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The rise of globalism, particularly information technology and massive flows of international communications, has ignited gigantic competition among nations for markets, foreign direct investment, tourists, human skills, innovation and an edge in international relations. This new phenomenon poses unprecedented challenges to the concept and practice of public diplomacy. This paper seeks to interrogate the concept and practice of public diplomacy in contemporary times, identify the challenges and recommend future direction. It focuses on how public diplomacy can influence global business for the socioeconomic benefit of African nations in general and South Africa in particular. Today, countries have become ?brands? that must be created, nurtured and managed in a sustainable way through the creation of long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with bilateral and multi-lateral partners. Traditionally, public diplomacy mainly focused on the cultivation of stable political relationships among nations. However, public diplomacy now embraces the essence of a nation, be it political, economic, or, socio-cultural, not only to other governments but also to a multitude of other stakeholders such as foreign publics, multinational corporations, international media and non-governmental organisations. It is this emerging phenomenon that calls for the harnessing and integration of public diplomacy with nation branding in order to build, nurture and sustain a nation brand that enjoys positive relations with other countries, attracting inward investment and skills, promoting trade, tourism and exports. Such a nation brand will thus be able to uplift the standards of living of the people in the host country. The world has changed. And so must we.

The rise of globalism, particularly information technology and massive flows of international communications, has ignited gigantic competition among nations for markets, foreign direct investment, tourists, human skills, innovation and an edge in international relations. This new phenomenon poses unprecedented challenges to the concept and practice of public diplomacy. This paper seeks to interrogate the concept and practice of public diplomacy in contemporary times, identify the challenges and recommend future direction. It focuses on how public diplomacy can influence global business for the socio-economic benefit of African nations in general and South Africa in particular. Today, countries have become "brands" that must be created, nurtured and managed in a sustainable way through the creation of long-term and mutually beneficial relationships with bilateral and multi-lateral partners. Traditionally, public diplomacy mainly focused on the cultivation of stable political relationships among nations. However, public diplomacy now embraces the essence of a nation, be it political, economic, or, socio-cultural, not only to other governments but also to a multitude of other stakeholders such as foreign publics, multinational corporations, international media and non-governmental organisations. It is this emerging phenomenon that calls for the harnessing and integration of public diplomacy with nation branding in order to build, nurture and sustain a nation brand that enjoys positive relations with other countries, attracting inward investment and skills, promoting trade, tourism and exports. Such a nation brand will thus be able to uplift the standards of living of the people in the host country. The world has changed. And so must we. DOI:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p42

The current Private Higher Education Institution (PHEI) landscape in South Africa is developing at a rapid rate, with over ninety private tertiary institutions, registered with the Council for Higher Education (CHE). However, stakeholder perceptions of these PHEIs are generally negative, largely as a result of the negative perceptions of the qualification, obtained from the private institutions by both parents and students, and questions around the sustainability of the institutions in the long run. Media reports, lack of Department of Education (DHET) support and funding, as well as minimum, if any, marketing and advertising from the PHEI are factors, cited for these firmly entrenched perceptions from the general public. The article was driven by both current and emerging branding models as a benchmark for value-added branding of PHEIs in South Africa. International markets, in countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, India and Brazil are included; not as a comparative study, but more as a review of literature on how tertiary education is branded in the private sector in these countries. In addition, developing countries and emerging markets needed to be taken into consideration in the light of their experience in sustaining private education entities. The subsequent investigation of these models proved invaluable in respect of providing similarities and, in some instances, huge differences, which contributed to the establishment of a generic value-added branding model critical for sustaining PHEIs in South Africa. The knowledge of which dimensions the branding of a PHEI should focus on to nullify the negative perceptions associated with a PHEI is paramount. ; Key Words: Sustainability of Private Higher Educations Instituions / Negative perceptions/Dimensions of branding/ Branding models

