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This qualitative multiple case study explored the pedagogical training of Business Studies educators within the Capricorn South District, Limpopo Province, and examined how this educational training was translated into classroom settings across urban (private), semi-urban, and rural   contexts. Informed by Bandura's Teacher Self-Efficacy Theory, data were collected through non-participant classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with six Business Studies educators from three secondary schools. Within this small sample, findings indicated a gap between educators' self-reported pedagogical knowledge and their observed classroom performance. Two observed lessons included learner-centered components that educators did not describe. Despite educators demonstrating awareness of CAPS-aligned, learner-centred methodologies, they reported that implementation was hindered by overcrowded classrooms, inadequate subject-specific professional training, limited digital resources, and linguistic barriers. Reported mastery and mentorship aligned with confident utilization of specific methodologies throughout teaching segments, but not with continuous learner-centered engagements. The findings furthermore suggest that professional development, contextual resources and educator self-efficacy may function as interdependent elements influencing curriculum implementation. A case-based interpretation that may need to be tested in larger studies. The study therefore recommends a transition from once-off, compliance-focused workshops towards sustained, practice-based professional development that includes peer-mentorship, coaching and guided classroom practice, as well as differentiated, context-sensitive resources for underfunded schools. Improving these interrelated areas is crucial for bridging the gap between CAPS objectives and classroom realities as well as advancing Business Studies teaching and learning in varied South African environments.

This paper seeks to investigate sustainable green marketing as a business model in the African context. Promoting products or services that are eco-friendly is called green marketing. It involves incorporating sustainable principles into various aspects of marketing. Broadly, the sustainable business principles include investing profits in renewable energy, responsible waste disposal practices and avoiding printed materials. Nevertheless, some organisations in the global south are still grappling with the problem of balancing profit with sustainability. Against this backdrop, this paper is guided by three research questions: what are sustainable green marketing practices in the African business context? what are the benefits of sustainable green marketing to business? and which challenges are faced in implementing sustainable green marketing? Eventually, this study’s results would proffer a business model which can be a key driver of innovation and competitiveness and assist corporate organisations reap substantial economic benefits. Furthermore, green marketing can raise awareness among consumers about the importance of sustainability and environmental impact of their purchasing decisions. An integrative literature review methodology was employed by the authors to understand sustainable green marketing benefits and challenges. The study is guided by two key theories: stakeholder theory and institutional theory. The research findings indicated a deficiency in knowledge, skills, and proficiency in environmental sustainability, conservation, and eco-friendly practices within certain African businesses. Additionally, it was found that certain harmful products were still being used because individuals were unaware of the negative impact these products had on the environment. Notably, using packaging that produces no waste and promoting environmentally friendly advertising gives a competitive advantage and positive outcomes for manufacturing companies. Nevertheless, there are challenges in implementing green marketing, including the lack of standardized criteria for evaluating environmental impact, limited financial resources and tools to measure and monitor environmental effects, and difficulties in tracking consumer behavior.

This systematic literature review investigates the methods by which resource-limited entrepreneurs leverage artificial intelligence (AI), e-commerce platforms, and various digital technologies to enhance market capabilities amidst resource constraints. Anchored on the viewpoints of platform ecosystems and dynamic capacities, the research employs a PRISMA-based review of scholarly articles released from 2015 to 2025. A cumulative total of 195 items were incorporated into the final collection. The results suggest that digital platforms and AI-driven tools can enhance access to clients, information, digital infrastructure, analytics, and distribution services, whereas their impact on the development of firm-level capabilities relies on how entrepreneurs utilise, integrate, and reorganise these externally sourced resources. The literature examined places more emphasis on customer acquisition and digital distribution than on pricing optimisation and market sensing. The evaluation also highlights a continual disparity between digital accessibility and the advancement of capabilities, with scant longitudinal data elucidating how the habitual utilisation of digital resources integrates into entrepreneurial practices. Utilising the synthesis, the research formulates a conceptual framework that situates digital leverage as a conduit linking ecosystem resources and digital affordances with sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring processes, culminating in market-facing capabilities. The research offers a mechanism-focused viewpoint on how entrepreneurs with limited resources can transform externally available digital assets into market competencies and highlights areas for future investigation regarding measurement, long-term capability enhancement, and contextual differences.

