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Abstract Bayesian approaches to the modelling of ecological systems are increasingly popular, but there are competing methods for formal model comparisons. Here, we focus on the task of performing multimodel inference through estimating posterior model weights, which encompasses uncertainties in the choice of competing model structure into the inference outputs. Model‐based approaches such as reversible‐jump Markov chain Monte Carlo (RJ‐MCMC) are flexible and allow multimodel inference, but can be complex to implement and optimise, and so we translate a model‐based approach for ecological applications using Importance Sampling to estimate the marginal likelihood of the data given a particular model. This approach allows for model comparison through the estimation of Bayes' Factors or interpretable posterior model probabilities, yielding model weights that facilitate multimodel inference through Bayesian model averaging. We demonstrate Importance Sampling with two case study investigations in animal demography: censused analysis of banded mongoose (Mungos mungo) survival where missing data are uncommon, and capture–mark–recapture analysis of European badger (Meles meles) survival where data are commonly missing. We compare outcomes of the model comparison using the Importance Sampling approach to those obtained through single‐model inference approaches using Deviance information criteria and the Watanabe–Akaike information criteria. The results of the Importance Sampling method aligns with RJ‐MCMC model comparisons while often being more straightforward to fit and optimise, particularly if the competing models are non‐nested.

The study followed a consumer-centred approach in investigating the subject of visual merchandising in the South African fashion retail industry holistically. Inspired by the vision of 'Fashionomics' as a potential driver of economic growth, the primary research objective was to synthesise key visual merchandising elements to drive retail strategies in-store design and planning in the broader South African fashion retail market. This research study adopted a mixed-methods approach, analysing the data through directed content and factor analysis. This research study aims to reinvigorate South African fashion retail by targeting key visual merchandising elements, which South African fashion retailers can use as strategic tools. The key elements were determined from the consumer's perspective; hence, fashion retailers’ strategies may become more effective. Fashion retailers can differentiate themselves through the in-store environment created through unique visual merchandising strategy based on the identified critical elements and using them to gain a competitive advantage. The specified visual merchandising elements represent functions, activities, and business practices consumers value and demand. They reveal what consumers could see as a benefit to their relationship with the retailer. It was found that fashion retailers should implement good housekeeping – cleanliness and neatness, train customer-centric staff, and pay attention to fitting rooms, amongst a range of other visual merchandising elements in their retail strategies. As these three elements appear significant according to consumers, retailers will likely benefit the most by focusing on them.

One of the significant accelerators in economic development of a country is the retail industry, which is experiencing tremendous competition. Due to these circumstances, selecting, retaining and growing employees have become an essential responsibility for managers, especially for human resources departments. Therefore, employees should be engaged both physically and mentally with their work place and job roles. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which different demographic factors including employee rank, number of employees, gender, age and age of the organisation affect employee engagement practices in South African retail organisations. A total of 201 valid responses from employees working in different retail organisations have been collected with a structured survey questionnaire. A quantitative procedure with analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the manager role has the highest score for ‘inform and instruct practice’. General manager and staff roles have the lowest score for ‘inform and instruct practice’ respectively. Moreover, employee engagement practices are higher for female and younger employees than male and older employees respectively. The employee engagement practices are higher for organisations with more years of age and fewer employees. Descriptive analysis with means also concludes that all the practices need to be improved for better employee engagement. The study has implications for retail organisations, decision makers and human resources managers.

Globally, a vast majority higher education institutions are using social media in their day-to-day activities. Consequently, the need for guidelines to effectively use social media in student recruitment has become a necessity as universities compete among themselves. However, guidelines to use social media are scarce, especially in the realm of higher education and student recruitment. This study analyze social media guidelines by determining the predictors of enrolment intention when social media are used during student recruitment. Literature review revealed the existence of five constructs that may be associated with the intention to enrol at a university. A questionnaire was developed and administered to a sample of students from the four public universities. A total of 412 questionnaires were analysed using multiple linear regression and it was found that there are four predictors of enrolment intention, namely social media functionalities, social media engagement, social media content and information needs. From the predictors of enrolment intention and from the descriptive findings of this study, and additional literature, social media guidelines were derived and were recommended to be used by universities during student recruitment.

