This paper reviews how women help women in the South African Women in Construction (SAWIC) organization to effectively participate in projects. In a pilot project partnering with…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper reviews how women help women in the South African Women in Construction (SAWIC) organization to effectively participate in projects. In a pilot project partnering with industry stakeholders, the Development Bank of Southern Africa as incubator of SAWIC, further explored what support women contractors required to succeed, tested mentoring and coaching as part of enterprise development.
Design/methodology/approach
Relevant literature were studied and analysed, testing the views and measure of success of women contractors against existing models. A survey instrument was developed to test the constructs empirically.
Findings
The empirical testing of success as a construct indicated that women overwhelmingly view mentoring and coaching as key capacity building and growth strategies towards successful women‐owned construction enterprises, underpinned by preliminary indications of the almost complete pilot study.
Research limitations/implications
A limitation to the study is that it is based on preliminary findings and limited scope of the civil project.
Practical implications
Given the excellent results of the Cronbach α and factor analysis, the instrument developed proved to be reliable and valid and could be used for similar studies.
Originality/value
Knowledge sharing of lessons learnt in the joint initiative between government, the building industry, development finance institutions and women associations towards addressing critical skills shortages and gender equity.
Details
Keywords
Adele Berndt and Corné Meintjes
Family businesses feature prominently in economies, including the South African wine industry, using websites to convey their family identity. This research paper aims to explore…
Abstract
Purpose
Family businesses feature prominently in economies, including the South African wine industry, using websites to convey their family identity. This research paper aims to explore the family identity elements that family wineries use on their websites, their alignment and how these are communicated online.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on Gioia’s methodology, a two-pronged approach was used to analyze 113 wineries’ websites’ text using Atlas. ti from an interpretivist perspective.
Findings
South African wineries use corporate identity, corporate personality and corporate expression to illustrate their familiness on their websites. It is portrayed through their family name and heritage, supported by their direction, purpose and aspirations, which emerge from the family identity and personality. These are dynamic and expressed through verbal and visual elements. Wineries described their behaviour, relevant competencies and passion as personality traits. Sustainability was considered an integral part of their brand promise, closely related to their family identity and personality, reflecting their family-oriented philosophy. These findings highlight the integration that exists among these components.
Practical implications
Theoretically, this study proposes a family business brand identity framework emphasising the centrality of familiness to its identity, personality and expression. Using websites to illustrate this familiness is emphasised with the recommendation that family businesses leverage this unique attribute in their identity to communicate their authenticity.
Originality/value
This study contributes to understanding what family wineries communicate on their websites, specifically by examining the elements necessary to create a family business brand based on the interrelationship between family identity, personality and expression with familiness at its core, resulting in a proposed family business brand identity framework.