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Managerial Perspectives on Sustainable Development in Africa

Research Proposal · June 2016

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.2480.6007

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Managerial Perspectives on Sustainable Development in Africa

By

Ndhlovu Mandlenkosi

In the fulfilment of the requirements for

HRBUS83: RESEARCH PROPOSAL

In the subject

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

At the

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

20 January 2016

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 Abstract

In this study the researcher seeks to investigate the different managerial perspectives
on sustainable development in Africa and the effects of these different perspectives on
sustainable development. A quantitative research approach will be used to conduct the
study. A cross-sectional survey methodology will be utilised to gather the information
needed to achieve the goals and objectives of this paper. Descriptive statistics,
inferential statistics and statistical analysis will be used to evaluate several relationships.
An online questionnaire from surveymokey.com will be administered to a sample of
convenience consisting of 400 members of the South African chamber of commerce.
This study will follow the required ethical considerations as ascribed in the University of
South Africa ethics policy. These include protection from harm, informed consent, right
to privacy and honesty. The possible limitations to this study are that, since the research
will use convenience sampling the results from this study cannot be generalised to a
large population. In addition the proposed research is cross-sectional and hence causal
inferences cannot be made.

Key words: Sustainable Development, Poverty, Social, Economic, Environmental,

Africa, Sustainability, managerial perspectives.

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 Table of Contents

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................................... I

TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................................................................. II

1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY ......................................................................................... 1

1.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................ 1

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................................................ 3

2.1 THE HISTORY OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................................................... 3

2.1.1 The Three Pillars of Sustainable Development ............................................................................................ 5
2.1.1.1 Economic Pillar ....................................................................................................................................................... 5
2.1.1.2 Environmental Pillar ............................................................................................................................................... 6
2.1.1.3 Social Pillar.............................................................................................................................................................. 6
2.2 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA ........................................................................................................................ 7
2.2.1 Poverty and Sustainable development in Africa .......................................................................................... 7
2.2.2 Corporations and sustainable development in Africa .................................................................................. 9

3.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES....................................................................................... 11

4.0 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................... 12

4.1. NATURE OF THE STUDY ........................................................................................................................................... 12

4.2. TIME SCALE .......................................................................................................................................................... 12
4.3. POPULATION AND SAMPLE SELECTION ........................................................................................................................ 13
4.3.1 Population ................................................................................................................................................. 13
4.3.2 Sampling method....................................................................................................................................... 13
4.3.3 Sample ....................................................................................................................................................... 13
4.4. DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................................................................. 14
4.4.1 Nominal ..................................................................................................................................................... 14
4.4.2 Ordinal ....................................................................................................................................................... 14
4.4.3 Ratio .......................................................................................................................................................... 14
4.4.4 Intervals ..................................................................................................................................................... 15
4.5. DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT ............................................................................................................................... 15
4.6. RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY........................................................................................................................................ 16
4.6.1. Reliability .................................................................................................................................................. 16
4.6.2. Validity ...................................................................................................................................................... 16

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 4.6.3 Pilot Study .................................................................................................................................................. 17
4.7. ANALYSIS TO BE CONDUCTED ................................................................................................................................... 17
4.7.1 Descriptive statistical analysis ................................................................................................................... 17
4.7.2 Inferential statistics ................................................................................................................................... 18
4.8. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 18

5.0 EXPECTED CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE AND POSSIBLE LIMITATIONS ..................................................... 20

5.2 POSSIBLE LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY .............................................................................................................. 20

6.0 PROPOSED CHAPTER OUTLINE AND SUMMARY ............................................................................................. 21

6.1 PROPOSED CHAPTER OUTLINE........................................................................................................................... 21

6.1 SUMMARY ......................................................................................................................................................... 22

7.0 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................... 23

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1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.1 Introduction

Sustainable development challenges have become a global problem, with more than a
million of the world’s population living in life-threatening poverty (Le Roux, 2014). The
gap between the rich and the poor is widening in a lot of countries. The world population
is estimated at 7 billion people while it is suggested that the global annual gross
domestic product (GDP) is thought to be around US$70 trillion, and yet the impacts of
human beings on the environment is currently at unsustainably dangerous levels
(Sachs, 2007). It is also estimated that at this rate by the year 2050 there may be
between 8.1 to 10.6 billion people and a global GDP of more than US$250 trillion; if this
growth remains uncontrolled then human beings should be prepared for catastrophic
economic, social and environmental consequences (Sachs, 2015).

