The Economic Geography of South Africa’s Call Centre Industry

Over the past two decades, scholarship on call centres has grown with contributions from a range of disciplines including management science, urban studies, organisation studies and sociology. One aspect of call centres that has received only limited attention is their location or economic geography. This article contributes to the growing body of scholarship on call centres by investigating locational issues in the case of the developing economy of South Africa. The study highlights the critical importance for call centre location of access to labour, labour costs, public transport and availability of suitable premises. Current government incentives have little significance on location, a factor which underlies the strong concentration of call centres in South Africa’s major cities, in particular Johannesburg and Cape Town.     

Supplier Diversity: a New Phenomenon in Private Sector Procurement in South Africa

This article represents a South African contribution to the policy-oriented focus of much international small business scholarship. It examines an emerging new dimension in South African small enterprise development policy debates??the question of supplier diversity in private sector procurement. Against the backdrop of a review and analysis of the international origins and trends in supplier diversity in particular from the established US and UK experiences, it unpacks the developing South African record on supplier diversity and local challenges. Attention is drawn to the important position of the South African Supplier Diversity Council. National government support should be given to emerging private sector-led initiatives for developing supplier diversity in order to forge a partnership to achieve the goal of a more economically robust as well as inclusive small enterprise economy in South Africa.     

Attitude toward 5G: The moderating effect of regulatory focus

Although the 5G market is expected to be vast, consumers remain concerned about privacy on 5G networks, and acceptance of 5G has been little examined. This study investigated how subjective norms and 5G privacy, speed, and ubiquity influence attitude toward 5G, word of mouth, and willingness to pay for 5G by considering the technology acceptance model. The role of regulatory focus was also evaluated. Privacy, speed, ubiquity, and subjective norms (antecedents); WOM and willingness to pay (dependent variables); attitude toward 5G (mediator); and regulatory focus (moderator) were measured by adapting items developed elsewhere; 222 responses were received, 202 (91%) of which were valid. Privacy significantly negatively affected attitude toward 5G, whereas speed had a significant positive effect. Positive relationships were observed between attitude toward 5G and ubiquity, subjective norms, WOM, and willingness to pay. Attitude toward 5G fully mediated the relationships among privacy, speed, ubiquity, subjective norms, and WOM.     

Not getting the message: Critiquing current conceptualizations of nomophobia

Nomophobia or “No Mobile Phobia” is a relatively recent term, which describes the anxiety associated with not having access to one's mobile phone or smartphone. Recently, research into nomophobia has garnered significant research attention in tandem with rising rates of smartphone penetration worldwide. However, most research on nomophobia de-contextualizes the source(s) of nomophobia; rather, pathologizing the need for communication and how it occurs. Ultimately, the current conceptualization of nomophobia infers burden upon the individual to address their smartphone-related “phobia”, rather than the social and environmental factors that necessitate their use in modern society. The following opinion piece critiques the ways in which nomophobia has been conceptualized in research literature and discusses the limitations and ethical implications of this approach.     

Tourists’ perceptions of robots in passenger transport

In this article, the authors investigate the way that the public views automation technologies and their usage in tourist transportation based on data from a large-scale international survey. The authors explore the use of robots for the provision of information with regards to travel, the use of autonomous vehicles, and other robot-delivered transport-related tasks. The findings indicate that the perceived reliability, safety, and usefulness of the use of robots for transport play a major role in impacting perceptions of the appropriateness of using robots for different purposes. The findings also indicate that no demographic characteristics, apart from gender, seem to play any role in conditioning perceptions of the appropriateness of using robots in the field of transportation.     

Towards improving the nutrition and health of the aged: the role of sprouted grains and encapsulation of bioactive compounds in functional bread – a review

Aging reduces the absorption of nutrients. Literature related to functional bread processing techniques including sprouting of grains and the application of encapsulation technology and the bioavailability of bioactives was reviewed. Functional ingredients including sprouted/germinated grain particularly brown rice and wheat flours enhance the bioactive properties of functional bread. Ingredients with high polyphenol content such as lavender and melissa by-products, tea-extracts and aronia powder enhance the bioactive content and appear to have a favourable effect on the shelf-life of bread and antioxidant status of consumers. Incorporation of encapsulated bioactive compounds into bread have a huge potential to improve the bread quality and increase the bioavailability and bioaccessibility of bioactive compounds including polyphenols. More investigations and new areas of research should focus on sprouted grain flours and the application of encapsulation technologies especially nanoencapsulation to optimize the bioactivity, storage, bioavailability and nutritional profile of bread to improve nutrition and health with aging.     

Understanding personal use of the Internet at work: An integrated model of neutralization techniques and general deterrence theory

This paper examines the influence of neutralization techniques, perceived sanction severity, perceived detection certainty and perceived benefits of using the Internet for personal purposes on intention to use the Internet at work for personal use. To do so, we draw on a conceptual framework integrating neutralization theory and general deterrence theory. The study finds that both neutralization techniques and perceived benefits have a positive effect on personal use of the Internet. Perceived detection certainty is found to have a negative effect on personal use of the Internet, while the effect of perceived sanctions severity on personal use of the Internet is not significant. The effect of neutralization and perceived benefits are much stronger than perceived detection certainty. The findings suggest that people may think more about neutralization and perceived benefits than they do about costs, when deciding whether to use the Internet at work for personal purposes.     

Domestic cooking and food skills: A review

Domestic cooking skills (CS) and food skills (FS) encompass multiple components, yet there is a lack of consensus on their constituent parts, inter-relatedness, or measurement, leading to limited empirical support for their role in influencing dietary quality. This review assessed the measurement of CS and FS in adults (>16 years); critically examining study designs, psychometric properties of measures, theoretical basis, and associations of CS/FS with diet. Electronic databases (PsychInfo), published reports, and systematic reviews on cooking and home food preparation interventions provided 834 articles of which 26 met the inclusion criteria. Multiple CS/FS measures were identified across three study designs—qualitative, cross-sectional, and dietary interventions—conducted from 1998 to 2013. Most measures were not theory-based, limited psychometric data were available, with little consistency of items or scales used for CS/FS measurements. Some positive associations between CS/FS and fruit and vegetables intake were reported, though lasting dietary changes were uncommon. The role of psycho-social (e.g., gender, attitudes) and external factors (e.g., food availability) on CS/FS is discussed. A conceptual framework of CS/FS components is presented for future measurement facilitation, which highlights the role for CS/FS on food-related behavior and dietary quality. This will aid future dietary intervention design.     

Are you a tech-savvy person? Exploring factors influencing customers using self-service technology

The main purpose of this research is to study the relationship between servicescape and the intention to use self-service technology (SST) using core service and employee service as the moderators and attitude as mediator. The subjects of this research were customers using self-service facilities at banks in Guangzhou, China. Convenience sampling was utilized to survey customers in the bank service outlets; 485 questionnaires were collected. The results show that servicescape has a significantly positive impact on intention to use SST. Attitude toward using SST plays a mediating role in the relationship between servicescape and intention to use SST, while employee service negatively moderates the impact of servicescape on attitude toward using SST. Also, core service negatively moderates the impact of attitude toward using SST on the intention to use SST. This research extends the literature on SST and provides practical information for service enterprises adopting SST.     

浅论开封夜市饮食文化及其旅游开发

古都开封文化底蕴深厚,饮食文化更是历史悠久、博大精深。起源于宋代都城东京的夜市,自古便形成了以小吃为主的格局。本文在对开封夜市饮食文化特色研究的基础上,提出了相应的旅游开发对策。