In pursuit of the mission of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) “to advance relevant knowledge and develop employable, innovative and diverse graduates to co-create value for society”, the Marketing and Tourism honours class of 2024 started the year determined to push the research agenda aggressively. Given the substantial impact that research-driven insights have on people's daily lives, the research module at the postgraduate level is a crucial component. Higher education institutions are under tremendous pressure to produce researchers who can solve societal issues.

 

In a welcome note to the students, the Head of the Department of Marketing Management, Prof Yolanda Jordaan, stated: “The research process you are embarking on this year will enable you to gain knowledge about and master the fundamental processes, principles and techniques necessary for quantitative survey-based research.” Mastering the fundamental principles of research is key, as employers often view candidates with such skills favourably.

 

To kickstart their research journey, Dr Michael Humbani, a senior lecturer in the Department of Marketing Management, organised a highly interactive session on 4 March 2024 with the departmental information specialists at UP’s Merensky library, to expose students to all the tools and platforms needed along the way.

 

First, the students were taken on a tour of the academic MakerSpace, which is a creative laboratory open to all registered university students and staff. Its purpose is to offer a variety of services to help students to advance their skills and to guide them to create prototypes, test ideas or make something new. Services provided by this state-of-the-art facility, which is the first of its kind in South Africa, include 3D printing, 3D modelling, Internet of Things (IoT), and a variety of training courses for students on how to use the tools and equipment in the space.

 

Thereafter, students were given a tour of UP's Merensky Library's Open Collection section, where prescribed and recommended textbooks are located. Students can check out up to 10 textbooks for significantly longer terms – up to 21 days. Additionally, group discussion rooms were also visited by the students. More than 20 individual study rooms (with electrical outlets and wireless internet) are available that can accommodate up to 44 students at a time, in addition to six group study spaces.

 

The main research topic for the honours group for 2024 is “mobile live stream shopping”, as provided in the research brief by Dr Humbani. Mobile live streaming provides a possibility to communicate with both existing and potential customers in the digital environment. Nowadays, consumers can watch real-time and live video content regardless of the time and place. Several platforms are already offering some of these experiences, and other internet firms are aiming to increase the virtual opportunities for businesses as well.

 

As such, individuals and small businesses all over the world are rapidly using live streaming as a new interactive direct selling channel for the sale of goods, including clothing, electronics, furniture, jewellery, and food. South Africa could be a prime market for mobile live-stream shopping with over 56 000 e-commerce marketplaces operating in the country. Yet, mobile live-stream shopping is still an under-researched area, not only in South Africa, but across the globe. Therefore, studies to determine the extent to which consumers are ready for live streaming to purchase products and services are required to determine the interests and prospects of using mobile live streaming in marketing.

 

To this end, students will be conducting research to ascertain how prepared South African consumers are for live streaming to make purchases of goods and services. To enable students to start working on the project, Thulani Mahlangu, departmental information specialist at the Merensky Library, and Gerda Ehlers, senior coordinator at the Merensky Library, took students through a highly interactive and practical session on how to search for, locate, analyse, interpret and evaluate information relevant to this research project.

The extremely engaging session by Mahlangu covered a wide range of important topics, such as utilising Google Scholar to access all University of Pretoria resources; looking for any relevant free library training that staff and students occasionally receive; the process of requesting special library training sessions for students in need; exploring the EMS Faculty resources page; and using the marketing subject guide. Ehlers also provided step-by-step training, working through the various stages of the research cycle, to develop and improve the necessary skills to complete a research project.

 

A short survey after the session indicated that students were highly appreciative of the session and were all motivated to start working on their research projects without delay. The Department of Marketing Management has a long history of producing employable graduates, and over that time, it has come to understand that one research skill postgraduate students need to grasp right away is the ability to gather the necessary data to initiate and successfully complete research assignments. Thus, the library session for the honours students has become a tradition in the Department, as it serves as an impetus to kick-start their research projects for the year.