Countless ecosystems have been destroyed by industrialisation and mass production all
in pursuit of economic growth, while climate change is an obvious reality in both the rich
north and poor south. Furthermore, extreme weather patterns have become common
events, while many fossil fuels are being rapidly depleted. Therefore, unless the world
tackles these challenges urgently the problems will multiply rapidly and very
dangerously (Sachs, 2015). However no single country can tackle the sustainable
development problems alone, hence the need for the establishment of integrated
solutions at all levels from local, national, regional up to global levels. Likewise,
businesses and civil society must also do their part. According to (UNSDSN, 2012) a
very convincing framework for sustainable development is required in order to summon
all key stakeholders, to focus on a working action plan at the right scale, so as to come
up with a truly universal partnership.

While sustainability and sustainable development has been widely embraced by both
the public sector and the private sector organisations, there are still several differences
in the understanding and definition of what sustainable development is. Thus the
purpose of this research is to discuss the varied managerial perspectives on sustainable
development in Africa and further determine the effects of these different perspectives

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on sustainable development within the African context. The researcher will follow a
quantitative descriptive survey research design and use an online survey to collect data
from a population of more than 20,000 and a sample of 400 respondents.

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2.0 Literature review
2.1 The History of Sustainable Development

In the year 1984, the United Nations (UN) established an independent team of 22, made
up of individuals from member states of both the developing and developed nations.
They were given the mandate of finding long-term environmental strategies for the
international community. In 1987, the World commission on environmental development
(WCED) published their report commonly known as the Butland report and the term
‘sustainable development’ is widely used in the report (Elliott, 2012). In 1992, the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development took place in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. It was the largest ever international conference to be held at the time. There were
over 170 governments represented and 2,500 NGOs and 8,000 accredited journalists in
attendance (Elliott, 2012, Brady, Geets, 1994). The central agenda of the meeting was
to come up with principles of an agenda for action towards sustainable development in
the future (Elliott, 2012).In 2002, 104 heads of states met in Johannesburg, South
Africa, for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). A more diverse
range of groups was engaged in activities at Johannesburg than at Rio. In particular,
there were many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from developing nations
lobbying for different issues related to human rights, social justice and business
accountability. The worldwide challenge of sustainability lies in the multifaceted
interdependencies of environmental, social and economic development (Elliott, 2012).

Since the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth summit the conventional development model has
been seriously questioned. The model has resulted in a high standard of living for a
couple of countries, which has in turn led to the widening gap between the poor and the
rich. The greatest worry is that as the world is getting richer the gap between the rich
and the poor is also getting wider (Davidson, 2002). This has triggered issues like lack
of integration of environmental and social concerns into the conventional development
model. The Brundtland report of 1987, called for changing our development strategy to
one that is more sustainable with the inclusion of social and environmental matters. The
aim of incorporating these issues has led to the concept of sustainable development
(Davidson, 2002). However resolving the sustainable development challenges will
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require co-operation and full participations of the key stakeholders of development,
including the business sector. According to (Elliott, 2012:9) “Literally, sustainable
development refers to maintaining development over time”. It is suspected that by the
1990s there were more than 70 definitions of sustainable development (Holmberg,
1992). This goes to illustrate the different views and interpretations of what sustainable
development entails. The terms sustainable development and sustainability have been
widely embraced by both public and private sector organisations, ever since 1987, when
the (WCED) issued its report (Elliott, 2012) .

Sustainable development has several definitions simply because of the different views of
its diverse interest groups. The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives
(ICLEI) defines sustainable development as “a programme to change the process of
economic development so that it ensures a basic quality of life for all people, and
protects the ecosystems and community systems that make life possible and
worthwhile.”(Van der Merwe, Van der Merwe, 1999:5). Furthermore sustainable
development is defined as “adopting business strategies and activities that meet the
needs of the enterprise and its stakeholders today while protecting, sustaining and
enhancing the human and natural resources that will be needed in the future
(International Institute for Sustainable Development et al., 1992:2). In the Brundtland
report, it is defined as “Development that meets the present needs and goals of the
population while not compromising the ability of future generation meeting theirs"
(WCED, 1987, Davidson, 2002:219, Kemp, Martens, 2007:5, Brundtland et al.,
1987:24).

