Pieter van Schalkwyk

South African students face many challenges when completing their tertiary education, finances being one of the most significant. This is not only due to a lack of monetary resources but also to students’ inability to manage their available resources. Students often make financial decisions not in their own interest due to both internal and external factors. Consequently, many students do not finish their studies or end up in debt.The research reported on in this article examined the correlation between three factors which influence spending and debt according to previous research, namely Materialism, Social Comparison and Status Consumption. These concepts refer to how much people value material possessions and how they compare their possessions to those of others and spend on status-conferring possessions to improve their image.This study used convenience sampling of 630 Generation Y students registered from four university campuses. Data collection was conducted using a self-reporting questionnaire. Data analysis comprised 597 valid questionnaires. The results reveal that Status Consumption can be predicted using Materialism and Social Comparison tendencies.The net result of this situation is that students first compare themselves to their peers and then spend money to feel better about themselves or present an improved image to their peers instead of investing their limited resources in their education. Very often, this spending is funded using credit. According to existing literature, this is true for students and the population at large and is one of the main drivers of the current debt problems South Africa is experiencing.

The South African Department of Agriculture allocates substantial development funds to create entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector. The Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP), was launched in 2004 for disbursements to farming households as a non-refundable grant. The aim of the CASP fund is to provide capital and post-settlement support to the targeted emerging farmers in order to become successful SMMEs within the agribusiness sector. Most of the funds spent on CASP within the North West province have been declared as a fruitless and wasteful expenditure, since the grants did not add value and the targeted emerging farmers were unsuccessful year after year. The main objective of this study was to compare emerging farmers to existing commercial farmers and explore the problems faced by emerging farmers. Quantitative data collection was done through questionnaires, responses from 202 emerging farmers and 268 commercial farmers were received. The results from the research revealed that only 11 percent of the emerging farmers received any formal training in agriculture compared to 72 percent of the commercial farmers. It was also found that emerging farmers are not linked to market agencies whereas commercial farmers are. Most of the commercial farmers indicated that they are connected to experts within agricultural cooperatives whereas emerging farmers were only assisted by the extension officers from the Department of Agriculture. Most of the commercial farmers are successful entrepreneurs due to education in all fields of management. It is imperative that more attention should be given to training and mentorship in all fields of management. Government should also seek to establish alliances with private institutions (i.e. agribusinesses, financial institutions, organised agricultural) to form public/private partnerships in their search for successful development of emerging farmers in agriculture.

The smartphone industry has grown in the last decade and now consists of a variety of vendors, many of whom people are not aware of. There has also been a shift in power from brands such as Nokia, Sony, and Blackberry, to brands such as Apple, Samsung, and Huawei. As such, it has become increasingly important to differentiate brands as technology has become democratised. This paper aims to provide a method for smartphone vendors to differentiate themselves in a crowded and competitive market. The differentiating factor considered is social media, which could be used to reach a high number of individuals to whom could be marketed, and would, ideally, become advocates of the brand. This study hypothesised that reaching a point of brand advocacy relies on four other factors, namely perceived usefulness of social media, anticipated benefits of social media sites, intention to be involved in social media sites, and commitment to social media sites. To test this hypothesis, a sample size of 512 Millennial students were taken from various universities. The data showed that reaching advocacy does indeed rely on the four factors as hypothesised and that, therefore, advocacy among Millennials is a five-factor model whereby perceived usefulness, anticipated benefits and intention to be involved are mediated to advocacy intention through commitment. As such, organisations, especially smartphone brands should focus on the four factors preceding advocacy to enable customers and social media followers to become more prolific in their word of mouth campaigns. Advocacy entails defending the brand, speaking well of the brand, and trying to convince others to buy the brand. Moreover, where customers become advocates, they are more difficult to persuade to use other brands and forgive brands more easily for their mistakes. This is deemed to be a crucial aspect of the saturated globalised smartphone market.

Generation Y is an important market segment because they make-up such a large part of the South African population. University students are of particular interest because of their higher future earning potential. This student segment is also highly coveted by credit providers looking to establish early brand loyalty. This has led to many students becoming over indebted, and up to 50 percent of credit-active 18 to 26 year-old consumers are battling to pay their debts. This makes it important to understand how students' attitudes and values influence their current and future credit use. As such, this study aimed to determine the influence of social comparison and impulsive buying on South African generation Y students' attitude towards credit and credit intentions. Data were collected using a self-reporting questionnaire from a convenience sample of 630 generation Y students registered at four higher education campuses. Data analysis comprised exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and construct validity analysis, and path analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis affirmed a four-factor model, which exhibited internal consistency and composite reliability, construct validity and acceptable model fit. The results of the subsequent path analysis infer that generation Y students' social comparison and impulsive buying are significant predictors of their attitude towards credit and future credit intentions. The findings suggest that social comparison and impulsive buying contribute to generation Y students' positive attitude towards credit and foster their 579 future credit usage intentions. This has implications both for marketers who use social media platforms to display products and retailers who rely on impulsive buying to boost sales. Care should, however, be exercised in approving students for credit accounts they cannot afford to repay.

As part of Generation Y, university students are often of particular interest to marketers targeting the Youth in that a tertiary qualification is generally synonymous with a high future earning potential. This student segment is also highly coveted by credit providers and, in South Africa, there are indications that they are increasingly being targeted with credit products. Unfortunately, research indicates that up to 50 percent of credit-active 18 to 26 year-old consumers are battling to pay their debts. This makes it important to understand how students' attitudes and values influence their current and future credit use. As such, this study aimed to determine the influence of materialism and status consumption on South African Generation Y students' attitude towards money and credit, and credit intentions. Data were collected using a self-reporting questionnaire from a convenience sample of 630 Generation Y students registered at four higher education campuses. Data analysis comprised exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and construct validity analysis, and path analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis affirmed a five-factor model, which exhibited internal-consistency and composite reliability, construct validity and acceptable model fit. The results of the subsequent path analysis infer that Generation Y 114 students' materialism and status consumption tendencies are significant predictors of their attitude towards money, which, in turn, is a significant predictor of their attitude towards credit and future credit intentions. The findings suggest that materialistic and status consumption tendencies, together with a love for money contribute to Generation Y students' positive attitude towards credit and fosters their future credit usage intentions. Whilst this is no doubt good news for credit providers, it is incumbent upon Government, higher education institutions and, indeed, credit providers to educate the Youth concerning the responsible use of credit.

Following the first democratic elections in 1994, the South African government has introduced several laws regulating the country's business environment for the purpose of protecting consumers from unethical business practices. One such law is the Consumer Protection Act (68 of 2008) (CPA). The CPA was implemented for a number of reasons, including to conform to international best practices regarding consumer law, to replace the existing but out-dated laws, and, most importantly, to provide protection to vulnerable consumers who in the past were exposed to unethical business practices as a result of the antecedent of apartheid. Despite the good intentions of the CPA, the law will be of little value to consumers if retailers do not generally know and apply it. Therefore, a study was undertaken to measure the perceived and actual knowledge of the CPA amongst retailers. A self-administered questionnaire was used to measure perceived and actual knowledge of the CPA amongst a sample of 97 small independent retailers located in 10 shopping malls in the Vaal Triangle area of South Africa. The findings indicate that whilst small independent retailers consider themselves well-informed regarding the CPA, their actual knowledge of the Act is lacking. This suggests that a number of small independent retailers in South Africa may be conducting their business in a manner that does not comply with the CPA and, therefore, is not in the best interests of consumers.