Nehemiah Mavetera

Engen Refinery plant is part of the Engen Petroleum Limited, with operations in Southern Africa. The plant is situated in KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa and it operates 24 hours a day, every day, including weekends. Although Engen operates 24 hours 7 days a week, the plant has to be shut down occasionally for maintenance. These shutdown periods are also used as an opportunity to implement most projects, especially those that could not be implemented during the normal run of the plant. In order to ensure that the plant operations are not interrupted, it is preferable to work on the equipment while the plant is not operational. The shutdown periods are very limited in time, so it is of utmost importance to complete tasks within the given turnaround period in order to get the plant back on line in time to deliver products as scheduled to customers. The main objective of this study is to explore the causes and consequences of delays in project execution and their impact on the success of the project. The study identified poor communication, repetition of tasks, resource allocation, scope change, procurement process management, inadequate planning and poor budget estimates as major contributors to delays and cost escalation during project execution. It is recommended that Engen Refinery put some means together to improve the above-mentioned issues

The purpose of this paper is to appraise the conventional business model of broadband growth and penetration, underscore the shortcomings of such models to introduce a socio-technical based model as a more real and sustainable solution to low broadband uptake. Recent studies on both conventional business model and socio-technical model approach to broadband growth and penetration are reviewed. The socio-technical systems theory (STST) itself is critiqued, and postulates founded by first proponents are questioned for possible refinement. Finally, the potency of the STST approach to broadband is brought to light. The importance and complexities of broadband are discussed. The paper culminates in a proposed framework for broadband growth and penetration which can be used as a decision making tool by policy makers. This resulting proposed framework integrates the conventional business model and the socio-technical model, as well as the attributes and repercussions of a socio-technical environment.

Keywords: socio-technical systems theory, broadband, conventional business model, sustainable, repercussions, attributes.
JEL Classification: 033, 040

A rigorous and extensive application of the value chain management (VCM) has become the vogue in modern day business practices and processes. However, due to the complex and multidimensional nature of value chains, achieving efficient and effective value chain management in real value chains remains a major conundrum for practitioners. Many unknown barriers continue to impede effective and efficient value chain management in developing countries’ industrial value chains. The purpose of this study was to find out the common barriers to effective value chain management in a developing country’s industrial value chains using evidence from the cotton industry in Zimbabwe. The analysis was based on survey data sets obtained from 157 purposively sampled experts from the cotton industry value chain in Zimbabwe. Exploratory factor analysis was used to find the barriers to effective value chain management. The results revealed both architectural and governance barriers to effective value chain management. The findings also presented major policy implications for industrial value chains in the developing countries and also indicated areas for further robust research founded on a broader data set from other developing countries’ industrial chains as a way of validating the findings of this study.