However, (Diesendorf, 2000) argues that while the Brundtland report gives a valuable
viewpoint on sustainable development the definition given in the report is somewhat
limited in several ways. The definition seems to liken needs with wants and makes the
assumption that economic growth is part of development. This is because there is no
clear distinction between the various types of economic structures. In addition, it seems
to favour growth in the use of materials and energy, a type of economic growth
responsible for the damage to the natural environment .Furthermore there is no explicit
mention of the natural environment; it rather focuses more on human needs and wants
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(Diesendorf, 2000). (Diesendorf, 2000:3) suggests that sustainable development
“comprises types of economic and social development which protect and enhance the
natural environment and social equity”. This definition suggests that there is an aspect of
ecological, economic, and social, and further the ecological and social equity aspects
are primary. According to (Kerry Turner, 1988:12) “…in principle, such an optimal
(sustainable growth) policy would seek to maintain an “acceptable” rate of growth in per-
capita real incomes without depleting the national capital asset stock or the natural
environmental asset stock.” Further sustainable development is defined as “the net
productivity of biomass (positive mass balance per unit area per unit time) maintained
over decades to centuries” (Conway, 1987:96). The business sector has a slightly
different definition, attributed to the fact that their interests differ substantially from those
of academics (Davidson, 2002). According to the International Institute for Sustainable
Development sustainable development is defined as "adopting business strategies and
activities that meet the needs of the enterprise and its stakeholders today, while
protecting, sustaining and enhancing the human and natural resources that will be
needed in the future" (Davidson, 2002:291).

2.1.1 The Three Pillars of Sustainable Development

There are three dimensions that sustainability seeks to integrate: economic,

environmental, and social (Dixon, 2001, Diesendorf, 2000, Harris, 2000, Le Roux, 2014).
In order to ensure sustainable development the three pillars must be balanced (Le Roux,
2014).

2.1.1.1 Economic Pillar

The economic interests outline the basis for making decisions, the flow of financial
capital and the enabling of commerce, including knowledge, skills, capabilities and other
qualities personified in individuals that are relevant to the economic activity (Diesendorf,
2001). Therefore economic interests also means production of goods and services must
be done on a constant basis. This entails being as productive as possible using
minimum resources, while not destroying the environment through pollution.
Furthermore it requires producing goods and services continuously without falling into

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debt, which usually becomes a burden and has the tendency to lead to imbalances in
the economic sector. In addition, sectoral disparities must be avoided to stop damages
to agricultural production (Le Roux, 2014, Harris, 2000). Economic sustainability also
means effectively using available resources in the best possible way to gain maximum
possible output (Le Roux, 2014). Therefore resources must only be used if they will be
utilised responsibly and efficiently, hence true economic sustainability is not only about
an enterprise making a profit, but more significantly, that the enterprise is not causing
environmental harm. (Le Roux, 2014) .

2.1.1.2 Environmental Pillar

There are some scientists who advocate that the environmental pillar is the most
important of the three pillars of sustainable development. The environment is
treasurable gift we use on the planet in order to remain alive. Long back the ecology of
the planet was not a focal point until the effects of mass-development put it in jeopardy
(Le Roux, 2014). The environmental aspects identify the multiplicity and inter-reliance
within the living systems, the goods and services generated by the planet’s ecosystems,
and the effects of human wastes (Diesendorf, 2000). This means resources should be
available and stable, but should not be over used. Additionally, it also entails maintaining
atmospheric stability and biodiversity. Furthermore non-renewable resources like crude
oil should be protected and renewable resources like vegetation must not be exploited
(Le Roux, 2014).

2.1.1.3 Social Pillar

Social factor implies that equity should be pursued, and societies should be free to
participate in politics, and there should be decent provision of social services like
education and health (Le Roux, 2014). Socio-political relates to interactions between
institutions and humans, functions expressive of human values, ethical matters, and
judgements that depend on a shared action, hence society plays a key role in
sustainable development. Additionally in situations where societies are not running well
there is disorder within other processes where society is required, such as election

6
processes. Furthermore the social pillar focusses on the societal and individual benefits
usually measured in terms of social equity (Le Roux, 2014) .

These three elements are part of a highly integrated cohesively interacting, and perhaps
misunderstood system (Diesendorf, 2001, Dixon, 2001).

2.2 Sustainable Development in Africa

While Africa has rich and diverse renewable and non-renewable natural resources, its
citizens are among the most underprivileged in the whole planet (UNCED, 2015) .In
addition Africa remains the least developed continent, the most marginalized, the most
indebted and the most technologically backward. Furthermore, Africa is the only region
in the planet where poverty has actually increased both in relative and absolute terms
(UNCED, 2015). The situation is further worsened by the occurrence of natural
disasters like cyclone Leon-Elene and the AIDS pandemic, which are reversing any
gains from economic growth, and hence undermining sustainable economic growth.
Africa is the only continent that is set to miss out on meeting most of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Sustainable development requires a peaceful
environment, good governance and good security; however Africa remains the most
divided with several major conflicts in some parts of the continent. Therefore peace and
security are one of Africa’s foremost development goals (UNCED, 2015). Education is
another arear that needs to be explored. There is very limited literature on how
education is supposed to address the problems of sustainable development (Togo,Lotz-
Sisitka, 2013). However according to a case study of Rhodes University, the university
has the potential to mainstream sustainability in is operations, and this is only possible
when there is a commitment from the university community, and where inputs like
financial and human resources are available to assist in the process (Togo,Lotz-Sisitka,
2013). This goes to show that it is possible to have a partnership between the university
and community in order to address local sustainability challenges.