The use of mobile devices has become an everyday occurrence, and more and more higher education institutions have started adopting this technology in their interactions with students. Previous research has confirmed that mobile devices are becoming more widely used in learning. The sphere of formal education is not static but dynamic and evolving all the time, and central to this are developments in the technologies of teaching and learning. Educational institutions, which are seen as the bastion of new thoughts and thinking, need to ensure that these innovations and developments are incorporated in their teaching philosophies and mode of delivery – mainly to be able to accommodate the new generation of learners in the Industry 4.0, which impacts on their social and personal domains. Central to this, where the focus at tertiary institutions has shifted to, is the implementation of mobile learning technologies. This study investigates the views of learners regarding the use of mobile learning devices in their study and learning environments. In order to explore this aspect, the study aimed to determine the significance of age, gender and year of study in the use of mobile learning devices. No statistically significant differences were found between the identified demographic variables (age, gender and year of study) and uses of mobile devices in a study and learning environment.

Abstract Recognition of group members is an important adaptation in social organisms because it allows help to be directed toward kin or individuals that are likely to reciprocate, and harm to be directed toward members of competing groups. Evidence in a wide range of animals shows that responses to outgroups vary with context, suggesting that cues to group membership also depend on the social or environmental context. In termites, intergroup encounters are frequent and their outcomes highly variable, ranging from destruction of a colony to colony fusion. As well as genetic factors, nestmate recognition in social insects commonly relies on cues that are mediated by environmental factors such as food source. However, single‐piece nesting termite colonies share nesting material and food source with rival colonies (their wood substrate serves as both). In principle, the shared environment of single‐piece nesting termite colonies could constrain their ability to identify non‐nestmates, contributing to some of the variation seen in encounters, but this has not been investigated. In this study, we raised incipient colonies of a single‐piece nesting termite, Zootermopsis angusticollis, on two different wood types and conducted behavioral assays to test whether nestmate discrimination can be constrained by common environmental conditions. We found that non‐nestmates elicited higher rates of identity checking and defense behavior compared to nestmates, but there was no effect of wood type on the strength of behavioral responses to non‐nestmates. We also found that one key cooperative behavior (allogrooming) was performed equally toward both nestmates and non‐nestmates. These findings offer no support for the hypothesis that common wood type constrains the nestmate recognition system of single piece nesting termites. We suggest that where groups encounter each other frequently in a common environment, selection will favor discrimination based on genetic and/or higher resolution environmentally mediated cues.

The year 2020 has forced businesses and other institutions to start using technology extensively. Educational institutions were also forced to move to virtual classrooms and the use of social media in their delivery of their content. Students- both experienced and not experienced in the use of technology- were also forced to adapt to the new realities of teaching. The primary aim of the current study was to investigate the use of social media as a lecturing tool by examining the perceptions of lecturers and students regarding the effectiveness of social media networking systems as a lecturing tool. The study adopted a quantitative approach utilising a survey questionnaire to collect data from university lecturers and students at Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology in Bangkok. The overall sample for the study consisted of 326 respondents and of these, 30 were lecturers and 296 were students. From the data it is evident that both lecturers and students have a general positive attitude towards social network systems as a tool to be used in the academic environment. It was also found that students preferred social media as an additional method of instruction.

The days where students are exposed to face-to-face and classroom teaching methods alone are long gone; educational institutions must adapt to the changing instructional needs of students. It is expected from tertiary institutions to continually provide quality education even in times of severe uncertainty, disaster, or emergency situations, such as the Covid-19 pandemic where many countries worldwide are in a lockdown state. This has a significant impact on the way students can be instructed, and the approach students take to learning. Two learning approaches emerged from the research findings; learning subject matter only to pass and learning subject matter comprehensively to form understanding. The role that the lecturer plays in the learning process was emphasised and students acknowledge their role as contributing partners in their own learning.