The latest reform to labour relations in Zimbabwe is the Labour Amendment Act Number eleven of 2023. The amendment was done to enhance labour justice and balance power dynamics between the  employees and employers of various business organisations in the private sector, against the history of  colonial imbalances.  Nevertheless, researchers argue that the amendment, contrastingly created major controversies and legal uncertainties which worsened long-standing issues in the labour market, instead of resolving them. Through a qualitative research approach encompassing trade unionists, employees, legal practitioners and human resource practitioners as the key participants, the present study identifies and analyses the contentious sections of the Labour Amendment Act, number eleven of 2023. study results indicated that section 101 relating to employment codes of conduct, section 56 on employment councils, section 12 on termination of contracts, and section 63 on the jurisdiction of designated agents have confusion and contradictory interpretations. These challenges have created jurisdictional battles, a collapse of the dispute resolution system and a sense of insecurity among workers and employers. Supported by the proximity theory, the paper demonstrates that the amendment of the labour act failed on the cultural, geographical and temporal proximity fronts and that weakens access to justice. The paper concludes that without urgent legislative clarification and stakeholder engagement, the labour amendment number eleven of 2023 risks creating more inequalities than justice it sought to achieve in the Zimbabwean workplace.

Strategic decision-making and innovation are critical to the competitiveness of emerging organisations operating in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environments. This paper examines how emerging organisations can make adaptive strategic decisions while pursuing innovation under conditions of environmental uncertainty. Using O’mari Zimbabwe, a corporate-backed financial technology (fintech) venture of Old Mutual Digital Services, the paper aims to develop an adaptive strategic decision-making framework for innovation in a VUCA environment. The study adopts a qualitative case-study and documentary research design, drawing on publicly available information on O’mari and Zimbabwe’s fintech environment. The analysis applies PESTEL, SWOT, Porter’s Five Forces, stakeholder analysis, and the VUCA framework. The theoretical foundation integrates the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities, organisational ambidexterity, contingency theory, effectuation, bounded rationality, institutional theory, and disruptive innovation. Findings indicate that O’mari’s innovation and competitive advantage depend not only on Old Mutual’s brand, resources, regulatory expertise and institutional legitimacy, but also on its capacity to reconfigure these resources, experiment responsibly, build ecosystem partnerships, strengthen customer trust and continuously learn from environmental change. The paper develops the Adaptive Inclusive Finance Decision Cycle (AIFDC), comprising seven interconnected stages: sensing, problem framing, resource-based option selection, controlled experimentation, trust and regulatory gating, modular scaling, and learning and resource reallocation. The paper concludes that strategic decision-making in emerging organisations under VUCA conditions should be adaptive, iterative, evidence-driven, and innovation-oriented rather than dependent on rigid long-term planning. It recommends strengthening strategic intelligence, controlled experimentation, cybersecurity and responsible data governance, ecosystem partnerships, inclusive distribution, and balanced performance measurement to enhance innovation and competitive advantage.

