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The study examined the factors influencing motor vehicle purchase intention during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Theory of Planned Behaviour, the Social Judgement Theory, and the Self-Congruency Theory were employed for the study. A quantitative research approach was applied, and data was collected using a questionnaire that 223 respondents completed and selected through convenience sampling. A structural equation model was used to test the proposed conceptual model of the study. The empirical results revealed that perceived value, perceived reliability, and brand awareness of the vehicle, together with the manufacturer's and/or seller's website quality, positively impact the consumer's attitude, which subsequently affects their purchase intentions. The study has both practical and theoretical implications. The findings from the study could assist motor vehicle marketers in developing marketing strategies during a pandemic and provide policymakers with guidelines for the marketing of motor vehicles during a pandemic.

Fashion in Africa has undergone a tremendous transformation process due to an increase in international trade. As a result, African consumerism has surfaced. Through being part of the global community, the youth in Africa capitalizes on the wide variety of fashions available, and they view fashion as a medium for expressing their identity. More specifically, in South Africa, fashion is used as the ideal vehicle for the youth to re-map previously fixed racial identities. Although a number of studies have explored this subject in an array of contexts, limited research has focused on factors that drive fashion adoption among the youth in Johannesburg. In view of this identified research gap, the present study aims to investigate the impact of fashion consciousness, the need for uniqueness, interpersonal influence, individualism/collectivism, and masculinity/femininity on fashion adoption. A Field study was conducted in Johannesburg and research data were collected from 400 respondents aged between 18 to 29 years. Linear regression analysis was performed to explore the relationship between the quantitative outcome variable and the predictor variables of the study by use of the SPSS 22 and the AMOS 22 software program. The results reveal that two of the five variables positively influence fashion adoption, while individualism/collectivism has an inverse relationship with fashion adoption. The significance of gaining insight into such factors, draw from the rich political history of South Africa and how the youth's conflicting identities may influence the modern concept of adopting global fashion trends.

The internet and online space have created numerous platforms for users to communicate and interact, where each platform provides access to different sources of information. The purpose of the study was to investigate the online ideal self and its influence on brand attitude and attachment towards consumer purchase intention. A unique conceptual model was developed to test the proposed hypotheses of the study. Social media is one of the leading communication platforms that have emerged in the online space. Social media allows consumers and brands to interact in an informal manner from anywhere in the world. The study adopted a quantitative approach utilizing the survey method. Data was collected from 300 consumers. The data was then processed in SPSS 24 for descriptive statistics and AMOS 24 for hypotheses testing. A key finding suggests that social media consumers' attachment is considerably dependent on their attitudes towards those brands. Brands can use social media to receive real-time feedback from customers as well as track this feedback. Implications emerged from the findings and further research direction is proposed.

The focus of this study was on investigating the response of tobacco exports to real exchange rates and real exchange rate volatility and other factors in Zimbabwe using secondary data spanning from 1980 to 2019. Bilateral nominal exchange rates and time-variant weights of Zimbabwe's 10 major trading partners were calculated and used to compute the real exchange rate index. The time-dependent weighting system was used to better represent the evolution of trade patterns in the index. The arithmetic method was employed for computing the index. Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) and autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (ARCH) models were used to generate the real exchange rate volatility index. The export response function was adopted as the tobacco exports response model. The variables in the tobacco exports response model were the realworld Gross Domestic Product (GDP), real exchange rate, terms of trade, real exchange rate volatility and dollarization. A vector error correction model (VECM) was used to estimate the response of tobacco exports to real exchange rate, real exchange rate volatility and other factors. The VECM results indicated that real world GDP was insignificant in both the short and long run. In the long run, the real exchange rate appreciation had a negative impact on tobacco exports. Conversely, in the short run, the depreciation of real exchange rate had a positive impact on tobacco exports. Hence, the government has to adopt other mechanisms that reduce uncertain movements of exchange rates. ; http://www1.up.poznan.pl/jard/index.php/jard ; hj2020 ; Marketing Management

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the challenges and resolution tactics of women middle managers in the South African public service.


Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative research approach using semi-structured interviews was used as a data collection technique. Narrative analysis was used with a sample of 20 women middle managers working within the South African public service.


Findings
Narratives of challenges faced by women middle managers in the South African public service included relational issues, with a subtle undermining of women managers, challenges rooted within the socio-cultural milieu – perversely undermining the experience of being a manager and challenges stemming from public service in general such as corruption, in turn, questioning the ability of women managers to handle such. In addressing these challenges, the women middle managers exercised three individual performative actions in response to the identified challenges. These include using direct confrontation, relying on networks for guidance and relying on indirect confrontation.


Research limitations/implications
Sample size challenges feature as a notable limitation including the research being conducted in only one political province of South Africa. Caution should be exercised when seeking to generalise the findings to other contexts.