Abstract Intergroup conflict is widespread in nature and is proposed to have strong impacts on the evolution of social behavior. The conflict–cohesion hypothesis predicts that exposure to intergroup conflict should lead to increased social cohesion to improve group success or resilience in future conflicts. There is evidence to support this prediction from studies of affiliative responses to outgroup threats in some animal societies. However, most of these studies have focused on behavioral changes over short time periods (minutes and hours after exposure to an outgroup), and hence very little is known about the dynamics and durability of responses to intergroup conflict over the longer term. We investigated this question by simulating intergroup encounters in wild banded mongooses (Mungos mungo) and measuring social behavior before, during, and after these encounters over a 5‐day period. We also ran control trials with non‐threatening stimuli. Banded mongooses reacted immediately to intrusion stimuli by vocalizing, grouping together, and advancing on the stimulus. In the first 5 min after simulated intrusions, we saw an elevation in grooming levels, but in the hour after exposure grooming rates declined sharply, contrary to our expectation. In the two subsequent days, grooming rates remained at this depressed rate. In control trials, the initial increase in grooming was not seen, but grooming declined compared to the longer‐term time periods. Grooming changed across time, but not in the same pattern as during intrusions, suggesting that intrusions had an impact above and beyond that of the experimental setup. The dynamics of grooming responses were short lived and more complex than we initially expected. We suggest this unexpected result may be linked to the frequency of aggressive intergroup encounters in this system. As control and experimental trials were run at different times of year, future work would be needed to confirm that these relative patterns are replicable. Our results indicate short‐lived impacts of outgroup threat on measures of social cohesion in this species, but cannot confirm longer‐term changes.

Abstract The extended female postreproductive life span found in humans and some toothed whales remains an evolutionary puzzle. Theory predicts demographic patterns resulting in increased female relatedness with age (kinship dynamics) can select for a prolonged postreproductive life span due to the combined costs of intergenerational reproductive conflict and benefits of late‐life helping. Here, we test this prediction using >40 years of longitudinal demographic data from the sympatric yet genetically distinct killer whale ecotypes: resident and Bigg's killer whales. The female relatedness with age is predicted to increase in both ecotypes, but with a less steep increase in Bigg's due to their different social structure. Here, we show that there is a significant postreproductive life span in both ecotypes with >30% of adult female years being lived as postreproductive, supporting the general prediction that an increase in local relatedness with age predisposes the evolution of a postreproductive life span. Differences in the magnitude of kinship dynamics however did not influence the timing or duration of the postreproductive life span with females in both ecotypes terminating reproduction before their mid‐40s followed by an expected postreproductive period of about 20 years. Our results highlight the important role of kinship dynamics in the evolution of a long postreproductive life span in long‐lived mammals, while further implying that the timing of menopause may be a robust trait that is persistent despite substantial variation in demographic patterns among populations.

The primary purpose of the study was to identify and explore the impact of the global COVID-19 crisis on consumers’ purchase behaviour in the context of South Africa. A nonprobability convenience sampling technique was used to collect data using a structured questionnaire. The quantitative data analysis of the responses of 200 respondents reveals that the perception of the COVID-19 crisis significantly influences economic crisis and household consumption at P

Institutions globally are focusing on ways and means to develop businesses and an entrepreneurial culture. Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) are regarded the world over as being job creators of the future and battling more and more with large corporations, which are retrenching staff, and it has fallen to the SMME sector to create employment. Consequently, governments and institutions are focusing increasingly on ensuring that entrepreneurial growth takes place. One method used almost universally is business plan competitions which are aimed at stimulating interest in business and getting people with the skills to start their own businesses. There are many of these competitions in the industry but they will only succeed if the idea is evaluated positively. If it is not, the initiative might not be able to attract funding or gain access to potential suppliers and customers. This article focuses on an analysis of success factors of business plan competitions and recommends a blueprint that can be followed – with minor country or regional adjustments – to run these competitions successfully.