2.2.1 Poverty and Sustainable development in Africa

Despite all the economic growth in the world in the last three decades the number of
people living in poverty has actually gone up, except in China (Karnani, 2011) .This is

7
evidence to the fact that while economic growth is necessary for the reduction of poverty
it is not sufficient, with two-fifths of the world population living on less than two US
dollars a day and a fifth living on less than one US dollar and twenty five cents per day
(Karnani, 2011). One of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations (UN)
calls for the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger in the world (Azmat, 2013, Hahn,
2009) . While it has been generally accepted that poverty reduction is linked to achieving
economic development (Dollar, Kraay, 2002, Azmat, 2013), however, the relationship
between poverty reduction, environmental sustainability and economic development is
debatable (Azmat, 2013). (Bosselmann, 2006) argues that economic development is
linked to environmental pollution and exploitation of natural resources. This shows a
potential trade-off between poverty reduction and environmental sustainability, creating
a dilemma regarding sustainable development. On the other hand, some authors report
the prospect of a dissociation of growth and environmental sustainability (Hahn, 2009).
Furthermore according to the work of (Newell, Frynas, 2007, Hahn, 2009), businesses
and private sector have the potential to play a key role in eradicating poverty instead of
traditional development efforts like donations, aid and charity; hence there is need for
innovative methods of solving social problems (Azmat, 2013). The reduction of poverty
using innovative ways brings together the concept of bottom of the pyramid (Bop) and
social entrepreneurship (SE). The Bop offers businesses the chance to help eradicate
poverty and still be profitable, through innovative strategies (Hahn, 2009, Newell,
Frynas, 2007). According to (Karnani, 2009) the Bop idea has enticed a lot of interest
with the argument that the poor, who lie at the bottom of the economic pyramid, are
probable customers and provide an untapped and unexplored opportunity. This is based
on the assumption that designing and coming up with customised products companies
can make money while at the same time alleviating poverty (Jaiswal, 2007). However
(Karnani, 2011) argues that the Bop method is linked with unrealistic expectations, and
is misunderstood as the solutions to date have not met the actual needs of the poor.
This is because it contains a much smaller mass of people with very little disposable
income to buy anything other than the most basic needs. (Karnani, 2011) further

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suggests that businesses, civil society and government should partner together and
create employment opportunities for the poor.

The effect of poverty on sustainable development in Africa is distressing, because

people are unable to get the resources needed to improve their living conditions
(Francis, 2001). Furthermore because of poverty the continent of Africa has been
plunged into consecutive political challenges, resulting in wars, dictatorships, leaders
overstaying in power, and coup d’états. The little finances available are channelled
towards the purchase of fire arms, most able bodied men are soldiers or rebels and the
economy is left to the old and the women. If this situation continues then no
development can be expected and sustainable development efforts will be rendered
useless (Francis, 2001). Therefore sustainable development in Africa can only be
successful if poverty is first eradicated. Furthermore according to (Francis, 2001:22) “we
cannot leave the substance and chase the shadow. If we leave poverty to prevail in
African societies, then the dream of sustainable development will still be far-fetched.
This is because if a free society cannot help the many who are poor it cannot save the
few who are rich”.

2.2.2 Corporations and sustainable development in Africa

The key steps to developing sustainability expertise in firms are building on existing
direct practices, and developing a general familiarity with the existing standards in
industry, including sustainability considerations into practice. It is also important that
accountants as they do their work should integrate the triple bottom line concept into
their procedures and work (Kraten, 2014). Corporations have an impact on the natural
environment, their workforce and on society, hence affect the sustainability of the
biosphere and society (Diesendorf, 2001). These impacts are made as they choose the
raw materials, and suppliers, locations, use of land, production processes, the wastes
and pollution, (Diesendorf, 2001). There is a view that corporations are passive
instruments of consumer demand, where it is suggested that corporations operate on
behalf of consumers and hence consumers alone are responsible for the impacts
(Davidson, 2002). This view is flawed because in reality corporations shape consumer

9
demand and the market in numerous ways. Generally the exploitation of the market
potential in Africa requires overcoming some major inadequacies in some African
countries that may not always be conducive for business operations (Davidson, 2002).
According to a study by (Badunenko et al., 2014) while growth performance of African
countries has generally been poor when compared with other developing countries, only
two components contribute significantly to growth in Africa, these are human capital
accumulation and efficiency changes. In addition, there are microfinance institutions that
have decided to go green and these are mainly driven by social responsibility, and
competitiveness (Allet, 2014).