Zimbabwe’s power-distribution infrastructure faces a persistent capacity deficit, particularly in the supply of transformers required to expand electricity access, replace ageing and vandalised infrastructure, and respond to disruption-induced demand. National requirements are estimated at approximately 6,000 transformers annually, while domestic production has historically remained at about 2,500–3,000 units, creating a substantial supply gap with implications for education, healthcare, industry, rural electrification and national development. This paper examines how emerging organisations can apply strategic decision-making to respond to infrastructure capacity deficits, using Ringfair International (Pvt) Ltd, a Zimbabwean supplier of transformers and power-line materials, as the focal organisational case. The study adopts a conceptual and theory-building approach, drawing exclusively on secondary evidence from peer-reviewed literature, government and institutional reports, utility disclosures, policy documents and credible sectoral sources. The analysis is theoretically informed by the Resource-Based View, Dynamic Capabilities Theory, Institutional Theory, Effectuation Theory, Resource Dependence Theory, Supply Chain Resilience Theory, Transaction Cost Economics, Principal–Agent Theory and Diffusion of Innovation Theory. The synthesis indicates that Zimbabwe’s transformer deficit is structural rather than temporary, reflecting constrained production capacity, ageing infrastructure, vandalism, procurement failures, financing constraints and disruption-induced demand. It further demonstrates conceptually that emerging private-sector organisations can contribute to narrowing infrastructure capacity gaps by strategically orchestrating financial resources, supplier networks, logistics capabilities, innovation and institutional relationships. Drawing these theoretical and contextual insights together, the paper develops the Agile Supply-Gap Integration (ASGI) Framework, comprising five interconnected stages: gap identification, theoretical filtering, resource mobilisation, adaptive execution and governance review. The paper concludes that infrastructure capacity deficits require adaptive, resource-conscious and institutionally responsive strategic decision-making and proposes the ASGI Framework as a conceptual tool for emerging organisations operating in resource-constrained and institutionally complex environments.

The objective of the study is to determine the effect of macroeconomic variables and geopolitical risk on South African government bond index return volatility. In doing so, the study implemented monthly data for the period January 2005 to September 2025. The exponential generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (EGARCH) model revealed that inflation growth rate and interest growth rate do not drive government bond return volatility. On the contrary, the real effective exchange growth rate has a significant negative effect on the All-Bond index, one- to three-year bond and three- to seven-year bond return volatility. Similarly, South African geopolitical uncertainty has a positive significant effect on South African government bond return volatility. Interesting to note, the study findings positive leverage effects across the government bond returns, suggesting that positive news has a greater effect on return than negative news. Collectively, the study provides new evidence on the derivers of government bond return volatility, suggesting that such derivers yield asymmetrical effects.

COIL presents a valuable pedagogical methodology in higher education. However, most previous COIL studies focus on international collaboration, virtual exchange, and multicultural awareness, with few examining the academic outcomes of COIL participation, particularly in business and marketing higher education. This study examines changes in students’ understanding of core marketing concepts during a COIL project, group project performance, and respondents’ perceptions. The study uses a mixed-method design involving 55 undergraduate students from two partner institutions in North Macedonia and France. It combines 32 ID-matched pre- and post-test pairs, six group project assessments, and 28 post-project questionnaire forms. Matched scores increased from 11.66 to 14.22 out of 15, t(31) = 8.61, p < .001. Group ratings averaged 70.0/100, and respondents reported positive learning experiences. Without a comparison group, the observed knowledge gain cannot be attributed specifically to COIL; group ratings and perceptions do not establish individual skill growth. The study offers practical recommendations for students, educators, and participating institutions.

This study examines how digital exclusion is perceived in shaping the reported psychological distress and entrepreneurial challenges of township youth entrepreneurs in Mdantsane Township, Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, East London, South Africa. The study focuses on limited access to devices, connectivity, digital skills, and online markets, which affect business continuity and psychological well-being. The study adopts a qualitative research design. Data for the study were generated through semi-structured interviews with 21 mixed-gender township youth entrepreneurs. Purposive sampling, a nonprobability sampling technique, was used to reach participants whose ventures depended on digital tools for communication, marketing, or transactions. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews. Five themes emerged from the analysis. First, youth entrepreneurs’ digital exclusion was experienced as market invisibility and weakened customer retention. Second, technostress and emotional depletion were reported by the entrepreneurs under constant connectivity pressure without adequate digital support. Third, repeated business setbacks were also described as cumulative vulnerability linked to self-blame, withdrawal and eventual venture closure. Fourth, the township youth entrepreneurs used improvisation, peer learning and family support, but all these strategies were experienced as partial rather than transformative resilience. Fifth, internalising structural exclusion was described by participants, whereby systemic digital barriers were interpreted as personal inadequacy. The findings of the study suggest that digital exclusion is not only an access problem, but it is also a business survival concern which are associated in participants’ accounts with reported psychological distress.  The study used a small qualitative sample and was limited to a single township. But it still offers relevant policy insights for targeted digital access, business support for youth entrepreneurs, and mental health-informed entrepreneurship interventions.

