Browsing by Author "Lappeman, James Roger"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    An investigation of a price increase effect on the staple-food basket composition for low-income South African consumers
    (2024) Weideman, Oelof; Lappeman, James Roger; Pillay Pragasen; Mbumbwa, Tendai
    The South African consumers' staple-food basket has over recent years come under pressure with unforeseen events having a detrimental impact on supply and consequently on food prices. These events have had a destabilising effect on the composition of South African staple-food baskets over the last few years. These events have been shown to have an unfavourable effect on the supply of food and consequently on the price of food. This study investigates the price-based product-switching that lowerincome South Africans practice when prices increase in their staple-food basket. Retailers and manufacturers are all reliant on a stable and predictable demand for staple foods; retailers face a missed opportunity in terms of revenue if consumers are unable to purchase a product due to it being out of stock. Manufacturers face potential monetary fines if they are unable to meet the expectations of retailers and could lose consumers and consequently revenue to competitor brands if their products are unavailable on retail shelves. Consumer-panel data from Nielsen South Africa is incorporated into the research to determine shifting in the lower-income South Africans staple-food basket consisting of maize meal, potatoes, bread and rice. The researcher assisted in the acquisition of the data, completing the entire process from the collection of raw purchase data to the development of a final data set. Due to the continuous tracking of the panel, historical trends and shifts are available to identify shifting between staple goods at times of significance. The researcher assumed a positivist paradigm and followed a quantitative approach when the panel data was analysed to determine which products households shifted from and to during times of price increases. The results and conclusions clearly define the impacts that price increases have on sales of certain products. A clear assessment was also made on the relationship between staple-food basket products, as well as consumers' tendency to switch between products in their staple-food basket. These insights enable retailers and manufacturers to efficiently plan for consumer demand before and during times of price increases in a staple-food basket.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Destigmatising the recreational cannabis industry
    (2023) Bundwini, Nqobile; Lappeman, James Roger
    Cannabis is the world's most cultivated, trafficked and used illicit drug, and the move towards its legalisation has given rise to a nascent industry that is attracting increasing attention from investors, manufacturers, and researchers. Due to the plant maintaining its illegal and stigmatised status in many countries, cannabis research is limited, which has resulted in a significant gap in imperative knowledge about this burgeoning industry. Although the cannabis industry is clearly making a move from stigmatised to mainstream, little research has been conducted to investigate this transition, more particularly in a South African context. This dissertation investigates destigmatisation processes and strategies employable by cannabis organisations by way of three individual but interconnected studies. They aimed, respectively, to conduct a systematic literature review of organisational destigmatisation and establish a practitioner-driven research agenda; to depict the destigmatisation landscape of South African recreational cannabis organisations through a mixed methods content analysis and finally, to explore the influence of these organisations' destigmatisation strategies on attitudes towards cannabis. Study 1 presents a destigmatisation model as its main contribution, finding that stigma management strategies are classified into six main categories: Conforming, Hiding and Structural Responses were identified as stigma avoidance or perpetuation strategies, and Affirming, Challenging, and Infusing as destigmatisation strategies. Affirming strategies were found to be at the heart of destigmatisation, and an industry-collective approach to destigmatisation was ranked as the most prioritised research need by South African cannabis industry professionals. Study 2 found that Infusing strategies were significantly the most popular of the destigmatisation methods used by South African recreational cannabis organisations, accounting for nearly 80% of the themes, with branding tactics predominant in this category. Key insights revealed that there is a mismatch between the strategies most employed by cannabis businesses and the strategies that exert the strongest influence on attitudes, which Study 3 found to be recontextualisation of the cannabis industry, evidenced by education using scientific facts and figures. These findings highlight that a lack of knowledge is the main barrier to cannabis industry destigmatisation and should be counteracted by the rhetoric activity of educating the public. In summary, this study served to inform destigmatisation processes for core stigmatised organisations - with a focus on the cannabis industry; to catalyse cannabis destigmatisation research in a manner relevant to the South African cannabis industry; to provide a detailed description of the destigmatisation landscape of the South African cannabis industry from an organisational perspective; and, lastly, to determine the most influential destigmatisation strategies from a consumer perspective.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    MODELLING THE ANTECEDENTS THAT INFLUENCE BRAND INNOVATIVENESS, AGE AND PERSONAL INNOVATIVENESS IN SOCIAL COMMERCE SHOPPING BEHAVIOUR