There has been a prevalence of nascent green technology ventures, these use
sustainable entrepreneurial practices to come up with technology that preserves natural
resources and protects the environment (Meyskens, Carsrud, 2013). According to
(Müller, 2014) customers are now being viewed as the basis of firms ‘profitability.
Further the customers are now aware of the effects of production on future
sustainability, hence they want to be part of the solution in influencing a change towards
a more sustainable lifestyle, and thus firms have to address these requirements (Müller,
2014). Likewise, since the 1970s marketing science has been organised around the
exchange paradigm. Marketing applies to all forms of exchange be it goods services,
personages or whether between individuals and governments, NGOs (Van
Cranenburgh, Arenas, 2014). There are three-tiered explanation of the emerging field of
marketing with sub phenomena (consumer experiences), its phenomena (marketing
networks) and its super phenomena (sustainability and development).Multinational
companies are facing a dilemma in meeting social challenges In Sub–Saharan Africa
especially health related ones. In Africa governments are not able to meet social
challenges; hence multinationals are then expected to meet the social demands of the
areas they operate from (Van Cranenburgh, Arenas, 2014).

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3.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

While the terms sustainable development and sustainability have been widely embraced
by both the private sector organisations and the public, since the publication of the
Butland report of 1987, there remains several differences in the definition and
understanding of what sustainable development entails (Davidson, 2002). According to
(Holmberg, 1992) it is alleged that by the 1990s there were more than 70 definitions of
sustainable development. This illustrates the different views and interpretations of what
sustainable development entails. Hence, resolving the sustainable development
problems will require cooperation and full participation from all stakeholders, and these
include those from the business sector (Davidson, 2002) .

The problem for this research proposal pertains to the different managerial perspectives
on sustainable development in Africa. In order to answer the problem statement, the
secondary objectives are:
• To discuss the managerial perspectives in Africa,
• To discuss sustainable development in Africa and
• To determine the effect of managerial perspectives on sustainable development in the
African context.

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4.0 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

Research design refers to “a plan and structure of investigation so conceived as to

obtain answers to research questions. The plan is the overall scheme or program of the
research” (Blumberg et al., 2011:147). “Research design refers to a master plan which
provides a framework for collecting and analysing data” (Zikmund, Babin, 2010:64). The
procedures to be used in conducting this research study are described below.

4.1. Nature of the study

The nature of the study will be a quantitative descriptive study and the specific research
design that will be followed is survey research design. The survey research design
allows indirect observation through the use of structured interviews, questionnaires and
getting a broad overview of a sample of a larger population (Mouton, 2001) . This
particular research design will allow for the inclusion of a large number of respondents in
the study and is appropriate to use in gathering data related to managerial perspectives
on sustainable development in Africa. (Salkind, 2013) suggests that “the characteristics
of populations are studied through surveys”. Furthermore according to (Leedy, Ormrod,
2010) suggests that survey research involves obtaining information such as attitudes or
opinions from one or more groups of people by asking questions and tabulating
answers. A survey is like a snapshot a single-frame photograph of an on-going activity.

4.2. Time scale

The time scale refers to the role that time fulfils during a study (Leedy, Ormrod, 2010) .
There are two major kinds’ namely cross-sectional and longitudinal studies (Blackstone,
2012). Cross-sectional studies are simple in design and generally aimed at finding out
the occurrence of an issue or problem, by taking a cross-section of the population at a
specific time. Longitudinal studies on the other hand allow a researcher to make
observations over an extended period of time (Leedy, Ormrod, 2010). These are some
of the different types of longitudinal surveys, namely cohort, panel and trend surveys. In
this study the researcher will follow a cross-sectional study because of the large

12
population and also because cross sectional studies have the ability to compare diverse
population groups at a particular point in time.

4.3. Population and sample selection

4.3.1 Population

Population refers to “any precisely defined set of people or collection of items which is
under consideration” (Hussey, Hussey, 1997:55); the target population for this study will
be made up of managers and professionals who are members of the South African
Chamber of commerce, which has approximately more than 20,000 members.

4.3.2 Sampling method

A sample is defined as “a subset of a population and should represent the interest of the
study” (Hussey, Hussey, 1997:55). The whole purpose of sampling is that by selecting
some of the elements in a population, the researcher may actually draw conclusions
about the entire population. The researcher may choose between probability and non-
probability sampling (Blumberg et al., 2011:167). In nonprobability sampling, there is no
assurance that each member of the population will be represented in the sample. While
in probability sampling, it may be indicated in advance that each section of the
population will be represented in the sample. This is the main feature that differentiates
probability sampling from nonprobability sampling. Examples of probability sampling
methods are systematic sampling, proportional stratified, random, cluster, and stratified
random sampling. Three popular forms of nonprobability sampling are quota, purposive
sampling and convenience sampling (Blumberg et al., 2011:167). Non-probability
convenience sampling will be used in this study, since the researcher will have the
freedom to choose participants.

