Browsing by Author "Bick, Geoff"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Open Access
    An Inclusive Business Model Innovation in the Delivery of Blended Undergraduate Medical Education
    (2018) Hibling, Andrew; Bick, Geoff
    The World Health Organization predicts that by 2030 there will be a shortage of 1.1 million medical practitioners in Africa. Establishing medical schools is difficult and expensive. Existing schools, albeit under increasing austerity pressure, need to increase their output of medical practitioners. This project aims to explore the implementation of an eLearning ecosystem in medical undergraduate education at the University of Cape Town, as a potentially key component in a blended learning curriculum. This could enable medical schools to use their existing infrastructure, and human and learning resources, to deliver effective off-campus teaching and learning; to increase the number of places available on-campus and, therefore potentially the number of graduating medical practitioners. The project addresses the question of how students would use the eLearning ecosystem, what features they would require, and whether there would be any benefits to students, learning or otherwise. This project employs a qualitative case study design with questionnaires, focus group observations and semi-structured interviews with multiple respondent types including medical and science students, facilitators, and lecturers. An inductive coding process was used to analyse the collected data. Teaching and learning can potentially be offered off-campus by using an eLearning ecosystem with appropriate tools - but only if there significant faculty adoption, students are schooled in digital learning practices and have access to their lecturers and the eLearning ecosystem facilitates off-campus learning opportunities. This project proposes a managed publishing business model innovation to help universities add value by empowering them to deliver a blended learning curriculum.
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    Customer experience as an antecedent to market orientation: a mixed methods study of postgraduate students
    (2023) Raja, Shameema Ebrahim; Bick, Geoff
    Market Orientation and Customer Experience are both constructs that belong to the world of business. It has now become necessary for universities to also embrace these business concepts in order to remain relevant and competitive, given the vast changes in Higher Education landscapes globally. Previous studies have looked at the relationship between Market Orientation and Customer Satisfaction. However, Customer Experience has not been identified as an antecedent to Market Orientation. This exploratory study posits that it is Customer Experience that influences Market Orientation at Higher Education institutions. Customer Satisfaction alone does not provide opportunities for students to be co-creators of their educational experiences. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine whether focusing on Customer Experience rather than just evaluating Customer Satisfaction levels can be a greater source of information to guide Market Orientation objectives and its implementation. The theoretical frameworks that guided the conceptual model of this study were the ResourceBased View and the Service-Dominant Logic theory. A cyclical relationship between Market Orientation and Customer Experience was proposed, with the nexus of this relationship being the concept of co-creation. A mixed methods convergent design approach was applied to collect data at a University of Technology in South Africa. The focus was on the postgraduate master's programme, and both research supervisors and master's students were part of the study sample. During the quantitative phase, data was collected via online surveys from 151 research supervisors, using purposive convenience sampling. Twenty-four master's students were interviewed using the critical incident technique method during the qualitative phase. Descriptive statistics together with Exploratory Factor Analysis were used to analyse the quantitative data, whilst qualitative data was coded and categorised into positive and negative incidents inductively in order to analyse the content to derive themes. The quantitative results and qualitative findings were merged to establish whether the results converged, augmented, differed, or were contradictory. The major contribution of this study is a cyclical model rather than a sequential model, where a positive relationship between Customer Experience and Market Orientation is possible, contingent on the institution's ability to promote co-creation initiatives amongst its key stakeholders. This study's findings reflect, that the stronger the level of Market Orientation practiced by supervisors, the more likely it is that the student experience would be positive, and the greater the impact on students' customer satisfaction levels. Co-creation initiatives vii between the university and all its stakeholders, especially students, were viewed as enhancing this relationship. This study reaffirms the roles of the institution, academics/employees and students in building and designing the customer experience at Higher Education institutions. The knowledge contribution of this study was the focus on Customer Experience and Market Orientation in the context of a developing country like South Africa, among others, given its unique economic, social and cultural structures. Furthermore, this study advances the importance of institutional reputation and research service experience in promoting a conducive environment that supports timely output of postgraduate students who can transfer their knowledge and skills into sectors of the South African economy. The methodological contribution of this study was the validation of the UNIVERSITY-I-MARKOR in the context of the developing world, highlighting the specific dimensions of Market Orientation that needed to be stimulated to enhance the student experience and the quality of the services provided by Higher Education institutions. Notably, areas for possible future research considerations were highlighted by this study.
