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The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the factors that led to Cape Town’s gay village to transform from a “gaytrified” tourism mecca to a “heterosexualised” urban space, from a gay leisure space owner perspective.

Empirical observations of the six remaining gay leisure space owners in De Waterkant (population) are taken into account by using semi-structured interviews. All narratives are analysed in Altas.ti – qualitative data analysis software – to identify applicable factors, which participants believe are contributing to the “de-gaying” of Cape Town’s gay village.

From the conducted analyses, it becomes apparent that Western theorisation of the “de-gaying” of gay villages is not universally applicable as certain factors contributing to De Waterkant’s demise appear to be location-specific, suggesting that Western theory is insufficient to explain gay spatial realities in non-Western contexts such as South Africa. The identified factors responsible for the “de-gaying” of De Waterkant adversely affect Cape Town’s status as a gay capital and its ability to market this gay neighbourhood to attract the gay tourism market. This may result in lost socio-economic opportunities considering the financial contribution of gay travellers to the local tourist economy.

This study is the first of its kind to use first-hand narratives of the six remaining gay business owners in De Waterkant and marks the first attempt to investigate the factors, from a non-Western perspective, which led to the “de-gaying” of Africa’s only gay village. Taking into account the socio-economic value added by gay tourism, the findings provide the first non-Western perspective on the demise of Africa’s and South Africa’s only gay neighbourhood from a gay leisure space owner perspective, including the possible repercussions on Cape Town’s local tourist economy. Some tactical considerations and recommendations are suggested to ensure the continuation of gay tourism in the city.

Although customer-perceived quality (CPQ) has been studied for years, very little is known about the implications of CPQ to informal retail stores particularly in collectivist and high uncertainty avoidance societies like Nigeria. More specifically, this study aims to investigate the indirect implications of CPQ to post-purchase behaviour primarily word-of-mouth (WoM) communication which is even more critical for customer acquisition in the research context. By so doing, it develops a contextualised model in which the emerging concept of commercial friendship (CF) is incorporated to mediate the relationship between CPQ and WoM communication.

Using a survey-based design, data were gathered from 372 informal merchants’ customers. Structural equation modelling technique primarily PLS-SEM (partial least squares structural equation modelling) was used in analysing the data.

The data confirm that the multifaceted CPQ construct has an important implication for WoM through the mediation of CF. Supplementary analysis reveals that CF fully mediates one of the sub-components of CPQ, namely, personal interaction in relationship to WoM in addition to acting as a partial mediator between store policy, physical aspect and reliability and WoM.

The value of this study is that it draws attention to the special role that CF plays in the investigation of the relationship between CPQ and WoM communication in the research context. Additionally, it is a step towards extending and contextualising research about service quality perceptions and its outcomes in non-traditional Western contexts.

The development of banking in Africa followed the demand of exchange networks from traditional indigenous economies to colonial exchange with the European world. The establishment of European banking institutions reflected the needs of the capitalist economy introduced by colonialism. The banking management of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century European banks adhered to the interests of shareholders. This chapter shows the emergence of well-managed banks in Africa, but after decolonization the political economy of African independence resulted in state capturing of financial institutions in most African countries. The South African banking system developed in close adherence to the British model. State-owned post-independence banks in Africa failed to deliver the development envisaged. The chapter shows the adverse impact of global economic developments on Africa, resulting in high debt levels. Structural adjustment of African economies and new market-oriented policies allowed the development of locally owned private banking institutions. The high-cost structure of the formal banking system from the dominant South African banks incentivised the mobile money innovation, an arena where African entrepreneurs lead global markets. Financial inclusion remains low in Africa.

Sustainable development; business, government, and society.

The case is designed to be taught to students at MBA and MA level.

In February 2009, Justin Smith, manager of the good business journey at Woolworths, a leading South African department store, was a worried man. Woolworths had launched its five-year sustainability strategy just under two years before. After undertaking an impact assessment, Smith was concerned that the original targets – which covered transformation, social development, the environment and climate change – had been set without a clear understanding of exactly what it would take to achieve them. Woolworths had recently identified ten key risk areas that impacted on the achievement of its original goals. If the sustainability goals were not reached, Woolworths could lose credibility among its shareholders, staff, and consumers. What did Woolworths need to do to ensure that it achieved its sustainability goals? And had the company been too ambitious in the targets it had set initially, he wondered?

To examine the differences, if any, between sustainable development in South Africa and other developing nations and sustainable development in developed nations; to impart an understanding of sustainability in its broadest sense; to investigate the challenges in implementing sustainability strategies in business; to look at ways of measuring the success of sustainability strategies; and to explore whether and how sustainability strategies should differ across industry sectors and across companies.

Teaching notes.

Stakeholder consultation and participation are central to the climate change policymaking process. The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of stakeholder participation in the Ghana National Climate Change Policy. It examines the actors in the policy space and the negotiations and tradeoffs made during the policymaking process. Finally, it outlines the steps undertaken to make the process participatory and consultative.

A qualitative method has been used for this paper. The research design involves a review of relevant literature on Ghana’s climate change regime, meeting reports and key informant interviews.

The findings indicate that the processes the policy underwent had extensive stakeholder participation. An uptake of evidence was from existing impact and vulnerability assessments, the first and second communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), scientific and research documents and expert knowledge. Key actors were identified and involved right from the beginning of the policymaking process. Although stakeholder participation was time-consuming, expensive and elongated, the policy process was vital for buy-in and ownership. The results also identified the need to include more stakeholders at the sub-regional levels in policymaking.

The study is the first of its kind detailing stakeholder participation in the climate change policy process in Ghana. It forms a good basis for comparative studies with similar policies in other countries. Thus, this paper fills an identified gap of the need to document climate change policymaking processes.