The digital marketing world has become an everyday part of life for almost all businesses, and many incorporate social media and other electronic media into their strategies. It is also a known fact that many companies do not optimise these electronic media to its fullest due to a variety of reasons. The aim of this research study was to firstly investigate the awareness of Google AdWords and secondly to establish the use of Google AdWords among star-graded overnight accommodation establishments. The study was conducted among star-graded overnight accommodation establishments in the Western Cape, a strongly competitive market resulting in an increased need for targeted, affordable marketing tools. An empirical study was executed which enabled the quantitative capturing of the use of Google AdWords among these establishments thereby addressing of the research objectives in full. The result of this research study indicates that a general perception exists regarding Google AdWords as being difficult to use, thus deterring the adoption thereof among many establishments. This however, is countered by establishments that do make use of Google AdWords as an e-marketing tool, in that it is perceived as a successful e-marketing tool among these establishments.

The worldwide economic slump has led to millions of jobs being lost in the formal sector all over the world. This forced many people into business or to seek alternative employment. It has become increasingly clear that the formal sector will rather shed jobs in the foreseeable future than employ people. This has placed renewed focus on small businesses to come to the rescue. More and more governments are relying on these small businesses to create employment opportunities. This has also led to a number of these governments to invest in projects that will generate employment and stimulate economic growth. The obvious choice was to focus on SMMEs. This study evaluated the township SMMEs and their potential to employ more people. The focus was first on the growth or not of these businesses and then on their employment history over the past three years. The findings were encouraging with a large number of SMMEs indicating that their businesses either grew or maintained the status quo while there were positives in the number of people being employed in this sector increasing over the past three years.

Much has been said about the advantages of using social media in the marketing of brands and products of companies. Marketing, as we knew it in the past millennia, has changed dramatically and is evolving at a faster pace than ever. Traditional media, such as print and broadcast, are becoming more obsolete and largely replaced by social media platforms. These platforms are growing and expanding in leaps and bounds and have become potent instruments of marketing. It is up to organizations to use these platforms to market their brands, services and business, as it can have a profound effect on the success and growth. This is even truer in the case of entrepreneurs who are generally younger and more technology savvy and who use social media for all means and purposes. The purpose of this research study was, therefore, to investigate the use of social media among institutions that focus on specific events such as a business plan competition and to establish to what extent the use of these social media tools were used or effectively used to communicate the event to SMEs. A web-based self-administered questionnaire was distributed among the respondents of a business plan competition. A total of 992 useable responses were received. The findings mainly revealed that institutions that use social media in their marketing drive either do not plan properly for the use of it, or is careless in their approach to these tools. The results pointed to a large number of respondents (55%) who were not even aware that social media tools were used in the promotion of the competition. Keywords: social media, SME, special event marketing, marketing, usage, promotional mix elements, South Africa. JEL Classification: M13

The growth of the economy of many countries is dependent on the survival and growth of SMMEs as these businesses are the ones on which the hopes for job creation and poverty alleviation rests. To this end, many institutions – government and private – are investing resources to try and stimulate this sector and enhance their chances of success and sustainability. In order to achieve this, these institutions use a range of initiatives and services to stimulate and upskill SMMEs. Not only do they focus on standard services such as mentoring, counselling, and services such as for instance marketing material development, business and marketing plans, financial planning, etc., but from time to time, they also offer specific interventions with specific themes to generate interest from entrepreneurs. The main purpose of this study was to establish whether SMMEs and entrepreneurs value the information and advice they receive at events of value and usable. Keywords: SMMEs, despondency, perceived value. JEL Classification: M1

Research over the years has shown that in order for any business to survive, the correct product mix must be offered to the market. If the product does not satisfy the needs of the market, its reason for existence can be questioned. This principle applies to all businesses – big or small. The question arises if SMEs adhere to this fact and, if so, how they go about doing this. SMEs over the world make huge contributions to economic growth and job creation and are seen to be a driving force for economic growth and development in any economy. In the highly competitive environment that SMEs operate in, selecting the right merchandise for the right customer is important and, in most instances, its ability to survive or perish. This study aimed to determine if SMEs in South Africa make decisions regarding the product mix and, if so, if they conform to different profiles regarding the decisions that they make. A questionnaire was used to collect the data and was sent to SMEs around South Africa operating in different industries. The results indicated that SMEs in South Africa consider product characteristics, consumer behavior and strategic aspects when making product mix decisions. Keywords: merchandising, product, SMEs, product mix, business, South Africa. JEL Classification: M00, M300, M310