4.3.3 Sample

The two techniques generally used to establish a sample size in non-probability

sampling are discussed below. “The first approach is to determine the sample size as if
it is a probability sample and the second approach is to draw a sample as large as
possible within the constraints of time and money” (Beri, 2008:198) . A sample size of

13
400 respondents will be used for this study, based on the estimated population of the
South African Chamber of Commerce of approximately 20 000 members, a sample size
of 377 respondents at a confidence level of 95% and margin of error of 5% would have
been considered sufficient (Research Advisors, 2006) . However the sample size for this
study was increased to 400 to allow for response errors.

4.4. Data collection

Social scientists when measuring concepts usually use variables and attributes. A
variable is defined as a cluster of different characteristics, while attributes are the
characteristics that make up a variable. The variable’s quality usually determines its
level of measurement. Generally there are four possible levels of measurement; these
are nominal, ratio, interval, and ordinal (Blackstone, 2012).

4.4.1 Nominal

At this level of measurement, “variable attributes meet the criteria of exhaustiveness

and mutual exclusivity. This represents the most basic level of measurement, and
examples include religious affiliation, political party, gender, relationship status, and
race” (Blackstone, 2012:160). Gender and race will be used in the research instrument
for this study.

4.4.2 Ordinal

Ordinal Level of measurement refers to “variable attributes that meet the criteria of
exhaustiveness and mutual exclusivity, and can be rank ordered” (Blackstone,
2012:161). Examples of ordinal-level measures are social class, degree of support for
policy initiatives, television program rankings, age and prejudice.

4.4.3 Ratio

Ratio level of measurement is measurement for which “variable attributes meet the
criteria of exhaustiveness and mutual exclusivity and can be rank ordered, the distance
between attributes is known to be equal, and attributes have a true zero point”
(Blackstone, 2012:262) .

14
4.4.4 Intervals

Interval level of measurement means “variable attributes meet the criteria of

exhaustiveness and mutual exclusivity and can be rank ordered, and the distance
between attributes is known to be equal” (Blackstone, 2012:161). Good examples are IQ
scores as well as temperatures. This study will make use of ordinal as well as nominal
data types. This study will follow the communication approach; there are four
communication approaches to choose from. Data can be collected either through
personal interviews, telephone interviews, self-administered surveys or web-based
surveys (Blumberg et al., 2011:213).

4.5. Data collection instrument

In this study, an online questionnaire administered from survey-monkey.com will be

utilised. The researcher will get a list of email contact details of possible respondents
from the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI), the selected
respondents will receive the link to the survey via an e-mail inviting that they participate
in the survey by clicking on the web address on the email (Agrawal, 2011). The email
will also contain a promotion that by participating, the respondents will automatically be
entered into a draw to win an iPad as an incentive to encourage participation.

The questionnaire will be comprised of an introductory paragraph, which will provide

respondents with a brief outline of the purpose of the study, it will also give an indication
of the time it would take to complete the questionnaire (approximately ten minutes) and
assure respondents of their anonymity in completing the questionnaire. After the
introductory paragraph, a series of questions will follow. A total of 32 closed ended
response questions will be asked in the data collection instrument, and these will range
from being dichotomous questions, multiple-choice questions and scaled-response
questions. The advantages of online questionnaire are that they are faster because one
does not have to wait for the paper questionnaire to come back, they are also cheaper
when compared with other methods because there are no postage fees, and information
is already stored on a database so no need to hire someone to start imputing the data

15
on to a computer. They are also more accurate in that there is a small margin of error
because respondents input their responses directly into the system, while other methods
are reliant on the attentiveness of staff to capture all details correctly. They are easy to
use for both respondents and researchers. Online surveys can be analysed at any time.
Online surveys are also more flexible in that the orders of question can be changed
based on previous answer or they can even be skipped.

4.6. Reliability and validity

4.6.1. Reliability

“Reliability is an indicator of an instruments’ internal consistency” (Zikmund, Babin,

2010:334). Hence, reliability refers to the extent that an instrument produces consistent
results through repeated measurements” (Kumar, 2011:181). “Reliability is like a scale;
the data you collect is only as dependable as the instrument doing the measuring. The
method commonly used to estimate internal reliability is the coefficient alpha
(Cronbach’s alpha and will be used in this study. “Cronbach’s alpha computes the
average of all possible split-half reliabilities for a construct and can vary between 0 (no
consistency among items) and 1 (complete consistency among items), while the
following can be further interpreted” (Zikmund, Babin, 2010:334). For a value between
0.7 and 0.8, reliability is considered good, for a value between 0.6 and 0.7, reliability is
considered fair, for a value below 0.6, reliability is considered poor.