A key indicator of the academic worth, value and development of a university is its research capacity and publications. The universities of technologies (UoTs) that merged from former technikons have been poorly ranked due to low research performance. Hands have been pointed at the academics, some school of thought blamed the institutions, others pointed at the government agencies in charge of higher education policies, regulation, and restructuring. The aim of this paper is to examine empirically from the institutional point of view, reasons for low research output in the UoTs. A qualitative research approach was adopted by conducting semi-structured interviews with 15 academic staff and a comprehensive focus group meeting among six academics from three faculties in the same UoT. Heavy workload, career ambiguity, poaching, staffing, sabbatical leave policy, large student numbers, unawareness of incentives, poor retention strategies, institutional history, understanding of research mandate, clarity of policies and procedures and poor time management emerged as the contributing factors to low research output in the UoT. According to the fourth dimension of systems archetype, the study contributes to knowledge by allowing a level of understanding into the problem under investigation. Strategic issues to be considered were suggested for the stakeholders as a way forward.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has grown to be an attractive alternative to borrowing from multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for emerging economies. Global investors prefer investing in countries which have received a Sovereign Credit Rating (SCR) as they perceive it as a good measure of risk allocation. This research applied an event study methodology to SCR downgrades from the three international CRAs (Moody, Standard and Poor and Fitch) over the period 2004 to 2014 to investigate the impact of SCR change on FDI flow into South Africa. Empirical findings show that there is a statistically significant relationship between FDI and SCR downgrades. Evidence also shows that not all downgrades from the three CRAs equally affect investors? decisions as Moody?s downgrades tend to dominate, causing FDI to reaction at with a higher magnitude. However, not only SCR downgrade determines FDI flow into SA but there is a host of other fundamentals that government should address to attract investment and stabilise financial markets.

Five years ago, the government of South Africa enacted the Consumer Protection Act which is a piece of legislation that seeks to protect consumers in their day-to-day dealings with retailers and other businesses. Heralded as the best consumer legislation in the world, the new Consumer Protection Act was received with mixed reactions by many businesses in general and furniture retailers in particular. This study therefore endeavoured to unearth the challenges and opportunities that this new consumer protection legislation provides to furniture retailers in Cape Town, South Africa. Using triangulation as the research methodology, semi-structured questionnaires were administered on 150 respondents from the population of study. 20 in-depth interviews were also carried out with customer service and branch managers from selected furniture retailers in Cape Town. The study found out that corporate chain (national) retailers are more aware of the Consumer Protection Act than small independent furniture retailers and that most retailers have already started implementing the new act. The study also found out that the new Consumer Protection Act poses major challenges for furniture retailers. These challenges include financial report instability, increased transaction costs and also the need for continuous staff development and training. On the other hand, this study also found that, if properly implemented, the new legislation may lead to an improvement in reputation, product quality, customer service and staff motivation. Many furniture retailers have thus taken a leading role in pushing the frontiers of their businesses in order to comply with the act. This study will add to the body of knowledge of customer service and consumer protection by uncovering some specific strategies which furniture retailers can adopt to counter the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities presented by the new Consumer Protection Act. DOI:10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n1p224

There have been calls on Southern African Development Community (SADC) governments to device strategies to boost economic growth, structural and infrastructural development. Economists have been recommending that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) would foster long term economic growth rather than borrowing from multilateral institutions, hence Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have been established to attract investments. However, there have been arguments against SEZs on the net benefit accruing to the host nation from SEZs. This study applied the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) on 15 SADC member countries? SEZs profit remittance data and draw a multi-linear regression model to establish the relationship between national income and FDI. The results show that there is a not significant relationship between these variables. Hence there is no net benefit accruing to the host country by establishing SEZs. However long-term benefits may be realised if the companies operating in these zones construct infrastructures and other structural developments.

Five years ago, the government of South Africa enacted the Consumer Protection Act which is a piece of legislation that seeks to protect consumers in their day-to-day dealings with retailers and other businesses. Heralded as the best consumer legislation in the world, the new Consumer Protection Act was received with mixed reactions by many businesses in general and furniture retailers in particular. This study therefore endeavoured to unearth the challenges and opportunities that this new consumer protection legislation provides to furniture retailers in Cape Town, South Africa. Using triangulation as the research methodology, semi-structured questionnaires were administered on 150 respondents from the population of study. 20 in-depth interviews were also carried out with customer service and branch managers from selected furniture retailers in Cape Town. The study found out that corporate chain (national) retailers are more aware of the Consumer Protection Act than small independent furniture retailers and that most retailers have already started implementing the new act. The study also found out that the new Consumer Protection Act poses major challenges for furniture retailers. These challenges include financial report instability, increased transaction costs and also the need for continuous staff development and training. On the other hand, this study also found that, if properly implemented, the new legislation may lead to an improvement in reputation, product quality, customer service and staff motivation. Many furniture retailers have thus taken a leading role in pushing the frontiers of their businesses in order to comply with the act. This study will add to the body of knowledge of customer service and consumer protection by uncovering some specific strategies which furniture retailers can adopt to counter the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities presented by the new Consumer Protection Act.