Graduate unemployment in South Africa has reached critical thresholds, elevating the strategic importance of self-employment and entrepreneurial capability. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this study evaluates the perceived efficacy of Entrepreneurship Education (EE) curricula across four public universities in KwaZulu-Natal (DUT, MUT, UNIZULU, UKZN). Because student perceptions rather than venture survival were evaluated, the research examines an intention–perceived capability gap. Data collected from 136 final-year Business and Administration students were analyzed using Principal Component Analysis, Chi-square tests of independence, and scale reliability testing. The empirical findings reveal a significant perception–capability divide: while 85.1% of students demonstrate favorable entrepreneurial attitudes and theoretical comprehension, only 61.8% feel the curriculum provides adequate practical exposure. Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC) and risk-taking efficacy are substantially constrained by deficits in industrial linkages (60.3%) and digital simulation infrastructure. To reposition higher education institutions as dynamic drivers within the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem, the study proposes the Integrated Experiential-Effectual (IEE) Model. This strategic framework restructures curricula around experiential micro-ventures, formalized 'Entrepreneurs-in-Residence', Industry 4.0 digital simulations, and effectual decision-making to enhance graduate venture sustainability.

This abstract examines the multifaceted nature of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), defined as physical, sexual, emotional, and financial abuse, among other forms of aggression. While GBV affects all genders, women are disproportionately victimized, with high rates of intimate partner violence, especially in insecure environments. The issue is complicated by the frequent overlooking of female-on-male violence, which is sometimes excused by feminist narratives of self-defense, creating a barrier for male victims seeking help. In response, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are crucial first responders, offering essential services like counselling, legal aid, and medical care. This study focuses on the efforts of ten NGOs in Diepsloot, South Africa, which are actively working to prevent and manage GBV, providing vital support to victims of this pervasive crime.

The paper identifies the problem that traditional cybersecurity approaches overemphasise technical vulnerabilities and isolated risk management, while overlooking the strategic and institutional dynamics that shape cyber risk outcomes. Its purpose is to propose a game-theoretic framework for cyber governance that reconceptualises cyber risk as the equilibrium outcome of interactions among threat actors, SMEs, regulators, insurers, and assurance providers. The study uses a conceptual method grounded in game theory and institutional analysis, integrating strategic interaction, signalling theory, repeated games, and bounded rationality to model cyber governance as an adaptive multi-actor system. The results show that governance structures shape attacker and defender incentives by altering payoff structures through regulation, assurance, and oversight, while information asymmetries, signalling, and repeated interactions produce persistent equilibrium outcomes. It further finds that governance interventions such as transparency, compliance, and proactive signalling can shift systems toward more secure equilibria and reduce moral hazard, particularly for SMEs operating under uncertainty. The paper concludes that cyber risk is fundamentally an institutional and strategic outcome rather than a purely technical issue, contributing a game-theoretic governance framework that integrates institutional design, information asymmetry, and risk management to inform policymakers, assurance providers, and decision-makers seeking improved cybersecurity resilience.

Africa’s digital business ecosystems are expanding rapidly through mobile banking, fintech innovation, digital payments, e-commerce, and cross-border financial integration. While these developments promote economic growth and financial inclusion, they also increase cybersecurity vulnerabilities across interconnected organisations and stakeholders. This study examines the relationship between economic scale and cybersecurity breach costs across 55 African countries. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research combines qualitative classification of countries according to digital-finance integration with quantitative analyses, including descriptive statistics, kurtosis, and regression modelling. The findings reveal substantial regional variation in cyber-risk exposure, with phishing, malware, business email compromise, and social engineering emerging as the most prevalent threats. The results demonstrate that cyber risk should be understood as an ecosystem-level phenomenon arising from increasing digital interconnectedness among financial institutions, fintech firms, mobile-money providers, governments, and consumers. Regression analysis indicates a statistically significant positive association between GDP and cybersecurity breach costs, suggesting that larger economies generally experience higher financial losses from cyber incidents. However, the findings reflect association rather than causation, as factors such as cybersecurity maturity, digital infrastructure, internet penetration, and regulatory effectiveness may also contribute to cyber-loss exposure. High-GDP countries, including Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, and Kenya, experience disproportionately higher breach costs. The study contributes an ecosystem-oriented framework for understanding cyber-loss exposure and provides evidence to support targeted cybersecurity investment, governance, and resilience-building strategies across Africa.  

