http://hdl.handle.net/11189/491 2026-08-12T11:45:34Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10664 Title: Introducing the composite business success index: enhancing small and medium enterprise competitiveness in South Africa Authors: Jacobs, Donovan Martin; Kabaso, Boniface Abstract: Orientation: This study explored the composite business success index (CBSI), a novel framework designed to enhance small and medium enterprise (SME) competitiveness in South Africa by integrating financial and cultural metrics. Research purpose: The aim was to introduce CBSI as a tool for assessing small and medium enterprise performance, combining financial indicators like the cash conversion cycle (CCC) and Altman Z-score with cultural metrics such as the Configurational Accuracy Score for a more holistic evaluation. Motivation for the study: Small and medium enterprises in South Africa face significant challenges, including financial instability and misalignment of organisational culture. Existing performance models often fail to address these non-financial factors, which CBSI integrates into one evaluative tool to improve both financial health and cultural alignment. Research design, approach and method: A pragmatist research approach integrated quantitative and qualitative methodologies, including financial data from small and medium enterprise statements, semi-structured interviews with small and medium enterprise owners and experts and questionnaires to collect cultural data for insight into the role of culture in small and medium enterprise success. Main findings: Composite Business Success Index proved effective in predicting small and medium enterprise performance. Higher CBSI scores (> 0.65) were associated with successful small and medium enterprises, while lower scores (< 0.50) indicated areas for improvement, highlighting the link between financial stability and organisational alignment. Practical/managerial implications: The CBSI offers small and medium enterprise leaders actionable insights for enhancing financial performance and organisational culture, boosting competitiveness and long-term sustainability. Contribution/value-add: By integrating both financial and cultural metrics into a single framework, the CBSI provides a novel tool for assessing and developing small and medium enterprise performance for the small and medium enterprise managers. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10663 Title: Enhancing enterprise resource planning: An empirical analysis of feature utilisation and competitive advantage in small- and medium-sized enterprises Authors: Jacobs, Donovan Martin; Kabaso, Boniface Abstract: Background: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa face numerous challenges, including limited access to financial resources and intense competition. The adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems has been posited as a strategic solution to enhance operational efficiency and competitiveness. Aim: This study aims to examine the strategic utilisation of ERP systems within South African SMEs, focussing on the specific features leveraged to improve business competitiveness. Setting: The research was conducted across various industries, including manufacturing, retail, information technology (IT), security, construction, oil & gas and transport, providing a comprehensive view of ERP adoption in the South African SME context. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was adopted, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data collected via a comprehensive survey of SME owners and IT managers. The survey included Likert-scale items and open-ended questions to capture the frequency of ERP feature utilisation and qualitative insights into their impact on business performance. Results: The findings indicate a significant correlation between the strategic use of ERP features and improvements in the Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC), enhancing financial efficiency and competitiveness. Key ERP functionalities such as inventory management, customer relationship management (CRM) and financial management were frequently utilised by successful SMEs. Conclusion: The study concludes that targeted use of ERP systems can substantially improve operational efficiency and competitiveness for SMEs. By focusing on core ERP features that impact financial metrics like the CCC, SMEs can enhance their financial stability and market resilience. Furthermore, integrating CBSI with ERP systems offers a predictive tool for assessing performance, aiding SMEs in strategic planning and decision-making. Contribution: The study explores the potential integration of the Composite Business Success Index (CBSI) within ERP systems to provide a more comprehensive measure of business performance. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10662 Title: Design and development of a unified query platform as middleware for NoSQL data stores Authors: Valentine, Hadwin; Kabaso, Boniface Abstract: The advancements in technology such as Web 2.0, 3.0, mobile devices and recently IoT devices has given rise to a massive amount of structured, semi-structure and unstructured datasets, i.e. big data. The increasing complexity and diversity of data sources poses significant challenges for stakeholders when extracting meaningful insights. This paper demonstrates how we developed a unified query prototype as middleware using a polyglot technique capable of interrogating and manipulating the four categories of NoSQL data models. This study applied established algorithms to different aspects of the prototype to attain this study’s objective. The prototype was subjected to an experiment where varying query workloads were processed. The performance data comprised of application performance index, memory consumption, and execution time and error rates. The results demonstrated that the prototype had a low error rate indicating it’s robustness and reliability. In addition, the results showed that the prototype is responsive and able to query the underlying storage system effectively and efficiently. The prototype provides a standardize set of operations abstracting the complexities of each underlying storage system; reducing the need for multiple data retrieval management systems. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11189/10661 Title: Improving election integrity: blockchain and byzantine generals problem theory in vote systems Authors: Mwansa, Patrick; Kabaso, Boniface Abstract: In the digital age, maintaining election integrity is critical, especially in Africa, where the security of electronic elections is often questioned. This study presents a blockchain-based vote counting and validation (BBVV) system developed using a mixed methods approach that combines stakeholder questionnaires to capture system specification and randomized historical election data analysis, following the Design Science Research strategy. Using the theory of the Byzantine General Problem, the BBVV protocol is proposed, which provides an accurate local count of votes at polling stations before national aggregation. The system was tested with randomized historical election data on the Algorand blockchain TestNet and confirmed that a local consensus on the vote count could be reached before it is added to the national tally on the blockchain. Our results show that in the cases where consensus was reached, this was the instance in only about 5% of the voting scenarios, with only 10% of the total vote being considered valid due to the strict consensus requirements. In addition, significant discrepancies were found between officials, with no consensus reached in 95% of cases which was due to the rogue values generated by a randomized dataset. The performance of the BBVV system was evaluated using transaction metrics, saturation, throughput, traffic, and latency to assess its efficiency, scalability, and reliability. The results suggest that blockchain technology can significantly improve the integrity of elections by ensuring a transparent, secure, and accurate vote-counting process. Future work will focus on improving the adaptability and scalability of the BBVV system for different electoral situations. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z