During the past few decades, nation branding has emerged as one of the key strategies for national economic development. Many nations across the world, both developed and developing, have embraced the concept as they compete against each other for export markets, foreign direct investment, tourists, scarce human resources and international leverage and influence. This article explores the concept of nation branding and investigates its applicability to Zimbabwe, which has been riddled with various socio-economic and political problems during the past two decades. The main purpose of the study was to develop a model that can be used to re-brand Zimbabwe. This research study adopted a mixed-methods approach through the amalgamation of both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies. According to the research findings, Zimbabwe has a negative image on global map. The country needs to be re-branded and the majority of Zimbabweans are willing to be part of this process. However, for the re-branding initiative to be successful there should be a comprehensive transformation of the country's socio-political, economic and legal systems in order to create an enabling environment that is conducive for the effective application of nation branding strategies. The findings further reinforce the notion that re-branding should be part of a broader national economic development strategy for the country. The research study concludes with the propagation of the proposed transformative process model for the re-branding of Zimbabwe. DOI:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p298

Rural entrepreneurs in the Western Cape Province of South Africa were surveyed in order to explore the challenges and opportunities that they are facing. The methodology used in this study involved a combination of quantitative and descriptive research. The study consisted of a sample of 160 rural entrepreneurs. Based on the results of the study, rural entrepreneurs in the Western Cape still face challenges such as lack of technical and business skills, shortage and high cost of raw materials, inaccessible and unreliable communication and transport services, and limited access to finance and sustainable markets. Rural entrepreneurs have various opportunities in the form of increasing government commitment to land reform and rural development, support from small business development institutions and the creation of networks and partnerships with other rural and urban entrepreneurs. The study recommends that the government needs to come up with comprehensive legislation and policies to spearhead and support rural development through rural entrepreneurship.

The momentum towards complete globalisation advocated by proponents of the benefits of one big business village as the answer to the suffering of third world countries, has now been slowed down by the uncertainty resultant from the hitherto unprecedented global meltdown. With the coughing of America, the whole world seems to be catapulting into one big mess due to the global economic quagmire. Consequently, there is a global scramble for the limited and constantly contracting financial and market resources. Third world countries, rich in natural resources but insignificant global players, have been relegated to perpetual recipients of aid, finished products and obsolete or second rate technology. Despite having 53 countries, Africa is painted en bloc as a ?dark continent? dogged by civil wars, disease, poverty and famine. This ?bad continent? image thus affects all African countries including those that are fairly stable such as South Africa, Botswana, and Egypt. This scenario necessitates country differentiation through individualised or regionalised country branding.

Article ; This research investigates the effect of corporate governance through ownership structures; ownership concentration, managerial ownership and government ownership on firm performance. A multiple regression analysis was employed on sample data collected over ten years from 2001-2010 from 80 South African companies to test the magnitude of their influence to company performance as measured by return on assets (ROA). This study found a positive and significant correlation between ownership concentration, government ownership and firm performance. Results also showed a negative relationship between insider ownership and firm performance. To this account, the research concludes that managerial ownership is a single factor that significantly weighs down company performance. In validating the significance of the performance determinance model, evidence shows that companies that maintain the recommended King Report shareholding structure have an average to above average performance. Hence, corporate governance is a critical catalyst for company performance.

South Africa, like other African economies has been faced with funding constraints resulting in the inability to finance infrastructure development for its exponentially growing population. In recent years, the country has witnessed a wave of protests against poor service delivery especially in the poor communities. Post-apartheid, the government tried to privatize inefficient and unprofitable parastatals to improve service delivery. However, the move faced strong resistance from unions and community representatives who were against the user-pay privatization initiatives. With the growing frustration in the poor South African communities, the government has slowly been engaging the private sector to meet its perennial funding gap through Public-Private Partnerships. Although PPPs have enabled the government to access private finance for investment in infrastructure, it has been widely argued that PPPs are a reincarnation of the controversial and unpopular privatization concept that failed in the past. This study investigates the success of public-private partnerships in financing infrastructure development in South Africa. The study conducted interviews and applied capital budgeting techniques to examine the success of government goals and the net benefit from public-private partnerships. The results show that government overestimates the extent to which public-private partnerships can solve infrastructure and service delivery problems. Hence, the findings suggest that the public see PPPs as private entities created to siphon the coffers of government. Thus, this study recommends improved transparency in PPPs management for government to gain public trust.