Trust in business alliances between traditional companies and previously disadvantaged institutions: A barometer for black economic empowerment

South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Trust in business alliances between traditional companies and previously disadvantaged institutions: A barometer for black economic empowerment
 
Creator Moalusi, Kgope
 
Subject Industrial Psychology; Organisational Psychology trust; black economic empowerment; business alliances; traditional companies; previously disadvantaged institutions.
Description Background: Despite the positive role of trust as a complex ‘glue’ that keeps the parties of an alliance together, it is unclear how trust dynamics may play out among black and white business partners and what such trust experiences may mean for black economic empowerment in South Africa.Aim: The study reflects on the prospects for black economic empowerment by exploring trust experiences of managers involved in business alliances between traditional companies and previously disadvantaged institutions.Setting: The study focused on managers involved in these alliances in the province of Gauteng in South Africa.Methods: Twenty-five managers from mainstream companies (n = 7) and emerging companies (n = 18) were selected through purposive sampling. Q-sorting was applied to trust-related items, with follow-up interviews. Principal component factor analysis was used to analyse the Q-sorted data to reveal the managers’ clustered perceptions about trust in business alliances. Interview data were thematically analysed to place the findings from the factor structure analysis in context.Findings: The managers shared six nuanced conceptions of trust. Generally, the prospects for black economic empowerment appear greater in the groups characterised by integrity, revealing the centrality of honesty in these alliances.Conclusion: Exploring trust in black and white business alliances may help to disentangle the phenomenon of black economic empowerment in South Africa. In a way, managers’ perceptions of trust may be used as a barometer for the functioning of these alliances because trust affects managerial behaviour and, ultimately, whether or not such alliances enhance the prospects for black economic empowerment. The study also offers new ways of thinking about and new ways of advancing theory and practice regarding black economic empowerment.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor
Date 2020-04-21
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative, Q methodology
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajems.v23i1.2873
 
Source South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences; Vol 23, No 1 (2020); 9 pages 2222-3436 1015-8812
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajems.org/index.php/sajems/article/view/2873/2060 https://sajems.org/index.php/sajems/article/view/2873/2058 https://sajems.org/index.php/sajems/article/view/2873/2059 https://sajems.org/index.php/sajems/article/view/2873/2057
 
Coverage Africa; South Africa; Gauteng 2014-2016 The study used a small sample of 25 business managers (n = 7) from TCs and (n = 18) from PDIs. Female managers comprised 28% of the participants
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Kgope Moalusi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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