As SMEs are the drivers of employment and GDP in many cases, SMEs are also critical to the development of any economy and their survival and success are, thus, important. With the high levels of failure of SMEs, it has become imperative that there is a drive to ensure the survival of SMEs. A way in which SMEs, can enhance their potential success rate and business performance is by means of proper target market selection in order for the business to focus their marketing efforts. This will allow the business to timeously identify opportunities and threats in the market and to react to these situations. The business will also have a greater understanding of their target market, and their needs and wants. Understanding the target market will assist the business in developing marketing strategies that are suited for the target market and enhance its chances of success. This study aimed to identify whether SME owners and managers have target market knowledge within a South African SME context. The main results indicate that although SME owners and managers claim they are aware of their specific target markets (90%), they do not have customer knowledge regarding the psychographic and demographic aspects of their target market. By using effective target marketing communication, SMEs can improve on their merchandising planning and product assortment and offerings to better serve their target market(s). Keywords: target marketing, SMEs, South Africa. JEL Classification: M310, L26

The majority of SMEs fail in the first five years of operation (Cant and Ligthelm, 2003). Human resource management (HRM) has been identified as a crucial key success factor for SMEs in today’s world. This research study investigates small business owners’ perception of the importance of HRM. The objective of this paper is to determine the perceived importance of human resources (HR) among South African SMEs and the management of it. A questionnaire was constructed and judgement sampling was used to gather the responses of 88 small business owners. The research revealed that the majority of SMEs have HR practices of some sort in place, as well as areas to improve on HR practices. The challenge now is to further increase the adoption of HR management and practices among small businesses in South Africa to ensure their success, as they play a vital role in the South African economy. Keywords: South African SMEs, developing countries, human resource functions, human resources management, HR, HRM. JEL Classification: M19

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in all economies around the world, they are responsible for creating of jobs, alleviating of poverty, contributing to innovation and to the gross domestic product of a country. However, many of these businesses face challenges and often fail within a short period of time. The success of small businesses is not only having products and a market to sell them to but also effective marketing of these products to the targeted market. A vast array of studies have investigated SME marketing tool usage however few have looked to SMEs in emerging economies and specifically to the traditional marketing tools such firms employ. Therefore the focus of this study was to describe the usage of traditional marketing tools employed by SMEs from a South African perspective. This study followed a quantitative research methodology whereby a self-administered questionnaire was distributed to SME owners within the Gauteng province of South Africa. Results obtained from this research indicate that SME owners mostly make use of print media while broadcast media is used selectively. Results obtained within this study will be of value universally to SME owners as it can be seen that all SMEs irrespective of geographic location face similar challenges

Google AdWords has become a prevalent e-marketing tool in the continuously growing online marketing platform. However, limited empirical evidence exists regarding the use of Google AdWords as an emarketing tool. The aim of this research study was therefore to investigate the awareness of Google AdWords among star-graded overnight accommodation establishments. The study was conducted among star-graded overnight accommodation establishments in the Western Cape, a strongly competitive market resulting in an increased need for targeted, affordable marketing tools. It was found that even though there is a relative large level of awareness of what Google AdWords is, there is still room for improvement, especially to optimize the use of this medium. The result of this research study indicates that a general perception exists regarding Google AdWords as being difficult to use, thus deterring the adoption thereof among many establishments. This is however countered by establishments that do make use of Google AdWords as an e-marketing tool, in that it is perceived as a successful e-marketing tool among these establishments.

Studying ecological and evolutionary processes in the natural world often requires research projects to follow multiple individuals in the wild over many years. These projects have provided significant advances but may also be hampered by needing to accurately and efficiently collect and store multiple streams of the data from multiple individuals concurrently. The increase in the availability and sophistication of portable computers (smartphones and tablets) and the applications that run on them has the potential to address many of these data collection and storage issues. In this paper we describe the challenges faced by one such long-term, individual-based research project: the Banded Mongoose Research Project in Uganda. We describe a system we have developed called Mongoose 2000 that utilises the potential of apps and portable computers to meet these challenges. We discuss the benefits and limitations of employing such a system in a long-term research project. The app and source code for the Mongoose 2000 system are freely available and we detail how it might be used to aid data collection and storage in other long-term individual-based projects.