4.6.2. Validity

Validity refers to “an instruments’ ability to measure what it is actually designed to

measure” (Aaker et al., 2015:269) Factor analysis will also be conducted. There are two
common factor analysis methods: Principal component analysis – is based on the total
variance in the data. Principal component analysis is able to determine how and to what
degree items are linked to their underlying factors. This method will therefore be used
for the current study. Common factor analysis – is based only on the variance shared
among all the variables and is used to identify theoretically meaningful underlying
factors (Aaker et al., 2015).

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4.6.3 Pilot Study

Pilot-testing “is a trial collection of data to detect weaknesses in design as well as

instrumentation, and provide proxy data for selection of a probability sample” (Blumberg
et al., 2011:498). The purpose of a pilot study is to verify the validity and reliability of the
questionnaire instrument. This effort is an essential prerequisite before conducting the
official survey based data collection. In other words, this process is necessary to ensure
the respondents understand the instruction and the questions asked. Consequently,
these will further improve the comprehensibility of the draft questionnaire (Blumberg et
al., 2011). As such, this study will conduct two pilot studies. In the first study, five
experts (academics and professionals) will be interviewed to discuss the content and
wordings of the questionnaire. This expert opinion incorporates evaluation of several
pertinent component of survey instrument which includes questionnaire items and cover
letter in terms of item specificity, clarity of construct and reliability (content validity and
face validity). The reconstruction of measurement instrument involves elimination of
items and rewording of questions for better clarity from the perspective of
representative. The second pilot study will be a pre-test of the improved questionnaire
and it will consist of 30 respondents from the same population of survey. All samples
chosen for the pre-test will be from the same population of survey. Simple statistical
analyses will also be used to test the reliability of the scales for the purpose of improving
the comprehensiveness of the questionnaire instrument. .

4.7. Analysis to be conducted

There are two main types of statistical data analysis: namely, descriptive and inferential.
Data analysis will be conducted by means of using SPSS22.0 so as to determine the
effects of managerial perspectives on sustainable development in the African context,
descriptive statistics, like a frequency distribution and the mode will be calculated. Both
Descriptive and Inferential statistics will be used in this study.

4.7.1 Descriptive statistical analysis

Descriptive statistics can be defined as “statistics that are usually associated with a
frequency distribution which helps with a summary of the information presented in a

17
frequency table. These types of statistics offer accurate, simple and meaningful figures
through summarising information from a large set of data” (Aaker et al., 2015:438-9).
The mean, median and mode are measures commonly used to describe the location of
a distribution (central tendency). Variance, range and standard deviation are measures
used to describe the spread of a distribution (dispersion). The mean is the average
number gained by dividing the sum of responses per question by the sample size (Aaker
et al., 2015:438). Median refers to the middle point of distribution; the mode is the value
of the variable occurring most often. The variance is known as a measure of variability
or distribution. The distance between the smallest and largest values of each variable is
defined as the range. Standard deviation relates to the quantitative index of a variable
distribution’s spread or variability (Zikmund, Babin, 2010:415-417).

4.7.2 Inferential statistics

The other type of statistics which a researcher can use to analyse data is inferential
statistics. When utilising inferential statistics, “the researcher can perform statistical tests
which will determine if responses from the sample can be used to draw conclusions in
relation to the entire population” (Kolb, 2008:257). (Zikmund, Babin, 2010:410) describe
inferential statistics as “statistics used to project characteristics from a sample to an
entire population”. (Blumberg et al., 2011:494) explain that inferential statistics involves
the assessment of population values and the testing of statistical hypotheses.

4.8. Ethical considerations

Research ethics, according to (Saunders et al., 2011), is defined as the suitability of the
researcher’s conduct in relation to the rights of those who become the subject of the
research project, or who are affected by it. (Leedy, Ormrod, 2010) suggests that most
ethical issues in research can be categorised into one of the following four categories:

(1) Protection from harm–participants will not be unnecessarily exposed to physical or

psychological harm.

18
(2) Informed consent–All the people asked to take part in a research study, will be
informed about the nature of the study and asked to consent or choose whether they
want to participate or not.

(3) Right to privacy–the participant’s nature and quality of performance will be kept very
confidential.

