The utility of vertical farming for urban renewal: an integrated business model for profitable and sustainable vegetation production
- Authors: Vermeulen, Robert Stanley
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Business -- Models , Sustainable development Urban renewal Urban agriculture
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/23294 , vital:30522
- Description: The global population growth rate is increasing exponentially and is expected to reach nine billion people by 2050. This accelerated population growth and associated increase in food demand, coupled with the trend of decreasing productive agricultural land, present a calamitous food security risk for future generations. The ensuing expansion of agricultural land to supply this food demand leads to irreversible environmental damage including encroachment, climate change and biodiversity extinction. Moreover, rapid urbanisation of the aforementioned over-populace leads to mass unemployment in many major cities and widespread suburbanisation. The concurrence of the latter and former trends creates pockets of urban brown space, unutilised and dilapidated areas that have various consequences. Vertical farming is a system of cultivating crops or food products in buildings, tall structures or vertically inclined surfaces. If applied correctly this method results in substantial increases in crop yield, environmental benefits and reduced pressure on agricultural land. The research problem in this study was to establish how the vertical farming business model can be integrated with urban renewal of brown space to enable profitable and sustainable vegetation production. In order to achieve this objective the following research process was followed: Identification of the factors pertinent for the examination of urban gentrification, vertical farming and business model implementation through the literature review; Identification of approaches for integrating vertical farming applications with urban renewal activities and collective insights from the review of relevant literature; Development of a semi-structured interview guide from the literature review, to determine the extent of perceived utility of vertical farming for revitalisation and to gain valuable insights into strategies for integrating the model; Conducting an empirical study consisting of face-to-face interviews with subject matter experts and/or individuals with experience in the case scope, that were selected through purposive sampling as defined in the research methodology chapter; and Amalgamation and synthesis of the results to develop a proposed integrated model that can be used for urban renewal to create businesses that not only gentrify the urban brown space but that are profitable and provide sustainable development value to the city where it is based. The empirical results obtained from the interviews with respondents were analysed and included in the conceptual framework developed from the examination of secondary data sources. This led to the development of the integrated business model for urban renewal and achievement of the research objectives. The main findings from the research centred on customer segmentation strategy, distribution channels and gentrification through key partnerships. The intricacies of the integrated model and its application are discussed in detail in this research paper.
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- Date Issued: 2018
An integrated business intelligence model for automotive component manufacturers in South Africa
- Authors: Du Plessis, Jacobus van Gend
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Business -- Models , Automobile supplies industry
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:8757 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1011667 , Business -- Models , Automobile supplies industry
- Description: Organisations face increasing economic pressures from local and global competitors because of changing and increasing customer demands. Demands include improved product quality, flexibility, increasing price competitiveness and attaining higher levels of customer satisfaction. Businesses must have strategic and operational plans in place to combat these pressures to remain competitive. The South African automotive component manufacturing industry is particularly susceptible to such factors. The nature of the industry further lends itself to attracting high levels of political and economic attention, as it is an important contributor to economic growth. Harsh economic conditions pose problems in supply, internal supply and distribution and force organisations to be resourceful to survive. Ninety percent of the world’s information was generated within the last two years, a figure that equates to 2.5 quintillion bytes per day. The proliferation of data sources and the fine level of granularity at which this data is collected, present organisations with new challenges to benefit from this information. Market volatility presents shorter windows of opportunity and demands an unprecedented level of agility from the organisation. Delays in decision making, which is becoming more complicated and complex, cannot be tolerated. Advances in Technology have made it possible and affordable to store vast volumes of data; data that can be manipulated and transformed by any number of technology tools. Business intelligence (BI) provides valuable information to management and decision makers by reducing the latency between business events and the ability to report and act on prior events. This treatise will investigate the business intelligence systems of an automotive component manufacturing company and propose a model to improve BI utilisation. The true name of the company that will be researched will not be disclosed for confidentiality reasons, instead it will be called My Company. Research consists of a preliminary study to identify the problems in the business intelligence system within My Company. Literature reviews of critical success factors for business intelligence systems, maturity models, and characteristics of integrated business intelligence systems, will lead to the development of a proposed integrated business intelligence systems model to improve the current situation at My Company. The major findings of this research are presented as deliverables within each chapter and contribute to the development of the integrated BI systems model for automotive component manufacturing organisations. The major findings are: a list of critical success factors of BI from literature; list identifying gaps between the literature reviewed and the problems identified from the preliminary study conducted; selection of the HP (2009) maturity model as a preferred tool to be incorporated into the proposed model; the evaluation of the proposed integrated BI systems model by means of a case study; and the updated integrated BI systems model.
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- Date Issued: 2013