The rapid expansion of electronic assessment (e-assessment) in higher education is frequently presented as a pathway to innovation, efficiency, and improved learning outcomes. However, within rural higher education contexts, the shift towards digital assessment raises critical questions about whose interests these systems ultimately serve. This paper interrogates the growing e-assessment agenda through a decolonial lens, examining the tension between learning enhancement and digital surveillance. It argues that many e-assessment frameworks are underpinned by assumptions of technological readiness, reliable connectivity, and digital competence that do not reflect the lived realities of many rural institutions and their students. Furthermore, the increasing use of online proctoring, learning analytics, and artificial intelligence-driven monitoring risks transforming assessment from a pedagogical process into a mechanism of surveillance and control. Drawing on decolonial scholarship, digital justice perspectives, and literature on educational technology adoption, the paper contends that the challenge is not merely technological but epistemological and political. It calls for contextually responsive and socially just assessment approaches that prioritise learning, equity, and student dignity over compliance and monitoring. Ultimately, the paper questions whether current e-assessment practices are preparing students for learning or conditioning them for surveillance in digitally mediated educational environments.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is rapidly reshaping policing through technologies like body-worn cameras (BWCs), offering new ways to improve transparency and accountability in African law enforcement. This study explores how feasible and effective BWCs are in this context, with a focus on the South African Police Service (SAPS). Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Public Accountability Theory (PAT), strengthened by Lindberg’s framework, the research combines a qualitative literature review with comparative insights from South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. The findings show that BWCs can reduce misconduct, strengthen evidence, and improve police–community relations. However, their success is not guaranteed. Persistent challenges include high costs, weak data infrastructure, privacy risks, and uneven technological readiness. The study argues that implementation must be sensitive to Africa’s realities, especially historical mistrust in policing, governance weaknesses, and limited resources. To be effective, BWC programmes should prioritise pilot projects, strong legal frameworks, community engagement, and phased rollout strategies. BWCs can support more accountable and trusted policing, but only if they are carefully designed to balance technological innovation with democratic safeguards.

Rampant digital transformation has ignited an inevitable new reality for Small and Medium Enterprises, and insufficient capacity, technological adoption readiness, and the underutilisation of Computer-Based Human Resources Systems have led to a high rate of business failure or closure in their first five years of operation. This study investigated the impact of Computer-Based Human Resources Systems, Technology Adoption Readiness, and Organisational Performance among Manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises. The study focused on SMEs operating in Harare Metropolitan Province, Zimbabwe. A quantitative research approach was used, using data collected from 195 randomly selected respondents across 5 SMEs. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and linear regression techniques. The findings revealed that Technology Adoption Readiness significantly mediates the relationship between CBHR systems and organisational performance, and CBHR systems positively contribute to enhanced performance. SMEs with higher levels of technology adoption readiness demonstrated improved performance in dynamic business environments. The study concludes that CBHR systems play a crucial role in firm performance and that technology adoption readiness also serves as an intermediary, strengthening the impact of CBHR systems on SME performance in Zimbabwe. The study contributes to the inadequate literature on the impact of Computer-Based Human Resources Systems, Technology Adoption Readiness, and Organisational Performance by empirically demonstrating the mediating role of Technology Adoption Readiness and the impact of CBHR systems. To promote enhanced performance in SMEs, the findings provide practical insights for policymakers and SME managers.

