organizations must plan and start executing that plan today if they expect to achieve their objectives sometime in the future. Yet surveys indicate that this just is not happening.

Purpose: The strategy-to-performance gap is a contemporary problem that causes organisations to perform less than optimal or fail. Leadership, strategy and performance are complex areas of research on the topic with lack of conclusive results, and solutions to the issue remain elusive. This study offered a clearer understanding of the problem. Design: This qualitative study explored leadership style in the context of strategy execution with the objective of offering a better understanding of performance and the strategy-to-performance gap. The study is a case study of selected organisations in the wine industry in South Africa. Data were collected via interviews on leadership figures and employees. Data were analysed qualitatively. Findings: The study confirmed the existence and issues surrounding the strategy-to-performance gap. Some findings concurred with previous studies on the gap and confirmed that it is intertwined with leadership and strategy execution issues. New themes were identified that contributed to the field of study and could prove to be valuable to narrow the strategy-to-performance gap in future. Value: Leadership is linked with performance in literature but there was limited research found on leadership style specifically in the context of the strategy-to-performance gap. This study confirmed issues surrounding the gap and it was found that the issue is a contemporary problem affecting organisational performance in various ways. This contributed to a better understanding of the problem. New themes that emerged could prove valuable to further research. Leadership and specifically leadership styles (as per Lewin) were found to influence and be interwoven with the strategy-to-performance gap. This study is original as it is the first study that explored leadership styles specifically in the context of the other key themes: strategy and the strategy-to-performance gap. The new themes that emerged are leadership style requirements from an employee satisfaction perspective as well as specific skills suggested to improve performance, all highlighted in the findings. Recommendations: Further research could explore leadership styles in more detail with regard to the strategy-to-performance gap. New themes in the context of strategy execution and leadership style could also be valuable. Future studies could also potentially evaluate the key themes with other measurement instruments such as different leadership styles or different performance criteria
Business Management
M. Com. (Business Management)