    (2023) De Freitas, Vanessa Fernandes; Lappeman, James Roger
    Through the recent growth of information and communication technology and Web 2.0 technologies, a new branch of e-commerce called social commerce has emerged (Hajli, 2013). This study explores the effects of personal innovativeness on the relationship between brand innovativeness and customer-based brand equity among South African social commerce users, aged from 18 to 55 years, of all ethnicities. The conceptual model of the study proposes that the moderating effect of personal innovativeness and age influences the relationship between brand innovativeness and Customer-Based Brand Equity factors, namely brand trust, brand reputation, brand quality, brand credibility and brand loyalty in a social commerce context. The findings of this study aim to find insight regarding purchasing behaviours on local brands by active South African social users. Respondents who formed part of this investigation filled in an online survey to determine the factors that influence the decision to purchase a local brand. The results of the data was analysed using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) programme, more specifically Partial Least Squares 3.0 software package. Most hypotheses in the study were supported, whereas some were not supported. The relationships with the moderating effect of age between brand innovativeness and brand reputation, brand quality and brand credibility, brand trust and brand loyalty revealed a positive and significant relationship. The weakest relationships found was that of the moderating effect of personal innovativeness on brand innovativeness and brand trust and the moderating relationship of personal innovativeness on brand innovativeness and brand loyalty. Furthermore, the findings revealed that age plays an essential role in moderating and that due to individual's personal decision to adopt an innovation, personal innovativeness deems to be a subjective topic. The effects of personal innovativeness and age on brand innovativeness and CBBE factors in social commerce shopping behaviour are new insights provided by this study. The impact of brand innovativeness and quality on attitude (Boisvert & Ashill, 2011), the impact of brand equity and innovation on the long-term effectiveness of promotions (Slotegraaf & Pauwels, 2008), consumer innovativeness in the context of a robotic restaurant (Hwang, Park & Kim, 2020) and the effect of personal innovativeness for e-store loyalty (Jianlin & Qi, 2010) are examples of prior studies on brand and personal innovativeness that were investigated in different situations (Thakur, Angriawan & Summey, 2016). The majority of studies have evaluated the effects of CBBE factors on businesses, brands, and consumers. This study, however, made an effort to look at innovativeness and CBBE from the perspective of the customer. Taking into account the study's findings, management implications are crucial since they show how any company can improve its present and future business practices. The results based on this study calls on businesses to re-evaluate their present business plans and consider developing a social commerce strategy where trust may be established through trust drivers on their respective platforms.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    The decision-making process of young urban South African single mothers at the bottom of the pyramid when purchasing baby food
    (2024) Jacobs, Dominique; Lappeman, James Roger
    This study investigated how young single mothers (YSMs) in South Africa's bottom of the pyramid (BoP) purchase food for their babies. The study focused specifically on mothers with babies between the ages of 6 to 24 months and explored various elements of their child nutrition decision-making. In trying to understand YSM consumer behaviour at the BoP, the objective of the research was to investigate the influence of their vulnerability when making purchasing decisions affecting their baby's nutrition. While many studies exist on the BoP consumer, there is a void in the literature when it comes to specific product category decision-making processes. To explore the research objectives, a qualitative methodology was employed. Semi-structured interviews were used, and the research identified 22 urban interviewees who took part in the study. The results show that the landscape and behaviour of YSMs at the BoP are characterised according to levels of awareness, availability, affordability, and accessibility of a product. This study specifically identified five vulnerabilities, namely, confined financial power, the education gap, entrenched family filters, the proximity trap, and the catalogue constraint. In terms of nutrition, the results show that participants were aware of the importance and benefits of good nutrition for their baby, but mothers rarely prioritised nutrition when purchasing food for their baby. This is due to various reasons, such as not knowing what good nutrition is (how to read the back of the packs of branded baby food) and mainly focusing on being able to afford enough food to survive (as more nutritious food is usually more expensive). This study is an important contribution to gaining a better understanding of choices, priorities, and the decisionmaking process for YSM consumers at the BoP