The growing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in public administration has transformed how governments deliver services and interact with citizens. However, despite Nigeria’s increasing investment in digital governance, questions remain about whether e-governance has generated meaningful socio-economic benefits at the state level. This study examined the impact of e-governance on socio-economic development in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Guided by the Technological Determinism Theory, the study adopted a mixed-methods research design. Primary data were collected through questionnaires administered to 395 respondents and interviews with 13 key participants, while secondary data were obtained from relevant literature and official documents. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, whereas qualitative data were examined through thematic analysis. The findings indicate that e-governance has improved access to public services, enhanced administrative efficiency, increased transparency, and encouraged participation in the digital economy. Nevertheless, these gains are limited by poor internet connectivity, unreliable electricity supply, low digital literacy, and inadequate ICT infrastructure, particularly in rural communities. The study concludes that while e-governance has positively influenced socio-economic development in Nasarawa State, addressing infrastructural and institutional barriers is essential to fully realise its developmental potential. It therefore recommends greater investment in ICT infrastructure and electricity supply, and improved digital literacy.

Abstract Collaboration of traditional health Care systems and Western Health Care System has become increasingly important in recent years, particularly in Africa and other developing regions. However, the collaboration of traditional health practitioners and western health practitioners is often hindered by various challenges. The objectives of the study were to explore problems that traditional health practitioners and western health practitioners encounter in collaboration and to identify best implemented strategies in the collaboration of traditional health practitioners and western health practitioners. The study was grounded in Afrocentric Theory (AT). Qualitative exploratory research was adopted. Purposive sampling, a non-probability sampling technique, was used to sample five (5) traditional practitioners, five (5) western practitioners and five (5) community members. The study used semi-structured interviews to collect data. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. The findings of the study reveal that there are several challenges faced by African traditional health practitioners in South Africa, including a lack of government recognition, leading to perceptions of inferiority compared to Western medicine. Indigenous healing is underappreciated despite its historical effectiveness. The study recommends that there should be a governmental budget for the traditional health practitioners to have training certification.

The article seeks to examine the current state of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2, which pertains to eradicating hunger, within the African context, and it questions why, in spite of national food security strategies and regional accords under the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), progress remains insufficient. Hunger arises from multiple factors, including poverty, which prevents individuals from purchasing food, and unemployment, which undermines financial stability necessary for food acquisition. The absence of nourishment may subsequently lead to malnutrition and, in turn, result in significant health complications. Governments worldwide strive to discover sustainable methods to eliminate hunger. The research employs a qualitative methodology to gather data pertinent to SDG 2 through existing secondary resources like journal articles, books, online materials, and government documents. Data is evaluated using document analysis, following the collaborative governance model established by Ansell and Gash (2008). Research indicates a widespread occurrence of hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition across numerous African nations. The non-fulfillment of SDG 2 may stem from governance deficiencies, political economy limitations, conflict, fragility, and political instability that can lead to obstacles in implementation. The research presents recommendations for policymakers' contemplation. The article thereby enhances the domains of public administration and development research..

At what level does infrastructure allow economic growth to translate into human development? A Nigeria-only annual threshold model is not statistically feasible because open national data provide only 24 Human Development Index observations, six poverty observations and six inequality observations over 2000–2023. We therefore estimate a Nigeria-centred dynamic threshold model in a 16-country West African panel. The composite infrastructure index is the first principal component of electricity access, internet use, basic water and sanitation; it explains 78.4% of their joint variation. The complete dynamic sample contains 338 country-year observations. Country and year fixed effects, clustered inference and a 399-replication wild-cluster threshold test are used. A candidate breakpoint occurs at 0.544 standard deviations, near the 71st percentile. Above it, the contemporaneous growth–HDI slope appears larger. However, the threshold confidence set is wide and the bootstrap test does not reject linearity (p=0.545). The data therefore does not identify a defensible infrastructure level at which growth begins to improve human development. Average GDP-per-capita growth and institutional quality are positively associated with HDI, while Nigeria’s apparent high-infrastructure differential is weaker than the regional pattern and remains exploratory because the threshold itself is unsupported. The results caution against turning a visually plausible breakpoint into a policy target. Infrastructure policy should use service reliability and distributional outcomes, not an estimated regional index cutoff, as performance criteria.