(4) Honesty with professional colleagues – The results will be reported in an honest
manner without misrepresentation or misleading others about the nature of the findings.
Every effort will be made to adhere to the above four categories during the duration of
this study. This study will adhere to the Policy on Research Ethics of the University of
South Africa, as available on the Unisia website:
https://my.unisa.ac.za/access/content/group/HRBUS83-15-
Y1/3/Policy%20on%20Research%20Ethics%20-%20Unisa.pdf. In line with the above
guidelines the purpose and the several benefits of the research study will be explained
to the participants beforehand. The participants’ rights and protections will also be
explained in detail and consent obtained. The participants have a right to privacy, which
means the participant can refused to take part or answer questions in the questionnaire;
and a guarantee of confidentiality will be provided. A full disclosure of the procedures of
the study will be given to participants beforehand then the researcher will request
permission to proceed with the study, in order to obtain informed consent from the
participants.

19
5.0 EXPECTED CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE AND POSSIBLE LIMITATIONS

5.1 EXPECTED CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE

According to (Adegbite et al., 2012) the idea of sustainable development demands

business organisation to develop a culture that will emphasize employee participation,
continuous learning and improvement. In addition the Butland report recommended that
sustainable development principles should become a central guiding principle of United
Nation’s, Governments, private institutions, and business enterprises. This necessitated
by an urgent need to control environmental dilapidations, population growth, poverty and
economic development.

Thus this study will provide a basis for future research on sustainable development. The
research will also provide information on how the business sector can contribute to the
sustainable development agenda. Results from this study may be used to formulate
policies that will enhance the sustainable development agenda. The study will also
provide valuable information to the business sector on how they can also contribute to
this important sustainable development subject.

5.2 POSSIBLE LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Considering that the researcher will use convenience sampling, the results from this
study cannot be generalised to the larger population. Furthermore the sample will be
taken from members of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI)
only; hence it is not geographically representative of South Africa and the whole of
Africa. In Addition, the research design is cross-sectional, hence this entails that causal
inferences cannot be made. Moreover, there is the potential challenge of non-response
by the survey population (Taylor et al., 2011). To counter this challenge the researcher
will make sure the questionnaire instructions are clear and understandable. The
researcher will also state the potential benefits of the research to the participants and
the continent as a whole. Lastly the researcher will send follow-up e-mails to remind
those who would not have responded in order to increase the response rate.

20
6.0 PROPOSED CHAPTER OUTLINE AND SUMMARY
6.1 PROPOSED CHAPTER OUTLINE

Chapter 1 – Introduction and background to the study

Chapter 1 will introduce the fundamental concepts and components of this study, and
also provide key information and an enlightenment of the research problem. The primary
and secondary objectives of the study will be outlined in this chapter. The key terms will
be defined and the objectives of the study also listed. An overview of the research
design and methodology will be discussed. The layout of the chapters will be outlined.

Chapter 2 – Literature Review

The theoretical frameworks, models, and previous research done related to the research
problem are discussed and evaluated in this chapter.

Chapter 3 – Research methodology

Chapter 3 provides a detailed justification of the design and methodology that will be
used in the study. This chapter includes how data was collected and the sources where
the required information was obtained, the population, the data collection process and
all the techniques utilised in the process of analysing the data.

Chapter 4 – Data analysis and Interpretation of Results

Chapter 4 will focus on the detailed analysis and interpretation of the results of the
survey. The first part of this chapter will contain the descriptive analysis of the research
findings and the second part will deliberate the inferential analysis of the research
findings. A table summarising the findings is will be included to condense the major
findings.

Chapter 5 – Conclusion and Recommendations

In Chapter 5 the study will be concluded with a summary of the findings, limitations and
recommendations of this study are outlined. This chapter will address the research aims
and objectives, as well as the confirmations and also reports on the conclusions and
recommendations in relation to the objectives of this study. The limitations of the study,

21
the proposed contribution of the study, further research suggestions and final conclusion
will be presented.

6.1 SUMMARY

This research discusses the different managerial views of sustainable development,

specifically in Africa. A discussion of the history of sustainable development was done
and the different definitions of sustainable development are also discussed. It was noted
that while there are different view and definitions of sustainable development there is
however a common theme. This theme is that there are three pillars that sustainable
development seeks to integrate and these are economic, environmental and social
pillars. In Africa poverty is seen as one of the major obstacles to sustainable
development. Hence this study seeks to investigate the different managerial
perspectives on sustainable development. It also seeks to investigate the effects of
managerial perspectives on sustainable development. A quantitative cross-sectional
survey design will be utilised in this study. The population will be made up of members
of the South African Chamber of commerce and a sample of 400 respondents will be
used. An online questionnaire designed and administered through surveymonkey.com
will be utilised. The issue of ethics was also discussed as well as expected contribution
to knowledge, and expected limitations to the study. Lastly an outline of the expected
Chapters was done.

22
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