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    Open Access
    Re-introducing prize-linked savings products in South Africa through business model innovation
    (2022) Khayelihle Ludgar Busa Mkhize; Bick, Geoff
    The aim of this research study was to determine how business model innovation can be used to re-introduce prize-linked savings (PLS) products in South Africa in the context of the illegalization of FNB's Million-a-Month-Account (MaMa) by the Supreme Court of Appeals ruling in 2008. The study first explores the detailed underlying factors that led to the demise of FNB's MaMa program, beyond the obvious Lotteries Act challenges. Using FNB's Million-a-Month account experience as a case study, a qualitative research study was undertaken, with primary data collected through 10 in-depth semi-structured interviews with financial services experts and regulatory authorities. Content analysis of the data was used to identify themes to address the research questions. Key research findings suggest that the failure of FNB's MaMa program was due to: the ambiguities of the Lotteries Act with regards to prize-linked savings that existed until the ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal was made in 2008; poor co-operation between government departments towards positive alignment between the regulation of the financial services industry versus the national lottery; and high industry or market concentration in the banking sector that led to lack of innovation and collaboration. A theoretical and practical contribution is made in the form of a comprehensive business model innovation framework for re-introducing PLS products in South Africa, which will provide valuable guidance to practitioners and researchers. As far as could be determined, it is the first academic study to explore prize-linked savings products from a business model innovation perspective
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    The social media value framework: development and validation of a conceptual framework for social media engagement and value creation
    (2025) Littlewood, Kerry; Bick, Geoff
    As social media sites continue to dominate attention, consumers are overwhelmed with content, campaigns and information in today's virtual world. How do brands and marketers stand out and ensure that their social media communications result in value creation? Engagement and the intent to engage are fundamental when considering return on investment. Post COVID-19, there has been a shift in the use of digital platforms and time spent on social media platforms. While multiple studies have looked at behavioural and user acceptance theories to gauge social media use, this study looked to determine whether these factors are still relevant post COVID-19 as well as provide a holistic view across multiple behavioural theories. Further to this, the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is changing the creation and consumption of content, brings a new complexity and requirement to further research on this topic. The aim of study was to investigate the various behavioural, emotive and social factors that may enhance or impede engagement on social media platforms, with the focus on the ultimate behaviour resulting in value creation for the organisation. The study examines how various usage theories influence intent to engage and whether these result in trust and loyalty. The study posits that perceived benefit and cost factors can be identified that statistically influence social media engagement with the resultant creation of value to consumers. The study was based on prior research results, which developed a social media framework through the lens of value-based performance measurement. This model was created to support organisations in understanding the value of social media and an approach to setting strategies and in turn measuring the impact of social media communications. Social media has changed the relationship between organisations and their customers and therefore the importance of understanding social behaviour of customers within the social media context has become extremely relevant. A large number of social media studies have looked at the socio-psychological behaviour of individual social media users using theories such as Social Cognitive Theory (Chiu et al, 2006 and Lin et al, 2009); Technology Adoption Model (Hossain & de Silva, 2009 and Kwon & Wen, 2010); Theory of Planned Behaviour (Casalo et al, 2015 and Chang & Zhu, 2011) and Social Influence Theory (Cheung & Lee, 2010 and Koo et al, 2011). While the Social Media Value Chain (SMVC), derived from previous research by Littlewood and Bick (2015), considers the complexity of consumers and influencers, the framework needed to be further developed to incorporate these behavioural factors for organisations to fully understand how social media communications are engaged with and ultimately the value creation for both the consumer and the firm. Using the lens of Social Exchange Theory (SET), this study looked to a multidimensional model incorporating factors from the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to create a framework to understand consumer engagement with social media communications and the resulting value creation for organisations. Using factors identified in the Social Media Value Chain (SMVC) together with behavioural and usage theories, the research incorporated the antecedents and moderators of social media engagement and validated this through a confirmatory quantitative survey. The output was a conceptual framework that will assist organisations in understanding the determinants of consumer engagement and what needs to be considered for social media strategy creation and measurement. This study used a deductive quantitative method. Data was obtained using an online survey with closed-ended questions for demographic responses and a seven-point Likert scale as the measurement scale for the identified constructs. A total of 493 surveys were collected with 411 usable surveys from a global audience. Various statistical techniques were used for the analysis, including confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The findings of the study reveal that two of the benefit factors have influence on the intent to engage and be satisfied with brands' social media platforms: Perceived usefulness had the highest overall influence on this intention, followed by perceived enjoyment, suggesting a shift aware from pure enjoyment post COVID-19. Five benefit and cost factors, including perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, reciprocal communication, privacy concern and social media fatigue had a significant influence on trust and loyalty. Interestingly, perceived usefulness again showed the highest influence, however this was a negative influence suggesting factors such as misinformation and disinformation are impacting online experiences. Social media fatigue also saw an opposite influence with a positive relationship to trust and loyalty; however, this follows the paradoxical behaviour and suggests that consumers could be increasing their trust and loyalty to specific brands due to the overwhelming amount of content and choices on social media. The strongest relationship was the engagement intention on trust and loyalty, supporting literature's findings around the influence of satisfaction on both trust and loyalty and increasing consumer demands. This study brings together multiple behavioural, social and usage models and extends the current knowledge on social media engagement and value creation, with a focus on exchange theory and benefits versus costs. The study's findings will assist marketers and industry specialists to better understand the impact of behaviour post the pandemic and how to adapt effective engagement strategies to drive trust and loyalty. Additional insight around negative factors, including social media fatigue, highlight the paradoxical behaviour seen on social media platforms. Further to this, the discussion and recommendations explores brands' responsibility when it comes to the social media perceived costs such as social media fatigue, privacy, as well as additional negative impacts of social media including disinformation and what a brand's role is in this space to protect mental health and wellbeing.
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    Utilising social entrepreneurship to facilitate the successful transition of foster youth to adulthood in South Africa
    (2017) Lesea, Tsakane; Bick, Geoff
    Young people, emerging out of the foster care system, often struggle to become productive and self-sustainable adults in society. They are at high risk of being trapped in poverty and unemployment for their entire adult life because they are unable to make a successful transition out of the foster care system to adulthood. The purpose of this study was to explore how social entrepreneurship can be utilised to establish a developmental transitional service to facilitate the successful transition to adulthood of youth in foster care. The research participants were purposefully selected and comprised social workers and foster youths based in the township and the former homelands of the Free State. Data was collected using in-depth interviews and focus groups and was analysed using content analysis. The study found that the current model of the foster care system is not designed to facilitate and support foster youth to make a successful transition to adulthood. This may be ascribed to the following: ● The legislative requirements imposed on this population group, ● The lack of preparatory transition services and ● The limited capacity of social workers to address the needs and challenges of foster youth. The study concludes that intervention is needed in the foster care system to prepare, equip and support foster youth to become productive and self-sustainable citizens. Through the application of the social entrepreneurship framework, this study demonstrates how existing resources and new actors can be leveraged to provide a developmental transitional service that will serve to promote the resilience of youth in foster care and assist them to break the cycle of poverty.