Practical implications
Understanding the challenges and resolution tactics of women middle managers can be a useful precursor to management development interventions.


Originality/value
The study answers call for more processual career and management development studies that help understand not only challenges but also resolution strategies. This study illustrates both the difficulty of this and ensures opportunity for the advancement of women in management.

In recent years, scholars have begun to dedicate their attention to destructive relationships as a critical component of organizational life. Prior research has approached it from various points of view, such as trust and partnering, project management, and relational coordination. The purpose of this research is to explore organizational level antecedents of value co-destruction in Lisbon, Portugal within the hospitality sector. The research was quantitative in nature, adopting the survey method. To measure the proposed hypotheses, a unique conceptual model was developed with leadership support, supportive organizational climate, value co-destruction, and commitment to value co-creation as constructs. Data was collected from the hospitality sector of Lisbon, Portugal where 600 responses were obtained for analysis. All participants were employees from the hospitality sector. Key findings revealed that leadership support was dominant in comparison to the other constructs based on how high it loaded as a factor. In addition, a high perception of a supportive organizational climate among service employees will result in a low occurrence of value co-destruction in their organization. Further research direction on the subject is proposed.

In a world of sharp transformation driven by digital technologies, education is facing a paradigm shift that exposes vulnerabilities and threats of Open Education models in the face of the trend of commodification. This article seeks to offer useful insights into the threats, challenges, and opportunities for open universities and massive online open courses in the digital revolution. The methodology fol-lowed a systematic content review of literature. With the advent of the internet, we have verified a profound transformation in the way we communicate and produce within the academics. The digital revolution favored the freedom of access to information. The digital revolution poses challenges but also opens up unprecedented opportunities for democratization and accessibility. The transformation process of open universities has to maintain the referential of the profound incorporation of pedagogical and technological innovation based on research and seek new strategies of organization and definition of quality, to guarantee its relevance and leadership in the pursuit of the massification of higher education. ; https://online-journals.org/index.php/i-jet/index ; hj2020 ; Marketing Management

Facebook has become the main platform for young adults to sustain their social presence as well as expand their social networks. The impact of social media on youth decision-making has attracted much attention in research and academia. The research setting was at University of Fort Hare, a university located in South Africa. Before and during a student representative council (SRC) election at the university, the six student parties contesting for the leadership office utilised Facebook in communicating and marketing their campaign messages to fellow students. This research therefore empirically investigated how Facebook influenced university students' intention to vote and elect an SRC for the institution. The survey methodology was adopted in collecting data and non-probability sampling, a form of convenience sampling was utilised in selection of suitable participants for the study. A total of 381 students participated in the study responding to questions examining potential drivers of selection of a particular student representative party (SRP). A conceptual model was developed with Facebook constructs that included "medium credibility of Facebook", "peer communication on Facebook" and "user trust of Facebook" among other factors that influence students' choice of an (SRP). The main findings established that identification with peers was observed as having the most significant impact on youths' intention to vote for student representatives. Message credibility was found to have weak impact on student's intention to vote for a particular (SRC) candidate. Implications emerged from the findings and further research suggestions were provided.

From presidential campaigns to social awareness campaigns, celebrities have gradually become central fixtures in modern politics. They tend to be information platforms for candidates and parties they either clearly support or officially endorse. South African political parties raised eyebrows when they rallied the country's popular celebrities to publicly endorse them. Political parties spend a significant amount of money on celebrity endorsements as it is believed that celebrities can leverage "secondary brand associations". This leads to the question: does the increased use of celebrity endorsements in political campaigns influence the intention to vote? The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of celebrity political endorsement on intentions to vote. Employing a quantitative research design, 227 respondents were surveyed using a structured questionnaire. The findings show that endorser credibility has a positive significant relationship with political party credibility and voters' intentions. The relationship between political party credibility and voters' intentions is also positive and significant. This study provides managerial implications, limitations and future research.

The aim of the study is to explore the impact of brand awareness, brand loyalty and brand attitude on purchase intention in online shopping. The study was quantitative in nature adopting the survey method. Due to the absence of a sampling frame, convenience sampling, a form of non-probability sampling was utilised a total of 253 responses well collected from Braamfontein, a busy business district in Johannesburg, South Africa. In order to test the proposed hypotheses, a unique conceptual model was developed in which brand awareness, brand loyalty, and brand attitude acted as predictors while purchase intention served as the outcome. Data analysis was conducted in SPSS 27 where descriptive statistics were produced as well as regression analysis to test the proposed hypothesis. Findings suggested that customers perceived brand attitude to have the strongest impact on purchase intention while the weakest predictor of purchase intention was brand awareness as far as online purchasing was concerned. Managerial implications emerged from the study and suggestions for further research were proposed.