Townships are part and parcel of the business landscape in South Africa although it was started during the apartheid era in South Africa. The impact of the apartheid era is still evident in the townships and is a testimony of abandonment, poor investment, overpopulation and isolation from urban areas and a serious lack of infrastructure and necessary resources in these areas (Thulo, 2015). A significant amount (60%) of the unemployed comes from townships and informal settlements (Thulo, 2015). It is evident that townships are complex and integrated at the same time with poor and middle class communities living side by side. Government has been attempting to kick start the economy and in the process to increase employment through small businesses and the generation of jobs in townships. This process is however hampered by a range of factors including a lack of infrastructure. The research highlighted the serious shortcomings in infrastructures throughout South Africa, and a need for advisory centres were indicated as being the most dire need in these areas to assist small business. Keywords: infrastructure; SMEs; small businesses; township businesses; South Africa JEL Classifications: M00, M10

Measures of physiological stress in zoo animals can give important insights into how they are affected by aspects of their captive environment. We analysed the factors influencing variation in glucocorticoid metabolites in faeces (fGCs) from zoo meerkats as a proxy for blood cortisol concentration, high levels of which are associated with a stress response. Levels of fGCs in captive meerkats declined with increasing group size. In the wild, very small groups of meerkats are at a higher risk of predation, while in larger groups, there is increased competition for resources. Indeed, group sizes in captivity resemble those seen in unstable coalitions in the wild, which may represent a stressful condition and predispose meerkats to chronic stress, even in the absence of natural predators. Individuals in large enclosures showed lower levels of stress, but meerkat density had no effect on the stress measures. In contrast with data from wild meerkats, neither sex, age nor dominance status predicted stress levels, which may reflect less food stress owing to more equal access to resources in captivity versus wild. The median number of visitors at the enclosure was positively correlated with fGC concentrations on the following day, with variation in the visitor numbers having the opposite effect. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that there is an optimum group size which minimizes physiological stress in meerkats, and that zoo meerkats at most risk of physiological stress are those kept in small groups and small enclosures and are exposed to consistently high numbers of visitors.

Oxidative damage has been proposed as a potential mechanism underlying a life history tradeoff between survival and reproduction. However, evidence that reproduction is associated with increased oxidative damage is equivocal, and some studies have found that breeding females exhibit reduced, rather than elevated, levels of oxidative damage compared to equivalent non-breeders. Recently it was hypothesized that oxidative damage could have negative impacts on developing offspring, and that mothers might down-regulate oxidative damage during reproduction to shield their offspring from such damage. We tested this hypothesis through a longitudinal study of adult survival, reproduction, and oxidative damage in wild banded mongooses (Mungos mungo) in Uganda. High levels of oxidative damage as measured by malondialdehyde (MDA) were associated with reduced survival in both sexes. Levels of protein carbonyls were not linked to survival. Mothers showed reduced levels of MDA during pregnancy, and individuals with higher MDA levels gestated fewer offspring and had lower pup survival. These results suggest that maternal oxidative damage has transgenerational costs, and are consistent with the idea that mothers may attempt to shield their offspring from particularly harmful types of oxidative damage during pregnancy. We suggest that further advance in understanding of life history variation could benefit from theoretical and empirical exploration of the potential transgenerational costs of reproduction.

In eusocial insects, the ability to discriminate nest-mates from non-nest-mates is widespread and ensures that altruistic actions are directed towards kin and agonistic actions are directed towards non-relatives. Most tests of nest-mate recognition have focused on hymenopterans, and suggest that cooperation typically evolves in tandem with strong antagonism towards non-nest-mates. Here, we present evidence from a phylogenetically and behaviourally basal termite species that workers discriminate members of foreign colonies. However, contrary to our expectations, foreign intruders were the recipients of more rather than less cooperative behaviour and were not subjected to elevated aggression. We suggest that relationships between groups may be much more peaceable in basal termites compared with eusocial hymenoptera, owing to energetic and temporal constraints on colony growth, and the reduced incentive that totipotent workers (who may inherit breeding status) have to contribute to self-sacrificial intergroup conflict.